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The Mysterious Matachine
| Article
# : |
17038 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1990 |
3,079 Words |
| Author
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Jerry Sinkovec
Jerry Sinkovec is a writer and photographer who lives in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. |
For nearly three hundred years, the Matachine dancers of New Mexico have performed their ritual dances in honor of the various saints' feast days. No one knows for certain how or where the dances started or what they mean, but there are several theories. In New Mexico, both Hispanics and Pueblo Indians dance the Matachine. A few other tribes - the Yaqui in Arizona and the Tarahumara in Mexico - perform the dance, but no Hispanic groups outside of New Mexico do the Matachine.
The name Matachine is itself enigmatic, adding to the confusion about the origin of the dances. For some time it was thought that it had come from an Arabic word Mudawajjihin, which can mean "those who put on a face" or "those who face each other.” Either meaning is applicable to the Matachines of New Mexico.
One theory is that the Matachine developed from the Morisca dance brought to Spain by the Moors during their occupation from the eight through the fifteenth centuries. In Paul Nettl's Musica En La Danza, Moriscas are described as sword dances found in Europe where there was a tradition of the historic struggle between the Saracens and the Christians.
Descriptions of the dances performed during the Middle Ages by the Matachini of Spain, Matacinio of Italy, and Matachins of France bear similarity to those performed by Matachines today. These medieval dancers were masked buffoons dressed in motley garments, with colored ribbons on their shoulders, bells on their legs, and gilded morions on their heads. In their left hands they held bucklers to protect their heart, and, in their right, swords. They enacted battle mimes, making passes at each other swords. They were
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