Friday, 18 January

We had Tuesday and Wednesday off; later on tuesday I bought some enamel cookware for use in a music bit. I found a pot with a lid, and a large cup, that both have two different notes, if you strike them on the bottom or on the sides. The pot lid has a nice bell tone. Between the three things, I can come up with a convincing set of major triads over which I can sing "La Paloma" (!)

On Wednesday, I went to Chiapa de Corzo, the ancient pre-columbian capitol of the region. There is a festival there every January that is pretty legendary for street dancing, masks and even transvestites. I was told that my best chance to find a traditional mask would be there.

It turns out that this was not the best day to go, but it was my only chance; there was apparently less dancing and performance than other days this week. And while I found some masks, they were way out of my price range (the good ones were 3000 pesos, or just less than US$300.) Some not-so-good ones were 1200 pesos, which was still out of my price range... The main mask used in this festival is the Parachico, which is a bearded man's face, made with a fair amount of naturalism — it looks to me like a variant on the "Cristiano" mask that is common all over Mexico. There were some Jaguar masks and some bull masks also that were much cheaper (350 pesos), but I wasn't terribly taken with them; they were all made with careful attention to naturalism, and I suppose I wanted something rougher: the dangers of expectations! I almost bought a bull mask, but decided that for my purposes, I would do better to make one of my own this summer.

The bull mask was intriguing because right as I arrived at the Zócalo in Chiapa de Corzo, I heard snare drums and fife--and down the street came a parade of little girls and young women in bright, flowery dresses, accompanied by boys in sarapés and Parachico masks. Three drummers and one flutist were with them. But out in front was a boy with a bull puppet over him — exactly like the bumba-meu-boi puppets I saw in Brazil, and like the ones I will be working with in Cavalo Marinho! the puppet was a long half-cylinder representing the body, and at the front was attached one of the bull masks.

I had, just the day before, seen a video that Rudi had of Tsotsil indians doing such a dance, and wondered what the connection was with Bumba-meu-boi, and whether the dance was pre-contact or post-contact. If it was pre-contact, what were the indigenous cattle cultures in the Americas? If post-contact, what is the connection to Spanish bullfighting?

Anyway, here was a real live bull dance. Pretty cool. There were a few others throughout the late morning, all of which had the informal vibe of a Maracatu procession. And the fife-and-drum soundrack was a lot like Otha Turner's music from the American South... cool connections, all...

The afternoon wore on and the dances seemed to die away. I needed a siesta, myself, so I headed back to San Cristóbal.....

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On Thursday we had a gig in Rudi's neighborhood--the trendy new suburb of Huitepec las Palmas, three kilometers northwest of San Felipe, the last barrio of San Cristóbal proper along the Pan-American Highway. This was a show at the local elementary school for about 60 kids, all under the age of 10 or 11. The show itself was notable mainly for being kind of slow and lazy. Clearly we were out of practice and a little rusty after three days off. But I made the discovery that until I get completely out of costume, I can't act like a normal human being--the kids see a clown. I had put on the pink suit at Rudi's house and put clothes on over it; them I put on my nose, diaper and tutu behind the outhouse on the school grounds. But when the show was over, the kids chased me over to the outhouse, and while I got the nose, diaper and tutu off, and the other clothes on, the kids could still see the link suit and wouldn't stop taunting me. I was buzzing a bit from the performance and played along.... Rudi was talking with the faculty, so I had time to kill, and the kids were relentless (and apparently had nothing better to do than crowd around me and try to pull my pants down.) So I chased them some, but it was endless. I couldn't get them to stop. After a bit I tore off the outer clothes and chased them, which they enjoyed, but there was no way out until Rudi was done talking.... kind of uncomfortable. But nice to know that I can just play with a mob of kids. They're creeped out, but a little titillated by me; it's fun developing a scary-goofy relationship with them. But I have to have something to do to get out of it. They're relentless.

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Today, Friday, we had a gig at Melel Xojobal, a daycare-and-advocacy organization for homeless and indigent kids in San Cris. They are also sponsoring our show tomorrow in front of the Cathedral.

The kids here were between the ages of 1 and 4, which was very different. It was really hard to get audience volunteers who would stay onstage; one girl was actually really funny in that during the hat routine, when Rudi is trying to get her to pass a hat under her leg or around her back, she would just angrily throw it on the ground. Which was very funny. But she didn't get that she was supposed to imitate him, and she ended up crying and running offstage, as did two other kids. Very difficult. But the "slinky" routine, in which I put on a big piece of reflective, flexible tubing and move it like a Mummenshanz body mask, went really well; Rudi had encouraged me to really play it. And after 5 shows, I'm getting the hang of it. Too bad tomorrow is our last...

After the show we sat on tiny chairs and had lunch with the kids. They're all so young, and many will be below 5 feet tall when they're adults, so I felt like an absolute giant; they were also really hard to converse with — not that I have an easy time with that anyway. But I can usually exchange names with kids. I think some of these kids don't even speak Spanish at home--they speak Tsotsil. So it was weird, being this giant smiling stupidly at kids who just stared back curiously. I suppose they were also trying to process who I was, compared with the pink guy they'd been watching. Very strange.

Tomorrow I debut the music bit... Wish me luck.