by Cathlyn A. Harris
| Sections:
The Spaniards Pre-Hispanic Spectacle Early Evangelical Drama Works Cited |
Submitted 8 August, 1996
for the Historia del arte en México course with Prof. Francisco Santos at El Colegio de México, México D.F |
Cortés and his companions arrived at Ulúa on Holy Thursday, April 21, 1519, and landed on Good Friday. A solemn Mass was celebrated on Easter Sunday. The Spaniards told their beads kneeling before a cross they had erected. Every day, at the sound of a bell, they recited the Angelus at the foot of the cross. The natives looked on in astonishment; some of them asked why the Spaniards humbled themselves before those two pieces of wood. Then, at the invitations of Cortés, Fray Bartolomé de Olmedo explained the Christian doctrine to them . . .. (in Ricard, 17)This, the first Easter mass intoned in what would later become Nueva España, marked the beginning of a long religious interchange between the indigenous people of the New World and the Catholic friars of the Old, an interchange which would reflect the social and political priorities of both groups,as well as the conflicts created by their interaction. The friars, fulfilling part of the "emergent religo-secular political and mercantile goal of the [Spanish] state . . . to prepare the world for the imminent Second Coming of Christ" (Wynter, 16), began proselyting the "Indians" in anticipation of this event, adapting their conversionary techniques to--and from--the indigenous cultures of the area. They learned indigenous languages, they developed a form of "pictographic writing" to explain Christian doctrine (Keen, 108), and, perhaps their most successful conversionary idea, they began to organize religious dramas.
The Spanish missionaries found themselves in the midst of several different cultures whose religious practices were intimately and even inseparably connected to "religious drama," or more accurately, to "religious spectacle" (Taylor, 2), societies accustomed to "seeing" their religion enacted. Thus, the evangelical theater of the missionaries was not an original creation, but rather a restructuring of an already existing system of visual theological indoctrination and its accompanying theatrical techniques. In his Historia eclesiástica indiana, Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta records: "Hacíales representar los misterios de nuestra santa fe, y las vidas de algunos santos en sus propias fiestas, porque mejor lo pudiesen percibir y retener en la memoria, según son gente de flaca capacidad y talento" (in Williams, 3). Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta's Historia illustrates that from its very conception, evangelical theater in Nueva Espana was a mixture of elements from both the peninsular and the indigenous Mexican cultures.
...algunas pinturas murales descubiertas en el gran centro de Teotihuacan, que muestran procesiones relgiosas en las que los sacerdotes marchan con atavíos, representativos de los diversos dioses, entonando himnos sagrados, como lo indicas las volutas floridas que salen de sus bocas. En las procesiones y ritos antiguos los sacerdotes e iniciados representan el papel de los dioses y hacían llegar al pueblo los poemas sagrados. --León-Portilla, Literaturas de Mesoámerica (in Partida, 15)
In her article entitled "Carácteres esenciales del arte antiguo
mexicano. Su sentido fundamental", Eulalia Guzmán delineates
the basic characteristics of pre-hispanic indigenous art, which include
accentuated rhythm, repitition, stylizacion, symbolism, and the magic or
religious sense of the artwork (Guzmán, 2). In relation to
theater or spectacle as a specific form of artistic representation, Argudín
adds these fundamental elements: "diálogos entre varios personajes
de origen divino con otros de caracter humano; divertimientos en los que
resalta la interpretación cómica, particularmente zoomorfísta;
y expresiones de la vida familiar y social anecdóticas e incluso
semihistóricas" (11-12).
In addition to mural paintings of religious ceremonies like the one mentioned above, the majority of our knowledge about the characteristics of pre-hispanic spectacle derives from the records of the first Europeans to encounter the New World. Yet, although the records of these explorers, conquistadors, and friars add to and enhance the muralistic depictions of religious rites, they are not without bias and misunderstandings, as the Europeans witnessed these spectacles through Occidental, and sometimes antagonistic, eyes (Ricard, 31). Nevertheless, these records are valuable descriptions of the aspects of pre-hispanic performance not encompassed by murals.
Fray Diego de Landa relates that:
. . . los indios tienen recreaciones muy donosas y principalmente farsantes que representan con mucho donaire; tanto, que de estos alquilan los españoles para que viendo los chistes de los españoles que pasan con sus mozas, maridos o ellos propios, sobre el buen o mal servir, lo representan después con tanto artificio como curiosidad.--Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (in Williams, 21)This account demonstrates that indigenous theater possessed elements of farse, comedy, and improvisation. Diego Duran adds another description of "pre-hispanic" performances:
Sacaban diferentes trajes y atavíos de mantos y plumas y caballeras y máscaras . . ., vistiéndose unas veces como águilas, otras, como soldados, otras como quastecos, otras como cazadores, otras veces como salvajes. Otro baile había de viejos, que con máscaras de viejos corcovados se bailaba, que no es poco gracioso de mucha risa . . . Había un baile y canto de truhanes en el cual introducían un bobo, que fingía entender al revés lo que su amo le mandaba, trastrocándole las palabras. Otras veces hacían estos unos bailes en las cuales se embijaban de negro; otras veces de blanco; otras de verde, emplúmandose la cabeza y los pies, llevando entre medias algunas mujeres, fingiéndose borrachas. Todo fingido, para dar placer y solaz a las ciudades, regocijándolas con mil género de juegos que los de los recogimientos inventaban de danzas y farsas y entremeses y cantares de mucho contento. (in Williams, 31)As this account demonstrates, one of the most important and visually impressive aspects of indigenous theater was "costuming." Costuming, as in modern times, allowed the actor(s) to "fingir" or "pretend" to be other persons or creatures, yet with an important difference: each article of costuming had a religious as well as a social significance. Costuming was adorned to "acercarse a los dioses" (Argudín, 19), to recieve the attributes of the animal or god the actor portrayed, or to signal "una posicion en la jerarquia social" (20).
