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Home , Anahuac (Aztec), Antonio Valeriano, Juan Bautista Pomar, Nahuatl, Tepeyac

The Report Committee for Arnold Farias Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis:

In Xochitl, In Cuicatl (The Flower, The Song): Analysis of Colonial Cultural-Social Transformations Through

APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE:

Supervisor: Maria F. Wade

Supervisor: Martha Menchaca

In Xochitl, In Cuicatl (The Flower, The Song): Analysis of Colonial Cultural-Social Transformations Through Nahuatl Metaphor

by

Arnold Farias, B.A.

Report

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

The University of Texas at Austin May 2013

Abstract

In Xochitl, In Cuicatl (The Flower, The Song): Analysis of Colonial Cultural-Social Transformations Through Nahuatl Metaphor

Arnold Farias, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013

Supervisor: Maria F. Wade Supervisor: Martha Menchaca

I pursue a study of the semantic couplet in xochitl, in cuicatl (the flower, the song) grounded in the examination of Nahuatl written sources in order to explore its cultural and historical trajectory as it was produced and reproduced from the pre-colonial to the colonial period. I begin my analysis by examining Nahuatl songs of pre-colonial origin to demonstrate how in xochitl, in cuicatl was an epistemological practice embedded in a Nahuatl ontology conceived of philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors. I argue that the semantic couplet and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors are reflected and play a central role in songs from the Xochicuicatl (Flowery Songs) genre. Then, I explore colonial practices for religious conversion in order to discuss the colonial habitus or pre- dispositions influencing the indigenous scholar to utilize the Nahuatl epistemology of in xochitl, in cuicatl and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors as an interpretive frame of reference in the Nican Mopohua, the apparition story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. With this organization, I identify pre-colonial Nahuatl practices in their original context and then I reveal why and how they became accommodated in a colonial and Christian context. Therefore, I utilize in xochitl, in cuicatl as a vehicle for exploring a major cultural-social transformation among the Nahua people of central .

iii Table of Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….1 Background ……………………………………………………………………….2 Chapters and Methods …………………………………………………………….3 Chapter One In Xochitl, In Cuicatl: Pre-colonial Context ……………………………….6 Nahuatl Texts ……………………………………………………………………..6 Cuicatl (Songs) ……………………………………………………………………7 Stylistic Features of Nahuatl …………………………………………………….10 Philosophy, Religious, and Social Practices Associated with Warriors ………...10 Cuicapeuhcayotl (The Origin of Song) ……………………………………….....18 Keys …………………………………………………………………………..…19 In Xochitl, In Cuicatl: The Flower and Song as an Epistemology ……………...22 Chapter Two Colonial Accommodation of Nahuatl Tropes, Textual Figures, and Imagery………………………………..………….25 Missionaries and Religious Conversion …………………………………………25 Marian Literature ………………………………………………………………..28 The Nican Mopohua …………………………………………………………….36 Antonio Valeriano ……………………………………………………………….43 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………52 Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………...55 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………..59

iv Introduction In xochitl (the flower), in cuicatl (the song), is a fundamental Nahuatl metaphor, ascribed pre-colonially as “the only truth on earth” and is employed ubiquitously in contemporary times.1 The cultural value of this metaphor still holds and is perpetuated through real practices amongst and Mexican-Americans today. Mesoamerican scholars have recognized like in xochitl, in cuicatl as a difrasismo or a semantic couplet, in which two words are presented together to symbolically express one idea. It is a stylistic feature shared among , such as Nahuatl and Maya. The prominent Nahuatl scholar Miguel Léon-Portilla (2000, 1992, 1963) has broadly defined in xochitl, in cuicatl as a metaphor expressing the idea of , art, symbolism, and truth. In this report, I pursue a study of in xochitl, in cuicatl grounded in the examination of Nahuatl written sources in order to explore the cultural and historical trajectory of the semantic couplet as it was produced and reproduced from the pre- colonial to the colonial period. I begin my analysis by examining songs of pre-colonial origin to demonstrate how in xochitl, in cuicatl was an epistemological practice embedded in a Nahuatl ontology conceived of philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors.2 I argue that the semantic couplet and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors are reflected and play a central role in songs from the genre, Xochicuicatl (Flowery songs).3 Then, I layout the reasons why the indigenous scholar Antonio Valeriano utilized the Nahuatl epistemology of in xochitl, in cuicatl and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors as an interpretive frame of reference in the Nican Mopohua, the account of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. With this organization, I identify pre-colonial Nahuatl practices in their original context and then I reveal why and how they became accommodated in a colonial

