Field Journal, pg. 3 of 5
Friday, April 14:
In the morning we set out to the community of Etchojoa, Sonora (near the town of Huatabampo)
to meet with Leonardo Valdez, director and owner of the Casa Museo Leonardo
Valdez Esquer. A former FONART (Fondo Nacional de las Artes) employee, he buys
and sells crafts now and maintains an ethnographic community museum. At Leonardo’s,
we met Bill Lavasseur, owner of Casa de la Cuesta Bed & Breakfast
(http://www.casadelacuesta.com/) and a mask gallery in San Miguel de Allende. (See Banderas News article http://www.banderasnews.com/0505/art-danzamasks.htm for more about Bill Lavasseur and the masks he collects.) Leonardo toured us around his museum, apologizing
that other galleries of artifacts including Spanish Colonial art were not accessible
due to fumigation activities. Davison was thrilled to see lucha libre (literally, “free fighting”—modern-day masked wrestling) images
on two Judeo masks on the wall. Bryan was glad to finally meet Bill, a fellow
mask collector.
Here, we exchanged information with Leonardo about pascola masks, mascareros, community names, and which Mayo communities to visit during the Easter celebrations. Several catalogues were given to him for the museum and for distribution among Mayo mascareros. The room dedicated to the Mayos featured an entire wall of capakóba masks. Most carried the wooden face plate and goatskin helmet. Another wall displayed numerous large old banners that had been used in Mayo processions in the area. On the opposite wall Plácido Alamea’s harp hung mounted high to the left. Many modern pascola masks, probably made by Francisco Gamez and José Jojuve, among others, hung to the right and above a large cupboard. They were mounted so high up that it was difficult to see them clearly. Nonetheless, the polychrome small triangle rim designs that have been documented at Tres Cruces were definitely present on these pascola masks. On the fourth wall, a cabinet stood containing a number of Yoeme pascola masks. Made by a contemporary carver in Vicam—Ruben Hernandez—the masks appeared to be “undanced” (not to have been worn). In the middle of the museum floor, a mannequin of a pascola dancer was wearing a nicely carved mask by Francisco Gamez, while holding an elaborate inlaid sena’asom, or disk rattle, by the same carver. Sitting next to the pascola, another mannequin held a drum and a Yoeme cane flute, one in each hand. A set of photographs were taken of the Mayo room at the museum before departing.
We continued onwards to the Mayo community of San José de Masiaca, about 50 to 60 km away from Huatabampo, Sonora, towards Los Mochis, Sinaloa. In this community we encountered several capakóbam, who sat resting at the church patio. On a nearby porch, we noticed a local craft maker, Benjamin Zazueta Valenzuela, displaying several capakóba masks for sale and started a conversation with him. While showing us his work shop, he told us he works mainly leather and occasionally wood. We took pictures of his workshop and of some pieces in process. He and his brother make drums and rudimentary capakóba masks to sell to tourists. He also introduced us briefly to his two nephews, who were capakóbam this year. Although they were resting at his workshop this day, the next day we were able to visit with those nephews during a break in the Sabado de Gloria activities and had the opportunity to wear their belts. The belts produce sound by shaking the suspended brass shell casings that now replace the earlier carrizo. He said he made such belts on order for $80 apiece. Clearly no prohibition exists here among the community against the manufacture and sale of capakóbam masks; quite the opposite is true among the Yoeme. When we asked Benjamin, he confirmed this observation, but also noted with sadness that the local people participated with less sincerity and seriousness each year.
Because it was still early, Benjamin offered to take us to two local mascareros: Arnulfo Yocupicio and Hector Francisco Gamez Piña. At the residence of Arnulfo Yocupicio we saw and took pictures of several masks (mostly animals) he had made and several small wooden sculptures of pascolas, capakóbam, and maaso (deer) dancers he and his wife had carved. At the time of our visit, only one black human-faced mask remained for sale. The mask had a painted forehead cross, but remained undanced. A number of dog pascola masks were also presented for sale. Noting the absence of the cross, Arnulfo replied to us: “that kind of mask doesn’t have a cross” (indicating this style was not likely to be used by a dancer and was thus made for sale). He showed us his work place behind his house. Seated under a tree, he demonstrated his skills quickly making a small pascola mask from a small piece of raiz de alamo (cottonwood root). This wood proved to be readily carved with only a penknife. At our request, he signed the masks we had purchased with a wood-burning pen. Bryan Stevens bought an embroidered illustration of a maaso dancer made by Arnulfo’s wife; she signed it on the back. This is now in the collection of Richard Felger. Jannelle, our photographer, recorded the entire process.
At our next stop, we met Francisco Gamez, the carver whom Tom Kolaz had requested we take a picture. Welcomed into his studio, he told us that he had no masks left for sale; the Easter celebrations had cleaned him out. Jannelle took photos of him and his studio nonetheless. Showing us around, Francisco pulled out a can of glass chips and explained he used these as inlays for forehead crosses. Although during our trip we saw a number of Gamez masks being worn by pascolas, none were so festooned. Gamez also produced a quantity of metal chips taken from a cymbal, which had been supplied for his use by Barney Burns. He uses the metal to make sena’asom. Davison had indeed observed that the sena’asom made by Gamez in the Casa Museo bore a piece of inlaid brass with the legend Zilgian. On his workbench, Gamez had a box of brass triangles also meant for inlay. He demonstrated that he had indeed cut these from a discarded orchestra cymbal.
Bryan Stevens observed “that the masks of Francisco Gamez that are available in Tucson are uniformly modest, compared to the masks that he is capable of carving, and does indeed carve on order for Mayo pascolas. The Tucson masks have been carved for Barney Burns, to a particular price point, and undoubtedly Gamez receives a little more for those more highly developed masks that he sells locally.”
ASM catalogues were given to both mascareros.
After these visits we returned to Masiaca to observe and record the konti, or procession, around the town. The konti started at the church front. Two hooded and darkly-dressed Pilatos on horseback, escorted each by two capakóbam, moved back and forth in front of the procession. Behind the Pilatos, the community elders followed with the small children, or angelitos (little angels), dressed in white and carrying paper flowers. There were also musicians. The procession was flanked, on both sides, by a line of capakóbam to keep the procession separate from the onlookers. The procession followed a well-established path around the town, while stopping to pray every so often after a short distance in front of a small altar along the way. At the same time, the capakóbam would do everything possible to disrupt the ceremony. The procession finished at the church.
We returned to Navojoa late that afternoon and had dinner.
