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Reflection Paper #1

So far in this course, you all have explored the relationships between Folklórico dance and nationality, ethnicity, and race. You have also viewed dances that are reflective of this theme, specifically “The Jarabe Tapatío.” In addition, you have engaged in practical movement experiences of these two things (nationality/ethnicity/race & The Jarabe Tapatío) through our dance tutorial videos and live class meetings. For this assignment, you will merge these experiences in this module to write this week’s reflection paper.

REFLECT:

In this paper, reflect on the readings, viewings, lectures, and your experience with learning The Jarabe Tapatío. Consider everything you have learned and experienced: how the dance looked, how it felt to practice and then perform it, and the story of “The Jarabe Tapatío.” Also, reflect on how the genre of folklórico dance more broadly shapes identity (national, ethnic, race) both in México and the United States. You will be required to use these as support for your writing in this paper.

WRITE:

Describe the relationship(s) between Folklórico and nationality, ethnicity, and race. What do you understand this relationship to be? Discuss the development of folklórico dance as a genre in the United States and México. Use the readings, lectures, and viewings to support your ideas.
Next, discuss The Jarabe Tapatío. What is the story of the dance? Talk about any attributes of movement, culture, or performance that you think are identifiably “Mexican folklórico.”
Lastly, reflect on your practical movement experience of learning The Jarabe Tapatío through the dance tutorials at home, live class meetings, and your performance. Describe the movements you experienced/observed. Consider how it felt in your body, what you did/did not focus your attention on, how you used space, relationship to the music, and other factors that affected your movement (e.g. learning at home during a pandemic, someone else’s direction, cultural codes, etc.)

Use these prompts as a guide for writing your paper. Allow your responses to develop with evidence from your readings, viewings, and movement experience. I am looking for your ability to clearly articulate your ideas with supporting movement descriptions and textual support.

Your paper should be submitted in paragraph form, 2-3 pages, double-spaced, 1inch margins, in 12pt Times New Roman. Please include a title and citations for the videos and/or texts that you discuss. Only include a Works Cited page if you used sources other than our class readings and videos. (This does not contribute to your 2-3 pages.)

Reflection Paper Checklist:

Your name, instructor name, class, and date
A Title for your paper
Your 2-3-page essay in paragraph form with in-text citations.
An additional page entitled Works Cited with your citations.

Note: Please see the rubric provided with this assignment to guide your writing.

To submit: Click on “Reflection Paper #1.”

Paso de tres:

Borracho Step:

Tijeras combo:

https://youtu.be/e1-Mft-YMJ4

Criteria/Expectationsfor Written Work Points

WOW! Exceeds expectations, guidelines, and

requirements for the assignment, amazing ideas

which demonstrate thoughtful critical analysis

of and reflection upon the course material. This

student has clearly read and understood the

concepts presented in the reading. Activities

and definitions are completed above and

beyond expectations with thoughtful and

appropriate examples to explain important

concepts in own words; no grammatical and

syntactical

errors.

9.8-10 points

4.9-5 points

19-20 points

Strong. Meets the expectations of the

assignment, demonstrates insightful critical

thinking about the course material. This

student has clearly read and understood the
concepts presented in the reading. Activities

and definitions are complete and thorough with

imaginative examples to explain and define

concepts in own words. There are few

grammatical and syntactical errors.

9-9.7 points

4.5-4.8 points

18-18.9 points

Competent. Meets expectations of the

assignment, contains good ideas and

demonstrates critical thinking skills, but

revisions could make this paper much stronger.

This student has read but only somewhat

evidences understanding of reading. Activities

and definitions are mostly complete, examples

are almost always appropriate and revelatory in

own words. Several grammatical or syntactical

errors.

8-8.9 points

4-4.4 points

16-17.9 points

Developing. Almost meets the expectations of

the assignment, ideas demonstrate some

thinking about the course material but remain

unrefined, organization, syntax, and grammar

could use many revisions. This student

struggles with comprehension of the reading or

hasn’t completed it. Activities and definitions

are confusing and don’t use examples to reveal

definitions. Word choice is

convoluted/confusing and evidencing a general

lack of understanding. An unacceptable

amount of grammatical or syntactical errors.

7-7.9 points

3.5-3.9 points

14-15.9 points

Emerging. Barely meets the expectations of 6-6.9 points

the assignment, ideas demonstrate a minimal

amount of reflection upon the course material,

organization, syntax, and grammar need major

revisions. This student does not understand the

concepts presented in the reading. Assignment

is not fully completed, sections are missing,

terrible grammar and syntax.

3-3.4 points

12-13.9 points

Not Yet. Does not meet any of the guidelines

and/or requirements of the assignment

5.9 points and below

2.9 points and below

11.9 points and below

• DUE: Sunday, March 30 at 11:59 pm

Worth: 5 points and 5% of total class grade Rubric: attached above

Submission Location: Click the assignment link above, “Assignment #6: Representation”
and copy and paste your work directly into the assignment text box.

Copy and paste your responses to “Activity 4”, “Reading A”, “Define”, and “Distinguish”
into the assignment text box. Make sure each section is labeled properly.

This assignment will look something like this in the assignment #6 text box:

Activity 4
[your responses]
Reading A
[your responses]
Define
[your responses]
Distinguish
[your responses]

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q
Ballet Folklórico Mexicano: Choreographing
National Identity in a Transnational Context
Olga Nájera-Ramírez

Since its emergence in the late 1950s, ballet folklórico has become an enormously popular dance form that is widely practised throughout Mexico and the United
States, and performed throughout the world. Although folklórico dance continues to
be a vibrant transnational expressive medium through which Mexican communities
on both sides of the US–Mexico border create and pass on a strong sense of group
aesthetics and identity, serious scholarship on this dance genre is a relatively recent
development. Some twenty-fve years ago, when I published an article on the social
and political dimensions of folklórico dance (Nájera-Ramírez 1989), material on the
subject was scarce indeed. Over the past two decades, however, several important
works have been published in Spanish that provide a lot more insight into the
complex history of this dance form in Mexico (Dallal 1986, 2008; Tortajada
Quiróz 1995, 2000; Parga 2004). To date, there is little published on the practice
and signifcance of folklórico dance in the United States (but see Nájera-Ramírez,
Cantú and Romero 2009).

