Styles and workshops of the Pantalla: Pucho, Villarino, Chelís, Poly, Cesi and Santi

Every Pantalla carries the signature of its maker, even if unsigned: the cut of the hat, the curl, the colours of the horn or the way the eyes are painted make it identifiable. Xosé "Pepe" Calleja López documents on his blog As tradicións da Limia, pantalla by pantalla and in centimetres, masks that Xinzo families kept as a treasure. This page summarises only the style traits and the workshops that explain those masks; the vocabulary of the parts is in vocabulary of the Pantalla and the history of the first craftsmen in craftspeople and historic pantallas.

Julio Villarino: the demands of the traditional model

The Julio Villarino pantallas that have survived in original condition have the horn motifs made of glued circles of shiny silver and red paper, because, as is remembered, painting did not come easily to him ^[1]. He was very demanding: in courses he made people redo shapes he did not like, unpick a badly sewn horn and even mark with a ruler the distance between the holes through which the needle passed to sew the cloth, a rigour that meant the craft was passed on without straying from the traditional model ^[2]. One of his pantallas, estimated from the 1950s, shows the "tongues" design on the horn that spread in the 1980s ^[3]. Another, from the early 1970s, was repainted by the boy who wore it, aged fourteen, to the musical taste of the day, with motifs taken from record covers ^[4].

Pucho and his circle

José Carrera Santana, Pucho, is a figure of the Xinzo Entroido: his dawn serenades with band music, from his little cart, are a fixture of every morning. He made pantallas in the 1980s and 1990s recognisable by the shape of the face and by the red-background horn with coloured circles (a yellow sun surrounded by white planets, for example) and the signature and year painted on the back ^[5]. His hat has a "V" cut at the top reaching the eyes, and above it he sews a cardboard triangle joining hat and horn ^[6]. Over time he also painted record covers (the black cat of Los Suaves, the ox skull of Ñu) and a 1985 pantalla he restored himself in 2019 bears an interpretation of the Ñu logo on a white background ^[6]. There was one, from 1993, that was made not for any person but for a mannequin in a fabric shop on Avenida de Ourense ^[7]. Two of his "pupils", twins, made pantallas with a white hand as the main motif on a red and black background ^[8].

Chelís: making the face from cardboard

José Luis Diz Rodríguez, Chelís, of the Valerianos family, made many pantallas and some without a hat: when hats were hard to get (another article recalls that hats were even stolen to fulfil the dream of being a Pantalla) the face was made entirely of cardboard, reusing that of a soap brand, with solid ears also of cardboard ^[9]. Others of his, with a hat, have partly oval eyes and a traditional curl, with a black background, planets and stars ^[10].

Poly, Cesi, Santi, Corbillón and Juanillo

• Hipólito Paz Portela (Poly) makes pantallas for family and friends. His eyes are the so-called "frog eyes", with a small curl, and he also made several Entroido posters ^[11]. A child’s pantalla of his has adhesive drawings (a sleeping moon, a sun winking) and a much-admired punched cloth ^[12].
• César de Saa Míguel (Cesi) made pantallas straddling the 20th and 21st centuries, with double sideburns and a black-background horn with a large white moon edged in yellow ^[13].
• Santiago Martínez Santana (Santi) and Aurora, his partner, who finishes the masks, are present-day craftspeople. A 1991 pantalla has a gold edge, small orange-coloured cheeks and a star-patterned horn ^[14]; another, "between centuries", shows the craftsman’s second model, with green and yellow dots on a black background ^[15].
• Luis Corbillón made different pantallas: a big beard, a moustache drooping downwards, large eyes and the horn painted another way ^[16].
• Juan José López Villarino (Juanillo) left a late-1980s pantalla with a black-background horn with white dots and a six-pointed star formed of six diamonds ^[17].
• José Antonio Martínez (Cuco), from an Entroido family, made a pantalla with a moustache that is a straight, round stick, a nose with a septum and two holes, eyes without lashes and a blue triangle with 21 white dots above the face; on the horn, a sun and a moon with a face on a blue background ^[20].
• Raquel Rodríguez Méndez made pantallas for children and grandchildren between the 1960s and 1990s; one from 1969-1971 has a silver edge and a punched cloth with two types of figures (circles and diamonds) ^[18].
• Manolo Ramos Cid made the leather bell belts for decades; see vergallo and bell belt.

The workshops that saved the mask

In the 1980s there were few craftspeople and they could not keep up making pantallas for everyone. The teacher and director of the Carlos Casares school, Jesús Carrera Santana (Pucho’s brother), organised workshops in which children made their own; their pantallas have a small, rounded face, in deep pink, and a white-background horn ^[19]. In the 1981-1982 school year, Julio Villarino himself ran another workshop at the Xinzo Institute ^[2]. Another vanished custom was getting together to paint the pantallas at a friend’s house: it was the "academy" where everyone made and mended theirs with the help of companions and also learned how a Pantalla behaves in the street ^[3].

