The tropical mountains of southern Mexico seem like another world, and idyllic place of great beauty and serenity.

But the region is home to an annual transformation, an explosion of human creativity, based on indigenous culture and its native language and tradition.

Funding for In The Americas with David Yetman was provided by Agnes Haury.

ááOpening Themeáá Most of the coastal Mixtecs live in the state of Oaxaca, on the map, it's the bottom of Mexico.

Mixtecs throughout the region celebrate lent in their own fashion.

For Mexicans the most exciting time of the year include the events leading up to lent and Easter.

Nowhere is this more true than among the Mixtec people who live near the coast of Oaxaca.

The days leading up to Ash Wednesday are full of fun and anticipation, but it's not something that can be done without a lot of preparation.

I was 17 or 18 when I learned how to make masks, but that was many years ago.

This one here's a bull.

I can make just about any kind of mask with an animal face, as you can see this one is a bull, but I can make a rabbit, a dog, a snake, an iguana, goat, just about everything.

This is a dog that is sort of typical of the area.

It's a Mixtecan dog, of the lowlands, the mask is worn like this, you can actually see out of the mouth as you look down, but not very well, and it will be painted black.

So this will be a rabbit and the ears will be attached here, and come up like this, and this will be a brownish color.

That expression, you've gotta admit, it's pretty good.

He said sometimes people come and ask him to make a certain kind of mask, but in this time of year he makes a certain range of them that are the most popular ones for the tejorones for the dancers in the carnival festivities, and they're big sellers.

He knows what sells.

So this is actual goat horns, had to be a big billy goat and its over 25 years old.

So in their group they'll have 10 or 12 of these with the goat masks on and after three hours of carrying this your head and neck are going to get very very tired.

So this is a puma, the black mountain lion, and in the parade these are worn to scare kids away.

Guys will wear them and then they'll run at kids and the kids, scared to death, they go scattering to the four winds.

Lent is a busty time for native artisans, masks are just one example.

In a nearby home its musical instruments in one part of the house and headdresses in another part.

This rattle that dancers use here in Pinotepa Don Luis is called a sonaja in Spanish.

The gourd is called a jicara and it actually grows on a tree, and not a vine.

Its surface is, although it's hard, is very easy to carve.

And the tradition has it that a good dancer should have a highly decorated surface, so these jicaras are carved with elaborate designs, and all of them with themes that in all probability are pre-Columbian.

Except maybe for the rooster.

Marialena is applying a woman's touch to this headdress which is called a penacho in Spanish, these sorts of headdresses have been worn for centuries my Mixteco dancers here in the coast of Oaxaca.

This one, however, has a component that is not pre-Columbian, feathers from a rooster.

The rooster feathers are really a fitting symbol for the dancers who have quite an athletic movement and like to strut their stuff throughout the streets of Pinotepa Don Luis.

I was saying that they came from Mixteca of the region to dance here, because the traditional celebrations began February 2nd after the Candlemass.

That's when carnival begins, on the first days before lent.

As I said, they, our ancestors brought this dance for us to see because when the Spaniards came to conquer mexico they brought many black slaves, and they made black slaves the overseers over the Indians.

And so there are three black masks representing the bosses, the heads are black and the white ones are Indians.

Black overseers did not like seeing the indigenous people's faces.

They killed them with guns, back then they used muskets to kill and hunt the Indians.

Those who managed to escape would climb into trees, but the black foremen would hunt them down and kill them.

Those not killed with guns, died of hunger.

The carnival, yes, it is passed down from our ancestors and it has always been like this, down to the smallest detail, you see.

Our arrival here in the little good ole village of Pinotepa Don Luis, is necessary for us to obtain permission from each little barrio, from each little part of town that has their own section of dancers, so we go to each one and ask them each permission to take their pictures, to film them and to watch them.

They are very gracious people, very poor people, but they are very proud of what they're doing, and so far they have agreed.

So this year up until Tuesday on the fifth of February, we celebrate carnival.

We dance and shout all we want in celebration with the Virgin Mary.

We stop celebrating when the day of sadness begins, that's Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

The instruments played during the Tejorones dances are the violin, the guitar and the wooden box.

The box helps with the percussion part of the music.

And this is the song of the Little Indian Woman.

My friend and historian Bill Beezley joins me in the Mizteca, he knows the culture here.

Bill, what do you make of this dance?

More than just random fun movements, obviously it means something serious.

Every performance like this, a lot, you can see into it a lot of different things.

But this to me is a history of this villages experiences over the past 500 years.

The leader of the dance is a Spaniard with an Indian woman dressed to get married and to be his bride, and that immediately reflects the story of La Malinche.

Malinche was Cortez's mistress and was widely viewed as a traitor by Mexicans, a turn coat.

Absolutely and you can see this in the mask she has with Indian features but a spit curl on both sides.

They made her really feminine.

Yeah, absolutely.

And a guipil and then the traditional wrap around skirt.