Te purpose of this essay is to provide an overview of the emergence and
development of the Mexican folklórico dance genre in Mexico and in the United
States. I will show that this dance form emerged in large part as a response to the
romantic nationalist sentiments that motivated artists, intellectuals and politicians
to search for ways of presenting and promoting new visions of Mexican national
identity during the post-revolutionary period. As a state sanctioned expression of
lo mexicano or ‘Mexicanness’ through which the diversity of Mexican culture or
mexicanidades was displayed to audiences everywhere, folklórico dance became a
discursive construct that enabled disparate ethnic and regional communities to
envision themselves (and each other) as legitimate members of the Mexican nation.
Entangled in issues of authenticity, commercialization and legitimacy, ballet folklórico
ofers an important site for examining the multifaceted and often contradictory
forces at play in the transnational development of this expressive form. Terefore, I

Dancing Cultures : Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance, edited by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach,
and Jonathan Skinner, Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucr/detail.action?docID=1337699.

Created from ucr on 2019-02-28 14:34:15.

Chapter 8

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162 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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will also explore the politics of identity as played out in this vibrant and widespread
transnational cultural expression. Finally, I will demonstrate that despite these
complications and contradictions, ballet folklórico has become extremely infuential
in shaping the cultural imaginary of Mexican national identity at home and abroad.

Definitions
I begin by defning and elaborating upon two terms that are central to this essay:
cultural imaginary and folklórico dance. I use the term ‘cultural imaginary’ to
refer to the full range of cultural productions by which cultural identities are
constructed, disseminated and experienced.1 Following Américo Paredes,
whose scholarship on Mexican expressive culture demonstrated a nuanced
understanding of the complexities of national and cultural identities,2 I show
that interrogating the means through which a community imagines itself as
part of a nation provides insight into the politics of identity and representation,
particularly in the context of globalization, in which people, cultures and goods
circulate beyond the geopolitical borders that defne a nation-state. Specifcally,
I argue that folklórico dance, like other Mexican transnational expressive forms,
‘simultaneously challenges and strengthens pre-existing conceptions of national
and cultural identities’ (Nájera-Ramírez 2001: 168). Attesting to the power of the
imaginary, even Mexican-Americans who have never been to Mexico frequently
come to identify as Mexican through their participation in and enactment of
Mexican folklórico dance. However, within the realm of folklórico dance, Mexican-
Americans perform almost exclusively as bearers of tradition, not as legitimate
active producers of culture who contribute to and thus expand what it means to
be Mexican. Tis raises the question regarding how Mexicans living in the United
States ft within the Mexican national imaginary. I will return to this point in the
latter part of the chapter.

With respect to folklórico dance, I stress that although it is often glossed over
as ‘Mexican folk or regional dance,’ Mexican folklórico dance is more accurately
defned as a stylized and choreographed dance form developed for theatrical stage
presentation that is based on, or otherwise informed by, regional folk dances and
traditions of Mexico. More specifcally, folklórico dance presentations consist of
various cuadros (suites) that represent diferent cultural regions of Mexico through
movement, music, costumes and sometimes stage backdrops or scenery. 3 Te
zapateados (footwork that consists of intricate stomps, heel and toe patterns) are
characteristic of most dances although the specifc type of zapateado varies from
region to region. Another common feature is that these are courtship dances in
which the dancers often imitate the movement of animals (horses, iguanas, vultures)
found in the local environment. To better illustrate, let me briefy describe the
jarocho region.4

Originating in the southern coastal plain of the state of Veracruz, the expression
son jarocho refers to a music and dance genre forged from hybridized African,
Indigenous, and European traditions. Characterized by a polyrhythmic foundation
and improvised lyrics, son jarocho is played by a conjunto jarocho ( jarocho ensemble)

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 163

that typically includes harp, requinto (a melodic guitar-like instrument) and a jarana
(a small, eight-stringed, fve course guitar-like instrument that provides the rhythmic
foundation). Sometimes a pandero (tambourine) and quijada (the jawbone of a
donkey) are used for percussion. Often performed on a tarima (wooden platform),
the syncopated, percussive footwork that is reminiscent of, but not identical to,
famenco dance steps, complete the ensemble.

Te humid tropical climate and the cultural roots are expressed in the costumes,
dance movements and stage scenery. Women wear white lacy skirts and blouses, a
black embroidered apron, a solid brightly coloured rebozo (shawl), and a pair of
white hard-heeled shoes. A large tocado (head piece) consisting of bright tropical
fowers and a peineta (decorative hair comb) and a lacy fan complete the costume.
Men wear a white guayabera (embroidered button-down shirt with big pockets and
pleats down the front) over white trousers, a paliacate (kerchief), a palm-fbre hat
and a pair of white boots (see fg. 8.1). To accentuate the footwork, the dancers’
shoes have nails hammered into the toe and heel of the sole (fg. 8.2). Women’s
skirt movements are graceful and fowing, reminiscent of gentle ocean waves. Dance
movements may also imitate local animals. For example, La Iguana features men
imitating the slithering jumps and gyrations of an iguana that attacks the women.
Frequently, the tropical backdrop will include palm trees and ocean scenery.

