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In the Americas, matlachines (also spelled matachines; singular matlachín) is a traditional Mexican indigenous ritual dance performed in northern and central Mexico, particularly among Chichimeca and Tlaxcalteca descended communities, and in the southwestern United States. It is also referred to simply as "la danza" (“the dance”), and the dancers as "danzantes" (“dancers”). The dance blends pre-Hispanic indigenous ritual with Catholic elements introduced during Spanish colonization, honoring saints such as the Virgin of Guadalupe.^[1][2][3]

While early scholars such as Aby Warburg and J.D. Robb linked matlachines to 17th-century European moresca or morris dances, new research by performance historian Lindsey Drury has critiqued Warburg's perspective as Eurocentric, arguing that he overlooked the dance as a living Indigenous/Indo-Hispano tradition which influenced later interpretations.^[4][5][6] Contemporary scholarship by Max Harris, Norma Elia Cantú, Adrian Trevino, and Sabino Cruz Viveros suggests it derives from pre-Hispanic rituals, such as Aztec or Chichimeca-Tlaxcalteca ceremonies, with Christian elements incorporated, interpreted as a means to preserve indigenous practices.^{[1][2][7][8][9]} Additionally, Pueblo and Zacateco oral stories describe the dance as having Indigenous origins and meanings separate from European influences.^[3][10]

In Europe, matachines (Spanish singular matachín; sword dancers dressed in ritual attire called bouffon) are carnivalesque dancers that emerged in Spain in the early 17th century, inspired by similar European traditions such as the moresca.^[11] The term danza de matachines refers to their characteristic dance and music.^[12] The dance was documented in the 1642 treatise Discursos sobre el arte del dançado by Juan de Esquivel Navarro.^[11]

Matachines is also written as matlachines and matlatzines in central Mexico.^[13] The term "matlachines" likely derives from the Nahuatl matlatzín, from matlatl (net), and the suffix -tzin (diminutive suffix).^[1] Other proposed origins are linked to Matlatzincas,^[1][3] Nahuatl verbs like malacatonzines (to spin), or from the term matlatzíncatl derives from the Nahuatl words mātlatl (net), centli (corn cob), and -can (place), referring to those who use nets to husk maize.^[1][14][3] According to this view, the same net was used to carry food, process grain, or sacrificial ritual offerings.^[1] The term matachines has been ascribed to Spanish, Italic, or Arabic origins.^[12] Spanish adaptations as matachín connect to European mattaccino (fool or buffoon), used for masked dancers, but Mexican scholars such as Sabino Cruz, suggest the Nahuatl origin better fits Mexican variants.^[1][6][14] Additionally, scholars such as Danna A. Levin Rojo state that in Renaissance Europe, the term mattaccini was possibly a generic term for a wide variety of foreign dances, including those performed in Spain by Indigenous Mexicans.^[15]

Currently, the matlachines or matachines are societies of North and South American Native dancers who perform ritual dances. They are found from Peru up to northern New Mexico where the Spanish influenced New World traditions and introduced Christianity.^{[citation needed]}

After the decline of major Mesoamerican Chalchihuites urban centers (c. 900–1000 CE), Zacatecas and Durango entered a period of Chichimeca reformation, during which former urban elites, Loma San Gabriel farmers, and nomadic groups, under cultural influence from the Aztatlan tradition, merged into new tribal identities such as the Zacatecos, Caxcanes, and Tepehuanes.^{[16][17][18][19]} These groups maintained Nahuatl as a trade lingua franca, due to Toltec and later Aztec commercial networks (c. 900–1521 CE), practicing interregional communication and cultural exchange.^[20][21] [INSERT Dances from codices]

