T H E S P L E N D O R O F M E X I C O La Huaxteca in Time and Space

Lorenzo Ochoa*

LANGUAGE AND TERRITORY

The Huaxtecs are related to the Maya without doubt. However, this group branched off from of the main macro- Mayan linguistic group about 3,500 years ago, at that time located at Cu- chumatanes on the border of what are now Guatemala and . That is where the Mayan languages diverge. Therefore, the material and ideolo- gi cal culture of the people we now know as Huaxtecs have nothing in common with those of the Mayan culture that flowered in the first cen - turies of our era. a s o j o

n Rather, all the data tends to indi - i H r e i

v cate that by the last centuries of the a J second millennium before Christ, the Huaxtecs had already reached the northern part of what is today the state of and the south of Tamauli- pas. For several centuries before the Spaniards arrived, they shared a vast territory with Nahua, Tepehua and Oto- mí speakers, a territory that extended through the north of what is today Puebla, eastern Hidalgo, the southeast of San Luis Potosí, the south of Tamau - lipas and the north of Veracruz. The environmental mix of coast, coastal plains and mountains varies the climate from rainy tropical to

* Researcher at the UNAM Institute for An-  God of Death on the back of a sculpure from Ozuluama, Veracruz. Anthopology Museum. thropological Studies.

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The importance semi-dry with temperatures ranging peoples of pre-Hispanic Mexico. In the of the Huaxteca for the from 18 to 40 degrees Celsius. Agri- eighth and ninth centuries, it began culture was just as important eco - to feel the influence of Mesoameri- Mexicas can be seen both in nomically —the main crops were cot - can ideology and contribute to enrich ideology and the economy. ton, several types of chili peppers and that of many peoples of that broader corn— as hunting and gathering. The area. A century later, its integration exploitation of other natural resources into the Mesoamerican cultural sphere led to the creation of a network of was clear. It is in this period that roads that linked the coast and the important changes took place which coastal plain to the mountains and can be seen in archaeological data highlands; salt was particularly impor - and later in historical sources. The

a tant. Rivers, streams, lagoons and even presence of aspects of the culture from o h c O

o the sea were very important for trade central Veracruz and the Huaxteca z n e r o

L of raw materials and luxury items that area in the tenth to the twelfth cen - spread throughout the extensive water turies in El Tajín is clear. Very little network, for communication and cul - has been researched about the rela - tural exchange and because of the flora tions between the Huaxteca and cen - and fauna they offered the inhabitants. tral Veracruz in the eighth to the ninth centuries, or the discovery of, for exam - ple, yokes and traces of central Vera- THE HUAXTEC CULTURE cruz iconography in the Huaxteca. By IN THE POST -C LASSICAL PERIOD the tenth to twelfth centuries, the Toltec presence, and later the Mexica Before the eighth century, Huaxtec presence in the Huaxteca, as well as culture was different from that of other the Huaxtec presence in central Mex- a o h c O o z n e r o L

 View of the gateway to the Hidalgo Mountains.  Quetzalcóatl priest on a stela from Castillo de Teayo, Veracruz.

74 The Splendor of Mexico

ico, are clear, both in written tradi - “Lady of the Huaxtecs,” the founders The Huaxtecs, considered 2 tions or codices and in archaeological of the great Texcocan line, passed by. themselves “the peo ple evidence. By the fifteenth century, the Mexi - of the deer”, descendents The story of the nude tohueyo , a cas had conquered different parts of seller of chili peppers in the Tula mar - the Huaxteca: Teayo, Tuxpan, Tzicóac, of Mixcóatl. ket , with whom the daughter of Hué- , Huejutla, Tamuín, Tempa - mac, the Lord of Tula, fell in love, is tal and Oxitipa, among others. The im - only a metaphor included in Friar portance of the Huaxteca for the Me- Bernardino de Sahagún’s book La xicas can be seen both in ideology and Historia general de las cosas de Nue va economy. Several Huaxtec deities, España (General History of the Things among them Tlazoltéotl and Mixcóatl, of New Spain) to emphasize the eco - adopted by the Toltecs would in turn nomic importance that the Huaxteca be embraced by the Mexica and later area had for the Toltecs and the rival - returned to the Huax teca with differ - ry that existed because of the rela - ent characteristics. For the Mexicas, tionship. The sixteenth-century Anales Tlazoltéotl was a goddess of carnal plea - de Cuauhtitlán (Annals of Cuauhti- sures and the devourer of filth, while tlán) explains how the Ixcuinanme, 1 for the Huaxtecs, under the generic the goddesses of the Huaxteca, intro - name “Teem,” she was the god dess duced sacrifice by arrow shot in the of women in childbirth who whisk ed Central Highland through Tula. Ac- away evil vapors. Mixcóatl, god of z e d n cording to Don Fernando de Alva the hunt, was the name sake of the á n r e F r a

