1. THE CURPITE DANCE FROM SAN JUAN NUEVO, PARANGARICUTIRO,
MICHOACAN: CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN THE
TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
California State University, Fullerton
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
in
Anthropology
By
Juan Valdez
Approved by:
U ts/t-
DateDr. Eric Canin, Committee Chair
Department of Anthropology
Dr. Barbra Erickson, Member
Department of Anthropology
Date
3. ABSTRACT
This thesis studies culture and identity in the transnational context as I used a
visual ethnography that incorporated participant observation to document the Curpite
dance from San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro in both Mexico and the United States.
Throughout this investigation, I noticed that the diversification of values in the United
States relies on the inclusion of groups that are rarely part of the construction of an
American identity. Yet many boundaries are drawn between nations that restrict the
concept of diversity. The Curpite dance adds to the social relations that may complement
not decrease the quest of another American cultural asset (i.e. culture). When national
borders restrict the transit of culture, alternative ways to mediate between the individual
practice and the external force are adjusted. I suggest that defining identity for the people
of San Juan Nuevo is not a matter of adapting to changes more than becoming a
reflection about this changing process. The reorganization of strategies to structure values
that construct the hegemony of the local, national, and global participant takes on a
virtual space where the physical locations are no longer definite markers of
representation.
4. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................ ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................. v
LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................... vi
PREFACE................................................................................................................................ vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................... xiv
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................... 1
The Purhepecha............................................................................................................. 3
The Curpite Dance........................................................................................................ 6
Purhepecha Hierarchy........................................................................................... 9
Symbols of Identity Through Tim e.................................................................... 10
Research Questions...................................................................................................... 14
2. CULTURAL RESURGENCE AND DANCE.......................................................... 17
JuchariUindpik.ua........................................................................................................ 17
Barrios in San Juan Nuevo.................................................................................. 21
Dance in the Highlands........................................................................................ 22
3. DATA COLLECTION................................................................................................. 26
Preliminary Findings.................................................................................................... 27
Fieldwork in San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro......................................................... 28
Institutional Review Board (IRB)....................................................................... 29
Video Recordings................................................................................................. 29
Conversations with Participants.......................................................................... 30
Limitations and Validity...................................................................................... 32
Computer Software, Data Protection, and Closing Remarks.......................... 33
m
5. 4. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE DANCE..................................................... 35
Social Relations............................................................................................................ 36
Organization........................................................................................................... 36
Courtship................................................................................................................ 38
The Curpiteada............................................................................................................. 40
Reciprocity............................................................................................................. 40
Competition........................................................................................................... 41
Performance........................................................................................................... 47
M usic...................................................................................................................... 49
5. RESULTS..................................................................................................................... 52
Framing the Curpite Dance......................................................................................... 54
6. DISCUSSION.............................................................................................................. 63
Paricutin......................................................................................................................... 67
Senor de los Milagros.................................................................................................. 70
Family............................................................................................................................ 71
Agriculture.................................................................................................................... 77
7. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................ 81
Transnational Lifes...................................................................................................... 81
Indigenous Diversity.................................................................................................... 84
APPENDICES........................................................................................................................ 86
A. 2013 FESTIVAL PURHEPECHA MICHOACANO IN LOS ANGELES... 86
B. INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD............................................................ 87
C. COVERAGE MEDIA PASS.............................................................................. 90
D. “LORD OF THE MIRACLES” STORY.......................................................... 91
E. TRADICION DE LOS CURPITES................................................................... 95
BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................. 99
iv
6. LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Reduced number of counts per most frequently usedwordsduring
conversations................................................................................................................ 56
2. Top three participants scoring the most frequently usedwords per
conversations............................................................................................................... 57
3. Cross coding words to make sentences...................................................................... 59
4. Agricultural calendar in the Highland Communities............................................... 77
v
7. LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro, M ichoacan.......................................................... 2
2. Curpite dancer. Unknown artist................................................................................. 6
3. Tarepeti dancer (Moya Rubio 1978)......................................................................... 7
4. Maringuilla dancer (Moya Rubio 1978)................................................................... 8
5 Mesoamerican calendar symbols compared............................................................. 10
6. Purhepecha day names (Swadesh 1969) and some glyphs (Edmonson 1988:239) 11
7. Post-classic (AD 1200-1521) types of bells (Hosier 1994:133)............................ 13
8. Purhepecha flag............................................................................................................. 18
9. San Juan Nuevo’s “Water and Land” holding title signed by the Spanish in
1715................................................................................................................................ 20
10. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro map........................................................................ 26
11. Curpite dancers wearing bells before practice. 2013: Photo Juan Valdez 51
12. Word frequency throughout fieldwork conversations............................................ 55
13. After competition. Unknown artist............................................................................ 66
14. Life in the highland community. 2013: Photo Juan Valdez.................................... 67
15. Parangaricutiro and Paricutin volcano map (Rees 1970)........................................ 68
16. Image of El Senor de los Milagros, San Juan Nuevo (Zavala 1972).................... 70
17. The Lord of the Miracles inside church. 2013: Photo Juan Valdez).................... 71
18. Belt loom (Beals 1946:37).......................................................................................... 74
vi
8. 19. Troje (Moheno 1994).................................................................................................. 76
20. Honorable cuerpo de Cabildo and Semaneras Grandes in San Juan 2013......... 79
vii
9. PREFACE
I arrived in San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro one morning of New Year’s Day
after riding a cab for twelve minutes from the Uruapan airport in the state of Michoacan,
Mexico. I spotted for the first time the red brick towers of La Iglesia del Senor de los
Milagros looking through the taxi window. I asked the driver to drop me off right after
we passed the temple where I immediately noticed the city council building. It was
difficult to imagine that over nine thousand people would be gathering here in just a few
days to experience the Curpite dance competition of January 8.
I was very hungry after spending the entire night and part of the morning in at
least three different forms of transportation coming from California. I wanted to avoid
being looked as a tourist by the local people although I was uncomfortably pushing my
luggage through the streets. I approached a woman who had just placed a big basket on
the curb in which she kept uchepos (sweet com dough wrapped in com husk and topped
with sour cream, tomatillo sauce, and cheese). I bought one of them while I asked her for
directions on how to get to the Cultural Center. I told the vendor that I needed to find Ms.
Celia Mincitar Pulido to which she replied:
You’re going to have to come back tomorrow because the cultural center is
closed, don’t you see today is a holiday.
Noticing my frustration and despair, she kindly pointed me to a nearby pharmacy
so I headed over that direction coming across a public pay phone. I decided to call my
community advisor in California, Narcizo Guerrero Murillo, who quickly explained to
10. me that it was very common to substitute people’s proper name for nicknames in San
Juan Nuevo. The same situation applied to street names with people using houses, traffic
routes, buildings, and businesses as reference when giving directions. The phone
conversation dropped after a few minutes of talking perhaps due to the 4,125 feet above
sea level altitude of the town. I eventually made my way into “the small white door of the
yellow house towards the entrance of town where the Galeana buses leave to Uruapan”
as someone had just told me at the pharmacy.
Nana Celia, as she was locally known, came to answer after I hesitantly and
softly knocked on her house door. She invited me to come into the house and offered me
to join her in the kitchen where she was going to heat up water to make us coffee. She
knew about my visit because she had previously done work with Mr. Guerrero Murillo
and Dr. Gabany-Guerrero. I asked her to give me instructions on how to find a hotel in
town where I could stay for the time of my field research in San Juan. Nana Celia insisted
that if I went to San Juan to conduct fieldwork she was not going to let me stay at a hotel.
Neto who spoke perfect English after living sometime in the United States walked into
the house an hour later. The rest of Ms. Celia’s family including three more sons and
seven grandsons joined us afterwards in the evening.
There was a comfortable feeling being in San Juan Nuevo surrounded by people
that made me feel at home. I sympathized with several stories I heard that night
especially with those about living a transnational live. With an approximate 3,000 people
from San Juan Nuevo residing in places like Paso Robles California, there were plenty of
anecdotes to share. The stories reminded everyone about the ties the community of San
Juan Nuevo holds with their traditions. San Juan Nuevo has been the center of reunion for
11. diaspora returning migrants, neighboring visitors, and local community members during
many celebrations with the Curpite dance always attracting the biggest crowds.
Everyone called it the night after interesting conversations revolved over the
dinner table. Neto had already prepared a room for me in the house where I found a large
bed, a comfortable desk, a storing cabinet, and of course Wi-Fi internet access. Before
falling asleep, I remembered about the time I volunteered for the mounting of a museum
exhibit to be held in our school department at Cal State Fullerton. The students enrolled
in the class and I formed a committee to plan for the opening reception under the
direction of museum curator and instructor Dr. Tricia Gabany-Guerrero. We wrote a
proposal to the Vice President Office of Student Affairs to ask for funding to rent a
performing stage. Part of the inaugural museum program and reception consisted on
having dancers showing the traditional Curpite dance from San Juan Nuevo.
I did not know what the Curpite dance was at that time but I held the special
responsibility to meet up with the dancers and escort them a walking distance from their
hotel into the university. The dancers were coming in part due to an open invitation
arranged by the Mexican Environmental and Cultural Research Institute, Inc.
(MEXECRI), who advocates for the cultural preservation of indigenous communities of
Mexico in the United States. This non-profit organization served as the transnational
liaison between our museum exhibit and the diaspora community people living in Paso
Robles California.
When I met up with the dancers, they invited me to walk inside one of their hotel
rooms. Upon my entry, I noticed various suitcases placed on top of the two beds. The
dancers opened the cases and slowly emptied various dancing ornamentations and attire
x
12. items they were going to wear for the performance. Approximately four or five non
dancing participants assisted the five dancers to dress up making sure items were
perfectly tied and in place. I was very impressed to see the final transformation of a fully
dressed dancer in less than thirty minutes. Masks were placed last by the dancers and
suddenly it became very difficult if not impossible to recognize the people I had just met
at the hotel.
