Cristina Tacata, a Mexika dancer and drummer, and special education teacher of Los Angeles, CA was appalled by the new photo series for a Ollin Ixtli’s calendar to promote the workout company. Basically, Ollin Ixtli nicked a sacred Mexica dance and ceremony tradition and packaging it into a body workout by physical trainers in a similar nature as zumba or yoga. This business appropriated physical activity in ceremony by reducing the historical, spiritual and sacred element. Tacata posted this statement:
“I never agreed with Ollin Ixtli‘s practices but this photo has taken it way too far and this is now an issue of accountability. My initial critique of the image went unaddressed and was immediately removed: “my heart just sank into my stomach. Our ancestors were humiliated, tortured, and murdered for their use of the huehuetl, and their sacrifices since the start of colonization are what made it possible for the prayer of drumming to still be alive today. Is this a thank you gesture? Disgusting.”
Plumed headpieces, copaleros, and chachayotes (rattle seeds) accessorize the models. One image is a straight out offense as it depicts a woman laid on top of a huehuetl (ceremonial drum) on a beach. Why would a woman have any business lying on top of this sacred instrument on a sandy shore? Because it is sexy and sex sells to the ignorant and superficial consumer.
Tacata’s statement reflected what many in different Calpullis (Nahuatl community systems) and danza circles had on their mind. Tacata writes:
“In addition, aside from the general disrespect and desecration of our culture that these photos perpetuate, we as wombyn of color already have to contend with a bombardment of hyper-sexualized images in euro-centric mainstream media that justify rape and many other forms of violence against us. Promotion of the same types of representations by our “own” kind is completely, entirely, and utterly unacceptable.”
Because there is nothing contextual in the apparel they wear, it is treated like costume. Because it is a calendar of fit women in exaggerated dramatic and sexual poses, it perpetuates the notion of exoticism and hyper-sexualization of women in an indigenous culture, thus perpetuating colonial views on Aztec, African and mestiza women as being deserving of sexual and physical violations. What a way to ignore historical context of the countless acts of rapes and misogyny committed against our grandmothers, mothers, and sisters from 1492 to the present day! And because most of these women in the photos are glammed up with whitened version of native beauty (one photo even has a blond in native headdress) they are good enough to steal and sell Mexica culture but the inherent womyn of the culture are not pretty enough for the western standard.
These images become the popular representation of women of color and the producers are washed clean of responsibility or accountability to the communities that are constantly damaged by sensationalized and inaccurate reflections of themselves.
-Arlene Mejorado
nenaworld.wordpress.com 
Being completely honest, this isn’t my culture (I’m a white American of German descent, for better and worse) or a ritual I am familiar with, and I am very ignorant to much of the meaning behind it. However I have had the pleasure of watching multiple local groups performing ceremonial dances. It is such an incredibly beautiful and emotional thing to witness even though most of it is surely lost on me. And what you point out here is absolutely grotesque in my opinion. Thank you for writing this.
Not all of us, Calpulli leaders see Ollin Ixtli as the worse thing that is ever happened to our sacred ritual of Danza. Worse things have been done to our ritual Dances and ceremonies for decades. She is being attacked because she is an easy target (woman, new to the culture, no community support). I will not list the atrocities far worse that have been committed by established Danza leaders because I am personally ashamed. My point is, while I do not agree with Ollin Ixtlis exploitation for profit of our culture, she is not the worse that we have going on at the moment. So before we criminalize her, we should do the same for those who have been doing it for decades.
@ Danzante 13 We have a Boycott against this lady’s group because they are MASS MARKETING all over the internet, social media, and national television a very sexualized unauthentic misrepresentation of our cultural traditions. Her clearly stated intention is to make her “Aztec Fitness” class non-sense, her yearly “Aztec Sexy” fashion model Calendar and her soon to come Fitness Video into the next shiek trendy fitness craze like Zumba, Pilates or Taebo. None of the examples of shameful acts you list here that I can see have had the potential to shape the image of our people in the mass public conciousness like this group Ollin Ixtli. They are marketing with great savy and have the potential to spread even more ignorance to the public towards our way of life and our shared cultural heritage. I hope that we can make a show of solidarity and unity amongst us in the traditional community against such threats as this- regardless of whether our own houses are scrubbed completely clean.
My mind is open what is the worse, can you please provide a concrete example, it would validate your accusations?