In Mexico, folklórico dance as defned above is currently referred to more
precisely as danza folklórica escénica (theatrical folk dance). But in the US, this dance
form is most commonly referred to simply as folklórico dance. In the course of a
folklórico presentation in a theatre, dance troupes will present six or more regions
of Mexico thus providing audiences with a riveting variety of regional cultures. In
any combination, folklórico dances work to capture and display the richness of lo
mexicano, or ‘Mexicanness’.5

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Figure 8.1 Grupo Folklórico de la Universidad de Guadalajara, circa 1965.

Figure 8.1 The University of Guadalajara’s Folklorico Group, circa 1965.

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164 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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Figure 8.2 Arce Manjares family performing in Guadalajara, circa 1960s

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Figure 8.2 The Arce Manjares family performing in Guadalajara, circa 1960s.

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 165

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Forging a National Identity: The Search for Lo Mexicano
Although Mexico gained independence in 1821, the frst hundred years of
independence was tumultuous to say the least. Rural–urban divisions as well as
political instability exacerbated Mexico’s lack of economic, racial and social
integration. Indeed, ffty distinct leaders ruled the nation before Porfrio Díaz
assumed the presidency in 1876 (Cockcroft 1983: 62). His thirty-fve years of
tyrannical rule, referred to as the Porfriato, brought remarkable material prosperity
to Mexico but Díaz’s reign proved an economic and social disaster for the common
citizen who did not share in the benefts of his campaign to modernize Mexico. By all
accounts, Diaz’s repressive regime shunned the masses and their culture (Cockcroft
1983; Sherman and Meyer 1979). Infuenced by positivist intellectuals, referred to
as the científcos, Díaz espoused a racist ideology that viewed indigenous people
and working-class mestizos as obstacles to Mexico’s development, while European
people, trends and artistic expressions were regarded as the standards of modernity
and progress. By the end of the nineteenth century, at the height of the Porfriato,
emulating French culture signalled a ‘true measure of aristocratic success’ (Sherman
and Meyer 1979: 473).

At the turn of the twentieth century, Mexico experienced a social revolution
that toppled the Díaz regime and promised a new beginning for the country. Te
Mexican Revolution of 1910 ignited a romantic nationalist movement that inspired
artists, intellectuals and government agencies to look to their native culture as the
basis for the development of a new Mexican national identity. Muralists, musicians,
architects and writers sought to create a national style that highlighted the peasantry
and indigenous population as the source of an authentic Mexican identity (Knight
1990). Tis explosive interest in lo mexicano positioned traditional and regional
dances as ideal ways to acknowledge the cultural diversity within the Mexican
nation while simultaneously providing evidence for its unique character as a nation
(Nájera-Ramírez 1989). It was in this context that indigenous and regional folk
dance assumed national importance.6

Several government agencies and institutions participated in early eforts
to collect, preserve and disseminate dance. Te Secretaría de Educación Pública
(SEP) sponsored numerous endeavours involving Mexican traditional dance. Te
Misiones Culturales (Cultural Missions), for example, whose stated goal was to
create a united national society (Saenz 1927; Sánchez 1936), assumed the task of
collecting folk dances throughout the nation. Te idea was to document these
vernacular expressions before they disappeared and to disseminate them through
the state school system as a way of preserving them. It was thus that folklórico
dance, however decontextualized and simplifed, became an integral part of the
elementary school experience. Te Cultural Missions programme also sponsored
various dance festivals in order to promote an interest in indigenous and traditional
dance (Tortajada Quiróz 2000: 16).

During the early 1930s, SEP established the frst national dance school, the
Escuela Nacional de Danza, under the auspices of the Departmento de Bellas Artes
(Department of Fine Arts).7 In 1932, under the directorship of revolutionary artists

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166 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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Carlos Mérida and Carlos Orozco Romero, the school developed a specifc focus
on Mexican dance. While the Escuela Nacional ofered classes in various genres of
dance, the principal goal was to provide students with the foundational skills and
knowledge to create ‘a totally Mexican dance form’ (una danza netamente mexicana)
(Dallal 1986: 84). Members of the faculty engaged in researching vernacular dance
forms, producing choreographies for festivals sponsored by the school, and, of
course, developing and teaching the curriculum (Tortajada Quiróz 2000: 18). Te
Escuela Nacional de Danza ofered two courses on Mexican dance titled Ritmos
mexicanos (Mexican rhythms) and Bailes mexicanos (Mexican dances), taught by
sisters Gloria and Nellie Campobello respectively. Trained in classical ballet, they
sought to choreograph classical ballets based on Mexican nationalist themes. Indeed,
by 1931 the Campobello sisters created a suite inspired by the Mexican revolution
entitled Ballet Simbólico 30–30 that received widespread acclaim (Dallal 1986: 83;
Tortajada Quiróz 2000: 18). In 1940, they published a book, Ritmos Indígenos, based
on their research into Mexican vernacular dance. Te Campobello sisters eventually
established the dance company, Ballet de la Ciudad de México, which focused
exclusively on injecting Mexican themes into classical ballet, but by 1947 the dance
troupe had dissolved (Cerón 2005).