Upon Spanish contact, the locals resisted militarily leading to the Mixtón War (1540–1542 CE), which was followed by the Chichimeca War (1550–1600 CE).^[22] The Chichimeca Confederation, comprising Zacatecos, Guachichiles, and other groups, used advanced horseback warfare, archery, and guerrilla tactics to cause heavy losses on Spanish forces.^[23] After decades of unsuccessful military campaigns, Spain abandoned its policy of forced submission and instead negotiated peace through the policy of "peace by purchase" (1590), offering tools, food, and land in exchange for stability.^[22] This outcome led to an Indigenous military victory, with the resulting negotiated peace permitting a level of autonomy of Chichimeca peoples. Spanish authorities then abandoned their "fire and blood" approach in any further conquests to the north, adopting this new policy by negotiating with Indigenous leaders and resettling Indigenous allies to the frontier, thereby shifting from military conquest to diplomatic integration in northern New Spain.^[22]

The colonial era saw Indigenous populations remain numerically and culturally dominant across much of northern New Spain.^[16][24] Spanish authorities began relocating allied Indigenous groups, particularly Tlaxcaltecas, to serve as colonists and cultural intermediaries in these new territories.^[22] Therefore, in many rural areas, Spanish settlers were outnumbered and gradually merged with local Indigenous societies.^{[24][25][26][27]} These early colonial conditions allowed for a level of cultural continuity in Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica (indigenous groups of: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, San Luis de Potosí, Aguascalientes, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Zacatecas, Coahuila, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora, and Baja California in Mexico; California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona in the US), leading to syncretic adaptations of ritual practices, like the matlachines dance, by combining pre-Hispanic cosmology with the newly introduced Catholic religion.^[28][29]

The matlachines dance originated among indigenous groups like the Chichimeca (e.g., Zacatecos, Guachichiles, Guamares, Guanaxabes), Coahuiltecans, and Tlaxcaltecas through pre-Hispanic dance traditions, such as the Aztec Baile Pequeño and Chichimeca-Tlaxcalteca ceremonies (including netotiliztli, matlatzincayotl, chichimecayotl, and tocontin/tocotin), which venerated deities such as Camaxtli (hunting/war god) and Matlalcueye (rain/fertility goddess), tied to agricultural survival in arid regions.^{[28][30][31][32]} Original dances were performative as well, including mock battles.^[29] The dances are proposed to have been performed in pre-Hispanic ritual dances tied to spring ceremonies.^[33]

Its circular choreography, percussion-based rhythms, and regalia align with pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican dances, contrasting with narrative, string-driven European forms.^{[28][34][35][36][37]} Unlike the primarily theatrical nature of the moresca and morris dances,^[37] the matlachines dance functions as a ritual based in Indigenous deity veneration through dance prayer.^[28] Dances overall also functioned as a general, community-wide form of socializing, as seen in Indigenous tribes of central northern Mexico (e.g. Zacateco, Lagunero, Cocoyome, Coahuiltecans, Chisos, Tobosos, and Conchos) as they would perform ritual dance in times of celebration, sorrow, or before battles.^[38]

In the states of Durango, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon, ritual dances were deeply ingrained in Indigenous culture, as sometimes hundreds of people would dance all-night or for multiple days, in combination with heavy alcohol and entheogen use, and occasionally human sacrifice and cannibalism.^[38] According to 17th and 18th century mission reports, these dances known as mitotes, were seen as devilish but were allowed to continue as religious conversion took place.^[38] Missionaries report that by the 18th century, these mitotes would continue to be performed, albeit no longer "barbarous", with dancers sporting variegated parrot feather adornments, handheld arrows or fans, and singing melodic chants.^[38]

Missionary priests therefore reframed indigenous ritual dances as Christian to facilitate evangelization, introducing figures like La Malinche (a convert) and Moctezuma (symbolizing conversion), while replacing weapons with guaje rattles, and one of the three traditions: flecha (arrow), pluma (feather), or palma (feather fans).^{[39][33][40][41][42][43]} This syncretism allowed native practices to persist under a Moorish-Christian guise amid colonial suppression.^[28][29] In contrast, dances that do originate purely from Moros and Cristianos dance traditions (mattaccino, moresca, or morris) also exist in Mexico, which is a distinct tradition called La Morisma.^[44][45]

