TITLE: Mama Negra Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Ecuador
SUBREGION: Cotopaxi
ETHNICITY: Mestizo
DESCRIPTION: Mama Negra (Black mother)
CATALOG ID: LAEC006
MAKER: César Ugsha (Tigua, Pujilí, date of birth unknown)
CEREMONY: Fiesta de la Mama Negra
AGE: 2012
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: oil-based paint
The Fiesta de la Mama Negra (Festival of the Black Mama) is a celebration held in September and again in early November in Latacunga, Ecuador. The event originates in pre-colonial indigenous practices and was adapted to honor the Virgin of Mercy (Virgen de la Merced) after Catholic conversion, in thanks for her supposed intervention to protect the population from eruptions from the nearby Cotopaxi volcano. The festival has become one of the most important in Latacunga, and includes a parade (comparsa) featuring the Mama Negra prominently as an African version of Mary, mother of Jesus, combined with the Incan creator god Pachamama.
Other important masks include the Rey Moro (King Moor, showing the influence of the Conquistadors); angels; clowns (payasos abanderados and huacos); and guarichas (men in drag, who lead a group of dancers and carry a whip to keep the crowd out of the street). This festival opens with the huacos, representing precolonial Aymara shamans who parade to cure the diseases of the crowd. This mask represents the Mama Negra herself, who rides a horse through the parade, accompanied by armies of “negros” (blacks) and carrying a black baby.
To learn more about the causes and meaning of potentially offensive racial mask stereotypes, see our blog post on The Problem of Racial Stereotypes in Masquerade.