Danzante13, lets concentrate at the issue at hand and not minimize this groups actions. By justifying and diverting attention to the issue you only promote this groups actions.
As a danzante (since I was 7 years old now 25) I just want to say this is disgraceful. It’s bad enough that in local groups we have ignorant teen girls using danza as a way to look hot for their friends as I have seen done, but now its becoming a commercial FAD. I fear I let my anger get the best of me and all I have to say is crap like this makes me want to rip the headress from their pretty little heads and proceed to beat the shit out of them. I am very sorry if that does not please you to hear but I EARNED the right to wear mine. They don’t had out trajes, kopilis and yoyotes (all of which you have to make yourself!) for free, you have to go through alot to get to that point and there is a process that must be adhered to. Damn this pisses me off to no end. It’s something spiritual and ceremonial that people just never seem to understand and still think it’s ok to walk all over. Its just disgusting.
@ Ana FYI they rented the regalia from a well known danzante in the L.A. area who apparently did not know or care to find out how they would be used. I agree with your comments 100%. Perhaps our regalia should not be “rented out” in the first place.
Why are you not angry and protest the Danzantes begging for money at Placita Olvera. Why not place behind bars the pedophile leader from Cuauhtemoc. Why not place restrictions on Gordos or at least restrict them from dancing in public and only allow them at ceremony. Why don’t we start with the Danzantes who smoke mariguana and get drunk at ceremonies. What about the Danzantes who betray our ancestors by dancing at churches for the catholic saints. What about the Danzantes who use Danza at political protests and rallies, Danza was never meant to be used as a tool to catch attention, what a shame it is to see Danzantes being arrested in full regalia. Danza is not for political use. Those are greater crimes my friends. You are hypocrites and you attack this woman because she is a woman and she is an easy target, open your eyes to your Hypocrisy. Most grupos in LA dance for money, Florencio Yeskas set that trend why do people venerate him. I myself think what she is doing is not good, but there are way bigger fish to bring down before her and until that is done I don’t think self righteous Danzantes have the moral Authority to talk shit on this woman. I can count on one hand the honorable Capitanes in the Los Angeles area.
Oh my goodness….. @Danzante13, I would love to know where your sanctimonious opinion was born! BWAAAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA at calling others hypocrites and self righteous. LAME!
its not lame. he’s right. i danced for over 15 years with and around different groups. some of these so-called “capitanes” and “jefes” are full of crap. they use their leadership as a way to get into young girls pants. i personally know who some of them are. they take girls out to bars and get them drunk and then take advantage of them…sometimes right after ceremony no less. some might say the girls should know better, but those so-called leaders should know even more better. some of these people sit there at these ceremonies and tell the up and coming jaguares and xilonens how to act properly and then turn around and do some pretty f’ed up stuff themselves. is that the example they should be setting for our up and coming youth? is that what is considered “Native”? and for all you who say drinking and smoking weed is part of our culture…youre full of crap. back in the day young people getting caught drunk would be banished and sometimes killed. it was not, NOT, acceptable behavior in traditional Mexica culture. i know about the pedophile “jefe” from Cuauhtemoc btw…and i know about some of the other “leaders”, having been around a lot of them and personally observing their behavior. its time to clean house…ALL the way around…thats all im sayin’. – Ometeotl
Im a fat danzante … so F-U … I dance de Corazon and not for other reasons! It does not matter what weight you are, as long as you are danzing for the right reasons and sending your prayers. But if you have alternatives to go danza, that’s all you! Karma will come back and get you, don’t play with what’s magical. So its worse that I am a danzante than these girl laying up on a sacret huehue!?
This person thinks is okay to walk in to your home and lie to you and learn about your family tradition then go out and make money and at the same time destroy the image, respect, and all the hard work to keep your tradition going so it can be pass to our younger generations well she is wrong. I been dancing the way my ancestor did for almost 20 years now and she is not going to destroy what my people have worked hard to keep going… She’s disrespecting all native people… Next she will pick another culture and do the same just to be famous and make money…
I really don’t think we should criticize other grupos/kalpullis. None of us do anything perfect. We all have a different way of doing things and that is ok. The difference is we are trying to learn and attend ceremonias on a regular basis. Remember that not all grupos/kalpullis attend our fiestas or ceremonias for a reason. They may not agree with what we do and that is ok as long as we respect each other.
