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Description

Shirt that is part of a costume with pants (2792/2 b) and mask (2792/1). Heavy dark brown bolero-style wool jacket is decorated with a border of continuous blue cording around gold and silver sequins, and with several large sequin and cording-outlined fabric flowers with leaves on stems of bright yellow cording. Bunches of long red and blue strands of wool form ties down the front, a fringe of the same hangs from the waist at the back, and a shorter gold thread fringe is attached along the waist at the front.

History Of Use

Part of a dance costume for "Baile de la Conquista"; used in the Dance of the Conquest, in Guatemala. In the Dance, King K'iche learns from Motecuhzoma that his empire is about to be destroyed by foreigners wielding magical weapons. His sons recommend resistance and go to Quetzaltenango to warn Tecum. King K'iche tells Tecum and the other chiefs that he has dreamed Motecuhzoma has been murdered and the same fate awaits him. Tecum promises to defeat the enemy. Ambassadors meet but Tecum rejects the Spaniards demand that his Indigenous followers be baptized. Next, Tecum narrates a dream where, in battle, he turns into an eagle and attacked the Spanish three times until he fell and his heart was split in two; he saw a dove leading the triumphant Spanish army. The real battles begins and Tecum is killed by Alvarado. Tecum's successor, Zunum, stops the battle and has Tecum buried in the mountain, while King K'iche declares he has had a dream in which the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, has convinced him to be baptized.