Pablo Uriel Mancilla Reyna Reyna is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropological Studies Program at El Colegio de San Luis. Her research interests are ritual, visual anthropology, religious practices and the anthropology of art. She is part of the Visual Anthropology Laboratory of El Colegio de San Luis (LAVSAN).

EncArtes multimedia

Photographing a ritual process: an approach to the agency of Xantolo masks in the Huasteca Potosina.

  • Pablo Uriel Mancilla Reyna

This photographic essay shows the agency of the masks used during the festival of Xantolo or Todos Santos in Chapulhuacanito, Tamazunchale, S.L.P. It focuses on making visible the relationships and ritual practices that exist among the people who are part of the group of costumed people of the San José neighborhood, the masks, which materialize the dead during their passage in the world of the living, are placed as the axis. Arranged as a process, the photographs make visible the capacity of the masks to influence people in the ritual context. The photographic work presented was made from 2019 to 2023.