We exited the hotel and walked towards the main quad of Cal State University
Fullerton. There was already a big crowd waiting for the opening performance and the
reception of the museum to begin. We came across various students who quickly pulled
out their cell phone cameras to take pictures of the dancers. I am not sure if their curiosity
derived from the silvery colored bells decorating the calves of the dancers which made a
rhythmic noise while walking, or the bright sequin woven fabric aprons reflecting back
the sun rays in various tones and colors, or the silky handkerchief linen wrapped around
the dancer’s head giving an additional forward protuberance to a finely painted wooden
mask.
I started wondering if the four cups of coffee La Lucha I drank earlier at the
dinner table with Nana Celia’s family had anything to do with being unable to sleep on
my first night in San Juan. I think it was the overall excitement to be able to witness the
Curpite dance competition in person again but this time I would become part of the
celebration. That same night, I also remembered how I met “£/ Pack” when he came to
perform with the Curpite dancers to the university during our museum reception at Cal
State Fullerton. Pack invited me to attend another Curpite dance competition taking place
at his neighborhood in Paso Robles California. He told me about the local group of
13. Curpite dancers from Paso Robles taking on the visiting group of dancers from Rialto
California. I accepted the invitation and borrowed a camera from the On-line Academic
Strategies and Instructional Support (OASIS) studio staff members’ Timothy Abad and
John Montoya from Cal State University Fullerton. Liza Alvarez who completed graduate
ethnographic research in the department of Anthropology assisted me with another
camera. With two cameras in hand, we took on a four-hour drive from Fullerton to Paso
Robles California on June 25, 2011.
We recorded the Paso Robles’ Curpite dancers when the main leading dancer and
performer called Tarepeti was being assisted to dress up before this competition. I was
handed a pair of Curpite dancing shoes and some bells to wear on my calves. Before we
headed to the competing fairgrounds, I was encouraged to follow Curpite dancing steps
while music played from a car stereo. This was my first lesson on how to coordinate the
music and feet in the rhythmic style known as zapateado.
I went a second time to Paso Robles to observe a folkloric group of dancers
organized by choreographer professor Jose Alberto Velazquez Campoverde on August 17
of 2012. Mr. Velazquez Campoverde, who lives in San Juan Nuevo, had planned a
folkloric dance tour in places like California, Nevada, and Utah where approximately ten
different dances from Michoacan including the Curpites from San Juan Nuevo would be
presented. In this occasion, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the diaspora
community from San Juan Nuevo living in Paso Robles California to build a dancing
stage for the visiting dancing performers. Every time I went to Paso Robles was because
Pach or Ignacio became an informant who constantly updated me about events taking
14. place in his neighborhood. Aside from visiting Paso Robles California, I also attended the
Festival Purhepecha Michoacano within the same year on September 2012.
The city of Bell Gardens in the Los Angeles County area, along with the
Mexican Government from Michoacan and La Federation de Clubes y Asociaciones de
Michoacanos (FECADEMIN), organize a four-day annual event as a way to
commemorate the Mexican Independence Day in the United States. This festival offers
the opportunity for diaspora members from Michoacan and the public in general to come
together and enjoy various traditional foods, performances, and cultural workshops. It is a
place where Curpite dancers also come to perform their traditional Purhepecha dance.
I eventually began to wonder if Purhepecha dance was being used to neutralize
boundaries between the United States and Mexico. The Curpite dance in particular
engaged the community members across borders resulting in two different versions of
cultural representation. Whereas some people could live dual lives traveling across from
the United States to San Juan Nuevo some others were duplicating similar cultural values
to preserve an identity in the hosting country. Surprisingly, the Curpite dance contributed
to the cultural diversity of the United States putting aside from any type of uncertainties
caused by the immigration law.
So far, I knew what I wanted to do in school as this solved one half of the
challenging question commonly faced by any graduate student when selecting a topic. I
only needed to find out how to study this cultural transit of the Curpite dance across
national boundaries. After scheduling a meeting with my former thesis advisor Dr.
Gabany-Guerrero, she suggested that I conducted fieldwork in Michoacan in order to
gain an insight about the direction to follow. The idea would solve the second half of my
15. interests about this cultural tradition I had only seeing as a diaspora representation in the
United States. Nevertheless, participant observation would raised issues about security
and safety after the university placed sanctions against visits to Mexican destinations
including Michoacan. It was clear how media reports on the news regarding organized
crime would limit anthropology at studying human kind.
The entrance into the community was arranged specifically for me and depended
on contacts from my professor, community advisor, and community members in both
Paso Robles and San Juan Nuevo. Both Dr. Gabany-Guerrero and Narcizo Guerrero
Murillo provided me with the names of contacts holding administrative positions in the
local government of San Juan Nuevo. Furthermore, the social support to conduct the
study I received from the diaspora community in Paso Robles had already grown to an
unconditional commitment without restrictions or boundaries.
Neto was knocking on the door while I heard Nana Celia asking if I was awake.
She was ready to take me over to the Cultural Center to be introduced to some
community members and authorities in San Juan Nuevo. Although this was only my
second day visiting the town, it became evident how the American dream could be a
nightmare. The museum exhibit “Cultural Treasures of Mexico: the Purhepecha of
Parangaricutiro” woke me up on May 12 of 2011.
xiv
16. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I give special thanks to everyone who in some way or another helped me during
the process of my graduate studies. Due to space limitation I can only mention those
whose influence resulted in the completion of this manuscript as they have touched my
life in a very personal and significant way. I dedicate this study to the community of San
Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro both in Mexico and Paso Robles California. I give special
thanks for all their help to make me feel at home and sharing with me their food, dance,
and traditions. The present work would not have been possible without their constant
support, motivation, and friendship.
My appreciation is given to Jaime Soto Ventura and Ignacio Ciricuti 'El Pach ’for
coming to Cal State Fullerton and bringing the Curpites despite having a restricted
schedule. I want to thank the Curpite dancers in Paso Robles especially Juan, Pelon, and
Polio for giving me a quick dancing lesson before a Curpite competition. My
appreciation goes also to the Ciricuti family for their hospitality in Paso Robles
California in particular to Casimira Guerrero de Ciricuti, the testimonials of Jesus ‘el G ’
Ciricuti, who is also a professional dancer, and the friendly reception of two daughters
Paola and Jasmin Ciricuti
I want to thank and wish the best prosperous future to Narcizo Guerrero Murillo
for arranging my fieldwork in San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro. The same facilitated my
access to information and meeting with informants for my study including Narcizo’s
xv
17. nephew Jose ‘el medico ’who picked me up and drove me throughout the boundaries of
San Juan Nuevo at places like San Nicolas, El Rancho Los Aguacates, Cerro Chino, and
the Tancltaro highway. I want to thank Lourdes Anguiano Alfaro and her husband
Epitacio Velazquez Guerrero for letting me film inside their home and granting me an
interview with their daughters Juanita Velazquez and Maria Paula Velazquez. I want to
thank Professor Manuela Velazquez Guerrero for assisting me with information on the
aprons. My special thanks to ‘‘El Pacoimas, ” ‘‘El Cari, ”Macedonio “El Nono, ”and his
son Felipe “El Nonito, ”Vicente Contreras “El Mosca, ”Juan Aguilar Chavez “El
Peligroso, ” Francisco Rodriguez “el Khuri, ”Juan Aguilar Saldana, Aniseto Velazquez
Contreras, Miguel Pantaleon, the retired priest Mr. Jose Guadalupe Cuara, Andres
Echavama Don Diego “el Pa chen, ” Professor Jose Alberto Velazquez Campoverde “el
Pepino, ”the Aguilar Delgado sister’s, and everybody else who opened their houses to
me while I visit San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro.
I want to specially thank Ms. Celia Mincitar Pulido “Nana Celia”and her family
including Ernesto Mincitar “Neto, ”Dr. Juan Martin Mincitar “El Juaneco, ” “El Diony”
and his wife Mary, and El Chaco. I also want to acknowledge all the children who
showed great interest in the “obsidian project” including los Chuchines, las Pichis, and
los Jerochis. I give my special thanks to the Prioste of the community Chapel Hospital
Maria Azucena Anguiano Murillo and her husband the Mayordomo Pablo Murillo
Anducho who allowed me to interview the Palmeras Maria Guadalupe, Cleotilde, Elvia,
Maria Luz, Maria Gudalupe, Lolita, Connie, and Kathy.
During my visit in Michoacan, I had the honor to meet with many people I would
never finish writing about in regards to my generosity to thank them. In particular, I was
18. very glad to meet with the Honorable Cuerpo de Cabildos from San Juan Nuevo
Parangaricutiro to whom I am thankful for having told me about their costumbres and
sharing with me their time. In particular, I thank Mr. Narcizo Guerrero Sr. "El Chicho
Teruto, ”Mr. Jose Anguiano R., Mr. Manuel Echevarria C., Mr. Fernando C.C., and Mr.
Luis Roque C., and of course the head of communal authority on community affairs Mr.
Jose Aguilar. I want to thank the Semaneras Grandes Rosa Aguilar and Petra Sandoval,
the Regent of Tourism, Culture, and Education Dr. Angelica Remigia Gonzalez Guerrero;
the Regent of Health and Equality for Women Lucero Garfia Bedolla; the Regent of
Agroforestry and Cultural Ecology C. Martin Lopez Soto; the Regent of Planning and
Development on Indigenous Culture Roberto Echevarria Heredia; the Director of the
Casa de Cultura Mr. Felipe Contreras Anguiano. I want to thank the municipal secretary
C. Julian Anguiano Chavez and Municipal President C. Vicente Guerrero Ruiz for setting
up the museum meeting.
