May

Mexican Dances Step Across Cultures

by Eva Boynton on May 26, 2015

Female Mexican dancers in colorful costumes, showing one of many traditional Mexican dances that go across different cultures that make up Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Las Chiapanecas (The Women of Chiapas) whirl in an elegant tornado of color and tradition.
© Eva Boynton

One Stage, Many Colors

When you travel, timing is everything.

In a new city, any turn down a street can bring a surprise—like my walk down calle Miguel Hidalgo in Toluca, Mexico, that led me straight into a festival lit up with color, music, and dance. This was Toluca’s third Festival Cultural, highlighting National Teacher’s Day on May 15.

A single stage celebrated dances and music from around the world, showcasing performers of traditional Mexican dances side by side with those who embraced more modern influences. The event showed how Mexico goes across cultures to form an eclectic cultural identity.

Embracing the Present

Los niños (the kids) launched the festivities with flair. In colorful costumes, they performed dance routines inspired by movies, musicals, and—in this case—music by Christina Aguilera and Michael Jackson.

Young girls dressed in pink outfits dancing to jazz music, illustrating how Mexican dances can go across cultures. (Image © Eva Boynton)

A tip of the hat to JAZZ!
© Eva Boynton

Groups of performers, each from a different preschool or elementary school, garnered smiles and applause even when a child missed the cue or ran into a fellow dancer in a pirouette across the stage.

Ballarinas dancing in a group, showing how Mexican dances can go across cultures. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Ballet, originating in Europe and Russia, is a part of modern Mexico and
sometimes mixes with traditional dance.
© Eva Boynton

The dancers’ earnest effort, costumes, choreographed moves, and elaborate set changes demonstrated their dedication to the cultural celebration.

I had never imagined being at a Mexican festival singing along to Hakuna Matata, It’s a Hard Knock Life, and other familiar songs from The Lion King, Peter Pan, Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Chicago, and Cats.

Mexican girl performing a dance as the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz, showing how performers in Mexico go across cultures in Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

A pause in the performance by the scary Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz
© Eva Boynton

Yet, on this day at this Festival Cultural, jazz born in New Orleans and ballet originating in Europe seemed a natural part of modern Mexican traditions.

The performances celebrated these modern-day influences, and with a nod to the younger generations, they incorporated new colors of culture into Mexican tradition.

Crossing Paths with the Past

As Dorothy and Toto exited the stage, however, Aztec dancers entered the spotlight.

A shift in cultures, for sure. But as Mexico’s danzas folklóricas (folk or traditional dances) played out, it became apparent that these dances, from 31 different states, stepped across cultures and times themselves.

Each dance told a story of its origin and time, reflecting indigenous roots, local traditions, or historical events:

The Danza Azteca (Aztec Dance) comes from the state of Guerrero where Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor was laid to rest.

Traditional dancers dressed with feather headdresses, showing crossing cultures of Mexican tradition. (image © Eva Boynton)

Feather headdresses and the noisy seed leggings are part of the
traditional costumes worn for Aztec dances.
© Eva Boynton

Las Igüiris, with footsteps similar to the waltz, is a dance from Michoacán performed by women as a kind of bachelorette party. Such iconic dances have strong ties to indigenous culture since the region was less impacted by colonization.

Women dressed in red dresses and hats for a traditional Mexican dance, showing Mexican tradition. (image © Eva Boynton)

Even the petticoats worn for this dance are colorfully embroidered.
© Eva Boynton

During the 1800s, miners from South America migrated toward the California Gold Rush and stopped in Mexico to rest. Forms of Peruvian and Chilean dance, with their synchronous and passionate twirling of scarves, were adopted and changed by locals to create Chilena dances.

Women and men dancing in white and twirling scarves, showing Peruvian and Chilean influences on traditional Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Chilena dances, like “El Toro Rabón” (The Bull Without a Tail) or “La Iguana,”
(The Iguana) are named after animals found in the local environment.
© Eva Boynton

Dances from La Huasteca, the southern part of the state of Tamaulipas, were influenced by its neighbors (Nuevo Leon to the west and Texas to the north), including the leather outfits that resemble the charro suit.

