Professor Diana Taylor diana.taylor@nyu.edu
Graduate Asst. Alissa Cardone ac327@nyu.edu

Unit One
Introduction: pre-Conquest Performance

Latin America has rich and important theatre and performance traditions dating back long before the conquest in the 16th century. Spectacular performances organized the public sphere in the times of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas. Performances that included rituals, recitations, dialogues, dance, music, as well as forms that we might now call 'theatre,' were an integral part of everyday life. They were so important, in fact, that scholars have long spoken of these pre-conquest societies as 'perpetual theatre.'