Papal Bull of the Santa Cruzada, or Holy Cruzade, 1578.

Allegory of the Confession of the Soul (front) and The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (back), Mexico, 18th Century.

Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Flying Pole, c. 1690. Mexico, LACMA

Mitote=dance ayacachtli=rattles Moctezuma holding a macana=weapon

Volador Ceremony, or Flying Pole Dance, from Codex Azcatitlan, Valley of Mexico, late 16th century

First Spanish record of Flying Pole Dance, 1539

First Spanish record of Flying Pole Dance, 1539

First Spanish record of Flying Pole Dance, 1539

Fray Juan de Torquemada (1562-1624) on the meaning of the Flying Pole

�  “…after those who were first converted to the Catholic faith passed away, their children lost wind of its pagan meaning and they again took the flying…and because now they only use it as an entertainment, they no longer take care to construct a square wooden spool, as today some are hexagonal.”

“The Mexicans’ manner of dancing” form Codex Tovar, Mexico, 1580s

“Demonstration of the Indian’s Dance,” c. 1780, Mexico.

“Dance of Moctezuma,” Joaquin Antonio de Basarás, Mexico, 1763

Festival of the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, Brazil. Author: Rugendas, ca. 1820s

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A description of the celebration of the Day of Kings in Montevideo in 1827, by a French naturalist

On 6 January, the Day of Kings, strange ceremonies attracted our attention. All the blacks born on the coast of Africa gathered together in tribes, each one electing a king a queen. Costumed in the most original manner, with the most brilliant outfits they could find, preceded by the subjects of their respective tribes, these monarchs for a day went first to mass and then paraded through the city; and gathered at last in a small plaza near the Market, everyone performed, each one in his own way, a dance characteristic of their nation. I saw a rapid succession of war dances, representations of agricultural labor, and steps of the most lascivious type. There, more than six hundred blacks appeared to have regained for a moment their nationality, in the heart of that imaginary country, whose memory alone … in the midst of that noisy saturnalia of another world, made them forget, for one single day of pleasure, the pains and sufferings of long years of slavery.