Ruth Hellier-Tinoco’s book, Embodying Mexico, is an ambitious interdisciplinary portrayal of two iconic P’urhépecha traditions from the state of Michoacán: La Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of Old Men, or the Old Men’s Dance) and El Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). Throughout the text, Hellier-Tinoco aims to tie both traditional practices to issues of tourism, nationalism, performance, authenticity, indigenous identity, embodiment, representation, appropriation, transnationalism, and globalization, among other topics. Through the examination of the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men, Hellier-Tinoco argues that both traditions were and “are appropriated for, and disseminated within, collections of embodied activities and visual imagery for performing Mexico and Mexicanness” (3). She supports her argument by analyzing historical documents, live performances, postcards, films, photographs, academic and non-academic journals, tourist guidebooks, dance companies, newspapers, marketing materials, exhibits, objects, and experiences, in order to “examine the activities and strategies of nationalist and tourist performism by tracing and analyzing the trajectory of The Old Men and Night of the Dead, from the immediate postrevolutionary years through to the present day” (27).
The thirteen chapters of the book are divided into three parts. The book’s first part, Setting the Scene: Many Mexicos, is comprised of two chapters that lay out the context (geographical area), analytical framework (a three-element approach: art, institution, and people), methodology (participant-observation, interviews, and archival research), and the theoretical approaches (nationalism, ethnicity, identity, tourism, performance and performism, and embodiment). In the first chapter, Hellier-Tinoco describes the geographical location of La Danza de los Viejitos and El Día de los Muertos, the community of Jarácuaro, and the Island of Janitzio, respectively.
As a member of the group “Los Purépechas de Jarácuaro,” the author had the opportunity to learn, perform, record, and share the day-to-day lives of the other members. This experience offered Hellier-Tinoco a unique opportunity to observe and participate in the Dance of the Old Men as a member of the group. While highlighting the importance of this particular dance in the formation of a Mexican national consciousness, the author is quick to point out that the Dance of the Old Men is a national dance but it’s not considered the national dance (this “honor” is conferred on the jarabe tapatio) (17). However, this particular dance tradition, according to Hellier-Tinoco, “is part of a tradition of nationalistic and touristic folklore begun in the 1920s and still in full flow in the twenty-first century” (20). Similarly, the Day of the Dead, another touristic attraction, has also played an important role in the formation of Mexicanness, or the representation and/or embodiment of Mexico. As for the tradition of the Day of the Dead that takes place on the island of Janitzio in Lake Pátzcuaro, Hellier-Tinoco is interested in the visual representations (mainly of the kneeling women besides the graves) and how those representations are considered an embodiment of Mexico.
In the second chapter, Hellier-Tinoco tries to unpack the main theoretical concepts she’ll use throughout the rest of the book: nationalism, identity, ethnicity, tourism, performance, embodiment, and dance and music. While she acknowledges that each of these concepts deserves its own book, or at least its own chapter, Hellier-Tinoco argues that all these concepts are necessary, as part of discursive communities, in order to “document and discuss many of the processes, events, lives, and activities involved” in the Day of the Dead and in the Danza de los Viejitos, which were “deployed as public spectacle practices and iconic referents within multifarious nationalistic and touristic contexts” (34). One of the interesting contributions of this text is the concept of performism, which is different from performance/perform in that performism “encompasses matters of process, practice, doctrine, and theory” whereas performance is “associated with accomplishment” (38). Therefore, with the concept of performism, Hellier-Tinoco aims to “foreground doctrines, policies, programs, and processes of shaping and constructing a multifaceted matrix of performed significations and iconic referents, in a spectrum from micro to macro contexts” (38).
