Composing Histories: Aztec Music and Dance in Los Angeles

FAIN: FT-278381-21

Kristina Frances Nielsen
Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX 75205-1902)

Research and writing leading to a book about Aztec music, dance and indigenous cultural heritage in contemporary Los Angeles.

Across Los Angeles, Mexican-American men, women, and children of all ages participate in Aztec dancing, a communal dance performed to the beat of an Aztec log drum. Many Aztec dance communities have recently tried to remove European elements from their repertoires, restructuring their music to align with interpretations of a pre-Hispanic Aztec aesthetic. Ongoing disagreements in the community pit dancers who view transmission as historically accurate––regardless of European influences––against those who prefer “recovered” traditions that originate from contemporary Indigenous communities. In this project, I consider this gap in perceptions of history and tradition, and the ways it informs participant’s understandings of Indigenous identity and cultural heritage.