I also want to give special thanks to personnel at Cal State Fullerton including Dr.
Abrego, Dr. Moore, Jamie Hamilton, Yvette Espinosa, Janet Hayder, Tannisse
Collymore, and Debra Redsteer for their resourceful input and generosity. I want to thank
the staff from the office of Graduate Studies specially Dr. Powers, Dr. Arellano, Dr.
Armendariz, Joyce Royce, Norma Ramirez, Yessica Penate, and Catalina Olvera. Special
thanks to Dr. Gradilla who introduced me to the Enhancing Postbacularatte Opportunities
for CSUF Hispanic Students program from which I once received a Graduate Assistant
position. This job saved me the money to buy the camcorder I used for my fieldwork
which otherwise I would not have ever had. I also received the support of EPOCHS to
present my research locally in San Jose California during the Southwestern
19. Anthropological Association meeting and nationally at the American Anthropological
Association meeting in Chicago.
Last but not least, I would like to make special mention to the close family and
friends who although not physically present with me at all times, their spirit has taught
me how to get an education. I want to thank my mother Maria Cristina Rojas who lives in
Mexico City who once during my childhood brought me over to the Museo de
Antropologia e Historia. She did not know but I was being slowly inducted into a long
quest for human cultural diversity. I would normally return to the museum just to find out
there were more questions than answers about the human past.
It was until I received formal training that some of this answers became evident
through the mentorship of my anthropology professors at Cal State Fullerton. I want to
thank the academic advice given to me by Dr. Erickson, Dr. Callahan, Dr. Canin, and Dr.
Nevadomsky. They all joined me throughout this discovery and accepted being part of
this thesis as my committee members. This thesis remains a sample of all their constant
patience so I could recognize this strange yet pleasant field called anthropology. Most
importantly, I am highly in debt and would like to thank my former thesis advisor Dr.
Tricia Gabany-Guerrero for sharing with me the beauty of Mexico through the mysticism
of Michoacan. I offered her my infinite gratitude because she always believed in this
academic quest I created to myself. She helped me to navigate this promising yet
surprising educational path as a first generation college graduate student. Dr. Gabany-
Guerrero not only inspired my quest for human equality and community advocacy but
also gave me valuable research techniques, fieldwork experiences, and enthusiastic
anecdotes. I feel very fortunate for receiving her support, friendship, mentorship, and
20. constant commentaries on this thesis manuscript. All of those helped me to be motivated
to define this academic path in times of hardship. Dr. Tricia Gabany-Guerrero frequently
sought the progress of this thesis until the very end when she had to leave the world of
the living. She fought against cancer without this preventing her from continuing her
professional work and dedication to her students. When the time comes and the situation
allows for me to continue doing research, it will no longer be an assignment to finish but
a legacy to give back to the people a common good in the memory ofjustice.
Thanks Dr. Gabany-Guerrero.
xix
21. 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
My thesis studies the meaning of identity within a transnational context based on
a particular indigenous dance. The significance of the study discusses national borders
when it comes to diverse cultural values. Dance, in this case, illustrates and encourages
social relations among participants regardless of place and location. In the following
pages, I conceptualized dance as a field of practice during both diaspora organized events
held in the United States as well as local dance competitions held in Michoacan, Mexico.
As I learned more about the Purhepecha culture and tradition, I took a closer more
intimate approach to investigate the Curpite dance from San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro
through fieldwork research.
San Juan Nuevo receives many visitors since it houses an important catholic
religious temple called Iglesia del Sehor de los Milagros or the LORD OF THE
MIRACLES CHURCH. The church reads some of the town’s history through the display
of painting murals located inside. One of this murals makes reference to Parangaricutiro
as the Spanish translation “canoa de agua metida en el paredon” [water falling from the
ravine into a canoe]. The word Parangaricutiro may represent a location or place above
the ground as Parangatani or “poner levantar la xicara de el suelo” [to pick up the
container from the floor], Parangaricuni “estar el sol en el cielo” [the sun being in the
sky], Parangariquaro “un pueblo en Thzirosto” [a town in Thzirosto], and Parangaritani
22. 2
“ponerlo alii” [to put over there] have a similar root word that means above something1
(Figure 1).
San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro
Mexico
Figure 1. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro, Michoacan.
The Purhepecha
The word p ’urhe translates to “the people,” “the person,” “those who inhabit the
earth’ (Argueta Villamar 2008:42). Purhepecha means “common people,” “people of the
town,” “the ethnicity” and “the spoken tongue” (Lopez Austin 1981:19). We know little
1 Members o f the municipal township who I interviewed made reference to the town simply as comunidad
or community. I will be using San Juan Nuevo to mean the geographical locations that encompass the
Indigenous community and the municipal entity. I translated from Purhepecha to Spanish using an on-line
dictionary to provide the English equivalent o f the words inside the brackets only for this section. The
dictionary can be found at www.purepecha.org last accessed on October 6,2014. Hereafter, all translations
from Spanish to English within this manuscript are my own with my intention to keep the original writing
o f the author and not the definite equivalent o f the translation with all errors to be my own.
23. 3
about the origin of this people to whom the mexica called michoaque or “those from the
place of fish” and to whom anthropologist now call “purepecha” (Schondube 1996:14).
The Purhepecha are sometimes called Tarascos although the etymology of the
name is disputed making the implication to be the given name. Lopez Austin (1981)
makes reference to how Bernardino de Sahagun explained that “the indigenous people
borrowed the name from their god Taras and called themselves Tarascos” (Lopez Austin
1981:132). In a very similar way, Fray Joan Baptista de Lagunas offers his own
interpretation about the name Tarasco best summarized by Foster (1946:9) as follows:
The most common explanation, is that, following Spanish practice, the
conquistadores took Indian women as wives and concubines, and were called
tarascue, “son-in-law,” by the fathers of the girls. Thinking that the term was the
name of the tribe, the Spaniards referred to all as Tarascos (Foster 1946:9).
Other versions have also being proposed including the splitting of two groups at
the crossing of a river. The males from the first group made a wooden raft using their
own clothes to tie it up and hold the rafting canoe together. They found their clothing
ripped and useless after crossing the river. The males had to borrow from their wives
some of their clothing since the female clothing was composed of two pieces. The males
used the top part to cover themselves from the hips and above whereas the females kept
the piece that covered their hips down. When the second group caught up on the first
group and noticed this exchange of clothing, they laughed since they managed to cross
the river without any confrontations. The successful group that crossed without issues
commented that the not so lucky group made the noise taras, taras, taras every time they
walked by the bouncing of their genitals (here the given name Tarasco). The first group
24. 4
felt embarrassed and decided to stay back after crossing the river whereas the second
2
group left on the journey .
Lopez Austin (1981:134) sustains that there is a lack of evidence to validate any
given version for the etymology of the word “Tarasco” concluding that the most accurate
source should be that of the ancient historical manuscript called the Relation de
3
Michoacan . For instance, the Relation de Michoacan talks about the fusion between the
sedentary fishermen living in the outskirts of the Patzcuaro Lake and the semi nomad
bands coming from the north. The intermarriage between the two gave birth to the people
of Michhuacan (the place of fish). Nevertheless, Lopez Austin (1981) makes note that
this was not a smooth accommodation between the two groups since they praised
different gods. The fishermen and semi-nomad bands, thus, had to share religious beliefs
in halves creating divisions between their communities (Lopez Austin 1981:22). The
division created a strong centralized subdivision within the communities corresponding to
2
The full version o f this story could be read in Lopez Austin (1981:132-133) Tarascos y Mexicas book
published by the Fondo de Cultura Economica in Mexico. 1 also read the story in Fernando Nava (1999) El
Campo Semantico del Sonido Musical P ’urhecha book which reminded me o f some people from Sahuayo
Michoacan 1met as a newcomer to the United States. Every time they heard news, stories, comments, or
conversations that were shocking to them, they responded by using the expression jO l a huevos! [such a
bolded genital you are!] as a way to make an implication that the stories were over exaggerated.
3
The full name of the manuscript is Relacion de Michoacan: Relacion de las geremonias y rrictos y
poblagion y governagion de los yndios de la provingia y governagion de los yndios de la provingia de
Mechuacan hecha alyllustrisimo sehor Don Antonio Mendoga, Virreyy governador desta nueva Espaha
por su magestad, ecetera. The manuscript contains three parts, focusing on the Tarascan State religion,
Tarascan Society, and official state history, including the Spanish conquest. All but one folio o f the first
section have been lost (Pollard: 2003). Although this manuscript takes a Uactisecha perspective (Pollard
1993) in general with that from Tzintzuntzan (Gabany-Guerrero 1999) in particular, the Relacidn de
Michoacan also comments on customs that may still be in practice today. I used the on-line version
courtesy of the Colegio de Michoac&n last accessed May 12, 2013 at
http://etzakutarakua.colmich.edu.mx/proyectos/relaciondemichoacan/. The illustrations are from the
English translation manuscript called Chronicles o f Michoacan. The original is housed in the Biblioteca
Real del Monasterio de San Lorenzo, De El Escorial, Spain, also refer to web address for location at
http://rbme.patrimonionacional.es/ (Gabany-Guerrero 2013 personal communication). Other copies are
found in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the University of Michoacdn in Morelia. I will
refer to the same as Relacion de Michoacan hereafter.
25. 5
particular pre-Hispanic barrio segments which “corresponded to community identity,
power, and prestige (Chance: 1989), socio economic stratification and kinship (Carrasco:
1976), and specific religious concentrations” (Lopez Austin 1981).