The second part of the book, which encompasses chapters three to ten, aims to trace ninety years of performism of the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men. Chapter 3 provides a superficial historical, political, and ideological trajectory of Mexico from the Conquest to the Mexican Revolution, in order to contextualize the nation’s postrevolutionary period. Also, in this chapter, Hellier-Tinoco examines issues of ethnicity, race, nationalism, folklore, education, music, theater, and dance. Chapter 4 traces the process of incorporation of the local (Janitzio and Jarácuaro) into the national by examining documentation produced after state official visits to Janitzio for the Day of the Dead, featuring theatrical events representing the Dance of the Old Men and the Day of the Dead in the 1920s. Chapter 5 centers on how Lake Pátzcuaro was conceptualized as a touristic attraction and “a location for the study and incorporation of indigenous peoples” during the 1930s (89). In the following chapter, Hellier-Tinoco focuses “on two staged performances as exemplars of the state-sponsored, theatricalized, and folkloric framework that incorporated both Lake Pátzcuaro and Mexico City-based performers” (100). Making use of a didactic book and one government-sponsored event in Arizona, the author also discusses how the Dance of the Old Men has crossed multiple borders, not only inside national borders, but also into the United States. In chapter 7, Hellier-Tinoco examines the period from 1940 to 1968, tracing the development of indigenismo politics, and the role of the government in imagining indigenous people and promoting the Dance of the Old Men and the Day of the Dead at local and national levels.
The eighth chapter opens with the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, and traces the shift in nationalism politics in the Mexican state so as to “discuss the ever-increasing contexts in which the Old Men and Night of the Dead were deployed after 1968, and the consolidation of their roles as embodiments of Mexico” (144). In the first part of the chapter, the author outlines the development of public policy relating to indigenous politics, music, and dance, and this is followed by a discussion on tourism and touristic activities developed around and/or for the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men. By analyzing live and recorded stage events, publications, and presentations by United States’ dance companies, chapter 9 expounds on the multifarious forms of representations of the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men at national and international levels. The final chapter of the second part, chapter 10, returns its gaze to the P’urhépecha area, to analyze current representations and performances of the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men. In this chapter, Hellier-Tinoco is especially interested in issues of reappropriation and revitalization of the P’urhépecha culture, as showcased by the P’urhépecha Artistic Festival of Zacán.
The third part of the book, Embodiment, Photographs, and Economics, consists of the last three chapters of the book. Chapter 11 centers on issues of embodiment, reception, signification, and communication. Hellier-Tinoco is especially interested in the “constructed nature of the human body as signifier in relations to indigenousness and the people of Lake Pátzcuaro” (199). Chapter 12 continues exploring issues of embodiment, but focusing on visual representations (postcards, advertising, films, exhibits) of indigenous/P’urhépecha bodies in relation to the Day of the Dead and the Dance of the Old Men in the twenty-first-century. The last chapter of the book, besides trying to tie together all the theoretical and conceptual threads presented throughout the book, addresses the consumption of indigenous bodies and culture through folk culture. In addition, Hellier-Tinoco wishes to “highlight some of the inherent contradictions, dichotomies, and paradoxes rather than reduce the complexities to simple theoretical equations” (239).
Hellier-Tinoco closes the book with an epilogue that further showcases the importance and significance of the Dance of the Old Men and the Day of the Dead as embodiments of Mexico: a minimalist sculpture of the Dance of the Old Men in the Mexican Pavilion in the World’s Fair in Shanghai, China; a Halloween costume of the Dance of the Old Men, ready to be purchased in a Mexican Wal-Mart; and a representation of the Dance of the Old Men by a folklórico dance company from Santa Barbara, California. Hellier-Tinoco concludes that, as “global movements and local contexts interface…The Old Men and Night of the Dead will continue to perform their roles in generating reactions and experiences” (258)
In addition to the thirteen chapters and epilogue, the book has three appendices, where Hellier-Tinoco briefly describes the choreography and music of the Dance of the Old Men, and lists all her interviewees, institutional support, and governmental institutions and departments that aided her research. Moreover, the book is also accompanied by a website, where one can hear the music, see videos of performances of the dances, and view some of the photographic material used by the author for her analysis. The author has marked throughout the text where the reader can access the website to listen to tracks or watch the videos being discussed in order to help enhance the experience of reading this text.
While this ambitious book can only present a panoramic and somewhat general view of the complexity of the Dance of the Old Men and the Day of the Dead, Hellier-Tinoco’s work is a solid case study of two iconic traditional practices of Michoacán’s P’urhépecha region that can serve as an introduction for undergraduate students learning about Latin American, and particularly Mexican, festivals, dance, music, and cultural/national embodiment.
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[Review length: 1581 words • Review posted on October 3, 2012]