RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 12.18. 25 THE VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE AND MATACHINES

The Virgin Guadalupe, Matachines, and Chicano Art Tradition

On Friday, December 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on San Antonio’s Westside hosted three distinct Matachines dance groups in honor of the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe. The dance is a blend of medieval and early modern Spanish and pre-conquest Aztec dance traditions.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Trinity Literature Professor Norman Cantu’s research shows that the Aztecs had their own version of the Matachines’ performance, noting that the dance varied depending on the identity and traditions of the performers. Cantu wrote, “The Azteca story revolves around a young virgin, Malinche, who tries in vain to get someone to slay the evil persona representing paganism.” El Monarca, the leader of the Matachines, eventually drives evil away. The killing of this villain symbolizes the acceptance of Christianity.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexican scholars believe the Spanish introduced the Matachines dance to Indigenous communities as a way to teach Christian doctrine through performance. In 1531, according to Catholic teachings, the Virgin Mary appeared in Mexico to a poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego, and she told him to call her Our Lady of Guadalupe. Over time, Azteca, New Mexico Pueblo, and Texas Coahuiltecan Indigenous groups merged Matachine traditions with their own ritual practices, cosmologies, and symbols related to the Virgin Mary.

Matachines, Danza Del Tepeyac at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

In many U.S. Southwest communities, the dance is generally associated with the Virgin of Guadalupe and is now most commonly performed in her honor on December 12.​​ Dancers typically perform in lines or formations wearing vividly colored, hybrid costumes that mix Spanish, Indigenous, and Mexican elements with headdresses, rattles, and shell-laden boots that sound with each step. The repertoire is organized into named sones (dance tunes), accompanied by drums.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexico, Spain’s newest colony in the New World, faced a crisis on many fronts in 1531. Ten years after the conquest of the Aztec empire, the Spaniards continued to wage war on Indian communities. The region surrounding Mexico City, which had numbered 1.5 million inhabitants in 1521 when the conquistador Hernan Cortés defeated the Aztecs, had been devastated by war and epidemics that reduced the native Aztec population to 70,000 by 1531. Every year of forced work in the encomiendas [landed estates] and mines significantly shortened the lives of thousands of Indigenous people.

Drummers for the Matachines Danza Del Tepeyac at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexico had the largest native population of the New World, and the Olmec and Mayan civilizations there were thousands of years old. Moreover, the Aztecs had sophisticated religious rituals dating back to 1325 when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico. During this colonial period, Spanish friars joined with the Spanish King’s Royal Armed Forces in destroying native temples and constructing new Catholic churches in their place.

The apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe on December 12, 1531, on the hills of Tepeyac, Mexico, signaled the beginning of a new spiritual era in the Americas. With the visitation of La Virgen, natives who had resisted Catholicism turned to the Brown Madonna as their predominant symbol of inspiration and proof that God listened to them.

Matachines, Danza Del Tepeyac at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Jacques Lafaye, author of the book Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe: The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness, noted that before the apparition, Catholic missionaries had little success converting the native population. Researchers partially attributed this lack of success to the Friars’ failure to teach natives the Spanish language, although in their assimilation efforts, the friars created colleges and schools for native children. However, most Indian families rejected the idea of becoming “Spanish.” Moreover, Cortés had rewarded many of his soldiers with encomiendas, the landed estates that came with free Indian labor, and the Indians were also required to pay tribute to the owners of the large estates and mines.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Courtesy of Jose Flores with guitar. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

In addition to describing the Spanish failure to assimilate the native population, Lafaye argued that nation-building required cultural harmony among the Spanish colonists regarding their identity. This thorny identity question was complicated by the arrogance of the initial Spaniards who arrived with Cortés. They considered themselves Spaniards first, people of the Iberian Peninsula. They sought and held all the important government and religious posts in the conquered territory. In justifying their authority to govern, these Espanoles declared themselves superior to the Creoles, the children of Spanish parents born in Mexico. The Espanoles expressed condescending views of racial mixing and especially viewed themselves as superior to the Indians and those of mixed races.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The French intellectual Lafaye linked the apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe to the emergence of a Mexican national consciousness. In essence, he viewed the incorporation of Catholicism made possible by the apparition not only as serving as a beginning of religious transformation but also as a key to the formation of the identity of the Mexican nation. The earliest mention of La Virgen de Guadalupe in Texas occurred in 1689 when Alonso de León, the Spanish governor of Coahuila, discovered and named the river 30 miles north of San Antonio the Río Guadalupe after La Virgen de Guadalupe.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexican historians note that La Virgen de Guadalupe became a unifying symbol for Mexican identity and nationalism during the Mexican Independence era [1810-1820]. This symbolism resonated with Mexican Tejanos during the wars against Spanish rule in Texas, such as in the Battle of Medina in 1813, one of the major battles against the Spanish forces fought near San Antonio. Over the last hundred years, La Virgen de Guadalupe has also been considered a protector of migrants, a role of immense significance today when migration is considered a pressing national issue.

Matachines at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The veneration of the Brown Virgin grows every day. The Mexico City Basilica, dedicated to the Virgin de Guadalupe, is the second most visited church in the world after the Vatican. In 2019, the Basilica in Mexico City recorded more than 11 million worshipers and visitors. Many of the Mestizo and Indian worshipers approach the Basilica on their knees, seeking respite and healing or offering gratitude for miracles bestowed by La Virgen. Visitors arrive by the thousands daily to pray before the tilma of Juan Diego with the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe. In the U.S. Southwest on December 12th, many Latinos, and especially Latina/Mexican immigrant

women, continue to celebrate the Brown Madonna with rosary prayers and red roses.

Theresa Ybanez, “Prayers to La Virgen from Immigrants and Refugees”. Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztaln. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

After viewing the Matachines dances at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where my parents were married and I was baptized, my wife, Harriett, and I drove across town to the Centro Cultural Aztlan to view the annual art exhibit dedicated to the Feast of the Virgen de Guadalupe. A large crowd gathered inside the spacious galleries. The Centro had invited vendors to sell their handmade objects in the hallways. In another large room, Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant served chicken mole in a brown sauce, tamales, frijoles, and arroz. Pan Ducle was the desert.

Héctor Garza, “Una Hermanosa Mañana.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztaln. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

This year’s art selection with the Virgen de Guadalupe theme was stunning. I stopped twice to see the wonderful artistry of Raul Servin, Theresa Ibanez, Hector Garza, Monica Saldana, Xavier Garza, Maria Ramirez, Alfredo Rodriguez, Manola Ramirez, Cris Escobar, Angelica Gomez-Mayorga, Bianca Arguellez-Garcia and her mother Rosemary T. Arguellez, and others.

María Ramírez, “Estrella del Mar”. Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztaln. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

I marvelled at the Floral installations of Henry de Leon and a breathtaking gown crafted with harmonious and colorful sequins by Veronica Prida. For the past twenty-five years, Centro Director Malena Cid-Gonzalez has curated an annual Virgen de Guadalupe art exhibit. As she greeted visitors and explained the significance of major works, I marveled at her mastery of Chicano art and her passion to help Chicano artists find a home to exhibit and sell their work. December 12th was a successful day for celebrating Latino traditions and faith.