Although the Europeans, and the Spanish missionaries in particular, left many such accounts of pre-hispanic spectacle, anthropologists point to the pre-hispanic ballet-drama Rabinal Achí as "la única del antiguo teatro amerindio que haya llegado hasta nosotros, sin que podamos descubrir en ella, sea en la forma, la mas mínima traza de una palabra, de una idea, de un hecho, de origen europeo. La pieza pertenece, por entero, a los tiempos prehispánicos" (George Raynaud, qtd. in Los Clasicos, 34). This dance/drama contains all of the elements of pre-hispanic spectacle: the dialogue, as well as the accompanying dance, is formal, repetitive, rhythmic, and most importantly, ritualistic, as the piece ends with the sacrifice of the principal character/actor (Monterde, xix-xxxi). The action of the "drama" is limited; the importance of the piece resides in the relationship between the rebellious guerrero and his "superiors"; and in his gradual acceptance of his honorable and necessary fate as a sacrificial victim. Recurrent throughout the work are repititions of phrases addressing or envoking the natural world: "Esto dice mí voz ante el cielo, ante la tierra" (Los clasicos, 38), "te la concedo, valiente, varón, como suprema señal de tu muerte, de tu fallecimiento, aquí bajo el cielo, sobre la tierra" (38), "El cielo, la tierra, estén contigo" (39). The guerrero also speaks of "doce águilas amarillas, doce jaguáres amarillos" (32), or costumed actors who later sacrifice him as he cries out "!El cielo, la tierra, estén con todos! !Oh águilas! !Oh jaguáres!" (41). Jerry Williams says of Rabinal Achí that: "Este teatro simbólico posee un significado trascendental en lo referente a la inmolación del Varón de los Queché: éste no sólo salva su propio honor sino también el honor colectivo del pueblo maya en un acto de patriotismo" (37).
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One should not be astonished either by the fact that the missionaries took all kinds of precautions to keep their plays from being diverted from their purpose and becoming the occasion of disorder or scandal. Their first precautions were of a practical order. Women were completely excluded from the stage. The dancers, actors, and singers were all men or youths. Other precautions were of a somewhat doctrinal nature, and these are the most interesting. In the Sacrificio de Isaac, for example, the episode of Agar is told in Nahuatl in such a way that it is impossible to learn that she had been Abraham's concubine and that her son Ishmael was Isaac's brother. The missionaries had had too much trouble in eradicating polygamy to give the natives an argument, however weak, for their ancient custom. Another striking example: the auto of the Destrucción de Jerusalén derives from a Valecian romance of St. Pierre Pascal, save only that the episode of the mothers who, pressed by hunger, devoured their children after seasoning them, has completely disappeared from the Mexican version, for [the representation of the episode] would have been singularly dangerous in a country where human sacrifice and ritualistic cannibalism were still recent. (Ricard, 201-202)
The evangelical theater created by the Spanish missionaries to convert
the native peoples of New Spain mixed the magical ritual performance space
and techniques of the indigenous peoples with Catholic doctrine in ways
which reflected their own biases toward both the culture of the Indians,
and their religious practices. As mentioned above, they edited Biblical
stories to prevent reviving old, "wicked," practices, and barred women
from performance space to "prevent scandal." Many of their theatrical
works criticized what they considered to be "typically Indian vices."