Tlaxcalteca colonizers, relocated to Chichimeca territories in 1591, spread these rituals by adapting them through integration with local groups.^[28][39][36] Indigenous cofradía members assisted Spanish missionaries in spreading Catholicism, particularly through syncretic dance forms like these.^[32] Today, the Matlachines dances remain central to devotional performances on May 3, the Feast of the Holy Cross, and on December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The May 3 celebration coincides with the beginning of the rainy season and the agricultural season, a syncretic adaptation of pre-Columbian spring fertility rites. The December 12 observance is widely understood as a Christian reinterpretation of Indigenous devotions to the goddess Tonantzin (Cihuacóatl, Coatlicue, Matlalcueye).^{[33][46][47][48][49]} It should be noted that Tlaxcaltecs settlers also made it as far as Peru, where a version of the matlachines dance is also performed. ^[50]

Oral traditions from rural Zacatecas communities attest to the continuation of local Chichimeca ceremonial dances predating colonial evangelization. In a 2021 interview recorded for the television program En busca de la leyenda on Canal 10 Fresnillo at the ex-Hacienda de Santa Rita de Tetillas, Río Grande, Zacatecas, María Dolores “Macuil Xóchitl” Rodríguez Alvarado identifies herself as Chichimeca-Azteca and discusses the spiritual history of the region. She reports that based on ancestral oral history passed down from her father, traditional dancer Joselino Rodríguez Castañón, the Tetillas community continues to perform a 350-year-old Chichimeca dance tradition, originally danced in animal skins on sacred hilltops. Their ceremonial regalia later incorporated Aztec-Mexican symbolism in their nagüillas and penachos (cupils). According to Rodríguez Alvarado, her community practices a circular dance as a prayer-offering to Mother Earth, performed annually on a hilltop on May 4th to ensure good harvests, which is not open to be observed by outsiders. New dancers receive a ceremonial arrow signifying endowment in virtue, representing a warrior’s tool, as well as consecutive earnings of feathers for their headbands forming their headdresses. She claims that the dances from Tetillas and Zacatecas preserve an authentic indigenous Chichimeca tradition, and that they are among the oldest ceremonial dances in Mexico. She mentions she is involved in the broader pan-mesoamerican religious revivals and practices inter-regional indigenous solidarity.^[51]

Oral traditions about the matlachines dance among Pueblo Indian communities, assert a Native American origin and are centered on Montezuma. These traditions, documented in numerous variants of a common legend, describe Montezuma as a mythological Indian god who wore European clothes, foretold the arrival of white settlers, and advised cooperation while insisting the Pueblos to preserve their customs. He is often identified as the dance's founder, with legends recounting his participation in the dance and his instruction for indigenous people to continue performing it as cultural affirmation. In these stories, Montezuma is a promoter of indigenous ways who will return in a time of need, leading spirit warriors to victory over European dominance. Pueblos describe La Malinche not as Cortés’s translator, but as an Indian princess and companion of Montezuma, similar to danza de la conquista or danza de la pluma in Oaxaca. Hispanic New Mexicans' oral traditions coincide with the Pueblo versions, with hispanos such as Cleofas Jaramillo reporting her mother’s account that the dance was performed for Montezuma during his visits to pueblos. Hispano Rafael Chacon also describes it as an Aztec dance offered to the Spanish at the time of Cortés. In Spanish-speaking Hispano towns, these practices have largely faded, partly due to scholarly theories promoting a European origin. Although some Pueblo people who have heard of the European-origin hypothesis lose enthusiasm due to ties with colonial subjugation, most pueblo traditions have preserved the dance as an indigenous cultural tradition.^[32]

Matlachines features circular choreography, accompanied by percussion instruments(e.g. drum, huehuetl, teponaztli), string instruments (e.g. violin, guitar, or harp), or occasionally an accordion.^[52][53][54] The color red is considered sacred in the indigenous Mexican cosmology, as such is a typical color for matlachin attire.^[54][55] Another element incorporated into the matlachines, is the use of masked dancing, which was at various times forbidden by Spanish colonial authorities from the 16th to 18th centuries.^[56][57][58]

