Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2006
Abstract
"Holy Wednesday" is a late sixteenth century adaptation of a Spanish auto sacramental (sacred play) written in alphabetized Nahuatl, the predominant pre-Columbian language spoken on the High Central Plateau of Mexico. The author remains unknown, however he was likely a Nahua amanuensis educated by Franciscans at Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco. Religious drama was one of the important evangelizing tools of the Catholic brotherhoods in colonial Mexico and although a record of performance of Holy Wednesday does not exist, this dramatic depiction of the final meeting of Christ and Mary prior to the crucifixion was almost certainly performed as part of Holy Week celebrations.
This paper reads the play "Holy Wednesday" as it performs in wider social and linguistic frames and as a subject of two critical modes: transculturation and performativity. Likely staged on a church patio by the Franciscans with Nahua boy actors, "Holy Wednesday" intermingles European and Nahua collaborators, audiences, languages, and religious tropes while documenting the uprooting of pre-Columbian culture and development of an entirely new ritual performance form differing from both parent cultures in fundamental ways.
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Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Theatre History Commons
Comments
This article originally appeared in The Journal of Religino and Theatre, available at http://www.rtjournal.org/vol_5/no_2/swift.html.