TITLE: Son de Diablos Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Peru
SUBREGION: Lima
ETHNICITY: Afro-Latino
DESCRIPTION: Diablo (devil) mask for Son de Diablos dance
CATALOG ID: LAPE015
MAKER: Unknown maker, probably in Lima
CEREMONY: Son de (los) Diablos Dance, Corpus Christi
AGE: ca. 1910
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint
The Son de Diablos (or Son de los Diablos), the “Song of the Devils,” is an Afro-Latino dance developed in Peru by the descendants of African slaves in Lima, possibly as early as 1800. Despite its ties to Corpus Christi celebrations in the Andean region, the Catholic Church banned the dance in 1817. Nonetheless, its practice continued abated, finally experiencing a revival in the 1950s. Masqueraders typically emerge in a large group and do an energetic dance to special music for the occasion.
This mask was made around 1910 in Lima and was used there for many years.