Furthermore, the indigenous religion before the conquest was based in the cult to
the gods who represented the different natural elements, economic activities, and the
social groups formed by kinship division of labor (wards, specialization, towns, etc.)
(Carrasco: 1976). Gabany-Guerrero (1999) summarizes three layers of supernatural
structures in connection to animate and inanimate deities in the Purhepecha cosmology:
Cuerauaperi, Curicaueri and Xaratanga appear to have dominated the pantheon of
the Purhepecha Empire as described in the Relacion where the deities may be
categorized into three distinct types: 1) deities based on constellations, astronomic
observations and time; 2) deities based on the relationship with the earth and
animate things (deer, eagle, snake, gopher) and the spatial areas they occupy; 3)
deities based on their association with particular people, leader, place (inanimate,
e.g. rocks, mountains, thermal springs) or time (Gabany-Guerrero 1999:118).
Thus, hierarchical organization was an important marker in the Purhepecha or
Tarascan social culture4. The Tarascan society had a ranking system with the King
Cazonzi or Irecha in the highest level and the “Petamuti or supreme priest as the second
in hierarchical position presiding all other priests and over the most important ceremonies
in Tzintzutzan, both civil and religious” (Pollard 1993:145 my emphasis). Although we
can only guess on the type of events and manifestations of identity in the past, the direct
descendants of the Purhepecha today practice celebrations that continue a strong presence
of cultural values. For instance, the Curpite dance from San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro
brings an approximately 9,000 people together every year in the month of January.
I retained the word Tarasco as it appears in the quotes borrowed from other authors. I use the term
Purhepecha with more frequency for the purposes o f this thesis hereafter unless otherwise specified.
26. 6
The Curpite Dance
The word Curpite translates to Spanish as los que sejuntan or los que se agregan
(Prospero Maldonado 2000:36), or its English equivalent “those who gather in, attach
themselves, those who join in” (Bishop: 2005). Maldonado (2010), and Argueta Villamar
(2008) argue that Curpites resemble a butterfly. Bishop (2009:398) suggests “Curpites
physical form as well as proud demeanor reflect those of the rooster.” Brody Esser
(1984:75) explains that “Curpites make guttural noises and imitate clucking birds.” Ralph
Beals (1946:156) described the Curpite dancers as “correct and very restrain,
accompanied by shouting and leaping in the air almost like an impossible bird (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Curpite dancer. Unknown artist.
The main characters of this dance are the Tarepeti and Maringuilla who parade
the streets of San Juan Nuevo along many Curpite dancers in order to “express
entertainment motifs only to reflect the happiness of the young (Vargas Gonzalez
1950:30). Ralph Beals (1946:155) observed how “the music varied according to various
27. aspects of the Curpite dance with changes being indicated by the Tarepeti leader when
ringing a bell.” The bell is placed around the neck of a wooden carved head of a horse
being attached to a scepter symbolizing command. The scepter is carried along the
shoulder of the leading dancer Tarepeti to distinguish his mastery performance on stage
at the beginning of the dance competition (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Tarepeti dancer (Moya Rubio 1978).
The main leader Tarepeti dances along with his female companion called
Maringuttla who is actually another male. The Maringuilla “wears a decorated kerchief
on her hips to trick the Tarepeti dancing moves” (Chamoreau 2004:96). Despite the
uncertainty to know where the cross dressing of the female character Maringuilla within
the context of the Curpite dance begins, the term Maringuilla or Maringueri is utilized in
28. 8
the Purhepecha language when referring to a young unmarried indigenous girl (Brody
Esser 1984:68) (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Maringuilla dancer (Moya Rubio 1978).
We can only speculate that the male/female transformation within the Purhepecha
culture may relate a symbolic attribution given to a deity. For instance, a similar
male/female depiction appears in some Mayan codices to represent the com god (Bessie-
Sweet 2000:2).
Although Purhepecha kinship relations were based on matrilineal descent, at some
point in the history of this people men became dominant in the political and religious
29. 9
hierarchy (Gabany-Guerrero 1999:94). In the pre-Hispanic Purhepecha political
organization, symbolic power was materialized by carrying a sacred scepter through the
actions and ceremonies given by the Petamuti (Mendoza: 2003) where myths, legends,
norms, and other successes were transmitted to the town orally during the
Ecuataconsquaro celebration (Schondube 1996:16).
Purhepecha Hierarchy
In a very similar way that Purhepecha social structure was composed, the Curpite
dance also involves complex social organization representing hierarchy and prestige in
the representation of each one of the three different dancer characters. Prospero
Maldonado (2000) assimilates the prominent role of the contemporary Curpite master
dancer Tarepeti with that of the pre-Hispanic leader Petamuti.
los mismos elementos que simbolizaron un alto rango en la antigiiedad, y que de
manera tan evidente, permanezca esta figura de linaje en una danza tradicional a
pesar de haberle cambiado su representation...pudiera tener origen en la ya
citada celebration Equata-consquaro [the same components that symbolized rank
in the ancient organization which for some reason continue to be part of today’s
traditional dances must have its origin in connection to the Equata-conscuaro
celebration](Prospero Maldonado 2000:65).
Prospero Maldonado (2000) derives the Sicuindiro celebration as the starting point to
observe elaborated dances and rituals in the history of Michoacan. However, comparisons
maybe misleading in particular those mentioning the Sicuindiro celebration since “we do
not have the name of the month to which this ceremony pertained because the first folio
of the Relacion de Michoacan was destroyed or lost in Spain” (Miranda: 1988 cfr
Gabany-Guerrero 1999:39). Gabany-Guerrero (1999) states that the word Sicuindiro
comes from sucuindirani or suicui meaning “to flay” after her comparisons of the
Purhepecha calendar on previous studies made by Pollard (1993) and Caso (1943).
30. 10
Symbols of Identity Through Time
Caso (1943:11) indicates that “the Relation de Michoacan names thirteen
Tarascan months with four of them having a corresponding date in the Christian calendar.
Edmonson (1988:240) refers to the “autonomy of the Tarascan writing system and
linguistic independence to have valuable implications when considering Purhepecha
calendars. Gabany-Guerrero (2012) discovered a Mesoamerican 260-day calendar
symbol on the church of San Juan Parangaricutiro which may provide additional support
for ideas about how the Purhepecha counted days (Gabany-Guerrero 2012) (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Mesoamerican calendar symbols compared.
As a matter of fact, the relationships between the Purhepecha and the Teotihuacan
calendars “lead to an initial dated Classic counting systems derived from that of the
Yucunudahui” (Emondson 1988:240). This calendar does not go back earlier than the
fifth century AD (Edmonson 1988:102). Edmonson (1988:239) found archaeological
records of glyphs to support his theory that there were Purhepecha day-names (Figure 6).
1
CalendarSymbol CalendarSymbol
<1 Cakadv
ftnapiktSBOchathtMnr
31. 11
a. Uxpi/Alligator
b. Tarhiyata/Wind
c. Kuahta/House
d. Uahtzaki/Lizard
e. Akuitze/Serpent
f. Uarhini/Death
g. Axuni/Deer
h. Auani/Rabbit
i. Itsi/Water
j. Uichu/Dog
k. Ozoma/Monkey
1. Uitzakua/Grass
m. Isimba/Cane
n. Puki/Jaguar
o. Uakusi/Eagle
p. Tukuru/Owl
q. Yumiri/Quake
r. Tzhinapu/Flint
s. Manikua/Rain
t. Tsitsiki/flower
Figure 6. Purhepecha day names (Swadesh 1969) and some glyphs (Edmonson 1988:239).
The relationships between similar calendar systems may pertain to linguistic and
religious purposes according to Edmonson (1988:1). However, having a counting system
that is used by other groups may also relate to trade. For instance, the Purhepecha
supplied the Teotihuacan counterparts with Spondylus shells for ritual ceremonies (Hosier
32. 12
1994:249). The need to have a regional counting system to track periods of demand for
this products was a requirement. Hosier (1994) mentions that after Teotihuacan collapsed
roughly during the early classic period, the Purhepecha brought their shells to the
Monteno in Ecuador who introduced metal working in exchange where teotihuacan’s
decline could explain the timing of metallurgy’s appearance (Hosier 1994:249). Hosier
(1994) summarizes this perspective in the following way:
We cannot be certain how Mexican polities responded to the political and
ideological disruptions brought by the collapse of Teotihuacan, but whatever the
responses, there is no doubt that metal objects provided a novel, visually and
aurally powerful means of communicating with (and recreating) the sacred
through bell sounds, a new and unusual material with which to mark hierarchy
and social status, and a new item to trade (Hosier 1994:249).
Gabany-Guerrero (1999:145) interpreted Caheri Consquaro (the name of one out
of eighteen Purhepecha months) after Caso (1943) and Pollard (1993) with the linguistic
expression Conconascani which means “to make the bells sound” or “sonar los
cascabeles.” Archaeological investigations by Dorothy Hosier (1988:833) also pointed
out that “bells, cast to shape using the lost-wax technique, were manufactured in greater
quantity in West Mexico than any other object made of metal.” The choices of what to
make takes place in a specific social context and is determined by an accommodation of
social realities with the physical properties of materials (Hosier 1994:4). Late Postclassic
(1300-1600AD) bells were excavated near Nuevo Parangaricutiro where their size
appeared to have a significance with the person’s age; children of various ages were
each found associated with one bell, varying in size with the age of the child (Gabany-
Guerrero 2012) (Figure 7).
33. 13
Figure 7. Post-classic (AD 1200-1521) types of Bells (Hosier 1994:133).
The archaeological record of San Juan Nuevo may further explain some of the
Curpite dance components while adding to Purhepecha investigations in general.
