Matachines

The tradition & historical record

Matachines (Spanish singular matachín; sword dancers dressed in ritual attire called bouffon) are a carnivalesque dancers performing a dance that emerged in Spain in the early 17th century, inspired by similar European traditions such as the moresca. The term danza de matachines refers to their characteristic dance and music. The dance was documented in the 1642 treatise Discursos sobre el arte del dançado by Juan de Esquivel Navarro. The tradition was imported into Latin American countries such as Mexico and Peru and into the Southwestern United States. ¹

Matachines is also written as matlachines and matlatzines in central Mexico. The term matachines has been ascribed to Spanish, Italic, or Arabic origins. ¹

Currently, the matachines are societies of North and South American Native dancers who perform ritual dances. They are found from Peru up to northern New Mexico where the Spanish first influenced the New World and introduced Christianity. In Bernalillo, New Mexico, the Matachines de San Lorenzo have been performing for more than 300 years. The Danza de Matachines is explained by oral history among most Pueblo tribes as the Dance of the Moors and Christians and is the first masked dance introduced by the Spaniards, though its practice outside of the Iberian peninsula changed its cultural and spiritual significance. The dance was adopted by the people, and today many forms of this dance still exist — though the dance steps vary among peoples, the dance formations are all similar. Masks continue to be used, but the style changes from village to village, or people to people. ¹

A sword dance was performed at Hampton Court on 6 January 1604 by Scottish courtiers for Anne of Denmark in her presence chamber, before James VI and I, and the French ambassador, the Comte de Beaumont. Dudley Carleton wrote that the Scottish masquerade resembled a matachin and was "cleanly" performed. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Matachines”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Matachines is ritual dancers, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²