Dancers wear ceremonial regalia such as feathered headdresses (Spanish: penacho, cupil; Nahuatl: copilli) or hats, guaje rattles (Spanish: sonajas, tecomate; Nahuatl: ayacaztli), carrizo reed vests and skirts (Spanish: chaleco y naguilla), mock bows and arrows (Spanish: arco y flecha), huaraches (traditional Mexican sandals) varying by region.^{[52][56][53][54][59][60][61][62]}

Key figures in the matlachines dance include El Monarca, La Malinche, Abuelos, and El Toro. El Monarca, often represented by the Emperor Moctezuma, leads the dancers and may appear as a converted Christian, representing cultural continuity. La Malinche, an Indigenous princess, is syncretized with figures such as Matlalcueye, Tonantzin, or the Virgin Mary and plays a role in awakening the Monarca, depicting the survival of Indigenous culture. The Abuelos are clownish ancestral spirits, sometimes called “Loco” or “Viejo” (the crazy one, or the old one), who guide the dancers, and provide comic relief. El Toro represents a bull, depicts either Spanish aggression or pre-Hispanic religious forces, and is defeated in the performance.^[52][56][53]

Other versions depict dancers dressed in traditional ceremonial dress and clothing, with chief characters being El Monarca (typically Moctezuma or other tribal leader), the captains (usually consist of 2-4 and are Moctezuma's main generals), La Malinche or Malintzín, the Native or Mestizo woman; and El Toro, the malevolent comic man of the play (also symbolizes Satan, or the Devil, according to Roman Catholic religious interpretations), dressed with the skins of the buffalo and wearing the horns of this sacred ancestor; Abuelo, the grandfather, and Abuela, grandmother. With the help of a chorus of dancers they portray the desertion of his people by Moctezuma, the luring of him back by the wiles and smiles of La Malinche, the final reunion of king and people and the killing of El Toro, who is supposed to have made all the mischief. Much symbolism is seen in these groups. The basic symbolism of the dance is good vs. evil, with good prevailing.^{[citation needed]}

The matachines dance for a deeper religious purpose, since most of them join to venerate either Mother Mary (e.g. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes, Immaculate Conception, etc.), a saint (the group usually chooses the saint that pertains to the church they belong to), or simply to worship Christ or God the Holy Trinity, demonstrated by the three forked item symbolized as a "Sword of the Holy Trinity". All of the cultural artifacts associated with the dance are blessed by a priest.^{[citation needed]}

While the pre-hispanic mitote held a socio-spiritual meaning and was performed at night with substance use, contemporary mestizo practices in the northern Mexico have diverged: religious dances are now held earlier in the day and are typically substance-free, while secular bailes (social dances) take place at night and often involve alcohol or other substances. The former retains more traditional styles, while the latter is more globalized and modernized. Among contemporary indigenous Tepehuano communities, mitote, matlachines, and secular bailes are each practiced separately.

Matlachines is a devotional act, a form of prayer often dedicated to a catholic patron saint.^[52] When a dancer wears the naguilla, they assume a sacred role within the community, akin to tribal regalia from the North American powwow. For many, the costume also represents a personal commitment, as it is worn in fulfillment of a voto (vow) made to God or a saint, making the dance into an act of devotion and spiritual obligation.^[54] The style of the matlachines dance, its choreography, music, regalia, and sacred function, is a continuous Indigenous practice. The Catholic elements (e.g., saint devotion, bouffon overlay, Moros y Cristianos connection) are a syncretic layer imposed to allow the survival of the tradition under colonial rule.^[63] This tradition blends indigenous and mestizo culture, similar to how the modern Mexican Conchero dancers survived through syncretism.^{[52][53][64][65][66]} According to notable Mexican anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, the core cultural foundation of everyday Mexican life is Indigenous in origin, even if individuals no longer identify as “indígena.” He described the pre-Hispanic elements of Mexican culture as constituting México profundo (Deep Mexico), while European-derived elements form México imaginario (Imagined Mexico).^[67][68]

