Maria de Baratta’s 'Nahualismo' Revisited: Quantum Identity Politics, Crises, and Reconfigurations

Robin Sacolick

doi:10.5070/d86355328

Abstract

While attention to the provocative composer Maria de Baratta has increased in the past few years, mysteries about her past remain. Solutions inferred from available data remain uncertain. However, uncertainty itself, and the attendant multiple possibilities, are academically and scientifically supported by quantum theory, postcolonial and new materialist feminisms, ritual technologies like those depicted in de Baratta’s ballet Nahualismo, and known practices of some of the most vaunted artists of our time. Together, these disciplines bring understanding of Maria de Baratta and her ballet into a more multi-dimensional, thus more complete perspective. Paradoxes and quirks in her expressions of the indigenous culture of El Salvador (of which she was a descendant) emerge more as strategic preservation than appropriation.

Highlights

Background of ComposerEven ten years ago, Ms de Baratta (1890-1978) was far less-known than she is today
As musicology evolves toward more inclusivity, Ms de Baratta’s multiple marginalities have within only the past few years yielded entries in Wikipedia and other databases
In her ballet Nahualismo, she explores numerous dualities traced in my 2018 article: contrasts between indigenous Nahualism beliefs and Christianity, between holiness and the devil, between the West and indigenous culture

Summary

Introduction

Background of ComposerEven ten years ago, Ms de Baratta (1890-1978) was far less-known than she is today. Theory from Chicana (Sandoval, Anzaldúa, etc.) and new materialist (Barad, Coleman, etc.) feminists, works of post-colonial artists (Hester, Gonzalez, etc.), and findings of quantum scholars (Vaccaro, Heisenberg, etc.) elucidate how performativity, ritual and the arts aid in surfing paradoxes like those Nahualismo and its composer engaged. Nahualismo, an art piece that represents ritual, could have provided a space for identity reconfiguration, in the audience and compositional process as well as onstage.

Results

Conclusion