Beginning in 1940, there began a Mexican modern-dance movement
(movimiento mexicano de danza moderna) that lasted through to 1959 (Dallal
1986). Te Mexican modern-dance movement spawned many talented dancers,
choreographers, directors and researchers who worked collaboratively with other
nationally oriented artists such as Carlos Chávez, Miguel Covarrubias and Blas
Galindo. Curiously, however, two North American dancers and choreographers,
Anna Sokolow and Waldeen Falkenstein, the latter better known simply as
Waldeen, spearheaded the modern dance movement in Mexico (Dallal 1986:
105). Carlos Mérida, director of the Escuela Nacional de Danza, invited Anna
Sokolow to present a series of performances at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico
City. Although Sokolow, who had trained with Martha Graham, had previously
performed in Mexico on several occasions, this time she stayed in Mexico and
founded the Grupo Mexicano de Danzas Clásicas y Modernas made up of students
from the Escuela Nacional. In 1940 Sokolow worked with the Ballet de Bellas Artes
and subsequently established a modern dance group called La Paloma Azul (the
Blue Dove) dedicated to the development of dance pieces based on Mexican themes
and images. While Sokolow’s company lasted only one season, she is nonetheless
credited with establishing the foundations of an indigenous Mexican modern-dance
movement.8

In 1939, SEP invited Waldeen, trained in classical ballet and modern dance,
to direct the Ballet de Bellas Artes. Like Sokolow, Waldeen selected a group of
dancers enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Danza to perform her choreographies.
According to dance critic Alberto Dallal (1986: 92), Waldeen was among the frst
choreographers to develop modern dance based on Mexican dances. Her dance
suite La Coronela, for example, which debuted on 23 November 1940, alluded to
the oppressed conditions of the pueblo (the common people) and featured Silvestre

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 167

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Revueltas’s nationalist symphonic music and Jose Guadalupe Posada’s engravings
(grabados). Both Waldeen and Sokolow contributed signifcantly to the development
of nationally inspired theatrical dance in Mexico and mentored many aspiring
dancers.

Te establishment in 1947 of the Academia de Danza Mexicana by nationalist
music composer Carlos Chávez, director of the newly inaugurated Instituto Nacional
de Bellas Artes, proved to be another signifcant development in Mexican dance.
Directed by Guillermina Bravo and Ana Mérida, the academy ofered classes in
classical ballet, regional and modern dance. Founding members of the Academia de
Danza included Josefna Lavalle, Marcelo Torreblanca and Amalia Hernández, each
of whom made important contributions to folklórico dance (Dallal 1986: 109, 120).

Josefna Lavalle, a student of the Escuela Nacional de Danza and a former
member of Waldeen’s Ballet de Bellas Artes, developed numerous choreographies,
wrote several important books on Mexican dance, and ultimately founded the
Fondo Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Danza Popular Mexicana (FONADAN),
a national research institute devoted to the research and collection of traditional
indigenous dance.

Torreblanca and Hernández are of particular interest because they exemplify
polar extremes of the approach to folklórico that continue to be hotly debated
to this day. As I have noted elsewhere, a critical and often controversial issue
lies in determining how much individual creativity may be applied to original
dance forms without totally distorting them (Nájera-Ramírez 1989: 22). Marcelo
Torreblanca, an ardent supporter of vernacular dance and a former teacher with
the Misiones Culturales programme, ofered classes in Mexican folkdance at
the Academia de Danza. Miguel Vélez, one of Mexico’s leading folklórico dance
authorities, and a former student of the Academia de Danza, describes Torreblanca
as follows:

Torreblanca is a dance purist; he is a man who does not permit one to create
a choreography. He insisted that we dance exactly the way that indigenous
people, the natives of each place, danced, something that was not possible.
A folkloric dance company is created for Bellas Artes with students from
the Academy and the director is Torreblanca. Unfortunately, he does not
have a vision of making a spectacle for a general public. He makes a very
limited spectacle, the students have to learn long routines, in which each
number lasts fve or six minutes and the public does not accept it.9

Torreblanca’s folklórico group, undoubtedly one of the frst ofcial folklórico dance
troupes in Mexico, never achieved national acclaim. Nonetheless, Torreblanca
devoted his life to documenting the indigenous and traditional dances of Mexico
and remains an important fgure in the development of folklórico dance in Mexico
for instituting a ‘purist’ approach to folklore that persists today (Heredia Casanova
2002). If nothing else, his approach emphasized the importance of conducting
ethnographic investigation.

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168 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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In contrast to Torreblanca’s conservative approach to folklore, Amalia
Hernández utilized Mexican folkloric materials as the foundations for developing
a theatrical dance spectacle. Best known for establishing and directing the Ballet
Folklórico de México, Mexico’s premiere folklórico dance group, Hernández
started her career with Danza Moderna Mexicana, and trained in classical
ballet, modern and Mexican regional dance. In 1952, she performed with Ballet
Moderno de México, directed by Waldeen, and when the director left Mexico
the following year Hernández became the new director of the company. It was
here that Hernández began incorporating Mexican folk dances into her own
dance productions. Despite criticism for integrating folk dances into modern
dance, Hernández continued her work and founded the Ballet de Mexico to make
presentations for television. Her group performed a range of dance genres ranging
from classical ballet to African dance.

By 1959, Amalia Hernández became more focused on folklórico dance. With
Felipe Segura as artistic director, Hernández and her dance troupe, the Ballet
Folklórico de Mexico, participated in the Festival of the Americas in Chicago
where they achieved great success (Dallal 1986: 479–80). Upon their return,
Hernández’s dance troupe, under the auspices of the Departmento de Bellas
Artes, initiated weekly performances at the Palacio de Bellas Artes as a major
tourist attraction. At this point, Segura resigned from the company devoting his
attention to the Ballet Concierto Mexicano. During the presidency of Adolfo
Lopez Mateos, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes selected Hernández’s group
as the ofcial cultural ambassador of Mexico. Although she attained great success,
Hernández also received much criticism. As Mexican dance scholar Guillermina
Galarza notes:

Ms Hernández’s work was of course extremely valuable. Many times it has
been said that she was the best cultural representative that Mexico had for
a long time. But her cultural representations often excluded the cultural
essence because she took some of their regional characteristics, she enriched
herself by consulting with the best informants and the best dancers of a
region. But then she would transform the movement, the costumes and the
sequences such that the informants were disillusioned in her results. Often
they commented, ‘I did not share all that work just so she could destroy
it’.10

Despite such criticism, Hernández’s Ballet Folklórico de Mexico became the
most infuential dance troupe in disseminating, and thus setting the standard
for, folklórico dance, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, the
Ballet Folklórico de Mexico performed for domestic as well as foreign audiences.
Hernández’s troupe performed on a Mexican television programme once a week,
featured three performances a week at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City,
and travelled throughout the world as the ofcial representative of Mexico.

