UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Think With Your Feet : The Cultural Politics of Native Dance Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2rq4m7rp Author Yañez, Angélica María Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO “Think With Your Feet”: The Cultural Politics of Native Dance A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies by Angélica María Yañez Committee in Charge: Professor Curtis Marez, Chair Professor Luis Alvarez Professor Kirstie Dorr Professor Ross Frank Professor George Mariscal 2014 Copyright Angélica María Yañez, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Angélica María Yañez is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii DEDICATION Luna, Jayde, Candice, and Destiny iv EPIGRAPH Today we grapple with the need to thoroughly understand who we are—gifted human beings—and to believe in our gifts, talents, our worthiness and beauty, while having to survive within the constructs of a world antithetical to our intuition and knowledge regarding life’s meaning. Our vision must encompass sufficient confident that dominant society will eventually give credence to our ways, if the world is to survive. Who, in this world of the glorification of material wealth, whiteness, phallic worship would consider us holders of knowledge that could transform this world into a place where the quality of life for all living things on this plant is utmost priority; where we are all engaged in a life process that is meaningful from birth to death, where we accept death as organic to life, where death does not come to us in the form of one more violent and unjust act committed against our right to live? Ana Castillo v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………………iii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...iv Epigraph…………………………………………………………………………………...v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………vii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….x Abstract of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………xi Introduction: Topic on the Cultural Politics of Danza Azteca in the United States………1 Chapter1: Dancing to Remembering: Chicano and Native Relations in the Cultural Circuit……………………………………………………………………………………28 Chapter 2: Danza Azteca as an Alternative Community Pedagogy: Cultural Movements and Oppositional Consciousness………………………………………………………....72 Chapter 3: Women Leaders of the Danza Azteca Movement…….……………….........111 Epilogue: Sacrifice My Heart: Danza Azteca Style in the Streets……………………...139 References………………………………………………………………………………168 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure I.1 Locations of ethnographic study on Danza Azteca in the Southwest 2007- 2014………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Figure 1.1 Alejandro Marez (left) and Mac Lopez (right) Powwow Chula Vista, CA 2011 (Yañez)……………………………………………………………………………..42 Figure 1.2 Powwow dancers join Danza circle for the Friendship Dance Chula Vista, CA 2011(Yañez)………………………………………………...……………………….43 Figure 1.3 Racial Triangulation amongst white/Native Americans/Mexicans in the Present Moment………………………………………………………………………….52 Figure 1.4 Four direction ritual, Pala Reservation 2012 (Yañez)………………………..63 Figure 1.5 Friendship Dance, Pala Reservation 2012 (Yañez)…………………………..66 Figure 1.6 Pala Reservation 2012; note dance leader with microphone (Yañez)………..66 Figure 1.7 “Indian Taco” sign at Powwow (Yañez)……………………………………..68 Figure 2.1 Xilonens at ceremonial stations with Danza elder Señora Cobb (Rodriguez)……………………………………………………………………………....95 Figure 2.2 Xilonens at ceremonial stations with elder Crowbear (Rodriguez)…………..96 Figure 2.3 Xilonen Mentors (Rodriguez)…..…………………………………………...100 Figure 2.4 Danzante dancing for Day of the Dead 2013 (Dixon)………………………109 Figure 3.1 “Faceless Woman with UFW Flag” Chicano Park Mural, San Diego, CA (Yañez)………………………………………………………………………………….113 Figure 3.2 Donna Vigil-Castañeda San Diego, CA 2011 (Yañez)……………………..136 Figure 3.3 Beatrice Zamora-Aguilar San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)……………………137 Figure 3.4 Earthy Montiel Sacramento, CA 2013 (Yañez)…………………………….138 Figure E.1 Red Bird touching Danza drum in San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)………….147 Figure E.2 Chief Looking Horse at Danza ceremony in México City (Rodriguez)……147 vii Figure E.3 Yolanda M. Lopez, 1978……………………………………………………148 Figure E.4 Velacion Ceremony, San Ysidro, CA July 2012 (Yañez)……….………….148 Figure E.5 Velacion (Rodriguez)…………………..…………………………………...149 Figure E.6 Florencio Yescas (unknown)……………………………………………….150 Figure E.7 Florencio Yescas, San Diego, CA (Yañez)……..