Dislike*
Maliche of our time.
Thank You very much Arlene & Cristina for writing on this very important subject. The image of the indigenous woman is something that should not be sexualized in this way. Ollin Ixtli attempts to label this as “modern” but that does not justify what is it in reality- a modern PERVERSION of the indigenous female image. Our vast traditional community of azteca dancers & ceremonial people share a universal feeling of outrage over this modern perversion of our indigenous women.
Our indigenous aztec traditions and ceremonial instruments, which Aida claims she has great respect for, are an area of spiritual tradition for indigenous people that is not normally mixed with sensual revealing modern fashion modeling. You would not use Catholic Church instruments, symbols and dress and use it to do a sexy fashion model photo shoot would you? The mixing of the spiritual religious traditions and sensual fashion modeling is generally considered sacriligious and very controversial to say the least.
Aida Landeros & Ollin Ixtli is crossing that line between spiritual tradition & sexy fashion modeling with their calendar photos, mixing the two, and she makes no apologies for it. If it was Catholic Church spiritual tradition she was mixing then she would gain the condemnation of the whole world. But because she is using Indigenous spiritual tradition, she is getting away with it for now because the general public is not well informed about Indigenous spiritual tradition and danza azteca.
We in the Indigenous traditional community have a vested interest in protecting our self image that goes beyond any monetary concerns. This issue is central to who we are as a people for our dignity & self respect and if Aida Landeros & Ollin Ixtli is able to promote their ignorant false modern perversion of our women & culture to influence our image within the public consciousness, then this would do harm to our whole way of life and our cause for self-determination.
All have to say is to each their own. Sooner or later we all have to pay a price for what we do. The exploitation of the danza has been happening for years. Even before it made it’s way down from Mexico to here. I personally
Lol, accidentally posted before I was done*;D so back to what I was saying there were 2 Jefes that came from Mexico and brought the Danza to the US. I don’t know much about Florencio Yeskas but I know that he made lots of money off the Danza and art. As far as Anders Segura he was strictly Danza Aztecs Chichimeca Conchero. Who’s right who’s wrong? In my opinion you can’t call someone out on BS if your doing the same, making money off the danza for personal gain. So it all comes down to how scared is the Danza to you personally??? We are not god or the creator however it is that you want to call him, it is not for us to judge. I don’t agree with selling our ceremonies so I will be sure to teach my children that and pray for those who do.
Angelique we have debated this issue for some time now leading up to our Boycott against this group (not sure if you were a part of it) and there has been widespread agreement that although we realize that our “traditional” community house of Danza Azteca is not yet scrubbed completely clean (nor our history for that matter), this does not mean we should abandon or efforts to stop the very real misrepresentation and disrespect that Ollin Ixtli is promoting of our culture to the public. “Selling our culture” the way Aida is doing it is ONLY 1 of the reasons why there is widespread outrage & condemnation of Ollin Ixtli. As the article here exposes clearly, this group is PERVERTING the image of the indigenous woman, the indigenous azteca women specifically, into a very sexualized trendy cheap fashion model image of our women that deeply offends the vast majority of us in the traditional community. It goes completely contrary to what our elders taught us.
Also her fitness class which takes our danzas, our COMPLETE DANZAS DONE IN A CEREMONIAL CIRCLE, and isolates certain movements to be done in repitition, in effect takes the meaning of the movements from their intended & proper context which is to tell our history and culture- changing the focus from a true expression of who we are as a people to simply ‘fitness’. Watching their fitness video you can’t help but recignize that they are doing more “posturing” for the video camera than anything. Where are the children & elders? We see only pretty fashion models. . . . am I wrong? Ollin Ixtli only uses our regalia as ‘costumes’ (the Copillis and trajes in their calendar we confirmed were rented) making their expression of our culture a ‘characature’ of the real thing. All this activity absolutely DEGRADES DANZA AZTECA. This is another reason why we are Boycotting Ollin Ixtli.
To say “it is not for us to judge” is not what is happening around this false group. We simply recognize when someone is promoting a false image of our people and culture to the mass public consciousness- grossly misrepresenting what we are about. We would prefer a more authentic version of our cutlura was presented to the public. That is the reality of what this group is doing and we are completely justified in our opposition to it.
