THE DANCE OF THE CONCHEROS
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Mexico-Tenochtitlan Agosto, 1996
by GUSTAVO VARGAS ALARCÓN
The dances are for God.
  The sacry dances always have been present in the history of the humanity, these are other forms to have communication with the cosmos and comprise in the cultural traditions of the orb to establish a relation of the human being with the divine forces. Same the elements are carried out venerating that are pronounced in Natural Mother. The dance of the Concheros, of which I will do brebe outline.

With the name of Concheros, Aztec Dancers, Dances of Conquest, or Chichimeca Dance, dance in rural populations, the districts of the City of Mexico (old Calpullis), and in different states from the Republic, as they are: The State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos and Querétaro among others; the dancers who integrate it are indigenas and mestizos of all the social stratus, craftsmen, profesionistas, small retailers, clerks, etc.

They fulfill his obligations in the catholic temples, in these places where they are our Teocallis and where are our ancestral spiritual guides and the divinities of our old religion. Dance in the sunday, thus to fulfill a cycle of 52 weeks. Concheros is our name because we take a stringed instrument whose box of resonance makes with an armadillo shell.

Thus dancing since they made our ancestros, they make vibrate the Mother Earth and we projected to the Cosmos, they establish bridge between both: the Mother Earth (Coatlicue), and the Father Sun (Tonatiuh).

The groups of Dance we are integrated by men and women organized hierarchically by Generals and Captains, who represent the greater authority, the Malinche that is the one in charge to take the fire; the Sergeant who is the person in charge of the order, because when a Law is disobeyed,  he pays, because the Dance is harmony. Some are made position play certain musical finally and, the assembly of dancers or soldiers we are them, from the children, children, women, men, to venerable old and the old ones. The number of dancers is variable: 8, 10, 60, elements. There are groups that get to count, with than 100 elements, conquered more by our traditions.

Thus the groups have permanent existence, around the cult of a domestic altar (pulls), and we identified ourselves with a standard, in the case ours we belong to group of the Virgin of Dolores. The Group of Aztec Dance Xinachtli (seed that germinates), that directs to the Commander in chief Distinguished Andrés Segura. Also we have commitments (obligations), in the main sanctuaries of energy or Sanctuaries, (Sacramonte, Remedies, Villa, Chalma, Tlatelolco). To the festividades also one invites other groups of neighboring luggers or distant regions, so that they give force and a greater number of dancers is combined. This custom is based on affluent reciprocity established. The clothes are of precolonial inspiration: Maztle and Tilma for the men, Quexquemitl and Huipil for the women: Tekahtle (huaraches) and Ikuazéhatl (Plume), adorned with pens of diverse birds (Guajolote, pheasant, pavoreal, eagle, guacamayo, avestrus, etc). and in clothes are used colors shining with spangle strips. Music has as it bases rythmical the Huehuetl drums (vertical), and Teponaxtli (horizontal), to which the Ayacaxtli (sonajas), the Ayotl (Tortoise shell), and the Coyolli are added (Strips of ayoyotes that we put ourselves like bracelets in the ankles). Melodías is in charge of the Tlapitzalli (flauta of reed), and the Atecocolli (marine snail), is used in the permission that is requested to the four courses of the Universe and to the Center. It is possible to indicate that when we are going to fulfill our obligations, first we requested permission to the Giver of Life, (that by that it is lived, Teotl, calls God to him, the Indigenous brothers of the North call the Great Espirítu to him, finally the symbol is same, with the different ones name in the different cultural traditions), and to the guardians of those places, the Gentlemen, that guide our steps, to fulfill our mission in the Mother Earth and to the conquering bores of the four winds that left these beautiful memories us (the heads of the tradition that returned to the Mother Earth). When we requested permission we say our praises inside of the Church and later we, their heirs left to fulfill the obligation with Dance in the vestibules because therefore hacián our ancestoras and wing time. At the end of the obligation we thank to the guides of the Red Tradition, the guides of the Tradition Atlante, the guides of the Mexica Tradition and to our own personal guides, by to have fulfilled our obligation in that day. At the beginning of the obligation we conformed two columns, later to make a circle with movements that evoke the Symbol Nau Ollin (4 movement). For each dance that begins and finishes we make reverences and we marked or the steps very so that the cross forms very or (the four courses del Universo), that is to say, with each foot marks to the form the rythmically cross.

