El camino del bailarín (en inglés)

The Dancer’s Journey
By Francisco Mayer

Hola amigos y amigas! I’m here to tell you a little story of my life. So who am I? Well, my mom calls me Ocelotl. You know, I didn’t really like my name, until I found out that Ocelotl meant Jaguar. Then I thought it was cool. It was a powerful name, and I wanted to show the world I was as strong as fast as a jaguar. I’ve always been very energetic,and I’ve always needed to get this energy out, you know? Haveyou ever felt like you needed to get your energy out? Like just run! Or scream! Or dance! Well I have! I’ve always have. That’s why my whole life I’ve been a dancer. I can’t remember ever not liking to dance. Since I was little, I loved it! I would dance at the ceremonies in my little village. The whole town would be at these ceremonies,all night long. I would watch all the elders dance and have a good time too. We would mainly dance during religious or spiritual holidays, usually to pay tribute to the spirits of our ancestors! It used to be fun. It still is. But then I grew up, and I realized that these dances that I learned when I was little were not just about fun! They meant a lot to my family and my people. These dances werea part of us! It was a way for us to keep our culture alive, to tell our story! It was a way for us to LIVE ON FOREVER! Too bad this wasn’t the case. We didn’t live on forever. And neither did our dances. Now I look back on those wonderful days of dancing with my family, and they are gone. Now it’s different! I still dance. I told you, I can’t stop dancing, but it’s just not the same as dancing inthe ceremonies with my family. But you know what? Its, ok, cuz I’m still dancing in my room. I still practice quietly when no one is looking. I still remember the footsteps, the sound of the beating drums, the feeling of being part of something bigger than me. The spirit of a dancer never dies. My grandpa always used to tell me, no matter what, don’t let your spirit die. So what did I do? I keptdancing, and dancing, and dancing. One day, I went into my room, and decided I would try to dance as long as I could without stopping. So a day passed and I was still dancing in my room. Another day passed I was still dancing. And another day. And another. Pretty soon the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, months into years, and years into centuries. And I still kept dancing.People wondered, when would Ocelotl come out of his room? When? I even began to wonder that myself. Finally one day, I decided it was time. I needed to see the world again! I needed to live! And when I left my room and saw the real world, I realized that people still danced, and I was happy about that. But it was different. Because a lot of them were preoccupied with some war called the MexicanIndependence War. I guess my little town was now part of a country called Mexico that wanted to independize from another country called Spain. And I guess Mexicans wanted to do things their way, without Spaniards telling them what to do. This guy named Miguel Hidalgo was a big leader in this Independence. But you know what’s funny? While Mexicans resisted these people called Spaniards, it was inevitablethat our society now had Spanish elements. Everyone seems to have forgotten Nahuatl, and now everyone speaks Spanish. People called me Ocelotl, now they call me Jose. Everyone eats different foods now, and even the dances people dance are a mix of dances between what I dance and what the Spaniards dance I guess. It was a little confusing to see all these new dance moves at first, but I caught on.Now people are dancing the “dances of liberty,” the dances that create this Mexican national identity. Orale! There’s this really popular song these days, it’s called the Jarabe Mexicano. It’s so popular all over the country now that people are beginning to like dance again. They are interested in it! In the old! In the new! People now want to rediscover the older dances—like the ones I know....