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Esther Hopkin
Cathy Black
Dance 460
12 November, 2012
Finding Totonacan Culture in La Danza de los Voladores
La Danza de los Voladores, or Dance of the Fliers, is a well-known ancient religious
ritual performed by the Totonaca people of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. In fact, the Totonaca
tribes still perform the dance today in remembrance of their heritage. As with most cultures
throughout the history of the world, the Dance of the Fliers embodies and demonstrates the
Totonacas dependence on the land as well as their cultural and religious beliefs and values.
The Totonacas were a people that lived in the current states of Pueblo and Veracruz,
Mexico during the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican civilization (Carriazo, Rbsamen).
Because the land which they lived on provided so many resources, the Totonacas learned to
utilize those resources for everything from food to shelter to medicine. They depended on
rainfall and sunlight for a variety of plants such as corn, chiles, beans, coffee, sugar cane,
bananas, peppers, oranges, limes, grapefruits, and vanilla, among others. In fact, they depended
on the land so much that some authors have suggested that the term totonaco means man of
the hot earth (Rbsamen). It is clear that if there was not enough rainfall or sunlight, they
would lose all sources of foodvegetation and meatand they would not be able to survive.
However, the Totonaca people relied on the fertility of the earth for more than just food.
Like many ancient people, they were a lineage-based culture, believing in many gods and the
use of sympathetic magic. Enrique Rbsamen, a Mesoamerican scholar at the Benemrita
Escuela Normal Veracruzana, reports that many of the gods of the Totonacas had magical

powers and held special requirements from mankind; thus, the people conducted religious
ceremonies in exchange for health, a good harvest and overall well-being. The shamans and
witch doctors knew most about these kinds of things and were in charge of directing them.
These shamans and witch doctors had many recipes for cures ranging from bone disease to
blood circulation problems, to the stomach flu, and even the chills. All of the cures called for the
use of some resource of the land, often ground and made into a poultice or put into an herbal bath
(Rbsamen). If there were no resources to create the needed poultices or perform the required
religious ceremonies, the whole belief system of the Totonacasand therefore, their cultural
identitywould collapse. This reliance on the fertility of the land led the to them appealing to
the gods to maintain a plentiful crop by receiving enough rain and good weather. La Danza de
los Voladores is at least one of those appeals, centering around the peoples need for fertile land.
The first step in the ritual required many men to select and cut down a 30-meter tree and
bring it to the village (Carriazo). Renowned scholar and author of Mesoamerican culture,
Raphael Girard, explains that this first process reaffirms the Totonacan belief that it is better to
work together than to work alone. In fact, the act of carrying the tree from the forest to the
village is very similar to the Legend of the 400 Boys found in the book of advice of the MayaQuich culture, the Popol Vuh (Carriazo, Girard).
The legend tells of 400 boys carrying a large tree to their village to build a house. (This
does not mean that there were exactly 400 boys necessarily because the number 400 was used to
signify the largest amount possible [Carriazo].) On the way to the village, they encounter a giant
named Zipacn, who always prefers to work alone. Zipacn laughs when he sees the boys
attempting to accomplish such a feat as a group. Continuing to mock them, he easily picks up
and carries the pole the rest of the way to their village on his shoulder accepting no help from

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them. He believes that he has proven the worth of working alone; however, after a series of
events, Zipacn is eventually killed by the gods and the boys become heroes of the community.
Girard explains the following moral:

This spectacle expresses two social concepts: communal cooperation, personified by the 400 boys who work in unison, and the individualism embodied in
Zipacn who works alone. The idea is accentuated in the sentence which follows, voiced by the group of boys: What Zipacn did, in taking up and carrying a
beam by himself, is not properly done.
Thus, even today, each time the Totonaca fell and carry the 30-meter tree to their village for La
Danza de los Voladores, they re-emphasize the ancient ideal of working together as a unified
people.
In addition to cultural social values, the tree holds religious significance to the Totonacas.
Both Mesoamerican scholar Natalia Carriazo and the Administrator of the Hueyapn, Puebla
Tourism Agency reveal that the Totonaca viewed trees both as a support for and connection to
the sky. The deep roots, long trunk, and high-reaching branches represented a connection
between the underworld, the land, and the heavens, respectively. The planting of the pole,
writes Carriazo, symbolizes the union of mother earth and celestial divinity.
The next step of the ritual involves digging a deep hole and putting bits of corn, a live
turkey, a live black hen, cigars, flowers, a candle, and whiskey into it. These offerings will be
aplastados, or smashed when the group plants the enormous post into the hole. The Popol
Vuh explains the sacrifice by saying that the vengeful spirit of the giant Zipacn now lives in the
bottom of the hole. Offerings are required to appease his evil spirit and prevent him from

