4-second clip from the 1971 film shot in San Isidro Buensuceso
The (silent) film contains scenes of local village scenes, children) the church, the school, volunteers building a road, a festival in the main square, fireworks, breaking a piñata, and Mexican folk dancing. We hope to find a way to show the film to today’s residents of San Isidro - known as having the largest proportion of native Nahuatl-speaking inhabitants in Mexico - in the hope that some older villagers may recognise themselves as youngsters in this rather unique footage.
We would also love to discover more about the large tlalpanhuehuetl, a vertical drum of the type played by the Mexica/Aztecs: we assume it’s a ‘modern’ copy (or is it?) Where is it today? Is it still played each year? It appears (click to enlarge the above photo) to be played by a drummer while being carried/supported by a colleague. This is highly unusual since most of these drums were/are played standing firmly on the ground. If anyone can help shed any light on this, please get in touch...!
NOTE: The tiny clip shown here is only a ‘screen grab’ from a monitor; the original has a longer section of the drumming/procession and is of better quality...
Scene from The Magnificent Seven in which an Aztec-style vertical drum is played in a procession (Click on image to enlarge) |
NOTE 2 - 2020
Strangely, while giving ourselves some light entertainment during the coronavirus, we watched that cheesy classic film The Magnificent Seven (1960), filmed on location near Cuernavaca. There’s a scene during the village festival in which a procession takes place AGAIN with a musician walking while carrying and playing a huehuetl style drum!
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