Tlaquepaque city historian Bernardo Carlos Casas reports on Jalisco TV, that despite lacking Aztec heritage, their traditional religious dance Tatachines de San Pedro Tlaquepaque, was deliberately imported 100 years ago by Don Merquiades Hernandez as a form of cultural revival. Carlos Casas recognizes that in pre-Hispanic Jalisco, the queen of Tonalá Cihualpilli, was baptized as Juana Danza as upon Spanish arrival, as the natives performed a ritual dance to welcome the Spanish in the same manner as the Aztecs did in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Carlos Casas also mentions how the local indigenous would dance and sing to their gods during religious festivals, in the same manner as they now dance to their God and saints during religious festivals. The group has embraced pre-Hispanic elements, such as turkey feathers, carrizo reeds, and a chimalli with the Aztec calendar at its center, among other symbolism.^[69]

In places such as Bernalillo, New Mexico, where the Matachines de San Lorenzo have been performing for more than 300 years, community historian Joseph Moreno has emphasized connections between the dance and Spanish heritage while acknowledging Indigenous influences in the past, but more recently has equally recognized the possibility of a purely indigenous origin or a convergent evolution theory.^[70] Scholars Peter J. García and Enrique R. Lamadrid note that the matlachines dance, along with Los Comanches dance and the Concheros dance, is an expression of Indigeneity, while contributing to the formation of the “new mestizo” identity in New Mexico within the Chicano renaissance.^[66] In communities like Laredo, Texas, scholars such as Norma E. Cantú emphasize Indigenous heritage, while acknowledging Spanish influences.^[62]

The matlachines dance became highly regionalized as the tradition was spread to other indigenous groups further north. Today, the dance varies across Mexico (e.g., Zacatecas, Durango, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala) and the U.S. (e.g., Bernalillo, Ohkay Owingeh, Laredo), among both mestizo (Mexican mestizos, Nuevo Mexicanos, Tejanos) and indigenous populations.^{[52][56][53][71][54][62]} The dance is known by various names in Mexico, depending on the state: Tatachines (Jalisco), Arqueros (Jalisco), Danza del ojo de agua (Coahuila), Matachines (Zacatecas), Chichimecas (Salinas Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí), Arqueros (Nayarit), Matlachines (Aguascalientes).^[52]

Contemporary indigenous groups that perform the dance include the Pueblo, Rarámuri, Yaqui, Tepehuano, Mayo, Cora, Ocoroni and Huichol people.^{[52][56][72][73]}

In central Mexico, various traditional religious dances are collectively referred to as las danzas chichimecas, or individually as danza chichimeca or danza de los chichimecas. Some Chichimecan dance groups wear Aztec-style attire, like the concheros, while others use outfits adorned with multiple rows of short reed segments forming a fringe (naguillas), like the traditional matlachines dancers in north central Mexico (Coahuila, Zacatecas, Nuevo León, Aguascalientes, and parts of Chihuahua). Dancers typically carry bows and arrows, due to association of these weapons with the Chichimec peoples in the 16th century.^[53] This reflects a kind of geographical continuum between the northern matlachines and Aztec-revivalist concheros.

In Guanajuato, the dance is known as Chichimecas y Franceses or Rayados, and is performed in towns such as Celaya, Comonfort, San Miguel de Allende, Tierra Blanca, and San Luis de la Paz. Scholars at the University of Guanajuato, including Alejandro Martínez de la Rosa, argue that the danza chichimeca traces its stylistic origins to pre-Hispanic Tlaxcalteca communal dances such as the mitote and tocotín. During the early colonial period, noble Tlaxcaltecas performed as "civilized" Indigenous people in staged battles against figures of Chichimecas, portrayed by other Indigenous actors. In these performances, the “Chichimeca” represented a colonial construct of the nomadic peoples of northern New Spain, portrayed through European perspectives as the “savage”, feathered, and semi-nude archers. They then incorporated these figures into staged battles between Christian forces and Chichimecas, often with props such as wooden castles and ritual combat which were later adapted within 16th-century colonial religious theater as part of the danzas de conquista, along with other matlachines dance traditions. Later, these dances staged a symbolic battle between the Chichimecas and Europeans (first Spaniards, later French invaders during the 19th-century Intervention). Over time, these dramatizations blended indigenous performance practices with colonial symbols, eventually transforming into the regional traditions performed today. According to Martinez de la Rosa, many groups have completely abandoned the European aspects altogether, performing now as only Chichimec-style dancers, transforming the "savage" Chichimec into victorious and indomitable, through a living, reclaimed, indigenous identity.^[74]

