Serenity, meditation, and resistance, together in a Dance of the Pen – it Happened in Oaxaca

Photography: CARMEN LETICIA PACHECO

VILLA DE ZAACHILA, Oax. (sucedióenoaxaca.com).- With the evolutions of the Dance of the Feather reaches serenity and meditation, resistance, and decolonization, argues Ivan Cruz Lopez, a member of the Dance of the Pen Cocijoeza and teacher of children’s dance group of the Dance of the Pen of Zaachila,

In the Dance of the Pen “do not represent the death of Moctezuma, because the children do not they can show that they come from a vanquished people,” adds the dancer, who in addition is engaged in the design of plumes.

To date, he notes, has been traced to a historical document dating from 1870, where it is recorded that this dance was already running at that time by the inhabitants of Zaachila, “my great-grandfather Juvenal Vargas was dancing,” he said.

For the inhabitants of Zaachila the Dance of the Pen is not a graceful evocation of the past, a tribute, “with the dance show the kids that were magnificent the conditions of our people, both in their political organization, as in their system of food and health

In this municipality, the traditional Dance of the Pen was never taken as an expression of defeat, tribute and domination of the periphery to the center, is represented as a sign of revolution and resistance against the political domination centralist, stressed the interviewee, and added that with its implementation, does not try to rescue the culture of the past, “but that the culture in the present to rescue us”.

Convened by the municipal authority as part of the celebrations leading up to the Guelaguetza, in front of the theater Zaachila 600 years, to the 17:00 hours, will be held this Friday 14 the meeting Dance of the Pen Monumental with the participation of groups of adults and children of Cuilapam de Guerrero, San Bartolo Coyotepec, San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya, Trinidad Zaachila, San Martín Tilcajete, Santa Ana del Valle, Teotitlán del Valle and Villa Zaachila.

The dancer said that in this season of Guelaguetza is presented on demand of admission of boys and girls who want to participate because they see the diffusion in social networks, which gives rise to the coexistence between tradition and modernity.