Women and men dressed in cowboy-like outfits balancing bottles on their heads, showing influences of border culture on traditional Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

These dancers keep their rhythm while balancing jars on their heads.
© Eva Boynton

And because dances need music and movement, get a better feel for them from this video (5:11).

If video does not display, access it here.

A New View of Mexican Dances

Glued to my seat, I watched the dancers until Oh, I couldn’t see much longer! My eyes were killing me, and my legs had fallen asleep. But by the time I left I had a new understanding of what happens when people go across cultures.

Little did I know that by stumbling upon this festival I would get my own education in how a place can honor its past and present with national and international influences. It was a day to celebrate the vibrancy of Mexican dances and the ever-changing nature of cultural heritage.

And that was only my first day in town . . .

Festival Cultural 2015
© Eva Boynton

The Festival Cultural was sponsored by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Union of Educational Workers) as part of their efforts to encourage teachers to foster an understanding of Mexican heritage and culture in their students.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 3 Comments

Crossing Cultures/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Mexico

Apr

Five Sure-Fire Ways to Break the Language Barrier

by Eva Boynton on April 13, 2015

A circle of people's hands holding coffee on a table with an image of the world in the middle, showing the connections formed by breaking the language barrier. (Image © Wavebreak Media/Thinkstock )

Dive into cross-cultural connections by bringing a bridge language to the table.
© Wavebreak Media/Thinkstock

Find Your Own Lingua Franca

My best travel connections have had little to do with making a flight and everything to do with making friends.

Like many, I was intimidated by the idea of traveling in a country where my language is not spoken. But I took off anyway and found ways to communicate with local citizens, establishing a kind of lingua franca, or bridge language, that neither of us spoke.

Soon I was breaking the language barrier and making the kind of personal connections that become the best souvenirs. Here are my top five strategies.

1. Let Your Smile Do the Talking

India is a country of many languages (780 recorded by People’s Linguistic Survey). When I encountered Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, and other languages unfamiliar to me, I learned the power of a smile.

Drawing of a face on a plate with an apple and an orange slice for eyes and a banana for a mouth, showing how a smile can break the language barrier. (Image © Eva Boynton)

From child to adult, everyone responds to a smile.
© Eva Boynton

This first “Oh, I see” moment happened in Amritsar, in a nook from which I was drawing the Golden Temple. After 10 minutes, a crowd encircled me. My grand view of the temple had shrunk to a sliver of gold in a sea of legs.

Suddenly, the crowd dispersed, and I looked up to see a Sikh temple guard wearing an orange turban, blue uniform, and a stern expression. He was waving a spear.

After the last onlookers shuffled away, the guard met my eyes and his intimidating frown turned to a magnificent smile. I smiled back. He continued his guard’s walk around the temple, and I resumed drawing.

It continued like this for the next hour: crowd formed, guard passed by, spear waved, smiles exchanged. Our smiles went miles to establish a connection that I’ll always remember—a connection between people from opposite backgrounds across a cultural divide.

2. Describe with a Drawing

Getting directions in Calcutta is easy. Everyone is willing to give their two cents, offering hand gestures and a grand array of “right!” and “left!” But I have a knack for forgetting verbal instructions. And in India, the person who knows the way may well speak Hindi or Bengali.

My solution became scrap paper and napkin maps. This proved to be an inclusive method: anyone—English, Hindi, or Bengali speakers alike—could draw with me, sharing a pencil and clarifying meaning back and forth.

A hand holding a piece of paper with a map and another hand holding a pencil, showing a method of communication and breaking the language barrier. (image © Eva Boynton)

Always keep paper and pencil in your pocket—handy tools
for drawing lines, connecting people.
© Eva Boynton

Not only did this strategy break the language barrier, but it also broke the ice. What started as a request for directions ended up as a way to meet and enjoy new people.

3. Greet and Meet

Drawing of signpost with signs of "hello" in different languages, showing another way to break the language barrier. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Sign of a global citizen: using greetings like these in Swahili, Hindi, German, English, and Cherokee.
© Eva Boynton

My next sure-fire strategy is to meet people part-way.

When you visit another country, read up on its traditions, language, geography, and culture before you go, and learn words for common courtesies such as hello, goodbye, please, and thank you.