Gabany-Guerrero (1999:183) “identified several archaeological sites within the region of
Tancitaro that merit archaeological surveys.” Nevertheless, the detail analysis of
archaeological findings in San Juan Nuevo resides outside the scope of this study. The
ceremonial associations in both Purhepecha pre-Hispanic rituals and contemporary
dancing celebrations may provide examples on how the Purhepecha traditional
commonalities do not reside in the roles of the characters but in the differences of their
34. 14
celebrations where knowing the origin of the Curpite dance in San Juan Nuevo
Parangaricutiro remains an ambitious endeavor.
Research Questions
The purpose of the present work focuses on how national borders function as
points of reference to filter diversity and cultural values and how virtual spaces become
alternatives to redefine agency and identity. I derive my examples from the indigenous
Curpite dance from San Juan Nuevo which takes a transnational direction with their
participants complementing the cultural diversity of their hosting nations. I emphasize the
following research questions as a way to carry out this study:
1) How does cultural practices allow for the experience of diversity concerning a
transnational world?
2) How do practical continuations of culture become cultural continuities of the
practice?
3) How do individuals negotiate external forces of organization through
interconnected networks?5
The organization of this thesis is composed of seven chapters where I cover the
following aspects. Chapter one provides with a brief introduction about the Purhepecha
and the Curpite dance. I also introduce a Purhepecha symbol that was carved in the old
church of Parangaricutiro. The symbol may relate to how the Purhepecha counted days
although there is no further evidence to make such a claim. Archaeological findings may
bring more insight to this speculation as a way to know more about the Purhepecha
5 Geisteswissenschaften is a German term advocated by Boas which emphasizes individuals over groups as
the center for anthropological investigation. As Boas (1940) would explain “the center o f investigation
must be the individual and the many threads that enter the individual case”.
35. 15
culture in general and the Curpite dance in particular. Chapter two deals with the quest
for hegemony as many contemporary groups in Michoacan are successfully claiming
their self-determination. San Juan Nuevo is not an exception to this rule relying on the
participation of a communal assembly to sustain their forest. Also, this model of
organization in the community of San Juan has been an important component for the
preservation of cultural activities where dance appears as early as 1590 in
Parangaricutiro. Whether the Curpite dance has been an old tradition in the community or
not, the people of San Juan experience a strong bond with each other through a dancing
tradition. The community organization as a model would require of an elaborated and
systematic way to be analyzed. Chapter three refers to the methodology I used to carry on
such an investigation. I first relied on reading detail sources of information including
bibliographic records and on-line accounts about the Curpite dance. I then conducted
fieldwork in the community of San Juan Nuevo to engage a visual ethnography that
incorporated participant observation to study this organization. This led to the application
of theoretical considerations to conceptualize dance as a field of practice and identity as a
product of culture. Chapter four combines these two ideas in order to construct the
structural organization of the Curpite dance in terms of habitus. I relied on the narratives
I collected during fieldwork to produce an account about the events that took place from
January 6 to 9 in regards to the Curpite dance. Using a reverse order to describe these
events, I hope for the reader to construct the celebration as a process where the end of the
chapter becomes the beginning of the celebration. Identity for the people of San Juan is
the continuity of a changing process where the Curpite dance has neither an end nor a
beginning. In chapter five, I give more details about the Curpite dance in terms of the
36. 16
results I found during my fieldwork using an on-line computer software. Since this study
concerns the people of San Juan in particular and the anthropological community in
general, I opened the chapter with two examples where a successful breach between the
two has brought good results. However, I make an explicit call to continue providing with
results that are representative of people under investigation. This would require the
inclusion of researchers within the studies where community issues become academic
concerns. In chapter six I recall some of these issues and concerns in the community
about the Curpite dance in the form of a discussion. This chapter explains the way
customs and traditions are handed down through the generations using the advice of the
elderly members in the community of San Juan Nuevo. I provide some of the stories
about the Curpite dance as these were given to me making a connection of the stories
with some available bibliographic records. I conclude this chapter by suggesting that the
Curpite dance today relies on the hands of new generations to continue the oral tradition
in the brink of technology. Chapter seven concludes this study bringing the transnational
aspect in relation to cultural practices like the Curpite dance. Dance is not only as a
cultural practice but also a political manifestation where entrance and access to diversity
is mediated by an external hegemony of national borders.
37. 17
CHAPTER 2
CULTURAL RESURGENCE AND DANCE
Juchari Uinavik.ua
Ethnographic studies in the 20th century situate the contemporary Purhepecha
within four sub regions of the state of Michoacan, Mexico to include La cienega de
Zacapu [the Zacapu marshes], La cahada de los Once pueblos [the glen road to the
eleven towns], La region del Lago [the Patzcuaro Lake region], and La Sierra
Purhepecha/Meseta Purhepecha [the Purhepecha highlands]. The four regions come
together as a single unifying emblem of identity as it is representative in the colors of the
Purhepecha flag. The blue signifies the people of the Lake which corresponds to the
ancient inhabitants who settle in the outskirts of Patzcuaro and live a sustainable diet
based on fishing the local species. The purple represents the communities living in the
marshes who at some point lost their mother tongue but retained a huge appreciation for
com. The green symbolizes the density of the forest and the wood available to those
living in the highlands. The yellow represents the eleven towns that settled throughout the
Duero River to form the eleven ancient towns. The flag comes from the contemporary
indigenous Purhepecha quest to revitalize community values after the confrontation
between Santa Fe de la Laguna and Quiroga. These two communities located to the
northeast region of the Patzcuaro Lake experienced a disagreement regarding land and its
privileges. According to Cortez Maximo (2013) “the indigenous resurgence began at the
39. (Vazquez Leon 1986:47). This local action seeks to alleviate “the deepest suffering
experienced by the indigenous community to be the loss of their economic sustain
through the communal property of the land” (Carrasco 1976:34). The litigation,
documentation, and recovery of pre-Hispanic Purhepecha territory continues due to the
finding of land holding titles in the public and private archives (Sanchez Diaz 2013;22).
At 19.4 degrees of latitude and 102 degrees of longitude sitting at an elevation of
1,866 meters above sea level with an approximate population of 18,000 people
(INEGI:2013), San Juan Nuevo corresponds to the denominated meseta Purhepecha.
“The Tarascan ‘Sierra,’ the largest of all the sub-regions, is not a mountain chain but
rather a volcanic plateau . . . whose surface has been roughened by large composite
volcanoes, scores of small cinder cones, and extensive lava flows called malpais’XWest
1948:2). West speculated that indigenous occupations of the highland retained local
hegemony during the time of colonial expansion in Michoacan. He noticed less
population decline and great language retention in the sierra region suggesting that “the
pine-oak tree forest, with little palatable grass and numerous predatory animals, offered
few attractions for the Spaniards (West 1948:17).”
San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro declares rightful ownership of their territorial
boundaries by holding a land title signed by the Spanish Crown in the year 1715. The title
specifies the access to “Water and Land” with many provisions being made thereafter.
The latest amendment occurred in 1987 from which the communal forestry organization
of San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro took a huge impulse. Today, the indigenous
community seeks to preserve and defend its territory through community forestry and
sustainable natural resource management (Corcoran 2012:6). Furthermore, the Forest
40. 20
Stewardship Council (FSC), awarded San Juan Nuevo with the green stamp in 1999 due
to an excellent silviculture drive of its forest (Estudios Rurales 2007:191 )(Figure 9)6.
Figure 9. San Juan Nuevo’s “Water and Land” holding title signed by the
Spanish Crown in the year 1715.
The Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo Parangaricutiro in association with the Comision Nacional Forestal
(CONAFOR) launched a documentary in YouTube.com on August 27, 2013 under the name “Comunidad
Indigena de Nuevo Parangaricutiro, Michoacan.” The video contains resource management techniques that
are making San Juan Nuevo an example to follow due to the sustainable system to protect, use, and
reproduce their forest.
41. 21
Barrios in San Juan Nuevo
Surrounded by the mountains of La Laguna (3,200m), Prieto (3,100m), Pario
(2,910m), San Nicolas (2,900m), and Cutzato (2,810m)(Velazquez 2003:46), San Juan
Nuevo Parangaricutiro is composed of six barrios each one representing an annual
celebration within the Catholic calendar holidays of La Asuncion, Natividad, Santiago,
San Francisco, San Miguel, and San Mateo. All the towns and barrios have a patron saint
whose cult relates to labor specializations to be under protection of their saint (Carrasco
1976:61).
Moheno (1985:39) and Gabany-Guerrero (1999:193), observed that several pre-
Hispanic communities, each corresponding to the barrios referenced in San Juan Nuevo,
existed prior to the formation of new town (1943) and the original congregated
community (16th century). Moheno (1985:39), and Zavala (1972:21) attributed Fray Juan
de San Miguel for the congregation of Andajchura, Tzintzicaro, Tzicatatacuaro,
Tzirajpan, Cutzato and Coringuaro as what later became Parangaricutiro around 1530-
1535. Gabany-Guerrero (1999) pointed out that “Luis Cuarao, and several members of
the cabildo, sustained that the original communities which formed Parangaricutiro were
ordered to unite under the rule of the Cazonzi and not the Spanish (1999:196) .
Cabildo refers to a group o f councilmen who advice the community on important decisions (see chapter 5
on San Juan Nuevo museum organization meeting). When Gabany-Guerrero conducted fieldwork in San
Juan Nuevo around 1993 to write her dissertational thesis Deciphering the Symbolic Heritage o f the
Tarascan Empire: Interpreting the Political Economy o f the Pueblo-Hospital o f Parangaricutiro,
Michoacan, she wrote about oral histories reporting “repeatedly to Pantzingo as one o f the original
highland communities before the Spanish congregations consolidated the people into Parangaricutiro "
(Gabany-Guerrero 1999:184). The Cabildo members have gone through many and perhaps all religious
burden positions giving them the knowledge as spokespeople for the community. Brody Esser (1984:53)
emphasized how holding positions within the civil religious ceremonials, the indigenous communities are
expected to make contributions that sometimes take over twenty years o f their work to pay the debt
incurred for the celebration.
