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Indian Warrior Mask

TITLE: Indian Warrior Mask
TYPE: face mask; accessory
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Puebla
ETHNICITY: Nahua
DESCRIPTION: Indian Warrior (Indio) Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in Huejotzingo
CEREMONY: Carnival (Battle of Puebla)
AGE: ca. 1940s (repainted in 2015)
MAIN MATERIAL: leather
OTHER MATERIALS: wire; goat leather and fur; string; paint

The Carnival in Huejotzingo, Puebla is both impressive and unique. In its modern incarnation, it has continued a tradition of mock battles since 1869 or earlier. The Carnival begins with a parade, dancing, music, and fireworks and continues with reenactments of putative historical events. The first is the kidnapping of the daughter of Huejotzingo’s corregidor (mayor) by the bandit Augustín Lorenzo, followed by their wedding. The second is a reenactment of the first marriage of Nahuas by Catholic rituals.

The third and most elaborate reenacts the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 between French and Mexican armed forces. Participants of the four principal neighborhoods of the city are divided into five battalions, each headed by a general.  Over four days, these battalions participate in mock battles, firing wooden muskets with real gunpowder at each other, and visit the cemeteries to pay homage to former members. Some participants are women dressed and masked as men. The five battalions represent various factions in both sides of the conflict.

The Zapadores represent the Mexican nobility who are the imperial guard of Maximilian I or Agustín de Iturbide. They wear clothes mixing Mexican and European elements, with a tall cylindrical hat (penacho) and a large, wide beard. On their side are the Zacapoaxtlas and Indios Serranos. The Zacapoaxtlas represent Mexican cowboys (charros) who fought with General Zaragoza. Their masks have two blond beards, a Mariachi sombrero, and an elaborate costume with a black cape and tones of the Mexican flag (red, white and green). The Indios Serranos represent the indigenous warriors and wear a mask with a long, light-colored beard and a wide palm-leaf hat with a Virgin Mary and elaborate decorations. Their costume includes a water gourd, a leather satchel, and a plant fiber backpack that holds their food (mostly chile peppers).

The Franceses (sometimes called Zuoavos, from the French word Zouaves) wear a blue, fez-like cap (gorro) and a mask with two blond beards like the Zacapoaxtla, with the small difference that the Frances mask is painted slightly lighter in color. They wear a blue cape with both the French and Mexican flags on it and sometimes carry a baguette. Their allies, the Turcos (Turks) represent mercenaries (probably in reality Egyptian) whom the Pueblans associated with Islam and, therefore, hostility to Catholic Mexico. The Turcos wear a turban and a mask with a black, pointed beard.  Their costume includes silk clothes, peacock feathers, and scimitars. All participants on both sides carry mock muskets.

This mask was danced for approximately 80 years by the family of Alejandro Ramírez of Huejotzingo. It was repainted at the family’s request by local caretero José Ciro Pérez in 2015.

For more on masks from Veracruz, see Bryan J. Stevens, Mexican Masks and Puppets: Master Carvers of the Sierra de Puebla (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Pub’g, 2012).

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Carnival Mask

TITLE: Carnival Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Oaxaca
ETHNICITY: Mixtec
DESCRIPTION: Male Negro Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in Silacayoapam
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 1999
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; glass eyes; plaster; animal hair eyelashes

Carnival is celebrated throughout the Catholic world with parades and other festivities, often including masqueraders. It is the celebration before the fasting season of Lent. In Oaxaca, as in many other parts of Mexico, Carnival is celebrated with masked dances and parades.

Traditionally, masks were not used in the Carnival of Silacayoapam, a small town in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca. Dancers would instead paint their bodies and faces black with charcoal or ash and wear their most dilapidated clothing in imitation of the “negros” or mulattoes brought to coastal Oaxaca by the Spanish colonists. All dancers were adult males (though some dressed as women) and would dance to music of a violin and other local instruments. Some forty years ago, the negros began wearing simple masks made from fibers from the agave plant. They developed a variety of dances, such as the Danza de los Negros (Dance of the Black People), Danza del Panadero (Dance of the Baker), and Danza de los Apaches (Dance of the Indians). All but the first of these have disappeared.

In modern times, both the costumes and the music have become more sophisticated. Today, masqueraders wear assiduously carved and elaborately painted masks and fancy costumes that they borrow from a community storage room. The bands are larger, with a greater diversity of instruments including trumpets and saxophones, and they play a kind of music known as chilena mixteca.

Included in the festivities are games and other activities. Some masked characters carry dried chile peppers and, if the town children taunt them, they chase them through the streets. If the masqueraders catch a child, they stuff a chile in his mouth. Others characters throw talcum powder or small fruits at the crowd. The masked men traditionally buy perfume for the women they are courting, using the mask to heighten the mystery.

The negros today are rarely black, but their name has not changed. This mask represents one. It was used in Silacayoapam from 1999 until 2016.