I find people are often pleased and surprised when you know phrases in their language. Often, they know some English and my hello opens the door to a further connection.

Europe is a tightly packed continent where one day on a train can mean crossing several countries (and languages). On a short trip, my efforts paid off even when I accidentally swapped languages.

On my first day in Italy, after visiting France and Spain, I thanked a waitress for dinner by stuttering, “Merci! Gracias! Thank you . . . Grazie!” My head was buzzing with different languages. Overhearing my bizarre effort, a table of locals invited me over and we talked until dawn about the flux of culture, language and travel in Europe. It was a night to remember.

4. Say It a Different Way

Traveling in Mexico, I relied on my rusty high school Spanish. There were times when, tongue-tied, I hit the wall. In an “Oh, I see” moment, I learned to try different ways to say the same thing.

My friend and I were at a market in Guadalajara shopping for dinner ingredients. The key was ground meat, and it was my job to find it. I searched my brain, but couldn’t find the Spanish words. At the meat counter, I asked for carne de hamburguesa (hamburger meat) and received a patty.

I took the patty to my friend, hoping it would suffice and I could avoid further chagrin. But no, he sent me and the patty back. I tried different descriptions: carne de espaguetis (spaghetti meat) and carne en tiras (meat in strips).

As I rambled on, the men behind the counter started guessing, and we began a hysterical game of charades. In this game, it was as important to listen as to speak.

A girl playing charades, illustrating a strategy to break the language barrier (Image © Eva Boynton)

When in doubt, try any words you know . . . and charades!
© Eva Boynton

Finally, we got to the answer together: carne molida de res. It felt like the buzzer went off—“Ding! Ding! Ding!“—and an announcer declared, “Step on up to accept your $10,000 prize!”

In the end, a little embarrassment was a small price to pay for the prize of connection. I returned to that meat counter throughout my stay in Guadalajara to visit, laugh, make mistakes, and buy carne molida de res.

#5 Make Friends with a Language Broker

When you meet fellow travelers or expats who speak your language, inquire what other languages they speak. This one question can widen your world. An invitation to a soirée where two people speak English, two speak French, and one speaks both languages means—thanks to the broker—everyone can communicate!

A drawing of tin cans connected by a string, demonstrating a way to break a language barrier with a language broker. (image/© Eva Boynton)

Call on a language broker to make connections.
© Eva Boynton

In Calcutta, I volunteered at one of Mother Teresa’s hospices. I learned by watching since neither patients, workers nor volunteers spoke English.

After several days of silently watching and doing, I met my language broker: a volunteer from the Canary Islands, bilingual in Spanish and French. We began a “telephone game” with the volunteers; from Spanish to French, French to German, German to Swiss, Swiss to Italian, Italian to Hindi.

Connecting the group through language brokers strengthened our team and friendships. We were a symphony of languages searching for the same rhythm.

Rewards of Bridging the Gap

The world is big and small at the same time. And the language barriers are real. Learning another language can take you farther into a culture, but try my five lingua franca strategies to move you out of the comfortable American bubble when you travel.

At the very least, you will crack the language barrier and come home with connections to people from around the world. That’s the everlasting souvenir.

Comment on this post below.

Eva Boynton 1 Comment

Crossing Cultures/Language & Culture

Sep

Mexican Culture: Moments of Note in Miniature

by Sheron Long on September 24, 2014

Miniature diorama of a harvest celebration opens a window into Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

Harvest diorama
© Sheron Long

How Long Can a Summer in Mexico Last?

A lifetime. When you step into another culture, rarely do you leave without life-changing, long-lasting experiences.

Certainly, that was the case during the summer I spent studying abroad in Mexico. One day, I stopped to admire this tiny scene of a harvest celebration—

the corn stalks scratching the sky,

the central beast of burden,

families thankful for the bounty of the crop.

I bought the miniature scene for the beauty of the Mexican folk art, but I came to love it for the thankful moment it symbolizes. A moment of note.

As life went on, I realized the significant impact of my immersion into Mexican culture. There had been many moments of note, many times to say, “Oh, I see.”

