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The Age-Old Tradition of Mexico's Popular Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Donald H. Frischmann
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Extract

Mexico's popular theatre is a multi-faceted ancient art whose roots extend deep into pre-Hispanic cultures, as well as into the popular dramatic tradition of Spain. Today, nearly five centuries after the arrival of the Spaniards, popular theatre continues to be a phenomenon both of urban and rural Mexico, reflecting the rich gamut of cultural and historical characteristics found throughout this vast geographic and ethnic patchwork. While a wide range of distinctive qualities exist across the broad spectrum of popular theatre, formal differences give way – through careful observation and analysis – to the perception of an underlying unity of purpose which supports all popular theatre: addressing the spiritual and material needs of the common people.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Summer 1989 , pp. 111 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1989

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References

Notes

1. Canclini, Nèstor Garcia, Arte Popular y Sociedad en Amèrica Latina (Mexico City: Grijalbo, 1977), 74–5.Google Scholar

2. Personal interview, 07 1983.Google Scholar

3. GarciaCanclini, 10.Google Scholar

4. Acuña, Renè, El Teatro Popular en Hispanoamèrica: Una Bibliografìa Anotada (Mexico City: UNAM, 1979). 9.Google Scholar

5. Sten, María, Vida y Muerte del Teatro Nàhuatl (Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1982), 32–4.Google Scholar

6. Bricker, Victoria Reifler, The Indian Christ, the Indian King (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 180.Google Scholar

7. Turner, Victor, ‘The Anthropology of Performance’, On the Edge of the Bush: Anthropology as Experience (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985), 199.Google Scholar

8. Turner, Victor, ‘Are There Universals of Performance in Myth, Ritual, and Drama?’ Op. cit. 300–1.Google Scholar

9. My comments here partially result from my presence and participation in Yaqui Holy Week ceremonial theatre during the early 1980's at Old Pascua Pueblo, Tucson, Arizona.

10. My comments regarding Mayan theatre result from my field work carried out in Yucatàn from January 1986 to the present, for which I acknowledge the valuable assistance of Profs. Carlos Armando Dzul Ek, Carlos Villanueva Castillo, Rocìo Bates Morales, Lorenzo Moisès Dìaz Alcocer, and especially doña Maria Consuelo Pacheco Avilès.

11. Barre, Marie-Chantal, Ideologìas Indigenistas y Movimientos Indios (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1983), 123–31, 187–8.Google Scholar

12. Prof. Carlos Armando Dzul Ek, personal interviews, 1986–7.

13. Lanzilotti, Ignacio Merino, ‘La Tradición Fàrsica en Mèxico, Carpa y Revista Polìtica’, La Cabra III.27 (1980), p. 111.Google Scholar

14. Centro Libre de Experimentatiòn Teatral y Artística, ‘Anàlisis Autocrìtico (Primera Parte)’, El Chido 56 (1982), 7.Google Scholar

15. Lanzilotti, MerinoIV.Google Scholar

16. I express my thanks to the Texas Christian University Research Fund which made possible much of the field work necessary for this study.