1 I use Nahuatl to refer to an indigenous culture and (including text written in Nahuatl) of central Mexico. 2 I use Nahua to refer to the people of Nahuatl culture and speakers of the language. 3 Xochicuicatl is composed of the words xochi- (flower) and cuicatl (song). I use the combined form to refer to the genre of songs and in xochitl, in cuicatl to refer to the metaphor.

1 and Christian context. I utilize in xochitl, in cuicatl as a vehicle for exploring a major cultural-social transformation among the Nahua people of central Mexico. Finally, I conclude with a short overview of how the semantic couplet is appropriated today in Mexican and Mexican-American communities. A decolonization project includes a recovery of indigenous ontological and epistemological foundations, as well as “reconciling and reprioritizing what is really important about the past with what is important in the present” (Smith 1999:39). As such, this study is significant because it recovers a Nahuatl cultural and linguistic epistemological practice identified as having great importance in pre-colonial as well as in contemporary times. In addition, this study serves as an example of cultural-social transformations resulting from colonization.

Background , a region with shared cultural traits, extends from present day Northern Mexico to Northern . The Nahuatl culture (popularly known as the Aztec culture) of central Mexico is the most well known Mesoamerican culture, in part due to the copious amount of written sources available in the Nahuatl language. Most often, the term “Aztec” or “” is applied to represent three Nahuatl speaking city-states that formed what is recognized as the Triple Alliance. The (city-states) Mexico-, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan established the alliance in 1426 in order to confront , the most dominant city-state in Mesoamerica. It is important to note that it was not an equal power relationship because Mexico-Tenochtitlan received the majority of tributes and exerted more power and influence over governed polities. Tetzcoco received a similar amount of tribute, but was less influential, while Tlacopan was rendered insignificant. The alliance governed about fifty city-states in central Mexico that “shared many of the institutions, benefits, and liabilities of the [The Triple Alliance], and even though they had tribute obligations, they are properly seen as core units within the central Mexico zone” (Carmack, Gasco, Gossen 2007:127). Thus, when I refer to Nahuatl culture and language I include the corresponding city-states that acquired

2 cultural uniformity. The peoples of these city-states were able to maintain local differences and ethnic distinctions according to lineages. However, they still belonged to a shared cultural nexus that developed over hundreds of years in central Mexico. These city-states were also linked through the Nahuatl language, which served as a , a main language of communication in multilingual areas. Further, the Triple Alliance exerted cultural and political influences to homogenize the area.

Chapters and Methods This report is divided into two main chapters. In the first chapter I propose that the genre Xochicuicatl (Flowery songs) should be defined by pre-colonial songs reflecting Nahuatl ontology conceived of philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors.4 In addition, the songs of this genre are distinguished by the central role of the semantic couplet in xochitl, in cuicatl as an epistemological practice embedded in Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors. I analyze these songs as the performance of verbal art in order to identify keys or cues that pinpoint their interpretive frame, or in this case the Nahuatl ontology in which they are embedded (Bauman 1975). I provide a complete translation of the song Cuicapeuhcayotl (The Origin of Song) because it provides a more complete example of keys belonging to the interpretive frame and by extension, the genre. In the second chapter I follow the work of William Hanks (2010, 1987) and use Bakhtin’s “sociological poetics” with Bourdieu’s theory of practice to demonstrate that the social agent, Antonio Valeriano, utilized symbolic forms, specifically from pre- colonial songs of the xochicuicatl genre when producing the Nican Mopohua. I start by laying out why and how missionaries, Nahua scholars, and Nahua assistants accommodated Nahuatl tropes, textual figures, and imagery to colonial text. In particular, I on Nahuatl Marian literature before the publication of the Nican Mopohua in 1648. This chapter is significant because it reflects a colonial cultural and linguistic

4 Miguel Léon –Portilla (1992) identifies Xochicuicatl as a genre, but I have found no description of which songs are part of the genre.

