THE MOORS REVISITED

In several post I have described the dance of the Moors and provided my attempts to understand the importance of this dance. I now have a better handle on the dance and attempt to clarify my earlier interpretations here.

The first thing to know is that Santiago is the Patron saint of Spain and of Mexico. Santiago (or Santo Diego), Saint James in English, was one of the original apostles. Apparently he preached in Spain before returning to die in Jerusalem. His bones, however, were returned to Spain but not until about 800 AD and the famous pilgrimage route ends at the church built over his remains. The church was built in the early 800s and for 1000 years people have been walking this pilgrimage route. The second thing to know is that for several centuries the Moors, or Muslims, ruled Spain as well as parts of northern Africa. The Christians began to retake Spain around 800BC but did not complete this task until about 1490 with the capture of Granda, one of the most beautiful spots in the world, shortly before the discovery of Mexico. In the early days of the battle to drive out the Muslims a legend was developed that appears to have little foundation but it goes as follows. After being defeated by the Moors the Christian troops were regrouping when their leader had a dream in which a knight on a white horse with a sword in his hand appeared telling him that the Christians would be victorious. With this encouragement the troops returned to the field and were indeed victorious. The story claims that the knight in this vision was Saint James and he is now depicted on a horse with sword in hand and often with dying Moors at his feet. He became known as Santiago Matamoros, which in English means Saint James the Moor killer. You can find many images of Santiago in churches throughout Mexico.

So the Moors were important to the legend of Santiago, the patron saint of Mexico and for many years a dance depicting the battle between Christians and Moors was performed. As said in earlier posts this battle was important in a country were Christians were sent to convert “heathens” much as they had done with the Muslims. So the dance depicts the power of the Christian establishment and the senselessness of resisting. The most common dance today is the "half conquest", a representation of the conversion of Muslims to Christianity not the battle fought by Santiago. However, we do know that Muslims, Protestants and Jews did resist the Spaniards and it was for this reason that the Spanish Inquisition was established.

Poor resolution in photo but here we see the Moor dancing for the Virgin.

This is the only time I have seen female Moors.

To more fully understand this one needs an outline of the full dance. Although the dance has varied over the country some common elements are: Christian and Muslin troops approach each other, there is a period of negotiation between the two sides, as this fails the troops engage in combat and the tragic defeat of the Muslims follows. This tragedy is then made right by the Muslims being uplifted by their conversion to Christianity. The "half conquest" only depicts this last half - eliminating the tragedy and showing the faithfulness of the indigenous population to Christ and church.

These were Moors with a difference. Shot in Sevina.

The Moors almost always have beautiful capes with religious imagery on the back.

One wonders if the dancers or organizers continue to see these dances as being in part about Muslims or against Islam. I love to attend these dances for the beauty of some of the costumes but it is clear that you could not perform this in a multicultural society. The Muslim community would be outraged: they have not been assimilated to Christianity. The good news is that many Christian churches have begun to remove images of Santiago Matamoros, now realizing it is an insult to Islam. Others have suggested that in America the name be changed to Santiago Mataindios.

TRADITIONAL DANCE OF AJUNO, MEXICO

Another day, another chase. My wife and I are interested in the traditional dances of Mexico so are constantly on the watch for information about dances. I recently saw that there was a dance to be performed in Ajuno but not knowing just what time of day it might occur it is always a gamble. We headed out around 2:00 pm and upon arrival determined that something was up: a small midway for children (mostly consisting of trampolines and a couple of traditional rides) was in operation, a basketball tournament was in progress and lots of people were around. However, there was already lots of garbage and confetti on the ground – maybe we had missed it. We learned that it was to happen shortly. Almost two hours later the dancers appeared and watched the basketball game until there was much church bell ringing and cujetes (these are a noisy firework that is shot high into the air where it explodes). Sure enough a small procession was forming: four women in front with church banners, four people carrying the local image of the Virgin ( small, beautiful image with what looked like long human hair - this probably is human hair as women will offer their hair to the virgin as a type of exvoto), a band, 20 dancers, a small number of pilgrims and then another band for good luck. The processions went to the first corner where the Virgin was set down at a dusty and rocky intersection and the dancers gathered in front of her and the priest.

This is a small town so the costumes were not elaborate but clearly it was the dance of the Moors (Moros): They wore hats covered with flowers which rose to a soft peak, large red capes adorned with crosses, the name of the virgin and mirrors. Their leggings were pinned to jeans and they had cowboy boots with spurs attached. There was also the traditional veil that almost entirely covered the face. These veils had images of Guadalupe on them or images of Juan Diego kneeling before Guadalupe. Two young men accompanying the Virgin carried large torches and many of the audience held long candles. The men in the audience had hats in hand.

The Virgin leaves the church and begins the procession through town.

The dance steps looked familiar but I could see no pattern and am not aware of the significance of the steps. The dance of the Moors is traditionally performed for the patron saint of the town, as was the case today, or it may be done to mark the defeat of the Moors by the Christians in which case the dancers tend to wear masks and there are clearly Moors to be defeated. The dance for the patron saint is probably built on a very old dance with religious elements attached after the Spanish conquest. I believe this dance is a depiction of the conversion of the Moors to Christianity and by implication, the indigenous peoples of Mexico as well. After about ten minutes of the dancers stepping systematically and clicking their heels, they all bowed before the Virgin. According to tradition, after the procession they group must at least go into the church, but not necessarily attend a mass.

Here we can see the Virgin watching the dance of the Moors.

The group then raised the Virgin and walked through the streets were more people were waiting and the dance was repeated.

Here we are on the other side of town and the procession stops to watch the dance of the Viejitos.