Mexican miniature showing a diorama of a kitchen scene and a traditional aspect of Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

Respect for Mexico’s Roots

Just as with people, I came to understand that a country’s life story gives shape to its present. And that is one reason cultures are different.

In 1492 when Columbus arrived, the indigenous people had built great civilizations, and they were already making miniatures. In the ruins at Teotihuacán and Monte Albán, for example, archaeologists uncovered tiny clay figurines of people and animals, little dishes, and diminutive buildings.

Map of Mexico with modern-day cities where Mexican culture and folk art still thrive. (Image © iStock)

Amid Mexico’s modern cities are the vestiges of great civilizations, such as
Teotihuacán outside Mexico City and Monte Albán near Oaxaca.
© iStock

For a country like Mexico, the arrival of the Europeans had a profound impact. The landing was not merely an important discovery, but rather the very birth of la raza, the beginning of something as personally significant as the Hispanic identity.

Just over 300 years later in 1810, Mexicans rose in revolt against Spain. Mexican folk art survived the constraints of the Spanish colonial rule and Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship that followed. After the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), however, when national pride swelled, the enduring tradition of artisanal crafts came to be seen as part of the national heritage.

Mexico today is a vibrant culture, both rural and cosmopolitan, with tough issues of drugs and corruption at its doorstep. It is also respectful of its rich origins, a place where arte popular (folk art) is part of the national identity.

Tiny in Form, Big in Appeal

Another moment of note—Mexican miniatures, small replicas of full-sized objects, are the epitome of handcrafts. Katrin Flechsig, in her book Miniature Crafts and Their Makers, gets you thinking about why they enchant us.

A large Mexican market basket and a tiny replica both represent Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

Could it be the playfulness of little objects? Or, could it be the very fact that they are frivolous and impractical? The artisans who make vases like the one below have to know they will never be used. Does that free them up to create?

A pink dahlia next to a miniature vase, crafted by a Mexican artisan and part of the folk art of Mexico. (Image © Sheron Long)

Whatever the reason, they attracted the eye of painter Frida Kahlo who displayed her miniatures and folk art in La Casa Azul (Blue House), the home where she was born and died in Coyoacán, now part of Mexico City. You can still see them there today. Perhaps they serve, as Flechsig notes about other modern-day collectors, as “an antidote to cultural memory loss.”

Close to Home

Often Mexican miniatures depict everyday objects used in the rhythm of life—a traditional metate for grinding corn . . .

A metate, or flat grinding stone in miniature, illustrating the work of Mexican artisans preserving Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

. . . or special vessels for cooking and carrying.

Copper baskets with intricate handles, the work of Mexican artisans creating miniatures that are part of Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

These objects may look small and simple, but they recall family life, one of the deepest and most important values in Mexican culture.

Miniature table set with a tiny basket of fruit and other household items, symbolizing the value of family time in Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

Miniatures speak to important values like family time during la comida,
the two-hour lunch in the middle of the day.
© Sheron Long

Made in Mexico

Just about any material is fair game for a miniature. In the dinner scene, a found object—the walnut—becomes the back of a guitar. Palm leaves are woven into tiny baskets, one holding ceramic fruit. A piece of metal makes a tiny strainer. It’s all up to the resourcefulness and the ingenuity of the artisan.

The maker of these finger-sized wooden masks found the bits of wood, considered their natural shapes, whittled a hollow in the back, and then carved and painted to create the fanciful animals.

Tiny wooden masks of a cat, dog, fox, wolf, and other animals, made by a miniaturist whose work reflects Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

A lover of literature and the arts must have made these symbols of culture, one from paper and the other from wood and string, both less than 1/2-inch tall.

Miniature book from paper and tiny guitar from wood are examples of the artisanal crafts of Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

When I think about the work involved—the manual skill and the diligence required, the certain tedium in putting the miniatures together—I wonder again about the payoff. These are little objects that will never be used.

And yet there was something about my encounter with Mexican culture that taught me to see them as quite worthwhile. The visual delight, the joy of play, the pride in a rich cultural history—these are big moments of note. And that gives miniatures a significance greater than what meets the eye.

Miniature plaster dove with a letter in its mouth, illustrating one type of folk art in Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)