…………….…………….150 Figure E.8 “Modern Day Mexica” San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)…………...…….…...151 Figure E.9 James Luna “Half-Indian/Half-Mexican” 1991………………………….....152 Figure E.10 Female Danzante Holding Picket Sign in Los Angeles, CA (unknown)….153 Figure E.11 Police Officers at Chicano Park Day, San Diego, CA 2011 (Yañez)……..154 Figure E.12 “Barrio Logan” San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)……………………………155 Figure E.13 Powwow, Chula Vista, CA 2011 (Yañez)………………………………...156 Figure E.14 “Cool” Chicano Park, San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)……………………..157 Figure E.15 “Proud” Chicano Park, San Diego, CA 2012 (Yañez)……….....................157 Figure E.16 “Pan de Muerto” Pro’s Ranch Market, New Mexico 2012 (Yañez)…....…158 Figure E.17 Young Girl with Muertos Face Paint (unknown)….………………………159 Figure E.18 Young Danzante dancing for Day of the Dead Celebration……...……….159 Figure E.19 Dad carrying child, Pala Indian Reservation 2012 (Yañez)……………….160 Figure E. 20 Woman Drummer, Gina Carmelo Los Angeles, CA (unknown)…...…….161 Figure E.21 Young Women, Danzantes San Jose, CA (Rodriguez)…...……………….162 Figure E.22 Xilonen Ceremony (Rodriguez)……………………….…………………..163 viii Figure E.23 “Toddler” Danzante, San Diego, CA (Yañez)…………………………….164 Figure E.24 “Young Female” Danzante, San Francisco, CA (Rodriguez)……………..164 Figure E.25 “Young Woman” Danzante, CA (Rodriguez)……………………………..165 Figure E.26 “Abuela” Danzante, México (Rodriguez)…………………………………166 Figure E.27 “Warrior Women” CA (Rodriguez)………….……………...………….....171 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In no particular order I would like to thank: Arturo J. Castillo, Rudy Guevara, Stevie Ruiz, Jennie Luna, Veronica Valadez, Milo Alvarez, Mario Aguilar, Beatrice Zamora-Aguilar, Donna Vigil-Castañeda, Earthy Montiel, Carlos Castañeda, Tomas Lopez, Sharon Dominguez, Gloria Muñoz, Xuan Santos, Candice Rice, Ofelia Montoya, Gustavo Rodriguez, Kirstie Dorr, Ross Frank, Luis Alvarez, George Mariscal, Gabriela Reza Muñoz, Esmeralda Sanchez, Tema Quinonez, Emma Aramburo, Monica Mendez, Daisy Rodriguez, Nicole Aramburo, and Christopher Aramburo. I am deeply indebted to the people that spent their valuable time with me and allowed this project to flourish with their experiences, politics, beliefs, and most of all their love for Danza. Finally, I want to thank the creator for my life and if I forgot to mention anyone please forgive me. x ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “Think With Your Feet”: The Cultural Politics of Native Dance by Angélica María Yañez Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego 2014 Professor Curtis Marez, Chair Drawing upon seven years of extensive ethnographic research in multiple regions in the U.S. Southwest, this dissertation presents a qualitative, transregional study of the contemporary indigenous practice of Danza Azteca in the United States. This study is driven by several questions. How do Chicanos/Mexicans enact political agency in the face of white supremacy? Put another way, what are the ways that marginal communities organize themselves to resist the destructive legacies of colonialism? Critical analysis of Danza Azteca asks, what types of political narratives are embedded in Native dances, xi thus forcing us to ask in more compelling ways, what stories do Native dances tell? How is Native dance an alternative sphere that combats power relations within dominant society? How do these ceremonial dances contest power and historical oppression? What do they signify and how do they complicate the boundaries of colonial history and dominant paradigms? I began with the assumptions that Native dance has the potential to be political and could be a form of oppositional consciousness but how? I set out to discover how people organized not just as victims but as agents, and I let my interactions within the cultural circuit of Danza guide parts of the research. This research offers an analysis of the political, cultural, and spiritual significance of the dance form. In the chapters that follow, Danza Azteca is an all encompassing space of political possibility that connects seemingly disparate sites such as formal education, Mexican women’s leadership and group interactions amongst Native Americans and Mexicans in the U.S. and México. Ultimately, Danza Azteca is a practice that bridges Native spirituality and politics. xii Introduction: Topic on the Cultural Politics of Danza Azteca in the United States Drawing upon seven years of extensive ethnographic