The Spaniards are all in frock coats and look like very formal Spaniards, and then behind them are Mexican churros, or Mexican vaqueros.

So they've got the cowboy hats on.

They've got the cowboy hats on.

The big charro hats on.

They've got guns, which were essential for the conquest.

Guns overpowering all the people.

And then what's really interesting is they stopped at this person's house danced in front of it, the Spaniards did, and the owner of the house was required to pay them tribute, and in this case... That's where that bottle came from.

Right, in this case he brought out the Mezcal and passed it around and now, as we can see, they're going inside the house to eat.

They're going inside.

And so this is the tribute that people in this village have been paying since the time that the Spaniards arrived here in this part of the Spanish mixteca about 1450, 1460.

The Spaniards come by and they demand something, so they have to give them something.

Right.

And then its both liquor, which was distilled liquor, whch was not here until the Spaniards came here, plus food which was here, but Which was here Was extortion, really Right, but now they have to pay it.

The dance you are witnessing, is the dance of the Tejorones .

Tejorones dancing, dance of the Tejorones.

Tejorones means a man badly dressed who has Spainard looking features.

As you see the dancers have Spanish traits, look at their clothes and all.

Here in Pinotepa de Don Luis in each carnival it has always been said that the traits exhibited by the Tejorones come from the Spanish conquest here in Mexico.

It took about ten to fifteen years for the Tejorones' dance to appear here in Pinotepa de Don Luis .

We always say that in each carnival celebrated here in our town , which is Pinotepa de Don Luis , we make fun of the clothing worn by the Spaniards.

As you can see their nylon socks are half rolled up to the knee, some have a white shirt tucked in, used to be all of them but that is no longer the case, they wear ties, their masks show the way their hair was cut, all things characteristic of the Spaniards.

The only native character from here in Pinotepa de don Luis is la Indita whose pale mask is the same color of a Spainard's skin, the hair cut is the same but has traits of the native woman from this town.

Observe the posaguanco (skirt) and the guipil (blouse) that identify one from being from Pinotepa de don Luis.

In the past for weddings this is the finest dress material that a bride could wear, this blouse and skirt (guipil and posaguanco) it was the principal atire back then.

The coastal Mixtecs are renowned for their textiles, especially the famous posaguanco.

People who live in the Mizteca coastal region, especially those who live in the more rural areas have a very simple way of life.

Their houses are made of local materials, a lot of adobe, when there is roofing its simple laminated roofing.

The most important part of their lives, particularly for women, is weaving.

And here we have the most important garment for all the Mizteca women, the posaguanco.

It's their traditional skirt that has for centuries been their identifying garment, it's worn nowhere else except in this region and only by traditional Mizteca women.

Senora Sebastiana is weaving with this belt loom, a guipil which is a traditional dress.

Many many Mizteca and other indigenous women weave like this in southern Mexico.

What's super special about this guipil is the color.

This is the purple and it's made from a seashell, actually a sea snail.

To get the dye, the men who gather it must travel 8 hours from here to a protected cove with government permission and at low tide they gather the snails that secrete this purple dye, turn them upside down and let urine drop out, and then squeeze them gently onto the cotton cloth and then run away as the tide comes in.

it's very very difficult, so fewer and fewer people are now weaving and dying with this purple color.

The Indita here is Our Lady of Candelaria , she represents the Virgen Mary, a patron saint of the dance of the Tejorones here in Pinotepa de Don Luis .

Furthermore she is the patron saint of all the dancers, and we celebrate her.

Despite the satire, poking fun at the Spaniards and other Europeans who explored and conquered this area, their cultural traces are part of the lives of many of the locals.

And the catholic religion is a prime example.

In order to celebrate folks first seek spiritual sustenance, beginning with their priest.

This is where we pray to God for each of the carnival dancers, it's a good thing that they all remember to ask God for protection so that nothing bad happens.

So during this time our enjoyment becomes the best way to please God.

The dancers go to church to be blessed by the priest so that they priest will give a homily and bless them, and then they will be off doing more of these aboriginal, combination of these aboriginal, pre-Columbian and post-Columbian dances.

Welcome to the dancers, some take guidance from the sun, or the moon, some from a few stars.

Some take some arrows from before, and understand the meaning for each.

Congratulations on your dance that God be with you, that God will take care of you.

Thank you very much for lifting the hearts of our people, in this picoriño in this village festival , please brighten our hearts, and may God be with you.. After early mass families gather for a special lent meal.

I'm lucky enough to have been invited to go eat with some of the dancers here and this is the best food you can get.

The coffee, its criollo coffee, that means its coffee from trees grown here.

They dry the beans, grind it, and serve it themselves.

The tamales are natural tamales.

The corn here is called subichai, that's the Mixteco word for it, and it is grown here in the community.

The corn husks are from here.

The masa is made right here.

The women grind the corn and the tamal, tamale has nothing but corn and a little bit of sugar in it, this is a completely natural meal.

