Hermanitos Comanchitos (literally, ‘little brothers, Comanches’) comes from a song that was sung in Tomé, New Mexico, inviting visiting Nuhmunuh traders to dance, once peace had been achieved between them and Hispanos. The term “Comanche” was actually a disparaging term the Utes used for various Plains nations. In 1706 the Spanish adopted the term (136), but over time it became a broad cultural term with references far beyond the Nuhmunuh, as Lamadrid demonstrates. In other contexts the author describes, as in the town of Bernalillo, “los Comanchitos” is a metaphor that implies a group of like-minded “Indians” on a mission to be counted among the faithful at the birth of Christ, but with a typically indigenous sense of humor they steal the Infant Christ. There is a history, a story waiting to be told in rural New Mexico, of Hispanos who persevered in honoring their indigenous traditions, in spite of the low status associated with them. Lamadrid is the first to do justice to this story. He examines the intimate dynamics of this racial and cultural hybridity in New Mexico, noting that “the military annexation of New Mexico was consolidated practically overnight, but its psychological annexation to the American imagination is still in progress” (p. xiii). Lamadrid’s text deals with the complexities of a history that has not been preserved in books, but rather in visual spectacles that enact and embody deeply rooted sentiments and negotiate frustrations that words cannot adequately express. It is about people claiming a right to own a mixed heritage. The author draws on his own mixed “coyote” racial identity, as he does from cultural and literary theory and ethnography (5), in attempting to find answers to the many questions he poses.
The first three chapters form a prolonged discussion of intercultural conflict and various theoretical means by which the mestizaje (mixing) can be understood. The author then provides three chapters comprised of a range of case studies that show how many different relations there are between cultural self and cultural other, enacted in part through cultural mimesis. Of particular interest to students of literary folklore and ethnomusicology, the author provides complete community texts and repertoires, including music as well as textual and musical transcriptions. These are fascinating in their mixing of Pueblo and Spanish (and sometimes Kiowa) elements. The last chapter identifies the desire for peace as the underlying cultural motivation for the mimesis that has helped communities to reconcile their mixed ancestries. Lamadrid mentions also the local controversies that arose for the 1998 Nuevo México Cuarto Centenario observances, including the widely disseminated story of the removal of the right foot from the bronze statue of the colonizer Juan de Oñate by activist Indians.
Among the issues he discusses is the controversial status of his findings among contemporary Native activists, who are no different than the general population in their limited understanding of the complexity of mestizaje in New Mexico. Lamadrid compares Philip Deloria’s idea of “playing Indian” (referring to the “wannabe” phenomenon in Anglo American culture) with the idea of intercultural dialogue, referring to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of unconscious organic hybridity (13) and to Renato Rosaldo’s homogenous community (14) as he attempts to legitimize his subjects. Lamadrid interviews people from various New Mexican cultural backgrounds, both Indian and Hispano, as he deciphers the ways in which Hispanos perform their mixed identities in different locations throughout the state.
This project began as a “recovery project” (5) of a folk drama called Los comanches, which would lead Lamadrid to conduct ethnographic and historical research and piece together many stories told by participants and community scholars. This points to one of the book’s strengths, for there is a great deal of little-known regional history that is told as the work unfolds. Lamadrid occasionally relies on dated sources that speak against his own cultural understanding, however, as when he submits that “the only exception to this cultural blending is expressed in the Matachines… dances” (15, citing Ellis 1954). His footnote 9 (244) also asserts that “the matachines dance in the pueblos is considered to be secular…” (144), a debatable point. Some citations are incorrect, as are both title and year of this author’s dissertation. The transcriptions are not always accurate; they were meant to give a general idea of the musical line (237), but this causes confusion if you try to follow the transcriptions along with the CD examples. Lamadrid also appears to be under the impression that Native music is generally pentatonic (123, 127), a popular misconception. I assigned this book to doctoral students of performance in a seminar on New Mexican music. Interestingly, one mixed race student (Black and Japanese) was particularly intrigued, and one of her comments is useful here: “The book, on the whole, I felt was really wonderful, though I occasionally struggled with the somewhat free-form architecture of his chapters.”
In spite of some imperfections, however, it is clear that the text successfully demonstrates how, “over four centuries, the discourse of colonial power becomes a discourse of resistance” (25). Part of this success is due to the high level of personal engagement with the subject matter and with the people themselves, something that comes through in every chapter. The book has received the Chicago Folklore Prize (2004) and the Southwest Book Award (2005). The importance of his work was recognized through the American Folklore Society Américo Paredes Prize (2005), awarded for outstanding community engagement and for encouraging students and colleagues to work within their home communities. Also in recognition of his work, Nuhmunuh elders themselves recently met with Lamadrid at a symposium entitled “Comanches en Nuevo México,” where they gifted him a blanket. Many Comanche families in Oklahoma have ancestors linked to Mexican captives from New Mexico (Lamadrid p.c.).
Students of Latin American cultures, ethnomusicologists, folklorists, ethnic studies scholars, and anthropologists interested in performance or hybridity will all find this book highly relevant and interesting.
--------
[Review length: 982 words • Review posted on February 16, 2006]