TITLE: Convite Mask (Child’s)
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Guatemala
SUBREGION: Unknown
ETHNICITY: Mayan
DESCRIPTION: Mouse Convite mask for a child
CATALOG ID: LAGT024
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Baile de los Convites
AGE: 1960s-1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint
The Baile de los Convites (Dance of the Invited) is a ceremony that dates to the Spanish colonial period, but is probably the most mutable of all Guatemalan dances. The dance is performed on the annual holiday in honor of a town’s patron saint, and its name probably derives from the fact that celebrants from surrounding villages were invited to participate in larger towns. It is unclear why masks and costumes became part of the dance, but the characters began as crude, handmade masks, and rapidly evolved to mimic characters from popular culture, including television, motion pictures, and video games. Today, both mass-produced costumes and handmade costumes are used, often involving a considerable investment. In some places, these dances are thinly-veiled status rituals—the more impressive the costume, the greater the credit for the dancer.
In the dance, captains (capitanos) organize the dancers into rows, and they dance in various configurations to the music of a marimba band. Unlike in other Guatemalan dances, there is no plot or story. This mask was made for and used by a child, and is made to resemble the mouse Jerry from the popular cartoon television series Tom & Jerry, which was broadcast from 1940 until 1967.
For more on Guatemalan masks, see Jim Pieper, Guatemala’s Masks and Drama (University of New Mexico Press, 2006).