42. 22
Dance in the Highlands
No document has been found to validate this account although community
members petitioned it to the king of Spain to allow for the continuation of local dances on
July 7th, 1590 (Gabany-Guerrero 1999:198).
The document stated that the community was already an important center for
religious celebrations, which included elaborate and extensive dancing.
Complains had been raised (it does not say by whom) about the “pagan” nature of
the celebrations, but the result of a petition from the community to continue these
traditions was to uphold their right to practice “ancient customs” (Gabany-
Guerrero 1999:198).
Moheno writes about a celebration which “included notorious animal dancing” by
men wearing the skins of wolves, snakes, lions, oxen, eagles, and cats (Moheno 1958:53).
Some of the conversations I held with community members also suggested that “our
ancestors used to wear masks to venerate the harvesting season” (Juan Aguilar Personal
Communication 2013). Masks work by concealing or modifying those signs of identity
which conventionally display the actor, and by presenting new values that, again
conventionally, represent the transformed person or an entirely new identity (Pollock
1995:584). Brandes (1979:37) noticed that “masked dancers in Tzintzuntzan are animal
like and nonhuman, as much in the senseless sounds they make as in their other
behavior.” Despite the bundle of terms on the doer of all that doing: agent, actor, person,
self, individual, and subject (Ortner 1984:143), there is an obvious role reversal in the
dances (Brandes 1979:49).
According to Canclini (1985:24) “the main Purhepecha celebrations that use
masks today correspond to dances of Moros y Cristianos, dances of devils, dances of
little blacks, little old man, ranchers, hermits, maringuillas, and curpites.” Rocio
Prospero (2000) mentions that “the execution of dances varies according to the
43. 23
geographical location where the dance of the Little Old Man is the most popular in
highland communities like Charapan, Cocucho, Ocumicho, San Felipe de los Herreros,
Ahuiran, Paracho, Cheran, Sevina, Pichataro, Aranza, Tanaco (Prospero Maldonado
2000:33). Prospero Maldonado (2000:33) further adds that “dances of Moors and
Christians, Little Blacks, Soldiers, and Nativities are frequent among the Zacapu marshes
and the glen road to the eleven towns communities with the Patzcuaro Lake region
having their own variant of all the previously mentioned dances” (Prospero Maldonado
2000:33). Brody Esser (1984) also researched various Purhepecha dances making
emphasis on the Purhepecha highlands and using masks as her frame of reference. Brody
Esser (1984:21) makes note that “there are three variations of masks for the dances
during winter time that could be summarizes as follows:
The little Old Man, the Little Blacks, and those for Nativities. Each mask has an
opposite counterpart denoting oppositions such as restriction-abundant, serious-
eccentric, old-young, black-white, masculine-feminine, and rural-urban. Since
many of these oppositions refer to moral qualities such as good-evil, responsible-
careless, etc., the mask characterization enters yet another group that represents
the “refined and dignifying” versus “grotesque and ridicule” (Brody Esser
1984:21).
Lastly, Rocio Prospero (2000) makes note of some other dances of important
characteristics in San Juan Nuevo to be the following:
La larga lista de danzas y bailes incluidas como las de pindekuas (costumbres)
incluyen: danza del Vaquero, danza de Moros y Cristianos (incluyendo todos sus
personajes), los Chichimecas, los Tsimani-uarari (bailadores de dos en dos), los
Pastores y Viejitos (t'are uararicha), la danza de las Mangas, la danza del Negrito,
las kanakuas (coronas), el baile del Corpus con los oficios y las Palmeras, se baila
ademas en cada fiesta de los Barrios, en la fiesta de la Asuncion, en la "lavada de
la ropa de la Virgen" en la fiesta patronal de San Juan y el 14 de Septiembre en la
fiesta del Senor de los Milagros [The long list of dances which include local
traditions are: the dance of the cowboy, the dance of the Moors and Christians
(including all the characters), the Chichimeca dance, the Tsimani-uarari (pair of
two) dance, the Pastors and Little Old Men (t ’are uararicha) dance, the dance of
the Mangas, the dance of the Little Blacks, the Kanakuas (crown) dance, the
44. 24
dances during the Corpus with all the labor skills and the Palmeras dance, people
dance every time their barrio has a fiesta, like the fiesta to our lady of
Assumption, the washing of the Virgin’s clothes, the dance during the patron saint
of San Juan and the 14 of September during the fiesta of the Lord of the Miracles]
(Prospero Maldonado 2000:35).
The Curpite dance as a metaphor for identity calls for a collective type of
celebration as any other cultural gathering does including the United States Fourth of July
declaration of independence.
The metaphor of independence is retained as real, though often in its celebration it
has been submerged in the metaphor of nationhood. The nation, in its turn, has
come to represent not Independence, but a collectivity of equal individuals
(Dolgin 1977:355).
Dance, as one of these cultural forms, is anthropologically relevant for the study
of structure, social relations, ritual, and philosophy (Kaeppler 1978:32). For the
indigenous communities, calls to the supernatural were facilitated by vigorous movement
of the body rather than contemplative immobility (Houston 2006:144). Anthropology
enables us to determine tendencies that are common to all mankind and tendencies
belonging to specific human societies (Boas 1940:261).
Purhepecha music is already changing the way the world sees indigenous cultures.
The Pirekua has traditionally been transmitted orally from generation to generation,
maintaining its currency as a living expression, marker of identity and means of artistic
communication for more than a hundred thousand Purhepecha people (UNESCO 2010).
Fernando Nava (1999) also indicates how Pirekua songs express oral narratives about
life, tradition, and struggles experienced by the Purhepecha indigenous communities8. As
Presenting the selected music played during the Curpite dance would be a topic on its own. This thesis
refers to the dance and not the music as my focus o f analysis. For a quick overview about the music played
during the Curpite dance, the reader can review Prospero Maldonado (2000). For ethnographic importance
45. 25
a way to continue exposing Purhepecha teaching values, I considered the Curpite dance
in alignment to the world’s cultural heritage.
about the music played during dances in other areas o f Michoacan, the reader can refer to Fernando Nava
(1999) book El campo semdntico del sonido musicalp'urhepecha.
46. 26
CHAPTER 3
DATA COLLECTION
Cultural or Social Anthropology remains the only social science that relies on
fieldwork based on participant observation as its central method (Sluka 2012:2). I
investigated and gathered preliminary background information about the Curpite dance
before conducting fieldwork in Michoacan. I participated during Purhepecha
transnational museums and festivals, reviewed on-line videos and websites, and read
bibliographic journals and articles about the Purhepecha for approximately two years. I
then used a visual ethnography that incorporated participant observation to conduct
fieldwork in the community of San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro in the state of
Michoacan, Mexico (Figure 10).
Michoacan
Mexico1
0 S an Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro
— Street
• Locations
►TwoWayRoad
►DirtRoad
Road Opening
Sidewalk
Figure 10. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro map.
47. 27
Preliminary Findings
I had my first impression of the Curpite dance after I spoke to some performers
during the museum reception “Cultural Treasures of Mexico: the Purhepecha of
Parangaricutiro” held at Cal State Fullerton in 2011.1collaborated with the mounting of
this museum exhibit and for the first time I watch the Curpite dance. A group of dancers
invited me to attend future diaspora Curpite dances in the city of Paso Robles California.
I made two visits to see these performances where I noticed the basic background
choreography about the Curpite dance. I recorded these events I attended in Paso Robles
one in June 2011 and another in August 2012.
I wanted to find out more about this transnational experience where participation
was inclusive to anyone willing to enjoy Purhepecha dance and tradition. I held casual
conversations with some of the performers, community leader organizers, food vendors,
and amateur filmographers who attended Curpite dance events. As this became a topic of
interest, I also went to the Festival Purhepecha Michoacano held in the city of Bell
Gardens California where Curpite dancers have performed since 2007 (Appendix A).
I followed up on the conversations I held with these diaspora groups during the
cultural events by searching for general concepts via Internet. I selected video websites
including YouTube.com to watch Curpite dances held in the United States and Mexico. I
noticed most videos contained the competing plot of two master dancers against each
other who represented each a different group.
The on-line picture gallery o f Curpite dancers during the Festival Purhepecha Michoacano can be
reviewed at: http://festivalpurepechausa.org/ffameset.php7urH/Bienvenida.html (last accessed on
December 16,2014).
48. 28
I read about the choreographic background to understand more about the roles of
the participants. I became familiar with Rocio Prospero Maldonado (2000) Herencia
Tradicional de San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro: Los Kurpiticha where the author
describes the competition, music, characters, and overall involvement of people in San
Juan Nuevo to participate in the Curpite dance. I read the basic history of the town in
Carlos Moheno (1985) Las Historias y los Hombres de San Juan where he used historical
documents to track the unification of and ancient geography of the town. I found many
more celebrations within the calendar year and found excellent pictures in Zavala Alfaro
(1974) Agonia y Extasis de un Pueblo where I read about the general background
information about San Juan Nuevo and the Curpite dance in particular to be a highly
awaited tradition every year for the community members10.
Fieldwork in San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro
In addition to the participation I held during museum exhibits, cultural festivals,
on-line observations, and bibliographic records about Michoacan and the Curpite dance, I
also conducted fieldwork in Mexico living in the community of San Juan Nuevo for
approximately one month. I recorded with a video camera seventeen unstructured
interviews, twenty hours of the Curpite dance celebration, took approximately 300
pictures, and wrote ten pages of fieldwork notes from January 1 to January 26 of 2013.