^[75]

^[76]

German art historian Aby Warburg was among the first scholars to formally trace the history of the matlachines dance in the Americas by observing the dance in Cubero, New Mexico, in 1896. He attributed the dance to European origins due to visual and performative similarities between the New Mexican Matachines and European traditions. These included the use of masks, mitre-like headdresses, bells on the ankles, wooden tridents, and pantomimic violence, such as the mock killing of the bull, which he associated with European festive dramas. Warnburg also noted that the name "matachines" is phonetically similar to the Italian mattaccino, meaning "buffoon" or "clown." Warburg himself initially misspelled the dance as "mattachines," reinforcing this connection. The term mattaccino referred to comic performers in Italian theatre who participated in burlesque interludes. Warburg linked the matachines to the Spanish moresca (or morisca), a medieval dance that dramatized the conflict between Christians and Moors through pantomime, cross-dressing, and mockery. By 1905, he explicitly described the Cubero dance as a "degenerate medieval Spanish moresca," affirming a European origin. This connection was part of Warburg's broader research into the "afterlives of images" (Nachleben) and cultural evolution. He sought to trace the development of symbolic forms from antiquity through the Renaissance, and the Matachines provided a living example that he believed supported his theory of the persistence and transformation of ancient European ritual forms.^[4]

Ethnomusicologist J.D. Robb was another early scholar who began studying the matlachines of northern New Mexico sometime shortly after 1941. Robb identifies the primary European ancestor of the New World dance as the Spanish morisca, a festive dance involving pantomime and combat. He notes that the term matachina (a variant of matachines) is treated as a synonym for totentanz ("dance of death") in some contexts, linking it to European folk traditions. Robb also references a French dance called the Matassins, described as a "dance of the bouffons" (buffoons), which was introduced into a comedy-ballet by Molière. Robb also compared the musical notation of a traditional matachin dance from Pedrell's Cancionero Musical Popular Español (a collection of Spanish folk music) with a matachines dance from Tortugas, New Mexico. He found that the Spanish selection "bears a certain resemblance" to the New Mexican version, suggesting a direct musical and thus cultural lineage. Robb argues that Spanish missionaries, observing Indigenous religious ceremonies, recognized their potential for use in conversion. They therefore substituted Christian feasts, dances and saints for the pagan gods and rituals, thereby transforming the morisca or similar European dances into the matachines tradition practiced in the Americas.^[5]

Danza de Matachines is explained by oral history among some Pueblo tribes as the Dance of the Moors and Christians and is the first masked dance introduced by the Spaniards, though its practice outside of the Iberian peninsula changed its cultural and spiritual significance.^{[citation needed]} The dance was adopted by the people, and today many forms of this dance still exist — though the dance steps vary among peoples, the dance formations are all similar. Masks continue to be used, but the style changes from village to village, or people to people. Its meaning is as a celebration of native peoples in the Americas and Philippines, and their salvation through the unity of their faith and culture.^{[citation needed]}

Modern scholars, such as performance historian Lindsey Drury, argue that the matlachines dance is a syncretic blend of Indigenous and European elements, challenging earlier theories by scholars like Aby Warburg and J.D. Robb, who emphasized European origins.

Lindsey Druly's modern research argues that Warburg theorized through a colonial perspective that views Indigenous and Mestizo cultures as static and ahistorical. She states that Warburg's approach ignored the Indigenous history in favor of a wide-reaching speculation and that his theory positions the Pueblo and mestizo peoples as a primitive in a European-defined cultural evolution. She also reports that Warburg failed to see the dance as a dynamic, indigenous living practice. She mentions that he dismissed local explanations as "trivial" and did not consider that the people of New Mexico might be in an active state of cultural negotiation within a colonial context. Drurly mentions how Warburg sought a single, ancient origin, while erasing the dance's true nature as a product of cultural mixing, and not a one way cultural import from Europe into the Americas. Drurly notes that Warburg's analysis was based on errors, such as misremembering a beheading in the dance that does not occur. According to Drurly, this shows how his pre-existing theories (linking the dance to beheading in morescas or the Mithras cult) distorted his perception of the actual performance.^[4]