Again, making money off of our culture in their own way is not Ollin Ixtli’s greatest transgression at all and we realize this issue is something we ourselves need to work on- but that doesn’t mean we should stop our opposition to Aida Landeros & Ollin Ixtli.
Respectfully,
Mike
Wow. Some heavy stuff here! I don’t like to see division within my comunidad de la danza. at the same time, I don’t consider these folks marketing danza in this way as part of my community. And yes, we pick and choose who we persecute, that is human nature. I’m not feeling a calendar with sexualized danzantes in “rented” trajes, or fitness DVDs. Maestro Yescas shouldn’t be honored because he promoted el “esplendor” and showmanship? but he gave birth to danza here, along with Maestro Segura and others. His root is strong. Danzantes begging for money at Olvera? I wouldn’t do it, but I don’t judge them, because they also participate in ceremony. Dancing for money is part of how they survive, but not the only way they preserve the traditions. No honorable capitanes in LA? sorry to hear it. I know a couple of capitanes from there who seem like good folks and behave well in ceremony, so I disagree. It’s OK for folks to disagree, but ultimately, our community holds us accountable. In our community we are fortunate to have elders who hold us accountable, most of all. They will let folks know when they are messing up. But they don’t know about most of what’s happening with this Ollin Ixtli because most of them are not looking at FB; I bet you they would not be happy about it. You have a problem with gordos dancing, Danzante 13? Why? it is good for them to dance! And I know a few who do it very well. Que tiene que ver eso?
Roberto Ariel Vargas, is there a great Maestro/Capitan based in Los Angeles you would be gracious enough to recommend for a beginner to danza? Or possibly a website or email address to get more info? Muchisimas gracias!!
Me la pela–las gorditas gringas tambien quieren bailar y perder peso mientras practican la danza.
I do not know you but I do know the women organizing this and in my opinion you are taking this the wrong way. From my understanding the group is creating a positive awareness for the Aztec culture. If you live in fear that your culture is being tarnished and threatened – how can you educate people? Yoga can be seen in a similar light. Hundreds of years ago it was a spiritual, sacred activity mostly practiced by a select few. Today it helps people of all ages in almost every part of the world mentally and physically. These sacred and spiritual dances could also do the same today. I don’t think this is going to be the next Zumba, Taebo and fade away … this is something that is centuries old and should be preserved and promoted. In my mind, this should be a call for unification not division. It is a beautiful part of our world’s history.
@ Francisco- I wonder are you really experienced and knowledgable about aztec culture? What ceremonial circle are you a part of? It seems to me that many supporters of Ollin Ixtli are newcomers to Azteca culture and novices when it comes to truly understanding at a deeper level what they are talking about when they make statements like “These sacred and spiritual dances could also do the same today”. And a deeper level is absolutely required when dealing with the truly ‘sacred’ or else you have people such as Ollin Ixtli flipping your ceremonial instruments on thier sides and cutting your ceremonial regalia for sexualized fashion model photo shoots on the beach.
Please Francisco try to take a closer look at the group you are defending. We really are fearful that the public will get a cheap & degraded misrepresentation of our culture from Ollin Ixtli. We value our people’s cultural image within the consciousness of the society in which we live and don’t want to see it degraded. That is why we are so vigorous in our efforts to boycott and EDUCATE people as to what is an authentic expression of our culture and what is an exploitive perversion mislabeled as ‘evolved, enlightened, elegant’.
(I’m writing more on this subject so stay tuned)
The Yoga analogy does not apply in this case. I don’t usually see Yoga instructors renting costumes , cutting them down to reveal lots of skin of dolled up fashion models posing for the camera on the beach in a sensual/sexually provocative manner like in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine- to promote ‘Yoga’. In fact Yoga usually includes men, but all we see from Ollin Ixtli are these wanna-bee cultural fashion models. Am I wrong?
I agree with Danzante13 . She is being targeted due to her sex. It also seems like she is being attacked by members of the danzante community, which is really sad.I have seen Aztec fitness before, a man uses that name for a weight lifting/body building type workout. I have also seen live performances. Lots of them. The women with ” skinnier” bodies were always more exposed, specially the legs, while some even showed their torsos. If this is about disrespect to the culture, in my opinion that was done long ago when these ceremonies were made public. The ones really channeling the spirit in ceremony aren’t wasting their time bullying a human being with feelings. Those lead by example. I hope the leaders aren’t encouraging this attack. I Loved Aztec danzantes until I came across the boycott towards this group and I was immediately drawn to this ” so called issue”. How could they??? I thought. Aren’t they existing in a higher vibration already? They are better than this!! I thought. Then I went even further and time and time again after every insult and vulgar comment i read from theses ” danzantes” towards Ollin IXTLI, I became more and more disappointed. How do you all expect to make a point coming from a dark, negative evil sort of approach? I don’t care what you are defending, how holy or how simple! That’s no way to do it. Period. What we as leaders should do is teach our kids some manners so they don’t come off so vulgar on the Internet while “defending” our culture.
