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The main image of this production by the Latino Theater Company is "el Indio baila," the Indian dances. It is about the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe before Juan Diego in a hillside outside Mexico City in the 16th century and is a veritable spectacle of danzantes twirling to the four corners of the world, conch shells blowing. The live musicians (most of them UCLA students) pound drums mat resonate and gives us an idea of what sound and fury the Spanish heard when they tried to pacify me once mighty Aztec Empire of Tenochitlan-Mexico.
Amidst the burning copal incense another Aztec warrior dressed in a magnificent suit of white eagle feathers, wings alighting into the confines of the NEW LATC theater space, resembles the type of "fancy dancing" done by modern Native American dancers at Pow-wow's and other ceremonial gatherings. So then, el Indio baila, Juan Diego does a brief Aztec two step miming his conchero brothers, an act of faith which is the theme of the play. Do the conquered Aztecs adhere to the old ways as personified by...