Mexican Folkloric Ballet
I tried to distance myself from being a Mexican for a bit. Tried to look and listen to this event as if I was from another culture and imagine what would my impressions be if I wasn't be able to understand Spanish at all.
The opening act was the splendour and the fall of the Mexica Empire. Men with rattles on their feet danced to the four cardinal points of the world. At the end, several men carry a fainted man by the arms and legs as they supposedly take his heart out. A delicate smell of incense filled the auditorium.
Next act was the music of the Independence period, the background was the facade of a Pulquería where people from the town gathered to drink and dance. Some of them were swirling around with glasses on their hands, singing and falling down. It all ended up in a quarrel and a policeman came over as he chased everyone out of the stage.
A beautifully lit scene came after. Peasants were working the land at dawn. The music was soft, painful, somber somehow.
A simple room with a central chandelier lit everyone up. Some chairs were arranged in a certain way and elegantly attired people waltzed around them. It's the Porfiriato period. A period where everything French seemed so chic to upper classes in Mexico.
Peasants from the other scene (with guns now) broke into the party. The Revolution is here! The Adelitas courageously marched behind their men.
La Bamba started playing (not the Ritchie Valens version, of course). The woman got closer to the man at the middle of the song and untied his red belt from underneath his shirt. He spun around until they end up grabbing both sides of the belt. They set it on the floor and danced around it. Then with one foot, both started moving the belt around as they kept dancing. She finally lifted the belt from the floor and both displayed a bow they made together.
I couldn't complete my mission. It's impossible to merely describe things as an outsider when you live in your country. I could use words like: perennial celebration, barbaric, violent, intense, joyous, melancholic, sensuous... Yet, when your feet start moving to the beat of the songs, you know you can't be detached from memories of your childhood, travelling to towns while eating snowballs, walking through plazas, sleeping under big moons at beaches on teen years.
Mexico is beautiful. It really is. People know how to be warm and simple. I wasn't feeling very patriotic these last few months and the only "grito" or celebratory shout-out for my country I can imagine making is for Peña Nieto's resignation. But I purposefully went to see this so I would stop looking at worn out sole of a shoe and appreciate the goodness from what we are made of too.
The opening act was the splendour and the fall of the Mexica Empire. Men with rattles on their feet danced to the four cardinal points of the world. At the end, several men carry a fainted man by the arms and legs as they supposedly take his heart out. A delicate smell of incense filled the auditorium.
Next act was the music of the Independence period, the background was the facade of a Pulquería where people from the town gathered to drink and dance. Some of them were swirling around with glasses on their hands, singing and falling down. It all ended up in a quarrel and a policeman came over as he chased everyone out of the stage.
A beautifully lit scene came after. Peasants were working the land at dawn. The music was soft, painful, somber somehow.
A simple room with a central chandelier lit everyone up. Some chairs were arranged in a certain way and elegantly attired people waltzed around them. It's the Porfiriato period. A period where everything French seemed so chic to upper classes in Mexico.
Peasants from the other scene (with guns now) broke into the party. The Revolution is here! The Adelitas courageously marched behind their men.
The final scene showed a tropical background. People from the coast were wearing their traditional attire. The women flirted audaciously with the men, as they followed them around trying to get closer each time they spun around. Everyone yelled and whistled.
Mexico is beautiful. It really is. People know how to be warm and simple. I wasn't feeling very patriotic these last few months and the only "grito" or celebratory shout-out for my country I can imagine making is for Peña Nieto's resignation. But I purposefully went to see this so I would stop looking at worn out sole of a shoe and appreciate the goodness from what we are made of too.
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