Mr. Vicente Contreras suggested these three books within the first days o f conducting my fieldwork in
San Juan Nuevo. Stage (2003:99) mentions that “if a respondent refers to historical texts recommended to
the interviewer or local lore on the topic being explored there is a responsibility to consider such
information and seek to understand the respondent's experience in relation to or in light o f those referenced
events.” I also used these three books as referential sources during fieldwork as Mr. Contreras kindly let me
borrowed his copies when I visited him for an interview in San Juan Nuevo.
49. 29
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
I received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) committee
members from California State University Fullerton (CSUF) with case number HSR-13-
0130 on 03-20-13 to conduct my fieldwork. I read the participants a written statement
that provided their full protection as it appears in the Code of Ethics of the American
Anthropological Association (1998) and the CSUF office of Grants and Contracts
Assurance No. FWA 00015384 (2008) (Appendix B).
Video Recordings
During this fieldwork, I also recorded with a video camera real time events during
the Curpite dance four day celebration from January 6 to January 9 and collected
unstructured interviews related to the Curpite dance competition. I selected an informant
whose influence in the community demonstrated “judgment sampling” (Johnson
1990:28). Judgment sampling refers to the preference of finding the most knowledgeable
member in the community that could lead the researcher to potential participants. I
selected this community member as per suggestion of previous ethnographers conducting
fieldwork in the same region. This informant was very familiar with academic research
and some members in the community to be considered as participants. Judgment
sampling allowed me to find a cultural broker in the community in order to minimize the
time spend in the fieldwork recruiting participants.
For instance, my informant introduced me to the staff in the presidential building
of San Juan Nuevo. I asked these authorities for their permission to allow me videotape
events taking place on the streets during the Curpite dance festivities. In particular, I met
with Dr. Angelica Remigia Gonzalez Guerrero who oversees the administrative duty as
50. 30
the Chair of Education, Culture and Tourism. I told Dr. Remigia Gonzalez the purpose of
my investigation and showed her copies of IRB and consent forms in both English and
Spanish. Dr. Gonzalez made a file of the paperwork I presented to her and kindly issued
me a media coverage badge to conduct open recordings in the streets. Most important,
this badge allowed me to enter the dancing stage on January 8thto record the matching
performances between the two competing Curpite dancing groups (Appendix C).
I also recorded a series of activities related to the four day Curpite dance
competition and celebration occurring in the following order:
1) The entering of the musical orchestras or entrada de las bandas de Musica on
January 6.
2) The mass and the entering of the “Ugglies” or la misa y la entrada de los
Curpites Feos on January 7.
3) The annual Curpite dance competition of January 8,2013
4) The farewell of the orchestras and the remaining carryings to the girlfriends or
la despedida de las bandas de musica y las ultimas llevadas a las novias on
January 9.
Conversations with Participants
Based on the knowledge and guided suggestion of my informant, I furthermore
recruited a total of twelve males aged 32 to 82 years old and five females aged 18 to 60
years old. Participants had various occupational backgrounds including employment
within the local government, independent business owners, college students, dance
professors, community advocates, and advisory council members. I considered
participants to have different backgrounds in order to obtain a diverse range of answers.
The interviews for the study were open-ended and structured only to the extent of being
guided by a general set of topics (Erickson 2007).
51. Conversations were based on the common understanding . . . of explicit purpose,
avoidance of repetition, balanced turn taking, use of abbreviation, occurrence of pauses,
expressed interest, and curious ignorance by both parties (Stage 2003:99). I used a grand
tour questioning to collect information based on Spradely’s (1979) The Ethnographic
Interview book. The method consisted on participants giving answers to general questions
that I later followed up as conversational patters. The answers opened the next sets of
questions creating a snow ball effect. I asked questions about the Curpite dance as
observed in the following examples.
What kind of changes have you noticed in the Curpite dance?
What is the most representative component of the Curpite dance?
What is the origin of the Curpite dance?
Can you tell when somebody will be a good Curpite dancer?
How do Curpite dancers win competition?
Who participates in the Curpite dance?
What are some of the ornamentations worn by the Curpite dancers?
Please mention the names that you can remember of be the best Curpite dancers
in town.
I gathered most interview information on a one to one basis within time frames
ranging from fifteen minutes to one hour per interview. I only conducted one group
interview lasting thirty five minutes with five participants providing small individual
interview segments no longer than ten minutes each.
Spradley’s grand tour questioning also served as the basis to gather additional
visual data in the following way. I ask the participants to allow me to take their picture
after the interviewing process. I later returned those pictures and paid particular attention
to the feedback on the photographs. My original intention was to return with the pictures
to meet again with participants in the attempt to clarify any information. The pictures,
52. 32
however, demonstrated a local visual representation on symbolic markers to be discussed
later in this thesis (see Discussion Chapter in this thesis).
Limitations and Validity
My ability to speak Spanish resulted in substantial data collection since Spanish
was also the main language spoken by the participants. I understood some of the
colloquial use of language made in reference to jokes, sports, TV shows, food products,
and geographical locations. I paid particular attention when the participants referred to
some of these topics when they explained the Curpite dance to me.11Although I
approached the participants in a very casual and comfortable way, there were instances
when they declined to collaborate mistrusting the purpose of the study. I attempted to
create rapport by discouraging my own intentions to collect data. This was difficult due
to the limited amount of time I had to collect data within the time frame January 1 to
January 26.
I sometimes scheduled visits to meet up with potential participants with no
particular results of getting an interview. I held a positive view that eventually
participants would change their mind and collaborate with the study. I sometimes
received extensive amounts of information for visits I did not plan in advance. For some
reason participants knew about this study perhaps by word of the mouth. My presence
was made obvious by activities such as setting up my video camera to take wide shoots of
the town. Once the community was used to see me around in the streets, it took less time
*1 The Mexican channel Televisa use to run a popular show every Sunday called “Siempre en Domingo”.
This TV show was during the 80’s and 90’s in channel 2 hosted by Raul Velazco. It was explained to me
by a community teacher named Manuela Velazquez Guerrero that Curpite dancers participated once in this
show. The host made a comment on the fine quality aprons and detailed embroidery patterns making a
comparison to the fashion clothing produced in Paris, France. This show was and may still be the most
popular remembered TV program in Mexico.
53. 33
to record random rather than specific participant interviews. The community perhaps
observed my activities more than I recorded information about them.
I set the parameters of investigation by enclosing but no limiting the wording of
the answers provided by participants based on my questions. In their book
Anthropological Research: The Structure o fInquire, Pelto and Pelto (1970) proposed the
following research questions as an example about variables within questions:
How can we find true and useful information about a particular domain of
phenomena in our universe? How can we personally investigate some domain of
phenomena in order to obtain true and useful information? How can we know,
with some assurance what other persons (researchers) mean when they assert
propositions about information and how can we judge whether to believe them?
(Pelto and Pelto 1970).
In order to generate my questions, I used the background information I had
already gathered about the Curpite dance and the community of San Juan Nuevo. The
study related to very general terms I found in previous observations, readings, and
notions I held about the Curpite dance. I did not ask the questions in any particular order
and not every participant received all the questions. The participants were very different
in terms of gender, affiliation, and occupation in the community of San Juan Nuevo.
Computer Software, Data Storage, and Closing Remarks
Upon my return from the fieldwork, I transferred all video recordings, pictures,
and notes to a password protected computer located in the Cultural Anthropology
Ethnographic Laboratory Room 422A at California State University, Fullerton. I created
an excel document to keep track on the participants’ information including their name,
gender, aggrupation, affiliation, length of interview, and collection date. I also uploaded
this document along with the interviews to an on-line qualitative computer program
54. 34
called DedooseO. This on-line software facilitated my research with the tracking of
patterns and word frequencies
I used general questions to open conversations about this dance practice in both
diaspora cultural events in the United States and community organized festivities in
Mexico. For approximately two years, I gained preliminary background information
about Michoacan in general and the Curpite dance in particular. I then used a visual
ethnography that incorporated participant observation to record the Curpite dance
through fieldwork in San Juan Nuevo. I analyzed the data I collected using the book The
Logic o fPractice by Pierre Bourdieu (1990). This theoretical approach allowed me to be
a participant and observer turning the academic practice into practical knowledge. In
other words, the theoretical considerations involving this study relied on the interaction
between community issues and academic concerns (see Chapter Five results section of
this thesis).
55. 35
CHAPTER 4
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE DANCE
Renato Rosaldo (2013) pointed out during the 2013 American Anthropological
Association meeting held in Chicago how “theory is to be found in the details of
participant observation” (Renato Rosaldo in conference 2013). The theoretical framework
for the purposes of this thesis progressed through the process of participant observation
by recording with a video camera the Curpite dance competition. I describe the Curpite
dance competition using what William Kentridge (2012) calls “utopian perfectibility”
where reversing the order of events captures the first impulse of action. For instance,
William Kentridge (2012) explains how “filming events such as tearing a piece of paper,
scattering ajar of pencils across a room and throwing a bucket of paint over a wall may
recall a pristine world if watching the film in its reverse order where the piece of paper
repairs itself coming back to the hands, the pencils are caught coming from all comers of
the room, and the paint enters the bucket without a single drop being spilled on the
floor.”12
In this chapter, I discuss the theoretical considerations for this manuscript using
the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1990) on the Curpite dance as a field of practice where
structuring the mediation between individuals and groups defines identity. In the
12
William Kentridge (2012) A Natural History o f the Studio held at Tel Aviv University.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmljuXIaCsg last accessed 11/5/2014).
