Mojigangas
The Mojigangas originated as a farce performed with masks and traditional costumes at public festivals with Carnival-like roots. It consisted of a short comic-burlesque verse text with a musical element, and it became a minor dramatic genre of the Spanish Golden Age. In the corrales de comedias, the mojigangas were parades of costumed actors dancing to boisterous music. These parades marked the end of the show.[1]
Types
There are two basic types: the paratheatrical ones, of more popular and carnivalesque inspiration, sometimes with the participation of actors characterized as animals, and the dramatic mojigangas. Within these types, in turn, the following can be distinguished:
- paratheatrical mojigangas without plot
- paratheatrical mojigangas with plot
- dramatic mojigangas for Carnival
- dramatic mojigangas for Lent
- dramatic mojigangas for Corpus Christi
- dramatic mojigangas for Christmas
- dramatic mojigangas for royal festivities[2]
Historical evolution
It has been proposed that the term mojiganga has its origin in the boxiganga or in the bojiganga companies of the itinerant theater of the 16th and 17th centuries (one of the eight enumerated by Agustín de Rojas Villandrando in his book El viaje entretenido).[note 1] And that, over time and thanks to the popularity of these grotesque masquerades, the genre ended up invading the space of the Baroque entremés. Thus, the so-called mojiganga entremesada was, from the mid-17th century onwards, the brief dramatic piece par excellence. Among the cultivators of the genre, the following stood out: Pedro Calderón de la Barca (La mojiganga de las visiones de la muerte),[3] Juan Vélez (Mojiganga de las figuras), Simón Aguado (Mojiganga de las niñas de la Rollona), Vicente Suárez de Deza, Francisco Monteser, Alonso de Ayala and Manuel de León Marchante, among others. Francisco de Quevedo and Pedro de Quirós also cultivated the genre.[4]
Continuity of the mojiganga in Spain
Even in the 21st century, a model of mojiganga is preserved, a mixture of dance, religious celebration and ethnographic treasure in some localities of the Valencian Community. We must mention those of Titaguas and Algemesí, both in the province of Valencia, street shows also called muixeranga, with music, dances, traditional costumes and human towers, in an ensemble called "Ball de Valencians".[5][6]
Likewise, in the town of Graus in Huesca, a Mojiganga is performed on September 13.[7]
The mojiganga in Hispanic America
In Hispanic America, the use of the term "mojiganga" is recorded in 1637, referring to a street dance during carnivals. In it, mime was more important than words, and it was performed by actors who imitated animals.[8]
Chroniclers such as Friar Bartolomé de las Casas referred to the mojiganga as part of missionary theater, with an evangelizing.
Mexico
In Mexico, in Zacualpan de Amilpas, state of Morelos, a mojiganga is celebrated every year with costumed comparsas, allegorical or religious floats and, on occasions, dancing giants. The tradition of large wind bands is very strong in the state, and a large number of bands are always present at the festivities. It takes place on the last Sunday of September, as part of the festivities in honor of the Virgin of the Rosary.
Also in San Andrés Tuxtla (Veracruz) the mojiganga is celebrated on November 28 and 29, for which figures made of cane and lined with paper are created that travel through the main streets of the town with music, celebrating the patron saint San Andrés Apóstol. They are also celebrated on December 7, 8 and 12.
In San Luis Potosí, during the patronal festivities of some neighborhoods of the city such as: Santiago, Montecillo, Tlaxcala, San Miguelito and Tequis, they celebrate callejoneadas also known as serenatas, accompanying with band music, toritos, fireworks and the traditional marmotas (mojiganga) the streets of said neighborhoods, they are dressed in joy the night before the patronal feast.
In Catemaco Veracruz, to close the year in a fun way, there is also the tradition of doing this dance (mojiganga) with groups of people dressed as animals or other characters such as the devil or the calaca, to dance in the streets to the rhythm of the marimba.
The same happens in Tehuixtla, Morelos, on the first Sunday of October, and it is in this city where the tradition dates back more than four hundred years.
In San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, there is also a group of mojigangas dedicated to participating in the fairs and carnivals of the Altos de Jalisco region, in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalostotitlán, Lagos de Moreno and Tepatitlán de Morelos.
In the city of San Miguel de Allende, in the state of Guanajuato, the use of mojigangas is a tradition; they can be seen walking daily through the streets of the town. Likewise, they are seen dancing alongside the banda, the estudiantina or rondallas during the popular callejoneadas.
