CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



145 



Usually the dancer picks one of his existing 

 godmothers whom he likes. The godmother 

 dresses the dancer and takes care of his cos- 

 tume, keeping it in her house at night. 



The negritos wear a regular "citified," catrin 

 costume, that is, dark-colored trousers and a 

 woolen sack coat and shoes. They wear a 

 black wooden mask but with European type 

 features. The mask is decorated with many 

 silk ribbons fastened to the top of the mask and 

 hanging down over the head and nearly to the 

 ground behind the dancer. The ribbons are 

 about 2 inches wide and are of many colors. 

 As they are 7 meters long, each ribbon is looped 

 down and back two or three times. There is 

 some competition among the dancers to have 

 the most ribbons, and wealthy young men may 

 wear as many as 24. "Earrings" ai'e suspended 

 from the ears, and a number of strings of 

 beads are worn. Gloves are worn (pi. 6, lower 

 left). 



other (fig. 16). Occasionally each pair of 

 negritos will walk to the head of the line and 

 back while the two recite their part of the 

 relato. 



The teaching of the relato and of the dance 

 is done by a specialist hired for the occasion by 

 the carguero. The best-known specialist is 

 Gregorio Castillo, although he was not hired in 

 1940. Castillo also teaches the dance of the 

 viejos, Europeos or Espafioles, as he prefers to 

 call it, and was hired to teach the group in 1941. 

 He had been teaching the dances for 28 years 

 (in 1940). His relates he wrote himself. He 

 secured many relatos locally and also sent to 

 Mexico City and Guadalajara for others, but 

 he liked none of them. (But several people 

 said they were very tired of Castillo's relatos, 

 which have been the same for 20 years and 

 which they felt were not very good anyway.) 

 Castillo feels that the ncgrito dance is espe- 

 cially fine and that the negritos of Cheran are 





N 

 ^ 







). 



p^ 



Figure 16.- — Figures executed in the negrito dance. P indicates pastores. 



/ 



The costume is provided by the dancer. 

 Part is rented and part is purchased. In the 

 case of one negrito dancer in 1940, the follow- 

 ing expense v/as involved : 



Mask (rent) $0.50 



Ribbons (rent) 8.50 



Suit (rent) 6.00 



Shirt (purchase) 5.00 



Shoes (purchase) 9.50 



Necktie (rent) .50 



Total $30.00 



The negrito dance, properly speaking, is not 

 a dance at all. The group recites a relato or 

 relation of some length, sings several songs, 

 and walks through a number of not very com- 

 plicated figures. Ordinarily, they are in two 

 files, with one of the little girls at each end. 

 From time to time, the two files will march 

 forward or backward or each file will walk in 

 a circle or one file will make a circle about the 



superior to any he has seen in other towns. 

 The only time he admits having seen a better 

 dance than that of Cheran was once when 

 Aranza borrowed his relato and had especially 

 elaborate costumes. Nahuatzen negritos have 

 a better dress than those of Cheran, but they 

 are no longer trained. 



Castillo, perhaps because it is not in his field, 

 believes the pastorela to be a very inferior per- 

 formance. It is, he says, merely a lot of 

 children dressed up prettily but knowing 

 neither their lines nor their dance. The 

 negrito, on the other hand, is a nice clear relato, 

 all divided into acts, and the performers are old 

 enough to learn their parts. 



Castillo's relatos are, naturally, part of his 

 stock in trade. While he was cooperative and 

 willing to permit them to be copied, he would 

 do so only at a price commensurate with their 

 value to him. This price seemed more than 

 thev would be worth as documents, particularly 



