Bigger than Borders: Danza Azteca

Wednesday, 09 March 2011 14:07

  Helga Garcia Garza, now a grandmother, started dancing when she was 19 years old. She will dance until she no longer can, and her children and grandchildren will continue to dance after she is gone. For her family, Danza Azteca is more than cultural performance. It is about upholding 19 generations of tradition: ceremonies, dances and prayers that have lasted throughout centuries.

"Our family is one of the few traditional groups in the United States. It is a traditional group because we come from a long lineage dating back all the way back to 1781 and we are known as concheros within the tradicion," Garza said. "What that really means is that we have elders that we are responsible to in central Mexico where our lineage root is and where we have come from generations of Danza."

The term "concheros" comes from the guitar-like instruments the group plays which are made from the shell of an armadillo. Over time, Garza says that they have adapted to the different forces that have controlled their places of worship in order to preserve their traditions and maintain things as they have been in the past. They maintain the same ceremonial calendar, which is really an agricultural calendar, as their counterparts in Mexico.

"After the conquista, of course the Spanish didn't understand native religion, they didn't allow the playing of the drums and the flutes anymore saying our ancestors were calling on demons. In order to save the traditional prayers, which are the danzas themselves, they saw that the Spanish had string instruments so they developed the concha which can maintain the same beat as the drum," Garza said.

Click here to watch an example of Danza Azteca, though it is not conchero style.

The group is one sprung from a certain lineage that is buried in the heart of Mexico. Every year, starting about 13 years ago when they were recognized as a traditional group, Garza and others bring their elders from Mexico to the United States to perform and participate in important ceremonies. 

"It wasn't easy for us because we didn't know all of the legalities that we had to go through in order to bring our elders to the United States, and many of them don't have birth certificates," Garza said.  "So it took us awhile to learn the system how it works through the embassies with religious groups."

When 9/11 happened the process changed entirely, and Garza found herself having to relearn nearly everything. When they attempted to bring elders through at one point, their religious status questioned despite having instruments in hand.

"We moved all the chairs in the embassy, and we danced. After that there was no question in their minds that we were traditional dancers," Garza said.

Even without dealing with crossing the border, Garza found her and her group constantly living in high security situations alongside the border. In 1990, when the group was near Brownsville, Texas, their land was located between a bird sanctuary and a wildlife preserve. At the same time, Border Patrol held a heavy influence due to the border security operations of that time including Operation Rio Grande and Operation Hold the Line, Garza said.

"Within that zone they had put in football stadium lights within the neighborhoods, 1000 watts every 500 yards.  They had already wired and cabled all of the river, they had high tech equipment, watch towers that would send information directly to the small little computers in the border patrol cars," Garza said. "We were within all of that. There were guns pointed at us when we woke up and guns pointed at us when we went to sleep."

Click here to listen to Garza describe a confrontation her son had with Border Patrol

Helga Garcia Garza by ebowen

   Perseverance has been key to this group that upholds religious tradition across borders, over time, and despite resistance.

Garza said, "I met my husband in the Danza, we got married traditionally in the Danza, we raised our children that way. My children don't know any other life than this and now pues, its being handed down to another generation."

Written by Emily Bowen You are reading Bigger than Borders: Danza Azteca articles