Performance in the Zcalo

For more than five centuries, the Plaza Mayor (or Zcalo) in Mexico City has been the site of performances for a public spectatorship. During the period of colonial rule, performances designed to ensure loyalty to the Spanish monarchy were staged there, but over time, these displays gave way to staged demonstrations of resistance. Today, the Zcalo is a site for both official government-sponsored celebrations and performances that challenge the state. Performance in the Zcalo examines the ways that this city square has achieved symbolic significance over the centuries, and how national, ethnic, and racial identity has been performed there. A saying in Mexico City is quien domina el centro, domina el pas (whoever dominates the center, dominates the country) as the Zcalo continues to act as the performative embodiment of Mexican society. This book highlights how particular performances build upon each other by recycling past architectures and performative practices for new purposes. Ana Martnez discusses the singular role of collective memory in creating meaning through space and landmarks, providing a new perspective and further insight into the problem of Mexicos relationship with its own past. Rather than merely describe the commemorations, she traces the relationship between space and the invention of a Mexican imaginary. She also explores how indigenous communities, Mexicos alienated subalterns, performed as exploited objects, exotic characters, and subjects with agency. The books dual purposes are to examine the Zcalo as Mexicos central site of performance and to unmask, without homogenizing, the official discourse regarding Mexicos natives. This book will be of interest for students and scholars in theater studies, Mexican Studies, Cultural Geography, Latinx and Latin American Studies.