@ in k’aatech- Believe me if it were a man sexualizing the image of our indigenous azteca women and degrading our danzas with “fitness” isolating the steps, we would be just as outraged and vigorous in our efforts to boycott them. It has nothing to do the Aida personally being a woman. I think people making that argument are the only ones feeling sorry for her & thinking that she is vulnerable to our verbal attacks.
As far as the attacks themselves, our boycott cannot control the vast tens of thousands across the continent who express their extreme outrage and disgust over the perversion of our sacred traditions. These people post as individuals and many are not yet associated with our organized boycott effort. Our boycott does clearly state that we are PEACEFUL IN NATURE and we condemn any threats or acts of violence against Aida or anyone with Ollin Ixtli. As far as people posting hateful nasty things on Ollin Ixtli pages, we regret some of our people in the “traditional community” cannot or choose not to express their valid anger & disgust in a way that is palatable to Ollin Ixtli. But don’t believe it comes from our boycott officially. Its a reflection of our underlying moivations for boycotting in the first place, but don’t believe its born from an innate pure hateful spiteful need to behave this way. Its a natural reaction to an injustice done to our whole way of life- taking our sacred danza traditions and perverting them into a sexualized pretender-shiek taudry degraded version of our true culture. Our community who have lived “Danza Azteca” for many generations, learning from true maestros, absolutely have the right to make that evaluation of Ollin Ixtli’s activities.
Also the fact that Ollin Ixtli is marketing such non-sense with great savy to the general public, spreading ignorance of our true culture, misrepresenting who we are as indigenous people in a very professional, organized & business like fashion is the primary reason we see them as such a threat more than any other before.
Our boycott against Aida Landeros & Ollin Ixtli is completely justified. The argument that because our own history or our traditional danza house is not scrubbed completely clean today is supposedly something that invalidates our boycott efforts simply does not hold water. Absolute purity or perfection from an entire population of people across a continent and throughout our history is not a requirement or standard we should be held up to (although such purity & pursuit of perfection is an ideal every people aspire to). In fact, our counter-movement against Ollin Ixtli is listed in our boycott as being a catalyst for reflection amongst our own traditional community of the need to work on these very same issues in our own circles. We realize in our own house we have some cleaning to do, but that does not mean we should not work against Ollin Ixtli’s blatantly extreme, intentional and unapologetic exploitation of our women & cultural traditions.
Thankful that despite the work of this “group”, there are still plenty of kalpullis, families and individuals who love this tradition and are doing their best to hold themselves to high standards both within and outside of the ceremonial circle. Though none of us are perfect, the fact that they’re actively trying to perpetuate the sexy-indian-woman stero-type (once used as an excuse for rape against our ancestors) turns my stomach, and the disrepect that they have for our sacred objects and traditions is obscene. They say that “aztec fitness” has nothing to do with ceremony, yet they use ceremonial objects (drum/sahumador/kopilli etc.) as part of it. Originally I thought they must be uneducated and not realize that they are offending a spiritual community, but it appears they are fully aware, don’t care and are attempting to mass-market it. Sad.
It all comes down to this, our people have been so exploited already we give this group grounds for what they are doing. There are so many issues, as far as the elders supporting this attack as its been put as far as I know the elders don’t approve of such behavior. At least the elders that I have learned from. Our ceremonial ways should be respected. As for myself I would never intentionally hurt anyone with my words, but I will let it be known that I disagree. It is our responsibility as Danzantes if your a real one to lead by example and do our best to protect the tradicion. Elders have also said Ceremonia always takes care of itself. I have been witness to that my self on many occasions. In reality all we need to do is dance harder, sing harder, play harder, and pray harder. Everything happens for a reason and I feel this is happening because our danza community is very imbalanced at the moment. Maybe we should take the time to ask our selves why???? Only you know know the question to that answer…….
