Chiapas

Location: Southern Mexico

Regions: Central Valley, High lands, Southern frontier, Frailesca region,
Northern frontier, Jungle region, Sierra Socnonusco, and the Isthmus shore.

Dance Genres: Sones, Danzas, Zapateados, Rascapetates.

Before the arrival of the Spanish to this continent, the Chiapanecan or Mayan people celebrated and danced in honor of their gods and deities.  After the conquest, much of their folklore blended with the catholic religion and imposed new interpretations of their danzas.  This set of dances is from the municipality Chiapa de Corzo composed of the Tuxtla Gutierrez and Suchiapa regions.  The combined dances of this suite represent the variety of styles which include a waltz, a danza, and sones mestizos which depict a mixture of Mayan and Spanish-Catholic celebrations which include quinceañeras and festivities to the local saints.  These dances are played by a Marimba, a wooden xylophone, which is the utmost typical instrument in southern Mexico as well as northern Central America. 

Chiapas is a remote frontier of Maya temples, jungle an serene Pacific beaches.  More than a quarter of Chiapas’ four million people are of Maya descent, with a Mayan dialect as their first language.  This legacy, along with the Spanish influence, is apparent in their folkloric dance.  Ancient Chiapacorcenos honored the sun, Nombobi, in the last month of the Maya calendar; Nbarenyhicos danced through the town in carved masks, grand headdresses of ixtle, and capes.  In 1867, Spanish Catholics decided to supplant this solar celebration with Christian holy days, and a new story developed: It was said that Nbarenyhicos had miraculously cured a paralyzed Spanish boy – they had painted m asks to look like the boy and danced so delightfully that the boy was cured.  The ancient dances became known as La Danza para el Chico, or Dance for the Boy. In  modern festivities, thousands of Chiapacorcenos  dance, march, spin, and jump down the streets of Chiapa del Corzo, chanting “Long live Parachico Boys! Long live Chiapa del Corzo boys! Long live Saint Sebastian boys! Long livce Jesus Christ boy!”  They dance in the streets, pray for good fortune, crops, and the privilege to dance again.  Raices presents regional dances from Chiapa de Corzo, Suchiapa, and Tuxtla Gutierrez. 

Raíces incorporated these dances in 2007 under the instruction of Maestro Emilio Ruiz who is a current member of our company.

Raices presented their Chiapas Suite at world famous San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival at the SF Palace of Fine Arts in 2008.