Performing National Identity, Civic Resistance and Cultural Memory in Costa Rica's Masked Traditions

Abstract

“Performing National Identity, Civic Resistance and Cultural Memory in Costa Rica’s Masked Traditions” studies two performance traditions that date to the 17th century: Las mascaradas del Valle Central and El juego de los diablitos in Boruca. The project was developed during twenty months and included three research trips to Costa Rica ranging three to six weeks each, to witness performances, conduct interviews and recollect bibliographical resources. Methodologically, this project borrows from observant-participatory ethnography and historiography to analyze these two performance traditions through the lenses of Performance Studies and Cultural Studies. This dissertation examines the process of appropriation of popular culture by colonial authorities and later by the Costa Rican state to shape, disseminate and legitimate a national identity project based on an assumption of whiteness and of a heteronormative, Catholic, European-descended nation. This construction is based on the ideals and values of 19th century’s dominant class and excludes large portions of the population such as Indigenous, African and Asian communities that have resided in the nation, –in many cases prior to colonial time–actively contributing to the economy, social development and cultural heritage of the country. The study traces the origins and development of masked performance traditions parallel to the construction of a national identity project in Costa Rica, unveiling the points of contact suture and rupture between popular culture and the state and unpacking the ways in which the performances are complacent or subversive to the official narrative of Costa Rica’s national identity. The discussion of these points of contact, suture, and rupture emphasize the crucial role of embodied practice and oral tradition in the transmission of cultural memory, and the potential these traditions offer to develop coded performances for their communities that mock and subvert authority while appearing to be complacent to the status quo. This dissertation contributes to the fields of Performance Studies, Latin American Studies, Central American Cultural Studies and Performance Ethnography.