Santiago Apostol in the Conquest of Nueva Galicia and the Fiesta de los Tastoanes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Festivals and religious beliefs in contemporary Mexico are the product of a cultural synthesis between the Mesoamerican religion and Christianity. In this presentation we expose the survival of a battle scene between Spaniards and indigenous tribes represented in a patronal feast known as Los Tastoanes, in which one of the main protagonists is Santiago Apostol, who is exalted as a warrior, paladin, leader and saint conqueror of Nueva Galicia. Currently, this festival is performed on July 25 in various towns in the metropolitan area of the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco and in four municipal capitals of the state of Zacatecas (located in the Juchipila Canyon). The choreography, the costumes, the masks, the music, and the musicians are different in each of the places where the patronal feast is represented; nevertheless, in all of these the presence of Santo Santiago is protagonist during the staging. At first, the festival of Los Tastones was limited to the staging of a battle, but over the years and differently has accumulated a variety of elements such as the drama of the passion of Christ, of the pastorelas and the dances of Moors and Christians.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23753