Mimesis and performance in a bullfighting event: the Huamantlada in Tlaxcala

Abstract

We propose to interpret the Huamantlada as a ritual. This event is part of the celebrations in honor of the Virgen de la Caridad in Huamantla, Tlaxcala. In this work, we expose that the festival is a representation made ​​in the likeness of the professional bullfighting, which at the same time, is their reference model. Based on the above we approach the concept of mimesis.

Moreover it is proposed as a possibility that the body action is a staging of the challenge to contingent risk, whose role corresponds to the bulls which are released by the streets.

Through this performance, on the one hand, it seeks to convey the very discourse of bullfighting, their values ​​and some of its representative forms. And on the other, the performers shows to the community his courage and bravery. In this sense, the ones mentioned also access in the field of staging, to a level of risk which is estimated in terms of the reference that it mimics.

Keywords: bulls; bullfighting; performance; mimesis