Dancing Mexican-style
Friday, 30 January 2009 00:00
When Denise Garcia first came to the University of Arizona, she was ready to dance.
Heritage celebration on Oct. 20, 2007.
In New Mexico, folklórico had always been a part of her life—first in elementary school, then for six years with the Expresiones Dance Company.
In the fall of 2006, she walked into the UA's Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs center expecting to find a folklórico—or Mexican folk dance—group to join.
“They told me there wasn't one,” she said. “For a school that's so close to the border, I thought it was odd.”
So she decided to start her own.
As a freshman in the spring of 2007, Garcia founded Grupo Folklórico Miztontli. It took three weeks of brainstorming to come up with the name.
“We wanted something in a Mexican language, but we still wanted it related to the U of A,” said Garcia. To work in the university's wildcat mascot, the group finally settled on “miztontli,” the word for cat in Nahuatl—the Aztec language still spoken by about 1.5 million people in Central Mexico.
Folklórico is an important way to “keep our culture alive and to show the Tucson community and U of A community our Hispanic traditions,” said Garcia, now an international studies junior.
For pre-nursing freshman Ismael Peraza, traditional dancing is something his friends turned him on to.
“I have friends in Mexico that do it—they got me into it, so I looked for a way to do it here,” said Peraza, who was born in Sonora, Mexico.
The group has focused on dances from the Mexican state of Jalisco because they are most recognizable.
“It's what most people are familiar with, and we wanted them to recognize us for what we are,” said Garcia. Now, they are moving on to dances from the Baja California Norte region, and plan to continue expanding their repertoire.
In May, the group will perform at the Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs convocation. The 2007 CHSA convocation was their first performance and has become an annual engagement.
It's also the most important performance, Garcia said. “It's a way for us to give back to CHSA. They have supported us from the beginning.”
Grupo Folklorico Miztontli performs with some members from
Ballet Folklorico Tapatio during the CHSA convocation ceremony
on May 16, 2007.
Written by Michelli Murphy You are reading Dancing Mexican-style articles
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