{"title":"Aztec Dance Along the Ruta de Cortés: A Search for New Ethnic Identities","authors":"Kathleen Ann Myers","doi":"10.1353/hsf.2014.0032","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"DUrIng the course of my research on colonial topics during the last three decades, I was repeatedly struck by the eagerness and passion of Mexicans to talk about the conquest and its legacy in Mexico today. I was also struck by Mexico’s rich layering of visual imagery – produced over millennium by multiple ethnic groups and conquests. In 2006, I began exploring a new project based on two working hypotheses: first, that Mexicans of all walks of life can shed light on how the reality and perception of the Spanish conquest informs current traditions, identities, and debates about Mexico’s future; second, that visual imagery from both historical and contemporary sources can add a crucial element to this testimony. Working with a photographer and archival image researcher (Emmy award winner, rich remsberg), we began consulting renowned Mexican scholars in the fields of archeology, ethnography, history and political science; interviewing people on the street, in buses, stores, museums, archeological sites, cafés, and festivals; and photographing churches, markets, ancient monuments, street scenes and locating visual archives. The resulting project, In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City, seeks to transform how traditional disciplines in the humanities have approached modern Mexico by combining oral and visual histories with a focus on the presence of the past in Mexico today.1 From 2006 to 2010, I conducted nearly 100 interviews with Mexicans of all walks of life. Each trip focused on the intersection of place, people, and history in one of three distinct geographical areas along the Ruta de Cortés, the famous route taken by Hernán Cortés and his army on his march from the coast of Veracruz to Tenochtitlan. Each area (Veracruz, Tlaxcala-Cholula, Mexico-Tenochtitlan) has its own set of diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural and historical characteristics. I asked everyone I interviewed the same four basic questions: What do you think about Aztec dance along the ruta de Cortés 157","PeriodicalId":42695,"journal":{"name":"HISPANOFILA","volume":"171 1","pages":"157 - 180"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2015-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/hsf.2014.0032","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"HISPANOFILA","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/hsf.2014.0032","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
DUrIng the course of my research on colonial topics during the last three decades, I was repeatedly struck by the eagerness and passion of Mexicans to talk about the conquest and its legacy in Mexico today. I was also struck by Mexico’s rich layering of visual imagery – produced over millennium by multiple ethnic groups and conquests. In 2006, I began exploring a new project based on two working hypotheses: first, that Mexicans of all walks of life can shed light on how the reality and perception of the Spanish conquest informs current traditions, identities, and debates about Mexico’s future; second, that visual imagery from both historical and contemporary sources can add a crucial element to this testimony. Working with a photographer and archival image researcher (Emmy award winner, rich remsberg), we began consulting renowned Mexican scholars in the fields of archeology, ethnography, history and political science; interviewing people on the street, in buses, stores, museums, archeological sites, cafés, and festivals; and photographing churches, markets, ancient monuments, street scenes and locating visual archives. The resulting project, In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City, seeks to transform how traditional disciplines in the humanities have approached modern Mexico by combining oral and visual histories with a focus on the presence of the past in Mexico today.1 From 2006 to 2010, I conducted nearly 100 interviews with Mexicans of all walks of life. Each trip focused on the intersection of place, people, and history in one of three distinct geographical areas along the Ruta de Cortés, the famous route taken by Hernán Cortés and his army on his march from the coast of Veracruz to Tenochtitlan. Each area (Veracruz, Tlaxcala-Cholula, Mexico-Tenochtitlan) has its own set of diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural and historical characteristics. I asked everyone I interviewed the same four basic questions: What do you think about Aztec dance along the ruta de Cortés 157
期刊介绍:
HISPANÓFILA appears three times a year. The journal accepts essays on any literary, linguistic, or cultural topic dealing with the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking worlds. Articles may be written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese but cannot exceed 25 type-written pages. Previously published work and work under consideration by other journals should not be submitted.