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 169

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The Early Years of Folklórico Dance: A Case Study
Te status of folklórico dance outside the Mexican capital deserves attention
because it illustrates the multiple ways in which folklórico dance was disseminated,
cultivated and performed. It is important to bear in mind that to this very day,
regional dance continues to be practised as a vernacular form at local festivities
and religious ceremonies. Moreover, as noted earlier, by the 1930s and 1940s, folk
dance performances formed an integral part of the elementary-school experience
throughout the country as a way of promoting ideas of nationhood. In addition,
however, dance enthusiasts throughout Mexico took up performances of folk
dances long before the establishment of institutionalized folklórico dance groups
for theatrical presentation. Prior to the 1940s and 1950s, folk dances were typically
performed as part of larger events, such as the welcoming of a foreign dignitary,
the inauguration of a politician or another cultural performance, such as the
charreada (Mexican rodeo). Rene Arce, director of the Grupo Folklórico Ciudad de
Guadalajara, reports that his father often performed for such special occasions. He
describes the situation as follows:

My father, Dr Raul Arce Manjarres, lived in Guadalajara as a young child
and as an adolescent. He studied at the Teacher’s College and in the School
of Medicine. At that time, there were no formal folklórico groups; they were
not organized as such. Back then, Dr Francisco Sánchez Flores would call
together a group of dance enthusiasts to perform for a specifc event. Tey
got together to practice and decide which songs they would dance, what
costume they would wear. Everyone possessed their own costume. Tey’d
decide if they would wear sandals, boots, peasant trousers, or if they would
wear the caporal suit. And that is how they would dance.11

Francisco Sánchez Flores became an important pioneer of Mexican dance in
Guadalajara. In fact, according to Rafael Zamarripa: ‘Te most important fgure of
traditional Mexican dance in Western Mexico is Dr Francisco Sánchez Flores. He is
the father, he was the director of the Department of Education, he was a painter and
he developed the choreographies that gave the Mexican state of Jalisco its identity
such as La Culebra, El Caballito and El Jarabe Largo Ranchero, among others’.12

Zamarripa also reports that Sánchez Flores had two dance partners, Elisa Jacobo
Nieto, who became better known as Chiquina Palafox, and Maria del Refugio
Garcia Brambila, best known as Miss Cuca, both of whom contributed signifcantly
to the development of dance in Guadalajara. Speaking of Miss Cuca, Zamarripa
recalls: ‘Ms Cuca was a teacher of physical education and had many jobs in that
capacity. At the Beatriz Hernández Boarding School, she had a marvellous group
of girls that she trained in dance and they won all the national competitions. Tose
girls from the Beatriz Hernández School in Guadalajara were champions. No one
could beat them!’.13 Te boarding schools at which Miss Cuca taught participated
in national cultural sports meetings at which people represented the folklore of their

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https://others�.12

https://dance.11

170 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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home state. Importantly, each group presented a research report that became the
frst dance records published as memorias (reports) on regional dance.14 In addition,
Miss Cuca taught at various schools and organized a dance group at the Escuela
Normal (Teacher’s College) that became the ofcial state representative. Despite
being designated as the representative of the state of Jalisco in regional dance,
Zamarripa notes:

Ms Cuca did not have a dance academy. We practised the seven or eight
traditional songs on the patio of her house. And we only danced those. We
danced at fairs and at events as a part of a larger event; we were not the
main attraction. We were not a ballet, we were just a group who performed
six or seven songs and that’s all.15

It was not until Hernández’s Ballet Folklórico de Mexico won frst prize in a folk-
dance competition in Paris that folkloric dance companies became more formalized
and institutionalized throughout Mexico. Zamarripa reports that in 1964, under
the charge of la Señora Clementina Otero de Barrios, the Instituto Nacional de
Bellas Artes announced a national dance competition. Although most groups
had no formal training, the response was enormous. He notes: ‘the directors of
the university-based folkloric groups became quite enthused and began preparing.
We prepared and practised so much that the competition gained an incredible
importance’.16 Te country was divided into four geographical areas and each group
participated in their respective area. A national competition, held in Mexico City,
brought together the groups that had won the event in their region. Tis competition
continued for about four years, establishing certain groups as the new ‘pioneers’ of
folklórico dance. He recalls:

Among that group was Professor Miguel Vélez, from Yucatan, Carlos
Acereto, and a wonderful teacher from Monterrey. Andrade is from
Monterrey. From Tamualipas, Franco and from Chihuahua, Antonio
Rubio. From Durango, Santos Salas. From San Luis Potosí, Antonio
Amendarez, and from Nayarit, Jaime Buentello. So those were the groups
that survived. And they did so with such strength that no one has been able
to destroy them despite the fact that the government has changed little by
little. Tose were the pioneers of Mexican folklórico dance from 1964 to the
present.17

Today, folklórico groups have multiplied signifcantly not only in Mexico but
throughout the United States as well.