3 habitus causing Valeriano to accommodate pre-colonial features to the Nican Mopohua, rather than suggesting that the text is a full-blown act of native resistance through the presence of cultural survivals or an act of Spanish religious manipulation to convert natives. Lastly, I conclude with a short overview of how the in xochitl, in cuicatl is appropriated today in Mexican and Mexican-American communities through its accommodation in songs and community events. To conduct this study I examined Nahuatl written sources produced by Nahua scholars educated in Latin, Spanish, and Nahuatl during the colonial period. The skilled natives were able to transcribe Nahuatl into written form by matching the sounds of Nahuatl to those in Spanish and then writing them with the use of the Roman alphabet and . I examine Nahuatl songs of pre-colonial origin from the paleography (updating of the original text) of John Bierhorst (1985) and Miguel Léon- Portilla (2000, 1992), both of whom got the songs from the Cantares mexicanos and the Romances de los señores de la Nueva España. I did not look at the primary sources directly to update the text in order to avoid a tedious step, but I provide my interpretations based on my own translations.5 To examine Nahuatl Marian literature of colonial origin, I rely on the text “Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature” by Louis Burkhart and “ Guadalupe” by Miguel Léon- Portilla. In addition, I support my study with secondary sources on Nahuatl culture, language, and history. The methodology I employ to interpret Nahuatl songs and texts consists of the literal construction(s), metaphoric meaning(s), and the cultural context(s) needed to fully understand the message(s) being transmitted, as well as a study of the cultural-social- linguistic habitus impacting the writers of the songs and texts. The method I utilized for translation includes an analysis (accounting for all the grammatical components), transliteration (matching of words), and translation (carry over of meaning).6 The

5 I quote the translations of Nahuatl scholars after looking at Nahuatl text and agreeing with their translations. 6 I adopted this method from Nahuatl courses and personal conversations with Fermín Herrera, professor at State University, Northridge.

4 dictionaries I use for accurate translation include those by , , and Fermín Herrera.

5 Chapter One: In Xochitl, In Cuicatl: Pre-colonial Context I argue that in xochitl, in cuicatl was an epistemological practice embedded in a Nahuatl ontology conceived philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors. I also propose that the genre Xochicuicatl (Flowery songs) should be defined according to its composition in pre- colonial songs that reflect the relationship between the semantic couplet and the ontology. I analyze songs as the performance of verbal art, which are performed within a unique interpretive frame that gives “the receiver instructions or aids in his attempt to understand the messages included within the frame” (Bateson 1972:188). Those instructions or aids can be thought of as keys pinpointing to the particular frame in use (Goffman 1974). By translating the song Cuicapeuhcayotl I can identify the keys signaling to the interpretive frame of the Xochicuicatl genre, which I claim includes both the use of in xochitl, in cuicatl as an epistemological practice and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors. Through this process I will demonstrate how the semantic couplet is an epistemological practice and discuss the philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors.

Nahuatl Texts Pre-colonial Nahuatl amoxtli (books) are termed codices (singular, ) and they can be described as pictorial manuscripts composed of screen folds. They held cosmological, genealogical, ritual, and historical information communicated to the community by means of an interpreter who used the images as a guide for oral presentation. These images could literally be read given that they represented , words, and ideas. Texts produced in the Nahuatl language under Spanish colonial rule were written with the use of the Roman alphabet, specifically by matching the sounds of Nahuatl to those in Spanish, and then writing them with use of Spanish orthography. As in pre-colonial times, the practice of producing and understanding texts remained tied to the elite and to oral performances (Carmack, Gasco, Gossen 2007:222). This is reflected by the fact that colonial texts were written in “” referring to both the