Ixtlilxóchitl, when the Toltec capital Huax tecs, who considered themselves s é was in ruins, Xólotl, “Lord of the “the peo ple of the deer” or “the people C Chichimecs,” and his wife Tomiyauh, descendent of Mixcóatl.” Tenek , the a o h c O o z n e r o L

The Otontepec Mountains in Citlaltépetl, Veracruz. Zacamixtle stela depicting the God of Death. , Veracruz (drawing). 

75 Voices of Mexico • 60

first part of the term tenek bichim , structures often had curved lines or cir -

a meaning deer, is the name the Huax- cles or forms that included them, as well o h c O

o tecs call themselves today. as rectangular floors with rounded cor - z n e r o

L But these were not the only deities. ners as the foundations for temples lik e The god of death ruled the Tamzem- Tamtok in San Luis Potosí or Tabuco in lab, or the underworld; for the Huax- Veracruz. The buildings had thin beams tecs, this god is associated with evil to delimit stairways, and they used stuc - and putrefaction. Mam, an impor tant co as finishing that was then some - god of this culture, was depicted as a times decorated with murals, such as stooped old man leaning on a cane in Tamuín, in San Luis Potosí. They used for planting; he is linked to the constructed houses of considerable di- cult of fertility. Ehécatl, whose original mensions on low platforms for the most name in the Huaxtec language is un- important lords. On occasion, they built known, was the god of the wind who ball courts, like in El Águila Zacamiztle was originally represented as a cross- and Tepetzintla, Veracruz. Artesian wells section of a conch shell, and later as have been found at some sites and for a human body with a large beak. In security, they erected fortifications or  Quetzalcóatl on a tablet from Castillo de Teayo, central Mexico, written and pictorial walled their cities, like in Yahualica, Veracruz. Xalapa Anthropology Museum. sources depict him as a representa - Hidalgo, or Metlaltoyuca, Puebla. tion of Quetzalcóatl, god of the wind, The lay-out and distribution of the who is described or depicted in Huax - political-religious centers do not seem tecan clothing: a cone-shaped cap with to follow the norms of Mesoamerican a semicircular fan at the base of the urban organization, which generally neck, hook-shaped ear jewelry and a reproduced their understanding of the necklace in the shape of a cross-section structure of the cosmos, or Tehuayca- of a conch shell or eheilacacózcatl . lal for the Huaxtecs. They understood Like all the Mesoamerican cultures, it to be organized in four parts: the a s their material goods were closely linked east or Elelquí , the west or Ozalquí , o j o n i H

r to religion. The representation of the the north or Tzaylelquí and the south e i v a J planes of the universe have been found or Quahtalquí . This conception led in some pectoral made of shell, one of them to an understanding of the chang- the most refined forms of aesthetic ex - ing seasons and to register the pas - pression of this culture. Some of their sage of time by a 365-day calendar customs, known through chronicles, (the tamub ) and another, 260-day cal - were depicted in murals and their main endar (the tzobnalquí ). They imagined deities have been sculpted with great the universe to be divided into three majesty. According to Friar Bernardino horizontal planes: the celestial plane, de Sahagún, they were recognized as the earthly plane and the underworld. great artisans for their cotton weaving; These concepts are reproduced in some this can be seen in the codex of the Reg- of their ceremonies to pray for rain. ister of Tributes. They also achieved great technical capacity in the manufac - ture of funeral ceramics, figurine mo d- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION eling, bone carving and goldsmithing.  Scene of the cosmos on a shell pectoral. Their architecture, sometimes mon- When the Spaniards came, the Huax- Tamaulipas. National Museum of Anthropology and History. umental, was very specific: public teca was organized in dominions des-

