Native theatre was popular in many communities and groups before the Europeans arrived in Latin America.
The Amerindians had rituals and festivals which involved dancing, singing, acting and acrobatics.
Many of these theatrical rituals would take place on platforms and those participating were trained in the art of performance and would wear costumes and masks.
Puppetry would be used too, using strings to transform a mask or costume from one character into another. In the Teotihuacan culture of Mexico puppet like characters were used at funerals from around the year 600BC. Amerindians believed that such rituals allowed them to contact their divine spirits.
The first European settlers in the America's used the native's love of theatrics to their advantage to communicate Christian ideas and manipulate communities. As such, after many years of supression native theatre arts have been lost and it is the heritage of Europe's Latin theatre which has continued in Latin America.
