Matachines

Matachines (Spanish singular matachín; sword dancers dressed in ritual attire called bouffon) are a carnivalesque dancers performing a dance that emerged in Spain in the early 17th century, inspired by similar European traditions such as the moresca. The term danza de matachines refers to their characteristic dance and music. The dance was documented in the 1642 treatise Discursos sobre el arte del dançado by Juan de Esquivel Navarro. The tradition was imported into Latin American countries such as Mexico and Peru and into the Southwestern United States.

Name

Matachines is also written as matlachines and matlatzines in central Mexico. The term matachines has been ascribed to Spanish, Italic, or Arabic origins.

In the Americas

Currently, the matachines are societies of North and South American Native dancers who perform ritual dances. They are found from Peru up to northern New Mexico where the Spanish first influenced the New World and introduced Christianity. In Bernalillo, New Mexico, the Matachines de San Lorenzo have been performing for more than 300 years.

The Danza de Matachines is explained by oral history among most Pueblo tribes as the Dance of the Moors and Christians and is the first masked dance introduced by the Spaniards, though its practice outside of the Iberian peninsula changed its cultural and spiritual significance.