Danza Azteca Huitzilopochtli

Yesterday was ridiculously filled with activities. Pedro and I had to choose which ones were most important. We chose the Run With the Wild race in Hood River, a race to make money for wildland firefighters in our area. It was a marvelous time with my Belle Brigade team and I’ll post on that later. Then there was the Mt. Hood Cherokees April meeting at the same time, which I had to miss, but I found a member of our Council to record it for me – so grateful to have this help which will allow me to write an article for the newsletter. Then there was Pedro’s former boss, Jon, who had a midday jazz concert in Portland with another co-worker. I have wanted to see Jon perform with his piano for a long long time. I suppose we will just have to wait a little longer.

After the race, which was 1 1/2 hours out of town, we had time to eat a Salmon lunch from a Native restaurant in Cascade Locks, and drive all the way back to Portland where I put on denim instead of yoga pants, and we rushed off to see an Aztec dance performance in Beaverton. We hurried so much, that halfway there I laughed out loud when I saw that I was wearing house slippers! Hilarious. We were already late, so I simply prepared to enter the Reser Performing Arts Center in slippers. Then Pedro remembered that I always carry a pair of spare hiking boots in the back of the Jeep.

We slipped in the door in the dark and an usher helped us find our seats. It was immediately worth the effort.

Danza Azteca Huitzilopochtli was a performance by the Carlos family from Woodburn, Oregon, and they were all marvelous. Mr. and Mrs. Carlos are captains of Ritual Azteca Huitzilopochtli (pronounced wee-chee-zo-polsh-tlee), a Woodburn-based Aztec dance group. Kelly explained that they use the Nahuatl language that is a dialect of the Aztec language spoken by around a million people today. They taught us the names of their instruments, and had the whole audience pronounce them. We also learned how to count to ten in Nahuatl.

Kelly told us how she and her husband worked with their oldest daughter as she learned to dance, and how she has just left home for college, but they made her come back because of this show. Jose, in his full performance regalia of many colours, played the drum, called huehuetl (pronounced like way-wit). Their daughter came out onto the stage in her full regalia.

We were in the verrrry back row. Literally, I could lean my head back and bonk the back wall. So thank goodness for amazing zoom lenses. These are magnified to the max, and in the pitch black. It took some time for me to make the best of it, and I am so happy with some of these images.

She stomped a beat with the rattles on her ankles called ayoyote. These are made from shells from an ayoyote tree.

Kelly continued the story of her family. “We wanted another child,” she said. And soon a second daughter came along, and this daughter, she told us, absolutely loves to dance.

I apologize for not remembering the names of the kids. They told us their Nahautl name, and what they meant, and I promptly forgot.

Kelly and Jose were teaching the entire time, which I believe is appropriate. The reason they run a cultural dance school is to help keep their culture alive. One thing she explained is that the dances are actually stories. Traditionally, these dances were a way to remind people of their connection to all things, and their basic needs of the four elements, which for Aztecs are: earth, air, water, and fire. I do not recall the story of the oldest daughter’s dance – I was too mesmerized to pay attention. But the second daughter danced the story of fire, and it was astounding.

She described her own dancing as “crazy!” She told us, “I feel sorry for the dancers around me because when I’m dancing…well, I need to DANCE.” I included the video below to help you understand what she meant.

During the dances, the rest of the family provided the music. Dad on the drum, mom playing a clay pipe, and then big sister on a second drum.

Kelly continued the story. “I don’t know what we were thinking, but after a while, we decided to have another child.” Out danced daughter number three.

You guessed it; Kelly continued the story to add ANOTHER child. This time a son, who is currently attending his dad’s after school dance class. His mom explained that they always allow the kids to choose what they will do. They can speak about something, sing, play, tell a story, or dance a story. Their son also chose to dance, and his was the dance of the turkey.

The Turkey Dance used stringed instruments instead of the drums, and that was also interesting and educational. We found out that Jose had sewn the breast feathers of his son’s regalia too. I had been wondering about that, since I saw a documentary about the regalia worn by Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans. Those things are tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, and they seem to be built similarly to the Aztec regalia we saw. I have to assume the beadwork and feathers here are astonishingly expensive, even if Dad can sew some of it.

Too soon it was over, and they were saying goodbye. That was so far my favourite Aztec dance that I’ve seen with Pedro, because there was so much education involved. His grandparents were fluent in Nahuatl, so keeping the culture near to him is important, though he doesn’t know any language or many traditions.