Folklórico Dance in the United States
Prior to the 1960s, folklórico dance in the United States existed in three contexts:
frst, as part of the variety shows performed at carpas or travelling tent shows;
second, at community events and celebrations wherever there was a signifcant

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https://importance�.16

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 171

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Mexican population; and third, occasionally in the public schools as part of physical
education activities (Nájera-Ramírez 1989). However, the practice of folklórico
dance in the US truly blossomed during the late 1960s and 1970s as part of the
Chicano civil rights movement. Tis movement was a political and social response
to the many adverse conditions and social injustice to which people of Mexican
ancestry living in the US were subject. Like the romantic nationalist movement
in Mexico during the post-revolutionary period, Chicanos turned to Mexican
expressive cultural forms as sources of knowledge and inspiration. During the height
of the movement, Chicanos utilized folklórico dance presentations as an important
counter-discourse of resistance against Anglo domination, cultural erasure and
the demeaning portrayal of Mexicans. Folklórico dance proved ideal as a way for
Chicanos to publicly display the beauty and diversity of their Mexican heritage and
to help dispel negative stereotypes of Mexicans.

Sincerely interested in recuperating and validating their Mexican history and
heritage through dance, Chicanos invited master dance teachers from Mexico to
come to the US to teach at dance workshops. In addition to teaching footwork,
skirt work and choreography, the maestros (teachers) often provided lectures on
music, costume and regional culture so that students would better understand the
historical, cultural and social signifcance of the Mexican people and the traditions
that these dances represented.

In principle, inviting maestros from Mexico was an excellent way for
Chicanos to ensure that folklórico dancers in the US had access to valuable
information that was not available in print, particularly since the scholarship
on folklórico dance was extremely limited at the time. However, as noted earlier,
Mexican dance instructors difered in terms of their ideological approach to
folklórico dance: some espoused the more conservative approach established
by Torreblanca, which focused on documenting and preserving old traditional
dances; while others adhered to the spectacular approach spearheaded by Amalia
Hernández that relied heavily on her own artistic creativity and imagination.
Tese ideological diferences among the maestros complicated, but did not
eliminate, the idea of using folklórico dance as a valid source of historical and
cultural information. Moreover, Mexican folklórico dance instruction in the
US has focused almost exclusively on learning material from Mexican maestros
but typically does not provide instruction on how to conduct research, how to
develop choreography or how to produce folklórico shows. Tis may help explain
why, unlike other expressive forms that were cultivated during the Chicano civil
rights movement, folklórico dance did not represent the Chicano experience. Tat
is to say, a typical folklórico performance will feature dances from Jalisco, Nayarit
and Baja California, but they generally will not feature the quebradita, el paso
duranguense or any other dances that have been produced and/or are associated
with Mexicans in the US (mexicanos en los Estados Unidos). Russell Rodríguez
(2009) has poignantly asked: Why is it that the folklórico dance form rarely
includes representations of the Chicano experience? As he astutely notes, in other
expressive forms, such as murals and theatre, Chicanos developed a recognizable

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172 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

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Chicano art form that gives expression to their experiences as Chicanos; that is,
as Mexicans living in the United States.

A good example of an expressive form that gives expression to the Chicano
experience is orquesta tejana (a musical form among the Texas-Mexican population)
or la onda chicana (the Chicano sound) popularized during the Chicano civil
rights movement by bands such as Little Joe y la Familia. Tis band recorded
many classic rancheras (a country-style song) and composed a lot of original songs
(such as ‘Díganle’), but they did so in a very distinctive style that Mexicans on
both sides of the border could easily identify as Chicano (hence the term onda
chicana). Te distinctive features of the style include lyrics sung in English and
Spanish, and the classic blend of traditional ranchera, polka rhythms and big-band
instruments (trumpet, saxophone, trombone) that are reminiscent of the sounds of
James Brown, Tower of Power and mariachi music. As ethnomusicologist Manuel
Peña explains:

In many ways, the successful consolidation of so many distinct styles
refected the nationalistic spirit of the Chicano Power Movement that
swept through the [American] Southwest in the late 1960s. Imbued
with this spirit, Chicanos tried to sweep aside internal class and regional
diferences and to present a unifed Chicano cultural front. Tis powerfully
unifying impulse afected musical culture, and orquesta responded with
vigour. It moved rapidly towards a synthesis of all the disparate elements
that had been wanting to coalesce during the formative years – ranchero
versus jaitón [high class], Mexican/Latin versus American, conjunto versus
orquesta and simple versus sophisticated. In the new orquestas all of these
were apt to be combined – within the same piece! (Peña 2004)

Only rarely has the Chicano experience been presented in folklórico dance. Indeed, I
can only think of a few examples. Te primary example is the dance suite presented
in Luis Valdez’s play Zoot Suit (1979), and subsequently in the 1981 flm version of
the play.18 Inspired by the dances he saw in the play, Frank Trujillo, choreographer
for the National Chicano Dance Teater in Denver, Colorado, conducted research
within his own family to produce an original Zoot Suite-style dance suite for his
company, one which did not borrow movements from the play. Juan Rios, former
dancer of National Chicano Dance Teatre, explains:

It was a company that wanted to create material, performances that talked
about the Chicano experience as well as the Mexicano experience. So they
wanted to keep the beauty of the Mexicano, the soul of Mexican culture
through the dance, but at the same time move forward with some new
ideas, you know? We worked on a piece about the Zoot Suite era, something
about the farm workers, and then there was a contemporary piece about
the urban Chicano and Chicana. We were experimenting and it was an
amazing experience.19

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 173

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Several folklórico dance companies in the US integrated the dance suite from Zoot
Suit into their repertoire during the early 1980s, but as far as I know dance groups
in Mexico never did so.

