Final Reflection by Diego

Reflections 1/23/11

It’s been 5 months since Lynda, Raquel, and myself traveled to the Yucatan and visited the ancient Mayan sites of Tulum, Cobá, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Palenque and explored the cities and towns of Tulum, Merida and Puerto Progreso, and Villahermosa. My stated purpose for going was to soak in the imagery and grandeur of the Mayan architecture and immerse myself in Mexican culture and have the experience inform the new work I would create for the Winter Dance Concert. Another, more personal, reason for going was to have the chance to connect and explore the Mexican-part of my Mexican-American heritage.
Five months later the obvious questions are: how has the experience manifested itself today? What were the benefits of going with two colleagues whose disciplines and mediums differed from my own? How did viewing the sites with my colleagues alter my own perception? How will the experience manifest in the new work I am just now beginning to create? How did the trip change me?
Starting with the creation of the new dance first, I made a short draft of two of the planned sections and presented it at the Dance in De Mille concert in December. This helped me figure out what might and might not work for the piece as whole. Since the beginning of this new term, I have had a week and half of rehearsals and have completed three out of a planned 5.5 sections (I say 5.5 because I envision the final, “.5” section to be more of a short “epilogue” lasting no longer than a minute).
I rarely know what a new dance is going to be about. I have found that it is best to allow a project to reveal itself to me. When I have entered into a project certain of what it will be about, I am invariably met with frustration because the piece begins to demand ideas and steps that veer from what I had planned. It has always been the case that these new ideas are better than what I had planned and when I have resisted the impulse to follow these new ideas, the piece has suffered for it. So now I trust that the preparation I do prior to the start of rehearsals will inform the work on the sub-conscious level in unexpected ways and present my voice in a more organic and authentic manner.
What this work is revealing to me is that at its core is an exploration of the notion of “hybridity”. Two of the songs used in the score are by the Mexican- American band, Los Lobos, whose music contains a variety of elements from the Mexican and American origins of the band members. Contemporary composer Eric Schwartz, a Jewish-American from New York, has composed the other parts of the score in collaboration with musician and improvisor John Wilson. The choreography comes from me, a Chicano, a Mexican-American hybrid. I am creating a vocabulary that is synthesizing images gathered from my trip and transposing this vocabulary onto my students who are of diverse backgrounds, mostly White and African-American. Further, these images were gathered and viewed alongside colleagues who were very different from myself. The way I viewed the archeological sites was inherently different from the way I would have viewed them if I were by myself. Can I describe the differences? No. I only know that my experience was affected and altered because of their presence.
The trip has had a lasting effect on me, and yet, I am unable to describe the effect. The new dance is not about the Maya. It is not a recreation of the fantastic images and mythos of the Maya. Does it contain references to what I saw? Yes. There is the idea of a lost voice from the past. There are references to the Temple of a Thousand Warriors at Chichen Itza. There are steps created out of student improvisations on the rules of the Meso-American ball game. There are references to the crazy traffic of Merida and Villahermosa. Yes, there are specific inspirations for the dance, some of which just came out of my subconscious and didn’t reveal themselves until I stepped back to look at what I’ve created thus far.
So the work is proceeding and one of the reasons for the trip, inspiring a new work, has been fulfilled. The other reason, exploring the Mexican side of my heritage also has been fulfilled. My interest in that part of my heritage has been renewed, I have continued my studies of Spanish, and the fact has been asserted that despite my tenuous connection to the culture there, I am not a part of it.
My last word is this. The Yucatan is a magical place and my short immersion has had a lasting imprint on me that will continue to inform my life and made me want to immerse myself again. I will go back sooner than later. Diego

The final blog from the trip by me (Diego). The next one will be the final reflection. See you then.

Villahermosa 8/19/10

Today we returned the car to the rental agency and then took a taxi back into town. We wanted to go to the Anthropological museum. Our taxi driver didn’t actually know the exact location and when we got to the general area he stopped and got out and asked people who were on the street where it was. We eventually found it, but discovered that it was closed for renovations. Que lastima! We asked the driver if he would take us to El Parque de “La Venta,” which doubles as a small zoo and an outdoor museum centered on the Olmecs and the giant stone heads and alters they left in and around Villahermosa. Villahermosa was inhabited by the Olmecs 2500 years ago and the site where much of their archeological remains were found, is a park named La Venta. We happened to be present for feeding time in the zoo section. The 20-foot crocodile gets fed six whole chickens every few weeks. The coyotes get some steaks of beef. The keepers had a hard time corralling the Caracol cat.

Today I tried some food from street vendors, neither of which I liked. Elote and some kind of unsweetened iced drink. Elote is simply corn kernals with condiments added. I had squeezed lime juice, a little hard cheese, salt, and some chile added. Kind of bland. The drink was horchata, I think, which is a kind of rice milk drink, although it’s my understanding that other grains can be used also. Maybe if it was sweetened I would have enjoyed it more. Dinner was at a kind of taco joint only they served a kind tostada. Afterwards we got some ice cream and went to the main square and people watched before hailing a cab to go back to the hotel and pack for our departure. Diego

Finally posting the final blogs, five months later. Better now than never :-)

Palenque 8/18/2010

The drive to Palenque was two hours. We chose to not use a guide this time because there is a museum at the entrance of the grounds and felt the information in there would serve us just as well. The site itself is fairly contained consisting of three main groupings, the tombs and royal palace, the ball court and northern area and the upper, sacred, religious area. The difference here, are the presence of young teenage guides alongside the adult ones. I observed these boys in action and they were quite knowledgeable.

Palenque is still magical, even with the “upgrades” put in place since the last time I was here in the mid 80’s. Back then it seemed “wilder.” One arrived on a bus from Villahermosa after driving through a tiny little town with dirt roads. One walked through the rainforest and then suddenly emerged into an open area tucked up against these mountains from which the ancient buildings seemed to emerge from.

Now the little town, also named Palenque, is a bustling place with well-paved roads. From there the drive is another 10 kilometers to the site. Along this road are a handful of high-end resort hotels and spas as well as a hostel and even a campsite. Upon arrival at a little guardhouse, one pays the requisite parking fee. A little further up is an area for the tour buses to park and the museum, along with two little, site-sanctioned shops. From here one can walk up or drive further up the road to the entrance, which is what we did. In keeping with the incredible entrepreneurial spirit of Mexico, there are guys hanging out who take on the “responsibility” of directing drivers into parking spaces and then expect a tip for their “services.” They’ll clean your windshields for another fee. This was actually something I noticed on our trip to Puerto Progreso. Mario actually did tip the “parking attendant,” although there, parking was a serious issue and a little help in finding a spot was welcome. In Palenque parking was not an issue. We didn’t tip.

Forgot to mention an unsettling thing during our trip. Outside of Tulum, Merida, and Villahermosa there were highway checkpoints manned by soldiers with big machine guns hanging from shoulder straps. I’m assuming that this is a response to the narco-violence that is so prevalent in Mexico these days, particularly in the northern area. The thing is it seems pretty unclear what they are looking for. We never got stopped. It was probably pretty easy to mark us as tourists. But I never saw any car stopped, nor did I witness the soldiers asking drivers for information. Diego