Also in San Miguel de Allende it is a tradition that the bride and groom, one day before their wedding, organize a walk through the streets of the city, in the callejoneada style, with mojigangas that enliven the celebration. The guests and anyone who passes by and wishes to join the party join them. Red wine and other similar beverages are distributed.
In another municipality of the state of Guanajuato called Jerécuaro, they also liven up their patronal festivities starting the celebration of the novena (Rosary) and at the end of it, in addition to being accompanied by people from the town who disguise themselves with masks and absurdly ridiculous clothing, the celebration with the mojigangas is done during the night illuminated with fire wicks. The costumed participants tour the streets of the municipality accompanied by a local wind band and followed by people who like to observe.
In Jerécuaro the mojigangas take place twice a year, once in September as an anniversary celebration and in December for the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the mojigangas in the municipality of Jerécuaro Guanajuato is a tradition where the entire town gathers to dance, laugh and have fun to the beat of the music and ridiculous dances.
Zacatecas for its part also maintains this tradition in southeastern localities such as Pedregoso, in Pinos and El Lobo in Loreto.
In Michoacán, they are characteristic mainly in the municipality of Pátzcuaro where they go out to dance through the streets announcing weeks before the feast of the "Virgen de la Salud", which is celebrated on December 8.[9]
Panama
In Panama, the mojigangas and parrampanes participate in the Corpus Christi celebrations, in the Azuero region. They do not have characteristics of representation with dialogue, since they consist of a satirical criticism in the form of dances. They are not considered a dance; rather, it is a group of masked dancers who represent characters from the common life of the town: the Mayor, the Town Priest, a married couple, etc. The mojigangas represent female characters, and the parrampanes male characters, which are accompanied by a type of drum called cortacacho, the atravesaso whistle or the accordion. This manifestation is the only one that does not enter the church at the Corpus Mass, because it is considered unworthy and vulgar.
Ecuador
In Ecuador the mojigangas were performed by the "Bandas del Mate" on the coast. Among the dances that were included are: the galope montubio, the molinito, the puerca raspada, the Alza que te han visto, as well as some polcas montubias such as "El gallinacito", the "Saca tu pié". Both the gurufaes and mojigos dances were part of Corpus Christi on the Ecuadorian coast and were the center of music related to the liturgical calendar of Montubio culture. Chigualos during Christmas had a similar function.[10]
Spain
In Spain a unique example of mojiganga is the contradanza de Cetina which is celebrated in honor of San Juan Lorenzo every year in Cetina (Aragon) on the night of May 19.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ Gómez García, Manuel (1997). Diccionario del teatro. Madrid, Ediciones Akal. p. 560. ISBN 8446008270. Search this book on
- ↑ Catalina Buezo, La mojiganga dramática: de la fiesta al teatro, volume 2, pp. 8 and following; Kassel, Edition Reichenberger, 2005; ISBN 3-937734-03-1, 9783937734033
- ↑ Mojiganga de la Muerte, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
- ↑ Agustín de la Granja: Entremeses y mojigangas de Calderón para sus autos sacramentales; Granada, 1981; Universidad de Granada, Curso de Estudios Hispánicos. (Reviewed in: Entremeses y mojigangas de Calderón para sus autos sacramentales, Frédéric Serralta, Criticón, ISSN 0247-381X, no. 18, 1982, pp. 120-122).
- ↑ Mojiganga de Titaguas. Accessed February 2014
- ↑ Muixeranga de Algemesí Website. Accessed December 2013
- ↑ La Mojiganga de Graus
- ↑ Hugo A. Rennert, The Spanish Stage at the Time of Lope de Vega, New York: Dover, 1963, 295-296.
- ↑ 1. Seeing Lake Pátzcuaro, Transforming Mexico. University of Texas Press. December 31, 2018. pp. 25–83. Retrieved April 30, 2025. Search this book on
- ↑ Sandoval, by Juan Mullo (2009). "Música patrimonial del Ecuador" [Heritage Music of Ecuador]. Cartografia de la Memoria (in español). Retrieved June 7, 2024.
- ↑ "La Contradanza - Patrimonio Cultural de Aragón".
Notes
- ↑ According to Pere Coromines (Pedro Corominas), the original term was boxiganga, and "it primitively designated a character characterized by bladders attached to the end of a stick, a character that was typical of mojigangas". From this it is presumed that boxiganga derives from "voxiga", a phonetic variant of "vejiga" (bladder).
External links
La garapiña, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, at the Centro Virtual Cervantes.
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