Links

• Entroido of Xinzo de Limia
• Anatomy of the Pantalla
• Vocabulary of the Pantalla
• Craftspeople and historic pantallas

Sources

1. «DÚAS PANTALLAS DE JULIO VILLARINO FEITAS PARA OS SEUS SOBRIÑOS RAFA E MARTIÑO. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/duas-pantallas-de-julio-villarino-feitas-para-os-seus-sobrinos-rafa-e-martino/
2. «PANTALLA DE ISABEL GOMEZ MARTINEZ FEITA POR ELA. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-de-isabel-gomez-martinez-feita-por-si-mesma/
3. «PANTALLA DE JESUS ROMERO FEITA POR JULIO VILLARINO – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-de-jesus-romero-feita-por-julio-villarino/
4. «PANTALLA DE JOSÉ MANUEL CUQUEJO LÓPEZ (MEL) FEITA POLO JULIO VILLARINO – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-de-jose-manuel-cuquejo-lopez-mel-feita-polo-julio-villarino/
5. «PANTALLA FEITA POLO PUCHO (JOSE CARRERA SANTANA) PARA XURXO, FILLO DE MARI VILLARINO – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-feita-polo-pucho-jose-carrera-santana-para-xurxo-fillo-de-mari-villarino/
6. «PANTALLA DO PUCHO DO ANO 1985 REMOZADA NO 2019 – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-do-pucho-do-ano-1985-remozada-no-2019/
7. «PANTALLA DO PUCHO FEITA PARA DECORACION NO ANO 1993. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-do-pucho-feita-para-decoracion-no-ano-1993/
8. «DÚAS PANTALLAS FEITAS POR DOUS “ALUMNOS” DO PUCHO. OS XEMELGOS TOÑO E LOLO DOS MECO. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/duas-pantallas-feitas-por-dous-alumnos-do-pucho-os-xemelgos-tono-e-lolo-dos-meco/
9. «PANTALLA FEITA POLO CHELÍS. JOSE LUIS DIZ RODRIGUEZ – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-feita-polo-chelis-jose-luis-diz-rodriguez/
10. «A PANTALLA FEITA POLO CHELÍS (JOSÉ LUIS DIZ RODRÍGUEZ) PARA XURXO – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/a-pantalla-feita-polo-chelis-jose-luis-diz-rodriguez-para-xurxo/
11. «PANTALLA DE HIPOLITO PAZ PORTELA (POLY) FEITA POR SI MESMO – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-de-hipolito-paz-portela-poly-feita-por-si-mesmo/
12. «UNHA PANTALLA “INFANTIL” DO POLY, HIPÓLITO PAZ PORTELA – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/unha-pantalla-infantil-do-poly-hipolito-paz-portela/
13. «PANTALLA FEITA POR CESI (CESAR DE SAA MIGUEL) PARA ALEX DOBAÑO GONZALEZ – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-feita-por-cesi-cesar-de-saa-miguel-para-alex-dobano-gonzalez/
14. «PANTALLA DO SANTI (SANTIAGO MARTINEZ SANTANA) ANO 1991 – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-do-santi-santiago-martinez-santana-ano-1991/
15. «PANTALLA DO SANTI. CANDO O MUNDO SE DERRETE. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-do-santi-cando-o-mundo-se-derrete/
16. «PANTALLA FEITA POR LUIS CORBILLÓN PARA CARMEN VÁZQUEZ E REME. – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-feita-por-luis-corbillon-para-carmen-vazquez-e-reme/
17. «PANTALLA DE FINS DOS OITENTA COMEZO DOS NOVENTA. DO JUANILLO.(JUAN JOSE LÓPEZ VILLARINO) – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-de-fins-dos-oitenta-comezo-dos-noventa-do-juanillo-juan-jose-lopez-villarino/
18. «PANTALLA FEITA POR RAQUEL RODRÍGUEZ MÉNDEZ PARA O SEU FILLO JORGE JUAN SÁNCHEZ RODRÍGUEZ – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-feita-por-raquel-rodriguez-mendez-para-o-seu-fillo-jorge-juan-sanchez-rodriguez/
19. «PANTALLA DO CURSO 1988-1989 IMPARTIDO NO COLEXIO CARLOS CASARES – Tradicións da Limia», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/pantalla-do-curso-1988-1989-impartido-no-colexio-carlos-casares/
20. «A Pantalla de Julio Santana feita polo José Antonio Martínez (Cuco)», As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/a-pantalla-de-julio-santana-feita-polo-jose-antonio-martinez-cuco/