TITLE: Jaguar Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Puebla
ETHNICITY: Mixtec
DESCRIPTION: Tecuan (Jaguar) Mask
CATALOG ID: LAMX104
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Danza de los Tecuanes
AGE: 1960s-1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; boar teeth; cotton straps
In parts of Puebla, the Mixtec people celebrate the Danza de los Tecuanes (Dance of the Man-Eaters) in the summer, a dance-drama similar to one celebrated in parts of Guerrero as well. In Puebla, the drama is sometimes known as La Muerte del Tigre (Death of the Jaguar), and tells the story of farmers, sometimes called elders (viejos), who band together to hunt a jaguar that has been killing their domestic goats. The performance is danced to the traditional music of flutes and drums.
For more on masks from Puebla, see Bryan J. Stevens, Mexican Masks and Puppets: Master Carvers of the Sierra de Puebla (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Pub’g, 2012).