76 The Splendor of Mexico

cribed as small independent provinces headed up by a governor or lord called tzalleinic in Huaxtec. Heir by pater- nal line to all the land, he would rent or distribute it to those who needed it, free peasants. The lord resided in the main center, called bichou , divided into neighborhoods called quachmal . The lord could be accompanied in the bichou by certain nobles —although this was not always the case— like the doctor or zitom ; the wise man or huy - tom ; and the zobnax , in charge of div ina - tion and reading the calendar. Traders and prominent artisans also resided there, while the rest of the population was distributed over a relatively wide area. It is certain that there were two clearly differentiated social classes: nobles and commoners. But it is also possible that there was a third class: slaves in the service of the lord to plow his fields or serve in his home. Both lords and commoners practiced polyg - yny, although it was limited by the ex- pense of supporting one or more wives. The tzalleinic supported the nobility, his relatives, some of whom lived in small - er hamlets called quamchalab , where one of his close relatives ruled and three and even four harvests a year, might be given the title ahjatic , mean- although cultivation did not benefit ing “master” or “lord of the area. ” Evi- from any but the aid of the elements or dence of this form of organization can instruments other than rough stakes.” 3 be gleaned from archaeological remains. Until now there has been no e vidence of intensive agricultural techniques, but they were outstanding pro ducers of P L HE CONOMY S

T E corn, cotton, beans, squash and a broad a r u t l u

variety of chili peppers. They caught C a l e d

The area’s political organization is a many species —dry fish, shrimp and a s a reflection of its economic development, skate eggs— in the lagoons and rivers C based mainly in agriculture, fishing, that they salted and sun dried . They cotton weaving, goldsmithing, ceram - used salt not only as a con diment, but ics and trade in different raw materi - also for medicinal purposes. In the six - als. Agriculture was extensive. In the teenth century, Richard Hakluyt empha - eighteenth century, Don Carlos de Ta- sized the importance the Huaxtecs  Cut shell pectoral showing Eheilacacoxcatl, the symbol pia Zenteno wrote, “The men [had] gave it, writing, of Ehécatl, the God of the Wind.

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In those countreys they take neither changed and the ideological struc - golde nor silver for exchange of any thing, tures permeated by Western thought but onely Salt, which they greatly es- are still preserved in customs, fiestas teeme, and use it for a principall med - and ceremonies. icine for certaine wormes which breed in their lips and in their gummes. 4 NOTES

1 From the Huaxteca came honey, ”Ixcuinanme” is the plural of Ixcuina, one of a s o j o

the names of the goddess Tlazoltéotl, mother n hens, fine feathers, ceramics, copper i H r

goddess par excellence, who originated with e i v a bells, carved shells, raw cotton, small the Huaxtecs. J blankets called quachtli , used by the 2 Mexicas as coin, and beautifully em- Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, Obras históri- cas (Mexico City: UNAM , 1975). broidered textiles that they distributed in local and regional markets. They 3 Don Carlos de Tapia Zenteno, Paradigma Apo - logético y noticia de la lengua huasteca (Mex- used the rivers and lagoons as water - ico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Filoló- gicas, 1985), p. 22. ways for this trade. On land they blazed  Mam, God of Fertility with a planting stick. real trails and improvised paths. Sev- 4 Richard Hakluyt, The principal navigations, eral of those roads were kept up until voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English the colonial period and, with some Nation , vol. 6 (London: n.p., 1927), p. 273. modifications, were later even used to Photographs on page 87 and the one on top of page 90, are reproduced by permission of the Xa- build new highways. The impact of lapa Anthropology Museum. Photograph on page colonization transformed the old order. 90 and the one on top of this page, reproduced by permission of the National Institute of Anthopology The rhythm of commercial traffic and History, Conaculta/ INAH Mex. a o h c O o z n e r o L

 The Huaxtec Mountains, San Luis Potosí.

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