In La tentación de Cristo, presented in 1539 during the celebrations
of Corpus Christi in Tlaxcala, poked fun at the "drunkenness" of the Indians,
and portrayed an abortionist as an evil being (Ricard, 203). Another
work presented in the same festival, La predicación de san Francisco
a las aves, was especially impressive to its audience, as it ended
with the seeming "death" of several actors:
" . . . venían también los demonios y poníanlas [pecadoras] en el infierno. De esta manera fueron representados y reprendidos algunos vicios en este auto. El infierno tenía una puerta falsa por donde salieron los que estaban dentro; y salidos los que estan dentro pusiéronle fuego, al cual ardio tan espantósamente que parecio que nadie se había escapado, sino que los demonios y condenados todos ardían, y daban voces y gritos las ánimas y demonios; lo cual ponía mucha grima y espanto aún a los que sabían que nadie se quemaba . . .--Fray Toribio de Benavente (in Horcasitas, 79)This visually stunning effect, a seeming sacrifice of the lives of some of the actors, is reminiscent of the highly theatrical religous ceremonies of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. La caida de nuestros primeros padres, a lavish presentation of the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, also illustrated the indigenous influence on missionary theater:
Estaba tan bien adornada la morad de Adan y Eva, que bien parecía paraiso de la tierra, con diversos árboles, con frutas and flores, de ellas naturales, y de ellas contrahechas de pluma y oro; en los arboles mucha diversidad de aves . . . Había otros animales bien contrahechos, metidos dentro unos muchachos; estos andaban domesticos, y jugaban y burlaban con ellos Adan y Eva. --Fray Toribio de Motolinia (in Corbató, 10)Fray Toribio's description of La caida emphasizes the pre-hispanic elements of the work: he describes plants made of feathers and gold, traditional indigenous costuming materials; the animals are represented by small boys inside of animal costumes (much like the eagles and jaguars of Rabinal Achí); the animals joke and play with Adam and Eve, integrating elements of pre-hispanic comedic theater into the missionaries' performance.
As a conversionary tool, evangelical theater had mixed success. La caida de Adán y Eva resulted in "el bautismo de grandes masas de indios" (Argudín, 28), but baptism alone did not ensure true conversion nor understanding of Catholicism. Even in "sacred spaces" such as churches, the Indians continued to practice some of their old religious rites: "Jourdanet, the translator and commentator of Sahagún, saw Indians at Guadalupe, 'dressed in their ancient style, form a circle, bound together by ropes of flowers, dance in the very middle of the church dedicated to the miraculous Virgin, while they hummed a monotonous tune which doubtless reminded them of their past'" (Ricard, 187). Religious spaces and services became confused with theatrical spaces, as in pre-hispanic times when temples were centers of religious worship and religious spectacle: "La misa es 'acompañada por escenas de teatro, aunque las del interior del templo inspiren devoción con sus palabras, y las del exterior estén dispuestas con el objeto principal de recrear, por lo cual a veces degeneral en chocarrerías de mal gusto, pero adecuadas a la índole del auditorio'" (Williams, 101).
Despite the missionaries' initially sanctioned attempts to use theater to convert the Indians, Fernando Horcasitas explains that they may have overstepped their religious boundaries:
Tal vez los franciscanos, en su sencillez, en su deseo de acercarse al indígena hayan permitido una extraordinaria libertad a los organizadores y actores en las comedias, todos neofitos en la religion católica. Los dominicos y agustinos pueden haber considerado irreverentes y hasta heréticos algunos aspectos de las representaciones. (in Argudín, 23-24)Perhaps for this reason, dramatic works began to be censored during the Inquisition, until friars were eventually prohibited from translating performance pieces into indigenous languages (Argudín, 28).
Although evangelical theater was only partially successful in reaching its conversionary goals, its usage of indigenous elements succeeded in making it one of the first "mestizo" or culturally mixed artforms in Nueva España, one of the first to reflect its continually changing cultural face: "Esta fusion de elementos vino a parar a nueva direccion escenografica que no era ni indigena ni europea, sino americana" (Williams, 59).
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Anonymous. "Rabinal Achi." Los clásicos del teatro hispanoamericano. Ed. Gerardo Luzuriaga and Richard Reeve. Mexico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1975. 13-51.
Argudin, Yolanda. Historia del teatro en Mexico; desde los rituales prehispánicas hasta el arte dramático de nuestras días. 1st Spanish ed. Mexico, D.F.: Panorama Editorial, S.A., 1985.
Corbato, Hermenegildo. "Misterios y Autos del teatro misionero en Méjico durante el siglo XVI y sus relaciones con los de Valencia." Valencia: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1949.
Guzman, Eulalia. "Carácteres esenciales del arte antiguo mexicano. Su sentido fundamental." Historia del arte: Una aproximación al arte mexicano; Antología. Ed. Jose Guadalupe Victoria Vicencio. Mexico, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico / Editiorial Porrua, S.A., 1988.
Horcasitas, Fernando. El teatro náhuatl. Epoca novohispana y moderna. 1st ed. Ed. Armando Partida. Mexico, D.F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1992.
Keen, Benjamin. A History of Latin America. 5th ed. Ed. Jean Woy et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
Partida, Armando. "Estudio Introductorio." El teatro náhuatl. Epoca novohispana y moderna. 1st ed. Ed. Armando Partida. Mexico, D. F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1992. 11-47.
Monterde, Francisco. "Prologo." Teatro indigena prehispanico (Rabinal Achi). Mexico, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1979.
Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico; An Essay on the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders of New Spain: 1523-1572. Trans. Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1966.
Taylor, Diana. Theater of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1991.
Williams, Jerry M. El teatro del México; Época misionera. Iberica Vol.4; New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1992.
Wynter, Sylvia. "1492: A New World View." Race, Discourse, and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View. Ed. Vera Lawrence Hyatt and Rex Nettleford. Washington, D.C. and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. 5-57.
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