Lol answer to that question*;D
@ Danzante13 eres chismoso!!!! all i can say is if it feels wrong Do something about it!!!! Sitting behind a computar talking down on Jefes who will not see this is Retarded!!! infact si tiene las Ganas Let these people know to their face how you feel!!! the guilt will take care of the rest!!! no te hagas pendejo and stop talking and start acting!!!!!
When any one commenting here about Maestro Florencio or his Heredero (my jefe), has contributed as much to the life of danza as they have, then you have the right to say something or criticize…… TO THEM DIRECTLY, TO THEIR FACE. Which I am sure NO ONE has the courage to do…. stick to the issue at hand folks. Bunch of shyttt talkers.
And as a postscript….. I know Maestro Florencio is now passed and cannot be addressed to his face so no need to address that point. *rolling eyes*
To Danzante13 We are all listening to you and we give u much props 4 speakin out. everyone is talkin about jefes and capitanes n well known danzantes but nobody names names and I know that if people did there would b a linch mob mentality like what people r doing to this so called Ollin Ixtli group! This is why I left fake los angeles. Puro show but no cermony. Jus say it Lazaro n his danzantes rented out trajes n now their crying bout it! karma. He is no better than Pastel n Judit. One plays with kids an the other sells drugs! yeah ya herd right. So quit the attacking this new group cuz at least they arent criminalz.
You are absolutely wrong!!!! Lazaro has nothing to do with this woman and how dare you compare him to Pastel !!!!! I would love to know WHO YOU ARE to be making these statements and know you would never say it to his face!!! Juan Ruiz rented her the outfits. Everyone knows that!! Juan doesnt attempt to call himself a jefe, he calls himself a businessman and he was doing his business. Whether that is right or wrong……. take it up with him. No one will do that either tho since so many like to purchase from him…. @ InLakech stay hidden and dont post your name because you have no courage to tell Lazaro to his face what you think of him.
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Many of the comments here express an issue at the core of this debate. Do we who consider ourselves members of the traditional ceremonial community of azteca dancers have the moral right to boycott this group Ollin Ixtli who has been outcast from our ceremonial community from which she learned? As we have stated before, the argument that because our own history or our traditional danza house is not scrubbed completely clean today is supposedly something that invalidates our boycott efforts simply does not hold water. Absolute purity or perfection from an entire population of people across a continent and throughout our history, even amongst the Jefes/Jefas of some groups, is not a requirement or standard we should be held up to (although such purity & pursuit of perfection is an ideal every people aspire to). In fact, our counter-movement against Ollin Ixtli is listed in our boycott as being a catalyst for reflection and hopefully correction amongst our own traditional community of the need to work on these very same issues within our own circles. We realize in our own house we have some cleaning to do, but that does not mean we should not work against Ollin Ixtli’s blatantly extreme, intentional and unapologetic exploitation of our women & cultural traditions. (See my comments above for more complete list of our grievences against this group)
I hope we all can agree that the divisions, blaming & finger pointing, lack of practicing our high principles for many years now is what has allowed this Frankenstein of a group Ollin Ixtli to grow like a weed. One of the primary goals of our boycott is to create a shift within our danza community to say finally “ENOUGH” with the finger pointing that causes our skepticism and inaction. WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS! We hope the energy we put into working internally on our own ceremonial community will flow into and give strength to our external efforts to boycott this false group Ollin Ixtli, and vice versa.
We fully realize that our boycott may not be successful in actually stopping Ollin Ixtli’S activities, but we at least can be a powerful voice of opposition, morality and realism where ever they might seek to spread their perversion & degradation of La Danza way of life- who we are as a people.
This was posted on Ollin Ixtli’s Facebook page as a reply to this Nena World Article:
Dear friends, please read the article below and give us your opinion. In response to the statement “it is a calendar of fit women in exaggerated dramatic and sexual poses.” No it is not. Our calendar portrays women in a modern, elegant, powerful and spiritual way. Beauty is a true artists expression and it varies to different perspectives. Aztec dance has been evolving and will continue to do so. A more modern form of dance exhibits the power youths have no limitless freedom. our youth will decide the future of aztec dance. Ollin Ixtli is only a true reflection of the feelings of a new generation.
