“El Baile de los Vaqueros” y la religiosidad popular en Huehuetlán el Grande, Puebla, México

Spatial appropriation, both symbolic and material, contribute to the formalization of territory. The struggle for this can be observed at different levels, from the objective to the symbolic, through practices, movements and gestures, as well as in the narratives of the collectives or social actors around them. In this article, we analyze the complex system that frames "El Baile de los Vaqueros", a dance expression performed until 1990 in Santo Domingo Huehuetlan el Grande, Puebla. We believe that it represents, on the one hand, the synthesis of a territorialization process linked to the transformations of the ancient pre-Hispanic lordship of Huehuetlán after the arrival of the Spaniards, the occupation of space with the introduction of cattle ranching and cash crops such as sugar cane, as well as its interaction with actors and institutions of power. On the other hand, it is an expression of popular religiosity centered on the veneration of various religious images, among which the Holy Child of Huehuetlan el Grande. Although this tradition is no longer practiced, its association with the dominant agrarian structures has shaped part of the historical configuration of the place and the region.