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Pascola Mask Carver Keeps Traditions Alive

Wednesday, 23 February 2011 19:03

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Colorful Pascola dance masks and art depicting traditional Yaqui symbols cover artist Louis David Valenzuela’s booth.  Some visitors to the Southwest Indian Art Fair flock to the booth to add his works to their collections, while others are just curious about what they see.  What many of them don’t realize, however, is how rare what they’re looking at is.  Valenzuela is one of the last remaining traditional Yaqui dance mask carvers in the United States.

“If no one picks up [mask carving], once I’m gone, that’s it,” Valenzuela said.

Members of the Yaqui, also known as the Yoeme, tribe wear the masks as part of the deer dance, which is used to commemorate both Yaqui traditions and Easter.  Originally, according to Valenzuela, the dancers would make the masks themselves.  The Yaqui are originally from Sonora, Mexico, but the tribe scattered to several places including Arizona to escape violence and persecution from the Mexican government since the 1800’s.

Valenzuela said that masks made to be used in the dance are blessed and have a cross put on the inside and shouldn’t be touched or handled by anyone but the dancer. He also makes masks without the cross inside that can be purchased by collectors who want them for display.

Valenzuela carves the masks from half stumps of chilicote wood or cottonwood found on Yaqui lands.  He then uses a hammer, chisel and machete to begin forming the figure of a man, goat, rooster or other traditional figure depending on what the mask is for.  Mask carving is a spiritual as well as artistic experience for Valenzuela.

“The carving has always been there.  I’m just bringing it out,” Valenzuela said.

After carving, the wood is sanded and then painted.  Each color and symbol on the mask has a meaning, according to Valenzuela. Louis David Valenzuela

  • Black represents death.
  • Red represents the blood of Jesus.
  • White represents candlelight and human life.
  • The cross on the forehead represents the four directions and the Father and Son.
  • Triangles along the outside of the mask represent life all around us.
  • Triangles under the eyes represent teardrops and the sadness of the Yaqui people from the Mexican Revolution.
  • Lizards and butterflies represent nature.
  • Dots represent deceased relatives.
  • Swirls above the eyes represent the wind.

After painting is complete, Valenzuela adds beards and eyebrows made of horsehair for the finishing touch on the masks.

Valenzuela has been making Pascola masks since the 1980’s but has been an artist since his childhood, when he met his mentor Arturo Montoya.  Valenzuela also attended the Chicago Art Institute before learning the art of mask carving from Jesus Acuña.

Although he has had drug and alcohol problems in the past, Valenzuela said that he became sober after his brother was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and that his sobriety has helped his art.

Rooster maskToday, he continues the work of Montoya and Acuña in preserving art and Yaqui culture by teaching art classes at Hohokam Middle School on the reservation.  Despite the efforts of himself and others, Valenzuela said he feels in some ways that some Yaqui traditional beliefs are being lost as kids are raised with more “Anglo traditions."

Valenzuela also represents Yaqui culture by demonstrating and displaying his mask carvings and other works at various art shows like the Southwest Indian Art Fair.  He said that he’s currently getting ready for an exhibition in Japan at Hokkaido University that was set up after researchers there called the University of Arizona for a Sonoran carver and they recommended Valenzuela.

Written by Matt Osteen You are reading Pascola Mask Carver Keeps Traditions Alive articles

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