Scholars Adrian Trevino and Barbara Gilles argue that the matachines dance was likely brought to New Mexico by Mexican Indians who accompanied Spanish colonists, rather than being taught directly by Franciscan missionaries or being a pure European import, stating that scholars Flavia W. Champe and Edward P. Dozier disagreed with the European-origin theory. Trevino and Gilles report that in the second half of the 16th century, acrobats and pantomime fighters known as matachines, matassins, and mattaccini were performing in European streets, courts, and theaters. Trevino and Gilles argue that these performers were likely Mexican Indians who were brought to Europe by Spanish Conquistadors. There, they performed for royalty in Spain and even for the Pope in Rome. Trevino and Gilles suggest that the European dances (matachines, mattaccini) may not have originated in Europe, but rather originated from Indigenous Mexicans from when they visited Europe to perform.^[3] This suggests the dance form predates its presence in Europe and that the name itself might be a European interpretation of an Indigenous performance, such as the Tocotin dance, which was tolerated by colonial authorities.^[3]

Bernalillo community historian Joseph Moreno mentions that the dance is possibly understood as having Mexican origins with Spanish cultural elements grafted onto it, rather than being a direct European import, citing scholar Claude Stephenson, contradicting the older theory of a purely Spanish (European) origin with Aztec elements added later.^[2]

Scholars, such as Thoinot Arbeau, theorized that theatrical dances may have had origins in Ancient Rome via Salii and Pyrrhic dances, dancing during sacred festivals of Mars and infant Jupiter, as they dressed in tunics, caps with swords and shields in hand. Arbea argues that the European Buffens or Mattachin dance originated from these dances due to similarities in costumes and props. ^[2]

The modern European antecedents of the matachines are found in the medieval and Renaissance performance traditions of the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. The Moresca originates in Spain during the period of the Reconquista, the moresca was a festive Christian and Moors dance that caricatured Muslims (Moors) through pantomimic combat, cross-dressing, and racialized depictions, often in blackface. It served as a symbolic reenactment of Christian triumph over Islam. After the expulsion of the Muslims in 1492, the dance persisted as a folk tradition. Originating in Italy, the mattaccino (plural: mattaccini) was a figure of the comic theatre, a buffoon or clown known for acrobatics and sword dancing. While mattaccini sometimes performed moresca dances in theatrical interludes, their role was not inherently tied to the racialized mockery of Muslims.^[4]

According to J.D. Robb, the mattachine dance spread to England as the Morris dance, and elsewhere as the dance of the bouffons, from Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries, often sporting moorish costumes, as well as representing sword fights betweens Christians and Moors.^[2]

A sword dance was performed at Hampton Court on 6 January 1604 by Scottish courtiers for Anne of Denmark in her presence chamber, before James VI and I, and the French ambassador, the Comte de Beaumont.^[77] Dudley Carleton wrote that the Scottish masquerade resembled a matachin and was "cleanly" performed.^[78]

• Mexican folk dance
• Virgin of Guadalupe
• Mexican Syncretism
• Chichimeca
• Nahuatl language
• Matachines
• Concheros
• Powwow
• Moresca

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Matachines". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 875.

• Matachines o Matlachines: una revisión del constructo (UNAM Revista Imágenes)
• A History of the Matachines Dance (UNM Digital Repository)
• Los Matachines

• Video of New Mexico Matachines Dancing
• Video of Yaqui Matachines Dancing
• Coahuila Matlachines Dancing
• Saltillo, Coahuila Matlachines Dancing
• Durango Matlachines Dancing
• Zacatecas Matlachines Dancing
• Rio Florido, Zacatecas Matlachines Dancing
• Miguel Auza, Zacatecas Matlachines Dancing
• Matlachines performing ritual at indigenous spiritual site in Zacatecas (starts at minute 08:40)