6 literary and conversational style the urban population, predominantly the noble class, used in Central Mexico during the 1500’s. The Nahuatl textual categories emerging in the colonial period were various and divided into multiple genres (Carmack, Gasco, Gossen 2007). These genres were the native and accounts of community histories, notable events, the death or succession of rulers. Native scribes or notaries belonging to the native town government produced civil or notarial texts including wills, records of town meetings, records of land grants, petitions, and letters. Another category is composed by colonial transcriptions of literary compositions recovered from pre-colonial amoxtli and/or oral transmissions into alphabetic writing. These colonial transcriptions could be divided into several genres, such as the Huehuetlahtolli (ancient words) and songs, all of which could have changed over time or existed in multiple versions. Natives also helped the religious or were authorized by them to compose catechistic materials and devotional texts including prayers and songs. The religious also collaborated with natives in the production of theater, a combination of evangelization material and native performance traditions. Essentially, all of these works are indeed native texts in the Nahuatl language, but are situated in the colonial context.

Cuicatl (Songs) Pertinent to this study is the colonial transcription of songs from pre-colonial amoxtli and/or oral transmission. The “ethnographer-friars” Andrés de Olmos and Bernardino de Sahagun, among natives historians like and Alvarado Tezozomoc, all claim they obtained songs from oral tradition and by means of [the Nahuatl] codices (Léon-Portilla 1992). This is evidence that the songs are native creations and can be of pre-colonial origin. In fact, Miguel Léon-Portilla (1992) identified fifteen pre-colonial authors. In addition, the songs are reliable because we can identify the same songs or versions of them in distinct collections. Nahuatl songs could be recovered from amoxtli (books) by native singers through the action of amoxohtoca (following the road of the book) by reading the sequence of images. One native states, “I

7 sing the pictures of the books” (Léon -Portilla 1992:5). In this manner, songs were transcribed to text following the pictoglyphic sequences of books, which is evident by the use of referential statements (here is, this, these) and adverbial phrases (then, next, following on) (Léon -Portilla 1992:6). Thus, although the songs were written down on paper with alphabetic writing, we can still consider them as pre-colonial in origin and study them for interpretations of Nahuatl culture before European contact. I identify these artistic compositions as songs, although they are commonly referred to as poems and are poetic in structure, because in the Nahuatl language they are called cuicatl (songs) and the performer of this verbal art is a cuicani (singer). Also, for the reason that the compositions were always sung or at least complemented with musical instruments, such as the conch, trumpet, flute, whistle, huehuetl (upright drum), and the teponaztli (two-toned horizontal drum) (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:282). Angel Maria Garibay notes that non-lexical syllables, such as aya, iya, huiya, and ohuaya “are indications related to the rhythm of the music” (Léon -Portilla 1992:29). Historical evidence demonstrates that most cuicani were tlahtoani (rulers) or pipiltin (nobles) most likely because nobles had higher access to the (priestly schools or schools of higher learning). Nahuatl songs could also be composed or performed by professional cuicani who were hired. According to evidence, most of the songs can be attributed to men and very few to women. Essentially, songs were composed by the highly educated and contained esoteric metaphors, so not all of the songs were comprehensible to the general audience.7 Nahuatl pre-colonial songs told of ancient traditions, deities, rulers and their deeds, natural phenomena, concerns about life on earth, reasons for rejoicing, and erotic scenes (Aguilar-Moreno 2006; Léon -Portilla 1992). During the colonial periods natives composed Nahuatl songs to praise Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, and these compositions maintained the pre-colonial metaphors and stylistic features (Léon -Portilla 1992). Miguel Léon -Portilla (1992) identifies songs and singers from the Nahuatl city-

7 I show that Nahuatl warriors, who at the same time were nobles or rulers, were the audience for songs from the Xochicuicatl genre.