Another example of a folklórico suite specifcally created to refect the Mexican
experience in the US involved Roen Salinas. In 1994, whilst director of the
Guadalupe Dance Company in San Antonio, Texas, Salinas invited one of Mexico’s
most distinguished choreographers, Rafael Zamarripa, to help him develop a dance
suite that refected the experiences of Tejanos, Mexican inhabitants of Texas. I
believe that a major reason for selecting Zamarripa is that he considers dance frst
and foremost as a form of communication. His concern is not simply to preserve
dances from the past as antiquarians or traditionalists do, but rather to use dance
as way to say something about Mexico and Mexicans. Terefore he does not limit
himself to reproducing dances from the past. Instead, he creatively choreographs
dances to represent a cultural environment or regional social experience. For
example, he developed a piece titled Salineros based on the work that salt miners
did in Colima. Aware that salt miners were marginalized in the history of Mexico,
Zamarripa decided to develop a dance through which he could tell the world about
their lives and experiences. Impressed with the ways in which the workers used their
bodies to perform their daily tasks in the salt mines, Zamarripa decided to work
side by side with them to embody their actions. Based on his experience among the
workers and in the community, Zamarripa developed his choreography to convey
their experiences to a larger audience.

Similarly, when Zamarripa developed the dance suite for the Rio Bravo
Company, he worked to capture various aspects of Tejano history and culture
through dance. Te result was Rio Bravo, a dance production that consisted of four
parts: ‘El Principio’, indigenous Tejano roots; ‘El Viejo Mercado’, the cultural life of
a market square in 1800; ‘Nostalgia’, vibrant social life infuenced by Czech, German
and Polish music and dances; and ‘San Antonio Hoy’, inspired by the contemporary
country-and-western nightclub line-dance scene. It bears mentioning, however, that
Zamarripa has never featured the Rio Bravo suite in his company’s repertoire nor, to
my knowledge, has any other folklórico group in the United States or Mexico.

More recently, Zamarripa has been developing a new suite based on
contemporary cultural experiences in Comala, Colima. Impressed by the social
ambience in the restaurants surrounding the plaza where mariachis (a folk ensemble
featuring various guitar-like instruments, violins and trumpets), conjuntos norteños
(northern ensembles featuring the accordion) and other musicians stroll amongst
the customers ofering to play songs for locals enjoying regional delicacies (antojitos)
as they socialize with one another, Zamarripa decided to capture this scene through
dance. As he explained:

In Comala people gather every day at noon to drink beer, punch, soft
drinks or tequila. I fnd that people go there to enjoy the food, to drink
but also to leave evidence that they are alive, that they have returned
from the United States in these fancy trucks and that they have a lot of

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174 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

money, that they wear chains, and that they are alive. People want to been
seen in circulation – they feel the need for attention, to put themselves
on display. And when I observe this behaviour, I feel like expressing that
experience through dance … So I go and study how people behave. I’m
very interested in getting inspired by what I observe. For me, I feel the
need to express that through dance so that others will learn about this
experience.20

I visited Zamarripa a year later and asked him for an update on this new suite.
Regrettably, he told me that he ended up omitting the transnational migrants who
returned to their hometown of Comala faunting their new material goods such
as fancy trucks, new clothes and gold jewellery because he felt that he portrayed
them in an extremely stereotypical manner. Nonetheless, Zamarripa’s approach to
folklórico dance has sparked of an idea among some Chicanos of a need to produce
folklórico dances that refect Chicano life and experience in the US. As one local
dancer notes:

I see ballet folklórico in the United States personally, as part of an expression
of us here in the United States. We have our roots in Mexico, our descendents
are from Mexico, but I think that … seeing the way the maestro Zamarripa
creates things in Mexico, it’s real important, so that the young people here
take what we brought here and create something for ourselves. To give it
our own favour and to give it its own life.21

Conclusion
Tis chapter demonstrates that, for many Mexicans, folklórico dance served as an
important artistic expression that was mobilized to instil a sense of community
among Mexicans on both sides of the US–Mexico border. During the post-
revolutionary period, vernacular and indigenous dance forms were used by
the state as part of the nation-building project to symbolically establish social
cohesion within Mexico. By portraying the diversity of cultures that constitute the
Mexican nation, folklórico dance performances presented throughout the world
subsequently proved quite useful in attracting tourism to Mexico. In the 1960s,
Chicanos enthusiastically took up folklórico practice to assert their pride in their
Mexican heritage and to afrm their connection to Mexicans in Mexico. However,
Chicanos have not fully participated in developing folklórico dance. While Mexicans
in Mexico seem to embrace Chicanos as part of the larger Mexican community, it
appears that cultural expressive forms informed by the social experience of living
in the US are not considered legitimate or authentic forms of Mexican culture.
Such a view reinforces the prevailing notion that Mexicans in the US are somehow
not ‘real’ or ‘full’ Mexicans. It also highlights the fact that as regional dance
became increasingly institutionalized and ‘theatricalized’ the connection between
stage presentation and the living reality it was supposed to represent became less

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Ballet Folklórico and Mexican Identity ■ 175

apparent. Moreover, the staged version of regional dances became the standard by
which the regions were defned and resulted in the ‘museumifcation’, or fxing or
freezing, of culture.

Folklórico dance remains a key site through which exclusion and inclusion in
the Mexican nation is produced and disseminated, but clearly the extent to which
Chicanos achieve ‘representation’ will be up to them. Today folklórico dance is a
vibrant and growing transnational cultural practice that reinforces pre-existing
conceptions of national boundaries but simultaneously expands the notion of
cultural identities as extending beyond national borders.

Notes
1. For more discussion of these concepts, see Saldívar (2006).
2. For an excellent discussion of Paredes’s theoretical contributions, see Saldívar (2006).
3. Describing dance in words is a basic challenge that scholars have consistently encoun-

tered. As Drid Williams (2008: 153) notes, ‘and then they danced’ is wholly inadequate
for dealing with dance in scholarly writings. One way to address this challenge is to em-
ploy other means of disseminating information on dance. My documentary flm, Danza
Escénica: El Sello Artístico de Rafael Zamarripa (2010) represents my attempt at explain-
ing what folklórico dance is and to highlight the process involved in producing folklórico
dance. For more information on the documentary, see http://www.olganajera.com.

