Ceremonias en el teatro Náhuatl

Abstract

The speakers of Nahuatl dialects compose the largest group of indigenous people in Mexico. Numbering about 800,000, they live primarily in the Federal District and the states of México, Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí. Smaller populations can be found in Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, and Tabasco. The proportion of Nahuatl speakers in central Mexico is declining, but their absolute number is fairly stable and is augmented by millions of Spanish-speaking villagers who preserve elements of Nahuatl heritage. According to the testimonies, it is given as a fact that the Aztecs resorted to theatrical practices closely linked to the agricultural cycle through representations in which live action exceeded the fictional character of other forms of theater. This paper includes a diversity of perspectives related especially to the theatrical and religious culture of Nahuatl civilization and arises from the interest to know the meaning of the Nahuatl pre-Hispanic festivities, for that reason we can know the Nahuatl ceremonies and, at the same time we can know the principle of their duality. In this paper, two hypotheses are made: a) Mexica culture practiced ritual and theatrical demonstrations that prove the existence of a sui generis theater. b) The principle of duality was united and represented in the artistic manifestations, among them the theatrical ones. In this way, the prehispanic theatrical elements of the Nahuatl people are analyzed, in which the primordial characteristic of their duality prevails.