I took the liberty of writing a direct rebuttle to her reply here:
ARLENE MEJORADO, GET A LIFE, THIS IMAGES ARE NOT SEXUAL OR PERVERTED, GET REAL, IS JUST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AND MEDITATIVE AND RELAX POSITIONS, AND MAYBE THATS WHAT BOTHERS YOU, ” communities that are constantly damaged by sensationalized and inaccurate reflections of themselves ” EXACTLY! LIKE WHEN THEY PORTRAIT LATINOS AND NATIVES ALWAYS PLAYING MAID, OR CRIMINALS, OR LABOR, SO SUDDENLY SOMETHING COMES UP SHOWING THEM LOOKING RELAX, BEAUTIFUL EMPOWERED AND YOU COMPLAIN? GET REAL.
Sacrifises NEVER excisted!! GET that out of your heads once and for ALL!! 2nd- the photo with were the seashell is beeing blowed into is not allowed to be used by women, in the “Aztec” traditions, because it represents the women’s vagina.. I hate idiots who do not know what the hell there doing… practise your culture and origins.. dont be a copy cat.. and an ignorant one!!
wowo , i dont know where the f you get your definition of empowerment?because this is surely not empowering my people but the wasichu with their damn corporative colonialistic minds. and the average malinche selling out as always
I’m not a dancer nor do I have a full understanding of the Azteca dancing or ceremonies but if you all are so worry about doing it the right way why don’t start by speaking the mother language of the Aztecs!? You are using spanish as if was the official tongue of the Aztecs how about you start by changung that so is more traditional !! Spanish is and will never be Aztec jefes!? Really dansantes!? Ok all of these is nothing but bull shit anyways the Azteca an Mayans used to make human sacrifices which is sick and especially Virgen young women who wants to be part of a culture like that disgusting and yes I am mexican of European decent thanks to God!!!
By the way everything is about making money these days if not her somebody else would of done you all are mad at her ’cause she thought about it first than you all did. And as one of you said the women dancer are almost naked and I find it very disrespectful when they come to a Catholic Church to dance as if please you are right it shouldn’t be allowed for dansantes to come dance to a Catholic Church take your dances to your gods and leave our God alone with your mundane dances ….
By the I have respect to the Aztec culture and other cultures and traditions when they are what they are supposed to be I don’t have respect for fake peaolpe like some of you here who are pretending to be perfect and saying you do everything according to the Aztec’s traditions I dare u to go to Mexico live with the indijenas learn their tongue or dialects and their very humble way of life and spiritual way of life then u can talk and say you got these down to a science please I bet none you dansantes have any idea that most of the native Mexicans have always been descrninated against in their on land that most of them die of hunger and of some sort of illness that’s was not treat by a doctor they most of their children don’t go to school and will recieved some sort of supior education if you all were so concern you will take your ass down to mexico an help some of your “people@ but instead here you are so f@&$ worry about a “dance” or ritual how superficial is that a slap in the face to the indigenous you all are a shame and disgrace to these people
And by the way they did made human sacrifices ok they stop when the catholic missionaries came and they were not the only culture to do it all over the world human sacrifices were and still are part of some tribes and cultures and in some cases religions such as “satans” so get over it and admit as much as you want to denied they did and they use the sea shell as representation of a woman’s vigina for a reason duh because they use especially sacrificed women hello anyways
The truth of this article is on point.I’m salvadorian and for me when I joined Danza last year with my friend it opened my eyes because it made me feel closet to nature and for this person to dress up & mock the culture is degrading.The person should already know how hard the dances are and already know that you are not allowed to use Danza in any kind of entertaining way & you must only use Danza when you are practicing or actually doing a ceremony.Its hard enough being able to do Danza knowing that mothers or sisters like us have to babysit and can’t make it to the ceremonies because we have to work,take care of children or going to school.It seems like this person has a lot of time in their hands & if they don’t realize what they are doing then have already lost & been dead.Our people struggle enough with capitalism,sexism & racism but this is just forcing the pointless limit.Those who are opposing against the truth of this article…you already lost the cause the moment you disagree & don’t give me that freedom of speech bullshit because that existed when the US Government decided to spare us with their false pity & that didn’t exist until colonization came along.Use common sense people.I speak for my people without a dam law telling me I can or can’t and we will protest everything that keeps raping our culture whether people like it or are blind & want to keep being blind(but I still hope people will open their eyes one day.)