Almost 475 years of the heroic defense of Mexico-Tenochtítlan, we continued keeping the forms and the traditions that bequeathed our ancestros to us through the oral  tradition, of ear mouth and written. In all that time and space that we have lived, we know that we have maintained to a contral ideological fight  the dominant ideology: European, Centralista and Consumist. Against all this we have developed several fields of the knowledge of the  ancestors: Cosmography, Herbolaría, the Maternal Languages like the Nahuatl that have territory, talkers and grámatic; the poetry, the dance, etc. We did not despise the culture which we lived at the present time, nor say that she is bad but is not ours, does not appear of our hearts, is not incarnated in our ways, we have another one idiosincracia, another genetic memory, Jose Vasconcelos, spoke with wisdom when saying: " By my race the Spirit will speak ", if, but the one of my ancestros, since if we do not know our cutural rootsl, we will continue being foreign in our communities. To know our culture is not to try to return to our past, but simply not to forget it, because the knowledge that we have by inheritance, they follow effective daily actually of the town, because they are useful... also because they are BEAUTIFUL.

We followed the steps, that left us by inheritance, the Young Grandfathers, Huey Tlatoani Cuahtémoc. The tlathoani of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in the last decree, that he presented the 13 August of 1521,  he says: " Our Sun has been hidden, our Sun has hidden and it has left us in the most complete dark. We know that he will return to leave to illuminate to us again. But while he remains back in the Miktlan (silence), we must be united. Hiding in ours hearts everything what we loved. Let us destroy our Teocallis  (temples), our Kalmekak (schools of high studies), our Tlachkouan (ball fields), our Telpochkaltin (schools for young people), our Kuikakaltin (house of sing), and let to the streets desert to lock in itself in our homes. From now,  our homes, will be our Teokaltin, our Kalmekameh, our Tlachkouan, our Telpochkaltin, and our Kuikaltin.
 
From now on until he leaves the New Sun. The parents and the Mothers, do not forget to say to their children which has been until today Anáhuac, under protection of our Gods as result of the customs and the eduación of our olds. That they either do not forget to say to his children which a day he will have to be Anáhuac: "The Country of the New Sun "

After knowing the last message Cuauhtemóctzin, the people of Mexico-Tenochtitlan,occurred to the task of keeping in its hearts the most appraised than we have, its traditions and customs. For that reason we dancing in old the Teocallis, where catholic churches and in the power centers of being able were elevated.

When we spoke of being able we are talking about the spiritual power, nonmaterial, we know that the gentlemen guides who govern those places are there, with us and they illuminate the way to us that there will be to walk, to fulfill here mission in the Mother Earth. All the steps that we give or in the dance or when we visited places of being able, are not at random, when doing these visits are for fortifying the conscience of Nation in many occasions slept of the people of Mexico. We know that when dancing we make representations of how it is the cosmos: as it is above, it is down, everything is constant movement in the daily life and also there where on some way it is lived, in the Miktlan, in the place of silence.

As we previously said it with the praises we requested permission and we thank in agreement with the oral tradition and with the advice who give our mayores us, our Nanitas and Tatitas, and as it says the last decree to us of our Huey Tlatoani Cuahtemóctzin: These beautiful memories we continued them keeping in our hearts, when we danced we died, to return to be born and to have an encounter with we ourself, is the other I, the other face, is our genetic memory; some profane ones say " these Indians just jump, just jump ", but they do not know that these Indians give life him to the things... to the Universe, to live in harmony. We them Concheros are Mexican with Mexican thought.
 

Chimal- Pan said:
"WHILE THE WORLD EXISTS, NEVER FINISH THE FAME AND THE GLORY OF MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN"

IN-TLANEZTIA-IN-TONATIUH-MEXICA-TIHUI
 " The Sun is shining, ahead Mexicans"

 

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Xiuhcóatl (J.S.B)
FUNAAZ
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