I was still oohing and aahing over the town of El Fuerte when the owner of Rio Vista Hotel, Chal Gamez, invited me to join a group bound for a native dance performance by indigenous Mayo Indians. The hotel van jounced along a potholed asphalt road barely wide enough for two vehicles, passing through desolate scrub desert where everything was coated with a thick layer of dun-colored dust. Twenty minutes later we reached the tiny settlement of Capomo, a handful of squat adobe houses in the middle of this vast, desiccated wilderness. We pulled off into a compound in front of one of the houses and sat on simple log benches beneath a canopy constructed of woven twigs.

Chal explained that the Mayo Indians are generally considered to have the purest native blood in Mexico, with most members of the tribe being at least 70% Mayo. Their ancient dances had their origins in animism. The Danza del Venado (Deer Dance), for instance, was performed in a full deerskin outfit with a bow and arrow. However, in 1590 Jesuit missionaries arrived on the scene and began converting the Mayo to Christianity. Rather than prohibiting heathen dances, the crafty Jesuits introduced religion by dance, allowing the natives to intermingle their animistic beliefs with Christian theology. Today these dances are performed at important religious gatherings, such as Semana Santa (Easter week) and the festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Three Mayo males stepped into the enclosure as Chal was completing his explanation and squatted in front of instruments that have not changed for thousands of years. Two of the musicians produced a rhythmic rasping sound by drawing twigs and lengths of notched hardwood over the rounded tops of hollowed-out, halved gourds. A third musician beat a halved gourd floating in a tub of water with a short club, while elders seated on the side played traditional skin covered drums.

The same musical instruments have been used by the Mayo Indians for centuries

Jose Luis Talenius begins the Danza del Venado - the Deer Dance

When the thumping and rasping merged to create a syncopated rhythm, Jose Luis Talenius shook his bright red gourd rattles and began the Danza del Venado. A small deer’s head was cinched to the top of his head by leather throngs and decorated with flowers, the colors of which vary according to the ritual being performed. Every item of his clothing was symbolic: the red scarf Continue reading →