One of the great festival traditions shared by Pueblo and Hispano groups of the Southwest is the celebration Los Comanches. Between the end of September and mid-February, communities come alive with re-enactments of centuries-old rituals. Colourful processions, heroic historical dramas, religious morality plays, and boisterous ceremonial dancing combine to form a mixture of defiance of and tribute to the Comanches by the Pueblo and Hispano villagers. Enrique Lamadrid's and Miguel Gandert's account of Los Comanches offers a historical context and typology, but, more importantly, it includes: 'Cuerno Verde y sus hijos', the eighteenth-century victory play depicting the defeat of a Comanche chief; several nativity plays performed in different parts of New Mexico; and 'Los Comanches de la Serna', from Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. With Gandert's documentary photographs and a CD that includes performances of songs from the plays, this volume preserves one of the Southwest's least understood cultural traditions.
- ISBN10 0826328784
- ISBN13 9780826328786
- Publish Date 30 November 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 April 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of New Mexico Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 312
- Language English