This is a Pinotepa meal, and it doesn't get much better than this., tamal y cafe.

You can not appreciate all this in one or two days.

You need at least a week to two weeks minimum to appreciate everything that constitutes the dance of the Tejorones.

In the dance of the Tejorones three types of characters are represented.

There is the Indian woman who represents the mother of all the dancers; the one that commands the most respect, yes?

She is the Patriarch.

Following her in rank is the old Tejorone considered to be the father of all the Tejorones.

And thirdly are the Tejorones with the feather headresses who represent the sons of Maria Candelaria.

The older Tejorone could be considered as the father but aside from him the patriarch has the last word and is the reason why the Tejorones dance.

These are the three, that can be seen here.

The dance of the Tejorones has various games within the dance, such as the rabbit, iguana, snake , bull, and so forth ...

There are many games.

A town that's real interesting on the Oaxacan coast is called San Juan Cacahuatepec, which means peanut hill in Aztec.

The Aztecs actually pushed their place names onto the local Amuzgo people.

It's a center, a mestizo center but there are a lot of Amuzgo people living in the suburbs and they are said to have some dances that involve rival groups, and there's always music and a lot of color.

And so I'm headed for peanut hill.

When we first got here and saw these people dancing I just thought it was another pre-Easter celebration.

There's a lot more to it than that.

Absolutely, this turns out to be a kind of rivalry between two competing barrios, one hospital that's up at the top of the hill, and is known as the poor barrio, and the barrio central, which is down here.

And that's where the rich people live, if we can call them that.

Where the rich people live and the older people and its more settled.

And more mestizo too, right?

And more mestizo.

And we see that reflected in the two dance groups.

The younger dance group is made up of more younger dance people from hospital, and they're wearing costumes like shorter skirts, very relaxed shirts, the guys are in... And some of them are women, there's no question, young women.

No question about it, and in fact in that barrio this is a lead up to an evening unmasking where all of the women take off their masks, and then the character who is playing a Spaniard on horseback and wearing a male mule mask he will pick out who he likes the best and she will be his partner for the evening in some sort of replaying of Spanish traditon.

So the younger, larger, more rooted group actually has less pure costumes, more entertainment.

Absolutely, its mere fun for everyone.

And here they come.

Uh-oh I think we're in the way.

They passed us, we cut them in two, and now they're headed up the hill.

So this, they're heading in the direction of their, their place which is higher than this.

One of the things they're doing is going to stop at different businesses because this is a way to fundraise money for their social organization.

So they want to extort money from anyone.

Extort money from each business that's opening here.

This grocery store is going to be treated to a dance and they'll have to pay.

And the taxis that are going by have to pay.

And we just saw a bus, a second ago, go by, and that bus hat had people who were reaching out paying their fee.

Everybody's happy though.

Everybody's happy, it's a sport and everyone understands.

You know you're in Amuzgo country and not the Mixtecos when you see the guipiles with the delicate flower embroidery that they have.

The top part of it that's embroidered usually indicates the group they belong to, whether it's a barrio or a town, some social indication by those beautifully embroidered part of the guipil.

You know they almost give an ethereal glow to the town when the women come, in numbers especially, and you see them all.

And they're very proud of them too.

Yes, and they're beautiful.

This basic white and then it's, it has the embroidery and the different colors.

It's interesting that we think about this as traditional Indian costume, but the guipil is a muslin cloth that was imported from Great Britain and sold throughout the region.

They did embroidery before then.

Oh yes, certainly.

But the muslin white, The muslin white, Is actually European introduction.

That has been completely appropriated by indigenous communities and made their own.

So its not European anymore, its Amuzgo.

Here we are, probably 30 miles away from Pinotepa, which is the Mixteco country with the pozoblancos , and there is not a pozoblanco to be seen.

Everything's traditional.

And here we have a horseman who's sort of the character wandering around and we've seen he people with the broom go and attack, so he's the...

He's the Spaniard on a horse, He's a Spaniard on a horse, a haciendado who owns a hacienda.

That sort of thing.

So he's the guy covered in moss, lichens, that's such an odd costume.

Because he's under control, he's some sort of animal that is, Yeah they've got a chain, leading him around That character.

What's interesting is this set of masks, I asked to see if these masks were made here in town and no, the leader of this group went to Mexico to get these, To Mexico, the city, to Mexico City Yeah, the capital, took the bus to buy all of those masks, and that's why they all look exactly alike, they're made in Mexico City.

The Mixtecs have stamped southern Oaxaca with their indigenous trademark, traditions are fading, but Lent and Easter still bring out the vibrant creativity of these people whose ancestors came here thousands of years ago.

music Join us next time In the Americas with me, David Yetman Most foreigners don't realize the raw diversity of Brazil.

Northeasterners view themselves as different from or superior to those from the metropolises such as Rio de Janeiro or San Paolo.

If one state typifies the northeast, it's Ceara.

music Funding for In The Americas with David Yetman was provided by Agnes Haury.

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