Pueblo de Abiquiú Matachines Revival after 79 years

A long gone tradition made a comeback in the Northern New Mexico village of Pueblo de Abiquiú.

People who attended the yearly feast of Santa Rosa de Lima witnessed the revival of la danza de los Matachines after a 79-year absence.

Headed by Maximiño Manzanares in the role of Monarca or Moctezuma, the Matachín troupe danced under a scorching sun for about 45 minutes.

We were visiting family in the area and decided to go see the Matachín revival. I reached out to Maximiño and asked for permission to photograph the occasion.

Him and his mom kindly granted my request. Unfortunately, Maximiño and I didn’t get to talk much about the Matachines revival, but during the event he said that bringing back the dancing group to Abiquiú was a promise he made to his late abuela before she passed.

While I am the kind of guy who loves to dig deep into the story, I also appreciate the opportunity to not be on assignment and still be able to snap some photos, especially for something so special. I loved documenting this historic moment.

Here are the photos!

While I have photographed Matachines in places like Anthony (NM), Tortugas Pueblo, and El Paso, I am just getting familiarized with the history of this centuries-old tradition.

I’m fascinated by the syncretism that’s part of everyday life in New Mexico, and Matachines are an example of that.

Many Pueblos, the name XV century Spaniards gave in their language to the indigenous cities they found when they got here, have traditional dances that may include a version of la danza de los Matachines.

This dance blends both European and Native American traditions. In Europe, this was known as the Sword Dance and it was influenced by the Moresca, a performance that portrayed the battles between Moors and Christians.

European colonization of the Americas brought this dance to places like today’s New México, gaining some new elements in the process. While this dance is popular in northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, the Náhuatl influence from today’s central Mexico is palpable.

The main characters in the dance are Moctezuma (named after the Mexica ruler at the time of the Spanish arrival to Tenochtitlan), Malinche (the indigenous interpreter that helped and married conquistador Hernán Cortés) and los soldados (the soldiers) of the la Virgen de Guadalupe, the indigenous Divine Mother who promised everyone unconditional love and forgiveness when she appeared in Tepeyac hill outside Mexico City in 1531, according to tradition.

All These characters combined speak to the heavy influence of central Mexico natives in the colonization of today’s northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. When the city of Santa Fe was founded, many of the new edifications were built by indigenous people from Tlaxcala and other Náhuatl-speaking natives.

As part of the colonial project, the Náhuatl experience left a mark far away from its homeland in central Mexico.

Abiquiú is no exception. 

In 1734, the Spanish founded the small settlement of Santa Rosa de Lima near a bend on the Río Chama. The continuous raids by Comanches and Utes forced the Spanish settlers to abandon the area by 1747.

A new settlement was established seven years later, in 1754, when New Mexico governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín gave 34 genízaro families the newly-formed Abiquiú land grant. 

Genízaros were detribalized indigenous who were servants or slaves in the New Mexican Spanish colonial society. Obtaining land (in exchange of defending the colonial border from the feared Comanches and Utes) was one of the few ways genízaros had to climb to a higher social status.

Many people today celebrate their genízaro roots, especially in places like Abiquiú. Almost 300 years later, a hint of that syncretic history made an appearance with the Matachines’ return to the pueblo.