In most of the interviews I conducted, I asked about the survival of this "Chicanoized" polka dance. At times during these interviews I asked if él taquachito should be incorporated to our Chicana/o Ballet Folklórico routines. Since the Chicana/o civil rights movement prompted college and university groups, the folklórico groups have served an indispensable role in the construction and representation of our Mexican heritage and identity in the United States. Attempting to capture él taquachito, I searched for local dance studios that teach people this vernacular style. I found a Houston studio website that described Tejano polka dancing, but did not teach the dance. I looked for dance instructors to discuss él taquachito to get an insight from …show more content…
Believing that the “vanishing Indian” and culture was inescapable, anthropologists recorded the language, practices and folklore. Today, when the expression “salvage anthropology” is used, it is a critique of the late nineteenth century framework as well as the erasure of the tacit relations of anthropology to colonialist genocide. Additionally, as James Clifford notes that salvage anthropology was tied to the idea of “authentic;” that is the works of culture and art were “authentic” only when found without the taint of the modern world, i.e., setting up a binary opposition of modern/primitive as a conceptual framework. Moreover, he defines salvage anthropology as the “desire to rescue something ‘authentic’ out of destructive historical changes.” Possibly, my own leanings were nostalgic. I became anxious every time I attended conjunto dances searching for younger couples at the events. When I noticed that younger dancers were present, I found them two-stepping and spinning to a polka beat; their upper bodies rigid, held straight throughout, passing up that gliding step that dips the shoulder, the smooth bending of él