By IPS Correspondents
GUATEMALA, Feb 2 1999 (IPS)

Masks are part of a tradition that has endured in Guatemala since the pre-Hispanic period and are still conserved today, primarily to represent the figures and characters of different traditional dances.

The function of the masks was to make the wearer invisible to the profane world and to assume the personality they represented, said Carlos Garcia Escobar, a researcher at the Guatemalan Center of Folkloric Studies and an expert in masks and dance.

Masks always have been part of the life of cultures throughout the world – they were used at the height of the powers of the Roman Empire and in Greece, Egypt and other nations in Africa. Their main function is to transform the personality of the person using them, giving them the personality of the figure represented by the mask, explained historian Luis Lujan Munoz.

The masks in the pre-Hispanic world had an eminently religious and ritual function that later became integrated into traditional dances. There were masks for traditional dances like “The Deer, The Conquest, The Bull, Moors and Christians,” notes Garcia Escobar.

All the masks were used for magic and religious rituals, both in the pre-Hispanic past and in the present period, he added. The ancient Mayan put on a mask and dressed up in different costumes. The priest put on the mask of the deity and in this way contact was established between the world of the sacred and that of the profane.

Death masks also have been found from the pre-Hispanic period. They were placed on the faces of important people who had died and were made of stones or cooked clay. In the colonial period they were made of wood.

They are taken from the same tradition as Guatemalan sculpture. They used the same technique as the sculptors of the saints: stucco was placed on a piece of wood and then the polychrome of the mask was placed on top, Garcia Excobar added.

The masks that are made today are more rustic looking and have a more commercial and tourist value. Cedar wood is almost never used any more. Pine wood, which is easier to work with and cheaper, has taken its place.

Garcia Escobar declared most masks sold in Guetemala today had no sacred meaning and only had whatever commercial value was applied by tourists. But masks used for dances and rituals were still made by craftsmen using ancient of polishing and sculpting techniques used in the colonial period.

There are different types of masks according to the figure being represented. Some of the most well known include the dance of the “Moors and the Christians” and “The Conquest.”

These masks are of human beings, but there are also masks of animals, such as those used in the dances “The Deer” and “The Bull.” There are also personalities such as the devil and death.

There are very few masks representing female characters, according to Lujan Munoz.

There are two masks of Tecun Uman, a Quiche hero who died while fighting against the Spaniards. In one, the mask worn by the dancer has its eyes open as he fights with the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, while the other, which is put on as he is about to die, shows his face with blood stains and his eyes closed.

“This is possibly the only character to use two masks during the same dance,” said the historian.

The best masks, made by specialized carpenters, are those of San Agustin Sumpango and San Cristobal Totonicopan, in the west, but they are also made in other parts of the country, such as Rabinal, Baja Verapaz in northern Guatemala.

The masks are visible today in different expressions of the popular culture, patron-saint festivals and fairs in which the traditional dances are performed as a way of expressing the collective memories of Guatemala’s native communities. They are also for sale in the market places and are purchased primarily by tourists.

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