Sunset Salons at Vizcaya: Preserving Indigenous Mexica Dance Traditions

Living Traditions: Ceremony, Memory, and Cultural Continuity

This discussion brings together scholarship, artistic practice, and lived experience to explore Indigenous Conchero/Mexica dance as a living, resilient tradition rooted in spirituality, community, and cultural continuity. Through academic research, visual storytelling, and photographic documentation, the presentations examine dance as both an archive of ancestral knowledge and a contemporary form of identity, resistance, and remembrance. Centered on ceremony, the gathering highlights the sacred relationship between movement, music, the natural elements, and communal memory, emphasizing the endurance of Indigenous traditions across generations and their relevance in the present. Collectively, the program invites reflection on preservation not as static history, but as an active, embodied practice sustained through devotion, creativity, and intergenerational connection.

LOCATION: This event takes place in the Main House courtyard.

ASL INTERPRETERS: If you require an ASL interpreter or reserved seating, please contact us at vizcayainformation@vizcaya.org at least 3 days before the event.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with complimentary wine | Talk starts promptly at 7:00 p.m.

TICKETS | $5; FREE for students and Vizcaya Members

Vizcaya Members reserve tickets here.

About the Presenters:

Ihuixaya Tapia is a Tribal Archaeologist and lecturer at California State University, Monterey Bay. Of Nahua and Caxcan heritage, she partners with Indigenous communities to protect ancestral sites and share their histories. In her teaching, she highlights new approaches to understanding and preserving the experiences of American Indian communities in the United States and Mexico. Her recent work uses collaborative research methods that she is formalizing into a new “Index of Care,” a tool designed to expand community access to bioarchaeological practices.

This event was produced in collaboration with:

Ameyal Mexican Cultural Organization’s mission is to share the richness of Mexican cultural heritage through pre-Hispanic dance, traditional music, folkloric ballet, and cultural dissemination. These four pillars guide the organization’s work and reflect a commitment to honoring Mexican culture in all its depth and splendor through diverse artistic disciplines. Ameyal serves as a welcoming cultural hub that supports community members and artists in cultivating and celebrating Mexican artistic expression. Daily programming highlights this mission through workshops and events rooted in cultural pride, including Son Jarocho, traditional dance, pre-Hispanic dance circles, and cultural education experiences.