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Carnival Mask

TITLE: Carnival Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Oaxaca
ETHNICITY: Mixtec
DESCRIPTION: Female Negro Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in Silacayoapam
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 2005
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; glass eyes; plaster; animal hair eyelashes; foam rubber

Carnival is celebrated throughout the Catholic world with parades and other festivities, often including masqueraders. It is the celebration before the fasting season of Lent. In Oaxaca, as in many other parts of Mexico, Carnival is celebrated with masked dances and parades.

Traditionally, masks were not used in the Carnival of Silacayoapam, a small town in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca. Dancers would instead paint their bodies and faces black with charcoal or ash and wear their most dilapidated clothing in imitation of the “negros” or mulattoes brought to coastal Oaxaca by the Spanish colonists. All dancers were adult males (though some dressed as women) and would dance to music of a violin and other local instruments. Some forty years ago, the negros began wearing simple masks made from fibers from the agave plant. They developed a variety of dances, such as the Danza de los Negros (Dance of the Black People), Danza del Panadero (Dance of the Baker), and Danza de los Apaches (Dance of the Indians). All but the first of these have disappeared.

In modern times, both the costumes and the music have become more sophisticated. Today, masqueraders wear assiduously carved and elaborately painted masks and fancy costumes that they borrow from a community storage room. The bands are larger, with a greater diversity of instruments including trumpets and saxophones, and they play a kind of music known as chilena mixteca.

Included in the festivities are games and other activities. Some masked characters carry dried chile peppers and, if the town children taunt them, they chase them through the streets. If the masqueraders catch a child, they stuff a chile in his mouth. Others characters throw talcum powder or small fruits at the crowd. The masked men traditionally buy perfume for the women they are courting, using the mask to heighten the mystery.

The negros today are rarely black, but their name has not changed. This mask represents a negra, or female black. It was used in Silacayoapam from 2005 until 2016.

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Macho Mask (Child’s)

TITLE: Macho Mask (child’s)
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Nicaragua
ETHNICITY: Nahua
DESCRIPTION: Macho (Mule) Mask for Child
MAKER: Unknown maker in Diriamba
CEREMONY: El Güegüense Dance Drama
AGE: 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: gesso; paint

El Güegüense is a culturally important Nicaraguan play originating in seventeenth century Diriamba and written by an anonymous author. It was originally called Baile del Güegüence, ó Macho-Raton, translated literally as “The Dance of the Old Man, or Male Mouse.” The play, which is considered the first classic of Nicaraguan literature, ridicules greed, moral corruption, and the troubled relations between Spanish colonists, mestizos, and indigenous people. It is performed annually in Diriamba during the Feast of St. Sebastian, from January 17th to 27th.

As performed today, most characters wear masks and dance to the music of the native flute (pito), violin, guitar, and drum during the performance.  Among the characters are several machos, or mules, sometimes numbering twelve or more.  This mask represents one of the smaller mules and would have been played by a child.

For more on the Güegüense, see The Güegüence; A Comedy Ballet in the Nahua-Spanish Dialect of Nicaragua (Daniel G. Briton ed., 1883).

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Yaqui Pasko’ola Mask

TITLE: Yaqui Pasko’ola Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Sonora
ETHNICITY: Yaqui
DESCRIPTION: Mañor Mask
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Pasko’ola
FUNCTION: celebration; entertainment; funeral; protection
AGE: ca. 1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; string; horse hair

The Yaqui and related Mayo people inhabit the desert in the Mexican state of Sonora and southern Arizona. Their religious beliefs are a syncretic version of traditional animist practices and Jesuitical Catholicism. The pasko’olas (in the Spanish, pascolas) were malignant spirits, or children of the Devil, whom God won in a game. For that reason, their masks frequently have crucifixes and they wear a belt with twelve bells, each representing an apostle. To symbolize their evil origins, the masks have ugly expressions and vermin such as lizards, snakes and scorpions painted on them. In addition, dancers wear cords and butterfly cocoons on their legs, representing snakes and their rattles. They also wear a flower on their head, to symbolize rebirth and spring. They frequently play the role of clowns, provoking laughter in the audience by mimicking animals, reversing gender roles, organizing mock hunts, and making jokes.

Pasko’olas are danced at every major religious festival, as well as at birthdays, weddings, and funeral celebrations. For example, in Vicam, pasko’olas have traditionally danced on Día de San Juan Bautista (June 24). Sometimes a group of pasko’olas will be accompanied by a deer dancer, who dances with a taxidermy deer head as a crest. Generally, only men are pasko’ola dancers, but women have sometimes been allowed to dance with the permission of the male dancers.

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Fariseo Mask

TITLE: Fariseo Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Queretaro
ETHNICITY: Otomí
DESCRIPTION: Fariseo (Pharisee) Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in El Doctor
CEREMONY: Semana Santa (Holy Week)
AGE: 1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: linen
OTHER MATERIALS: glue; cotton cloth; ixtle fiber; paint

During Semana Santa (Holy Week) in the small mountain town of El Doctor, Queretaro, townspeople reenact the Passion of Jesus Christ in a unique manner. Participants wear stiff cloth animal masks, known as fariseos (Pharisees) or judios (Jews) and persecute a person who portrays the torture and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The fariseos make jokes and mock Jesus, but in the end are converted to Christianity when Jesus is portrayed as resurrected.