4. For a full discussion of jarocho dance and music, see Sheehy (1979).
5. Lo mexicano literally means ‘things Mexican’ but refers to cultural expressions of the com-

mon folk.
6. At the same time, other forms of vernacular culture, such as agricultural and medicinal

practices, were perceived as backward (Nájera-Ramírez 1989).
7. According to Dallal (1986: 82–85) this school changed names several times. Originally

founded as the Escuela de Plástica Dinámica, under the directorship of Russian dancer
Hypolito Zybine in 1929, the name changed to Escuela de Danza in 1930 when the
school was ofcially inaugurated. In 1932 the school became known as the Escuela Na-
cional de Danza.

8. On Sokolow’s work in Mexico, see the information on the Jewish Women’s Archive web-
site: www.jwa.org/exhibits/wov/sokolow/mexico.html, retrieved 9 March 2007.

9. Interview with Miguel Vélez, May 2006. Sadly, Miguel died in June 2010.
10. Interview with Guillermina Galarza, 18 January 2005.
11. Interview with Rene Arce, 19 January 2005.
12. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 17 March 2004.
13. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 17 March 2004.
14. Interview with Guillermina Galarza, 18 January 2005.
15. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 17 March 2004.
16. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 18 March 2004.
17. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 18 March 2004.
18. For the flm, see Zoot Suit, dir. Luis Valdez (1981), 103 min.
19. Interview with Juan Rios, August 2006.
20. Interview with Rafael Zamarripa, 19 March 2004.
21. Interview with Rick Mendoza, 19 March 2005.

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Dancing Cultures : Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance, edited by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach,
and Jonathan Skinner, Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucr/detail.action?docID=1337699.
Created from ucr on 2019-02-28 14:34:15.

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www.jwa.org/exhibits/wov/sokolow/mexico.html

Homepage

176 ■ Olga Nájera-Ramírez

References
Cerón, I. 2005. ‘La raiz del movimiento nacionalismo e identitdad en la danza moderna

mexicana’, Correo del Maestro no.112. Retrieved 5 June 2006 from: http: //www.
correodelmaestro.com/anteriores/2005/septiembre/2artistas112.htm.

Cockcroft, J.D. 1983. Mexico: Class Formation, Capital Accumulation, and the State. New
York: Monthly Review Press.

Cohen, J. 2006. ‘Waldeen and the Americas: Te Dance Has Many Faces’. Retrieved 5 May
2006 from: http: //www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldeen.html.

Dallal, A. 1986. La Danza en México. Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma de Mexico.
2008. El Ballet Folklórico de la Universidad de Colima. Mexico City: Universidad de
Colima.

Heredia Casanova, M. 2002. El Legado del Maestro Marcelo Torreblanca. Guadalajara,
Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.

Knight, A. 1990. ‘Racism, Revolution and the Indigenismo: Mexico, 1910-1940’, in Richard
Graham (ed.), Te Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940. Austin: University of
Texas Press, pp.71–113.

Knight, A. 1994. ‘Popular Culture and the Revolutionary State in Mexico, 1910–1940’,
Hispanic American Historical Review 74(3): 393–444.

Meyer, M. and W. Sherman. 1979. Te Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Nájera-Ramírez, O. 1989. ‘Social and Political Dimensions of Folklórico Dance: Te
Binational Dialectic of Residual and Emergent Culture’, Western Folklore 48: 15–32.
2001. ‘Haciendo Patria: La Charreada and the Formation of a Transnational Identity’,
in C. Velez-Ibanez and A. Sampaio (eds), Transforming Latino Communities: Politics,
Processes, and Culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefeld, pp.167–80.

Nájera-Ramírez, O., N. Cantú and B. Romero (eds). 2009. Dancing Across Borders.
Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Parga, V. 2004. Cuerpo Vestido en Nación: Danza Folkórica y Nacionalismo Mexicano (1921–
1939). Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes-Fondo Nacional
para la Cultura y las Artes

Peña, M. 2004. “Orquesta Tejana: Te Formative Years.” University of Texas Libraries. Retrieved
10 March 2012 from: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/benson/border/arhoolie2/orquesta.
html.

Rodríguez, R. 2009. ‘Folklórico in the United States: Cultural Preservation and Disillusion’,
in O. Nájera-Ramírez, N. Cantu and B. Romero (eds), Dancing Across Borders:
Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, pp.335–58.

Saenz, M. 1927. ‘Nuestras Escuelas Rurales’. Mexican Folkways 3(1): 44–52.
Saldívar, R. 2006. Te Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational

Imaginary. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Sanchez, G. 1936. Mexico: A Revolution by Education. New York: Te Viking Press.
Sheehy, D.E. 1979. ‘Te Son Jarocho: Te History, Style, and Repertoire of a Changing

Mexican Musical Tradition’. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los
Angeles.

Tortajada Quiróz, M. 1995. Danza y poder. Mexico, DF: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.
Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación, e Información de la Danza José
Limón, 1995.
2000. La Danza Escénica de la Revolución Mexicana, Nacionalista y Vigorosa. Mexico
City: Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana.

Williams, D. 2008 ‘Te Sorrow of the Dance Analysts’, Visual Anthropology 21: 151–55.
Dancing Cultures : Globalization, Tourism and Identity in the Anthropology of Dance, edited by Hélène Neveu Kringelbach,

and Jonathan Skinner, Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucr/detail.action?docID=1337699.
Created from ucr on 2019-02-28 14:34:15.

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucr/detail.action?docID=1337699

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/benson/border/arhoolie2/orquesta

www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldeen.html

https://correodelmaestro.com/anteriores/2005/septiembre/2artistas112.htm

https://www.dancespirit.com/baile-folklorico-world-dance-2634432812.html

The Love Story behind the Jarabe Tapatío

Paso de tres:

Borracho Step:

Tijeras combo:

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