ABSTRACT
Dance is one of the most visible national symbols of Greater Mexico and Mexican identity or Mexicanidad in all of its ethnic diversity and transnational complexity. No other representation of the Mexican nation approaches its power of signification. The southern borderlands of the greater Meshico extended past Guatemala and into Nicaragua. The Spanish Conquest, with all of its cultural, spiritual, and political consequences, is a ubiquitous theme of danza or sacred and ritual dance across this entire cultural region. Baile refers to the many traditions of social dance that celebrate and animate the everyday lives of people. The choreographic narrative and "hidden transcript" of the Matachines is complex, representing spiritual encounters and the coming of Christianity. Ethnographers live and work in communities in which Indigenous, colonial, and postcolonial traditions coincide. Music and dance from the deep past remind the people of their Indo-Hispano roots, their antiguo mestizaje or old mestizo tradition.