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Carnival Mask

TITLE: Carnival Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Chiapas
ETHNICITY: Mayan
DESCRIPTION: Español (Spaniard) Carnival Mask
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Carnival
AGE: 1988
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; glass eyes; animal hair eyelashes; hardware

Carnival is celebrated throughout the Catholic world with parades and other festivities, often including masqueraders. It is the celebration before the fasting season of Lent. In Chiapas, as in many other parts of Mexico, Carnival is celebrated with masked dances and parades. This character represents an Español, or Spaniard, whose light skin, green eyes, and golden blond beard was an innovation to the dark skinned, brown eyed, black haired Mayans.

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Parachico Mask

TITLE: Parachico Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Mexico
SUBREGION: Chiapas
ETHNICITY: Mayan
DESCRIPTION: Parachico Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in Chiapa de Corzo
CEREMONY: Fiesta de San Sebastián
AGE: 1988
MAIN MATERIAL: cedar wood
OTHER MATERIALS: oil paint; glass eyes

The Baile de los Parachicos is unique to Chiapas, the southernmost region of Mexico, and is most commonly performed in Chiapa de Corzo and Suchiapa.  It may have pre-Columbian origins, but its modern version is believed to originate in the myth of a wealthy Spanish noblewoman whose sick child could not be cured by doctors in Guatemala. She eventually brought him north to Chiapas, and a Mayan priest recommended she bathe in the healing waters of Cumbujuyú for nine days.  After the child recovered, the woman held a feast of thanksgiving and her servants danced for the children. Hence the name, parachico, meaning “for the little boy.”  In modern times, the parade is held during the holiday of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of Chiapa de Corzo.

The dance begins with a parade of the parachicos through the streets led by a patrón, or boss, whose mask is somewhat more elaborate than usual. All parachicos wear black pants with colorful embroidered designs, white shirt, a bright sarape, black leather boots, and they carry a tin rattle (sonaja).  As they parade, they echo phrases shouted by the leader, such as:

“¡Vivan los que ya no pueden, muchachos!” (“Long live those who can’t do it any longer, boys!” or “Long live the elders!”)

“¡Viva el gusto de nosotros, muchachos!” (“Long live our shared tastes, boys!” or “Long live our traditions!”)

“¡Viva la mano poderosa, muchachos!” (“Long live the powerful hand, boys!” or “Long live God’s will!”)

“¡Viva la pandilla rica, muchachos!” (“Long live the rich gang, boys!” or “Long live the parachicos!”)

They may also shout out more or less improvised verses, devout or comical, such as “Little mermaid, little mermaid, sea mermaid, Praise the Holy One and señor St. Sebastián” or “Passing by your window, you threw me a lemon, the lemon hit my face, and went straight to my heart.”

They then perform a group dance to the sound of drums and marimba, guitar, or other instruments. Women in brightly colored floral dresses may accompany them in less formal dances.

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Güegüense Mask

TITLE: Güegüense Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Nicaragua
ETHNICITY: Nahua
DESCRIPTION: Güegüense (Viejo) Mask
MAKER: Unknown maker in Masaya
CEREMONY: El Güegüense Dance Drama
AGE: 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint

El Güegüense is a culturally important Nicaraguan play originating in seventeenth century Diriamba and written by an anonymous author. It was originally called Baile del Güegüence, ó Macho-Raton, translated literally as “The Dance of the Old Man, or Male Mouse.” The play, which is considered the first classic of Nicaraguan literature, ridicules greed, moral corruption, and the troubled relations between Spanish colonists, mestizos, and indigenous people. It is performed annually in Diriamba during the Feast of St. Sebastian, from January 17th to 27th.

As performed today, most characters wear masks and dance to the music of the native flute (pito), violin, guitar, and drum during the performance.  Among the characters are several machos, or mules, sometimes numbering twelve or more.  This mask represents the Güegüense (old man, or viejo) who is the protagonist of the story.

For more on the Güegüense, see The Güegüence; A Comedy Ballet in the Nahua-Spanish Dialect of Nicaragua (Daniel G. Briton ed., 1883).

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Fieros Mask

TITLE: Fieros Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Guatemala
SUBREGION: Escuintla
ETHNICITY: Mayan (Q’eqchi’)
DESCRIPTION: Fieros Mask of Grumpy the Dwarf
MAKER: Unknown maker in Palin
CEREMONY: Baile de los Fieros
AGE: 1960s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint

The Baile de los Fieros (Dance of the Wild Ones) is performed on Corpus Christi in the streets of some small towns in Guatemala in the course of a parade. The dancers precede the town priest and the image of the town’s patron saint beginning at the church and circulating around town. The dancers wear a wide variety of masks and costumes, including clowns, animals, and popular characters. The mask participants are continuously attacked by a man in a bull costume made of a wood frame covered with leather. The bull is violently swung at the participants who attempt to dodge the attacks and are occasionally injured. The heavy masks help protect the faces of the dancers.

This specific mask dates to the 1960s and represents the character Grumpy from the 1937 Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

For more on Guatemalan masks, see Jim Pieper, Guatemala’s Masks and Drama (University of New Mexico Press, 2006).

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