TITLE: Maria Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Guatemala
SUBREGION: Chichicastenango
ETHNICITY: Mayan (K’iché)
DESCRIPTION: María Típica (common María) mask
CATALOG ID: LAGT030
MAKER: Miguel Ángel Ignacio Ventura (Chichicastenango, 1960- )
CEREMONY: Baile Típico (Baile Regional)
AGE: late 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: cedar wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint
The Baile Típico (Typical Dance), also known as the Baile Regional, of Chichicastenango is performed on major holidays by a large group of masked men, half of whom are dressed as women. Following leaders whose masks hold whistles to signal the group, they travel around the town, blocking the street wherever they go and dancing in weaving lines according to rehearsed choreography. This mask is the female character, Maria (in effect, Jane Doe), that represents all the “female” dancers. It was carved by the owner of a popular morería (mask and costume rental workshop), Miguel Ángel Ignacio Ventura, in the late 1970s.
For more on Guatemalan masks, see Jim Pieper, Guatemala’s Masks and Drama (University of New Mexico Press, 2006).