56. 36
following pages, I provide a detail description about the events that took place in San
Juan Nuevo from January 6-9 as examples of habitus. The principle of this construction
is the system of structured, structuring dispositions which is constituted in practice and is
always oriented towards practical functions (Bourdieu 1990:52). In this chapter, I write
about the Curpite dance as an interconnected system of social relations where theory and
practice revolve around organization, courtship, reciprocity, competition, performance,
and music. I then mentioned how the first instance in time related to the Curpite dance
relates to sound when dancers wear bells.
Social Relations
Organization
The Curpite dance organization begins at least three months in advance as it was
explained to me by Mr. Andres Echavarria Don Diego “el PaChen,” a former Curpite
dancer and organizer. The organizers start finding the best dancers before the competition
of January 8th. This gives them the ability to start the selection by attending to the Curpite
dance practices that are held at various locations including backyards, garages, salons,
local gyms, etc. Once the organizers have an eye on a particular dancer, they ask to go
one-to-one with another dancer to start making a selection process. The process of
elimination is called topes or duels and defines those who will be representing their group
at the competition The dancers improve their resistance and coordination through
constant practice, dedication, and discipline making the selection process very
challenging for the organizers.
The organizers are single non-dancing males taking on the leadership roles to
mediate the Curpite dance celebration and competition. They are called encabezados or
57. 37
“those to the front” and their responsibility includes balancing the costs for the four day
celebration. For instance, they have to find volunteer participants to host dinners during
the four day celebration, hire the orchestra to play the music, buy fireworks, arrange a
special permission with the authorities for the ceremonial, and mediate with the opposite
encabezado group the terms and conditions of the competition. They also have the special
obligation to break any fight if friction arises during the celebration, pay additional costs
if there is a shortage of money, map out the routes when bringing dancers over to visit
girlfriends, relatives, local businesses, and other areas in town. Last, the encabezados
must purchase a decorated sweater for their master dancer Tarepeti representing their
group. Since the costs and duties during the Curpite celebration may quickly add up,
there are three types of encabezados that split their roles in the following way.
Encabezado de a parejo (all equal) take the responsibility to hire the orchestra,
make proper arrangements with the local authorities, and come up with additional money
in the event that there is not enough to cover all expenses. They are at the center of
organizing the entire event and keeping track of the money they receive and spend. As
previously mentioned, they must find those who can provide with the meals to be given
during the four-day celebration. These meals include four lunches, and four dinners, with
the possibilities to find sometimes someone willing to give a late dinner before everyone
calls the day. The main role of the encabezado de a parejo is to organize everybody
including the Curpite dancers for the day of the competition.
Encabezado por mitad (only half). The costs for the four-day celebration during
the Curpite competition are added up. The total is split among the entire group of
encabezado (por mitad, de a parejo, de a brinco). Normally, the encabezado por mitad
58. 38
pays approximately a little bit more than half of what the encabezado de a parejo pays. If
a total of eight encabezado has been secured and the total costs add up to $10,000MX
pesos, then, each encabezado de a parejo pays approximately $1,200MX while the
encabezado por mitad may pay approximately $800MX or one third of the total cost to
contribute with the total costs. The money is used to pay the hiring of the orchestra and
the soft drinks the musicians drink while playing throughout the town, the fireworks, and
the pictures taken during the competition.
Encabezado de a brinco (those whojump in only).Encabezado de a brinco
normally gives less money than the rest of the other encabezado. He has little rights when
it comes to the carryings. As a matter of fact, he is required to pay at the front before he
intends to bring the Curpites over for a carrying at any location usually the house of a
sweetheart. The encabezado de a brinco joins the parades throughout the town waiting
for an opportunity. This means that if one of the carryings of the other encabezado
happens to be in a very close distance from where encabezado de a brinco would like to
bring the carrying, then he would have to give the encabezado de a parejo at least
$300MX for all the Curpites to make the additional stop and meet his request.
Courtship
The girls also get involved in advance and participate within the celebration.
Single females make aprons in exchange for candies that Curpite dancers will bring to
them during carryings from January 6-8. The female elaboration of an apron symbolizes
the bonding between the couple as this announces their dating status in the community
(son novios). Making an apron takes about three to four months and involves at least four
hours of labor per day. The time depends on how much help the girls receive from their
59. 39
female family members, relatives or other girlfriends. Everyone helps with the
expectation to receive part of the candies that the dancers had agreed to bring to their
sweethearts.
Las muchachas duran dias con los dulces y van las tias o las amigas a decir “y te
trajeron los Curpites, dame un dulce” y la otra para presumir que le llevaron
muchos dulces pues las invita a pasar y a ver los dulces para darles [The candies
last a long time so many acquaintances of the girl who received candies would
visit her and ask “did the Curpites show up?, give us some candy!,” the young girl
would invite her visits to come inside her house so they can see her candies and
give them some] (Celia Mincitar Pulido, in conversation with the author January
24, 2013).
The aprons with the most elaborated decorations and patterns according to their
own standards are given to the best dancers to wear on the day of the competition. The
encabezado choose amongst the most distinguished aprons given to the dancers even if
those receiving aprons from their girlfriends are not selected to dance.
Era una satisfaction de un muchacho que digiera el delantal que me regalo mi
novia lo van a usar para el Tarepeti o la Maria. Entonces pues la muchacha
tambien se sentia satisfecha cuando miraba su delantal que lo traia el Tarepeti o la
Maria arriba en la competencia [It was a young dancer’s satisfaction to know that
his apron received by his girlfriend got selected to be worn by the Tarepeti or
Maria. Thus, the Young man’s girlfriend would also feel satisfied to see on the
day of the competition that the Tarepeti or Maria would be wearing the apron she
made] (Miguel Pantaleon, San Juan Nuevo business owner, in discussion with the
author, January 22, 2013).
Although females do not dance as Curpites during the competition of San Juan
Nuevo, two male dancers called Maringuillas perform by dancing and wearing a female
traditional dress. In her magnificent replica of indigenous dress, the Maringuilla
personifies the dignity and strength of the Purhepecha woman of status (Bishop
2009:398). The complete Tarascan woman’s dress consists of petticoat, blouse, apron,
rebozo or shawl, and a number of woven belts orfajas (Beals 1946:40 my italics). The
60. 40
Maringuttlas from the two opposite groups perform by displaying/ty'ay with both hands
up in the air with extreme delicacy and female presumption (Felipe Contreras: personal
communication 2013).
A group of young non-married females called Palmeras13 commit to make the
two male dancer Maringuillas two aprons to wear for the competition. The Palmeras buy
the highest quality products and if they happened to be dating one of the dancers, their
contribution doubles in cost but also receive twice the amount of candies (Prospero
Maldonado 2000:62).
The Curpiteada
Reciprocity
Besides the social relations previously mentioned, there are other instances of
reciprocity within the Curpiteada that deserve to be mentioned. For instance, the
Maringuillas also receive two elaborated blouses to wear along their aprons from one of
the most prestigious civil-religious burden groups or cargos in San Juan Nuevo named
cargueros del nihito de los viejitos or the burden of the Holy Child of the little old Men.
The winning Curpite dancers meet with the members holding this cargo the day after the
competition to reciprocate with them for making the Maringuillas ’two blouses.
13 The Palmeras hold one o f the most expensive civil-religious ceremonial positions in the community
attending the chores of the Chapel of the Hospital for one year (Bishop 1977). The Palmeras are elected by
the Mayordomo and Prioste o f the community Chapel o f the Hospital. Brody Esser (1984) documented that
Curpites feos (ugglies) appear on December 26thwhen the Chapel o f the Hospital receives the new
mayordomo and Prioste and consequently the new Palmeras. Bishop (1977) offers a literal translation of
Prioste as “Provost” or “Steward o f an order.” In some Tarascan towns this officer is superior to the
“Kenji,” running either the Hospital of the entire, albeit in some cases attenuated, hierarchy o f cargos
(Bishop 1977). The young Palmeras are nonmarried volunteers who help with the maintenance o f the
Chapel by changing the flowers offered to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception and bringing water
from a nearby spring location called Patzingo. The water is used to wash the clothes o f the virgin of the
Hospital to celebrate the festivity Tsimani Uarari which commemorates the story of the virgin appearing
near a water spring.
61. 41
The Curpite dancers wait outside the temple of the Lord of the Miracles on
January 9th at 8am in order to escort the viejitos cargo as they must relocate the Holy
Child to the new house of the person holding the burden. The MaringuUla carries the
image of the Holy Child along with the rest of the Curpite dancers and escorts the
cargueros in companion with the rest of the dancers. Everyone walks in procession to the
house of the new member holding the cargo followed by an orchestra. The Holy Child
will stay at his new location for one year where again he will be transferred by the
winning Curpite group the day after the competition.
El ganador aqui en el pueblo es el que lleva al ninito al otro dia. La MaringuUla
agarraba al ninito, pasa el Tarepeti y se iban ya todos los Curpites ya con musica
suavecita llevando al ninito [The winner in the town is the one that escorts the
baby Jesus the next day. The MaringuUla grabs the little baby, the Tarepeti joins
her and they both along with the Curpites escort the little figure with soft music]
(Miguel Pantaleon, San Juan Nuevo business owner, in discussion with the
author, January 22, 2013).
Later during midday of January 9, another mass is given to attend the civil-
religious cargo group called cargueros del ninito de las pastorcitas or “Holy Child of the
Little Pastors.” The Curpite group losing the competition also wins by receiving the
honor of escorting this other Holy Child. The saint is similar but wears a different type of
clothing made of red fabric. The people holding this cargo are also responsible to transfer
their Holy Child to the house of the person holding the burden. Again, the Curpite
dancers reciprocate by transferring both of these Holy Children to their new location the
day after the competition.
Competition
The Curpite dance competition of January 8 becomes the center of reunion for
diaspora returning migrants, neighboring visitors, and local community members with an