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harming the dancers throughout the rest of the ritual (Carriazo). Although Rojas does not
mention the evil spirit of Zipacn, he agrees that, It is believed that the turkeys blood will
strengthen the dancers. Whether it be an offering to the evil giant Zipacn or to the Totonacan
gods, it is believed that someone needs to be appeased in order for the dancers to be strengthened
enough to continue the ritual and secure the fertility of the land.
Once the pole is planted, the five dancers take their places, four facing the cardinal
directions, and one the caporalin the center (Carriazo). The caporal, or ringleader, climbs
the 30-meter pole to stand at the top while the other four (known as the Kgosni, Totonacan for
flier [Carriazo]) perform a foot-stomping rhythmic dance on the ground. There, he greets the
sun with his own rhythmic foot-stomping dance while playing the flute and a small drum. After
some time, the Kgosni follow after him, joining him at the summit on a wooden framework that
branches out from the point of the pole. Once situated on the framework, the four dancers tie a
rope to their feet, attaching themselves to the pole, before launching themselves toward the
ground. Rbsamen describes the scene as follows: [The Kgosni] fly, head first, with arms
open, dressed as birds that the culture associated with the sun: macaws and other parrots, eagles,
and quetzals. The fifth dancer, which performs his dance on the point of the pole, serves as a
support to the ritual. This fifth dancer supports the ritual in part by continuing to stomp his feet
and play the accompaniment. As the framework spins around, the dancers circle the pole and the
rope holding them lengthens. Each dancer circles a total of thirteen times before reaching the
ground safely (Administrator, Carriazo, Rbsamen, Rojas).
Although the courage and coordination required to perform these acrobatics is
remarkable, it is not the spectacle that has kept the tradition alive through the centuries.
Rbsamen explains that, In the belief system [of the Totonacas], there is a combination of

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symbols and signs explained in myths, rituals, or ceremonies, whose origin is found in the
Mesoamerican Indigenous culture. Therefore, within the costumes, music, and dancing, one
will find deep religious symbolism and come to a greater understanding of the Totonacan culture
and values.
One of these symbols is found in the role of the caporal. He what the Totonacas called
the fifth direction, (the first four being north, south, east, and west) connecting earth to sky
(Carriazo). Another is in the costumes, designed to resemble birds that are associated with sun
worship such as the macaw, eagle, heron, and others (Administrator). Yet another is found in the
music. Carriazo notes, The flute music evokes the trills of the birds in the mountains, the same
birds depicted by the feathered costumes. She continues, The drums voice is the voice of
thunder, the reply of the gods, accepting the peoples ritual.
As previously mentioned, the Totonaca were a lineage-based people and believed in the
use of sympathetic magic, or the pre-creation of desired events. That belief can be found in the
gradual descent of the Kgosni from the top of the pole to the earth. Here, the dancers represent
the rain falling from the sky to the earth, almost as if the people were creating a visual aid for the
gods, making their intent and desires clear: they need the rain to fall to the ground just as the
dancers do (Administrator).
The last symbolic representation found in La Danza de los Voladores is in the circling
motion of the Kgosni. Carriazi and Rbsamen both claim that the rotating and turning Kgosni
mimic the rotation of the stars in the night sky. Like many other Mesoamerican peoples, the
Totonacas studied and plotted the movement of the stars quite accurately and knew that each star
followed the same pathway across the sky from year to year (Rbsamen). As mentioned before,
each flier circles the pole thirteen times, which, multiplied by four, makes fifty-two. This

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number holds great significance in the Totonacan culture: First, it is the number of weeks in a
year and thus aids in predicting sowing and reaping seasons. Second, it is the number of years in
a Totonacan or Aztec century (Administrator, Rbsamen, Rojas). Therefore, the Kgosni rotate
around the post, representing the movement of the stars around the earthmost importantly, the
sunover a year as well as over a century. This demonstrates the importance of the night sky in
the Totonacan culture and connects it to their reliance on the fertility of the land.
No matter the time period or region of the world, the culture of a given people can be
found in the way they execute the preparation, choreography, and performance of a dance. In the
case of the Totonaca people, La Danza de los Voladores is saturated with cultural symbolism and
meaning. Understanding this Dance of the Fliers teaches the viewer that the Totonacas were
extremely dependent on the fertility of the earth and had a deep history in legends and religious
symbolism. Their culture wasand still istruly reflected through their Danza de los
Voladores.

Works Cited
Administrator, ed. "Danza de los Voladores." Hueyapan, Puebla. H. Ayuntamiento, 16 2012.
Web. 10 Nov 2012.

Carriazo, Natalia. "Voladores de Papantla." Slideshare. Slideshare, 17 2009. Web. 10 Nov 2012.

Girard, Raphael. Esoterism of the Popol Vuh. Trans. Blair A. Moffett. First English.
Theosophical University Press, 1978. eBook.

Rbsamen, Enrique C.. "Totonacas de Totonacapan."Benemrita Escuela Normal Veracruzana.

Licenciatura En Educacin Primaria 4 Sem. A, n.d. Web. 10 Nov 2012.

Rojas, David, ed. "La Danza del Volador." Danzas de Mxico. Instituto Cultural "Races
Mexicanas", n.d. Web. 10 Nov 2012.