The territory of present-day Nicaragua had several languages (Nahuatl, Chorotega, Nahoa) and various types of population and religious beliefs until the arrival of the Spanish. From then on, as throughout Latin America, there was a strong process of evangelization, transculturation, and immigration, highly differentiated between the Pacific coast, more influenced by Spain, and the Atlantic coast, with Caribbean influences. We can still find two Nicaraguas, culturally and socially distinct. This exhibition is limited to some mask-making expressions from the Pacific area, with a particular cultural syncretism of Christian roots.

The manifestations of masked dances show the presence of festivities born of evangelization and resistance, with original theatrical expressions such as the Baile del Gueguense, or Macho Ratón, recognized as the first piece of colonial theater of resistance, as well as others such as the Danza del Gigante and the Danza de los Mantudos.

Another line of expressions, strongly driven by the society of the doctors of the nineteenth century —for example, the Danza de los Diablitos or the Danza del Viejo y la Vieja—, expresses both the popular and the elitist in its themes, along with liberal excess. They appear mainly in religious festivities such as that of San Sebastián.

We also find an expression of immigrant cultures in the Gypsy or Hungarian Dances, also known as the dance of the ”Aparecidas” because of their mysterious way of appearing suddenly at popular festivities, and because it is not well known how they arrived in Nicaragua. This presence of Roma culture had died out and was recovered in recent decades. Finally, we find an outstanding manifestation, the Procession of the Agüizotes, seen as an expression of Nahualism and of popular myths and traditions. This tradition is found in several Central American countries, and strongly in Costa Rica as well.

In 1880, Rubén Dario described this festivity in his poem “El Gueguense,” showing the agüizotes as phantasmagoric characters who roam the streets of Masaya frightening onlookers.

In the twentieth century, the festivity of the agüizotes gained popularity, and in 1916 it was declared cultural heritage of Nicaragua.