8 states of Cuauhchinanco, Tetzcoco, Tepechpan, Teotlaltzinco, Tenochtitlan, , Huexotzinco, Tecamachalco, Tizatlan, , and Ayapanco. The entire corpus of Nahuatl songs is composed of several collections including twenty sacred hymns collected by Sahagun, songs scattered in several annals, the Cantares mexicanos, and the Romances de los señores de la Nueva España (Léon -Portilla 1992). The codex Cantares mexicanos is a Nahuatl manuscript, also known as “Manuscript 1628” that contains 91 songs, written between 1520 and 1560, of various themes. The Cantares mexicanos is currently located in the National Library of Mexico in . Most scholars suggest Antonio Valeriano, an indigenous scholar from Azcapotzalco, as having recompiled the manuscript between 1560 and 1570 (Aguilar- Moreno 2006; Léon -Portilla 1992, Bierhorst 1985). Prior to this copy it is likely that several natives working for friars compiled all the compositions, since the songs were “collected at different times and places,” written on separate pieces of paper, and written by at least two different hands (Léon -Portilla 1992:26). This is demonstrated by the fact that the same songs appear more that once in the final manuscript. John Bierhorst finds the most common genre of song to be Netotiliztli, the act of dancing and association to worldly entertainment (1985:3). However, there are many more genres such as Xopancuicatl (Songs of Springtime), Xochicuicatl (Flowery Songs), Totocuicatl (Bird Songs), Michcuicatl (Songs of Fish), Icnocuicatl (Songs of Orphan-hood), Cozcacuicatl (Necklace Songs), Teuccuicatl (Songs of the Lords), Tlaocolcuicatl (Songs of Suffering), Cuauhcuicatl (Songs of Eagles), Yaocuicatl (Songs of War), Atequilizcuicatl (Songs of Pouring Water), Cihuacuicatl (Songs of Women), Cococuicatl (Songs of Doves), Cuecuechcuicatl (Provocative Songs), and Huehuehcuicatl (Old Songs or Songs of Old People) (Léon -Portilla 1992:28). Some of these songs contain Spanish loan words, but can still be considered to have pre-colonial origins. Others are colonial songs based on Christian doctrine written by natives and include Spanish loan words and/or neologisms.8

8 Neologisms are words formed by grammatical categories of indigenous languages to express concepts relevant to the colonial-religious project.

9 The Romances de los señores de la Nueva España is a manuscript composed by the mestizo in Tetzcoco on 1582. In this manuscript there is less reference to genres and places of origin, and there are no dates. Angel Maria Garibay has distinguished 60 different songs probably belonging to the same types of genres as in the Cantares mexicanos, but none of these songs can be strongly proven to be of Euro- Christian inspiration, besides the fact that there are Spanish loan words, such as Dios (God) (Léon-Portilla 1992:31).

Stylistic Features of Nahuatl There are two important stylistic features of the Nahuatl language appearing frequently and they must be understood in order to fully comprehend the Nahuatl texts. Angel María Garibay K. explains these two key features in the book “Llave Del Nahuatl.” He terms the first a “difrasismo,” when a single idea is expressed by two words, usually nouns, that are used in sequence or that are used interchangeably.9 Difrasismos were used in order to express a concept with more clarity and they are not to be taken literally because their meaning in translations will be distorted or lost completely. An example of a difrasismo in English would be using the phrase “bread and butter” in order to express sustenance. The second stylistic feature abundant in Nahuatl is the use of parallelisms. This is done by pairing two phrases, as opposed to words, that complement each other and that are usually synonymous to each other in order to convey a stronger meaning. Parallelisms can occur when one characteristic is attributed two features, two things are attributed the same feature, or when the same idea is expressed in two different forms.

Philosophy, Religious, and Social Practices Associated with Warriors Miguel Léon-Portilla (1963) views Nahuatl philosophy as embedded in the consideration of the uncertainty of the nature of ultimate reality and argues this type of philosophical thought is reflected in Nahuatl songs. He demonstrates how songs provide

9 I refer to this metaphor as a semantic couplet instead of difrasismo.

10 the opportunity to examine Nahuatl philosophy as it was immediately before the conquest, for example, because they reflect doctrines taught in the calmecac (institution of higher learning) and knowledge of the tlamatini (he who knows things) or wise men. Nahuatl philosophical development led to the conscious and formal inquiry of three main themes observed by Léon-Portilla (1963). First, there was a focus on materiality, concerning the essence and durability of things, whether a human body or valuable goods. In fact, the term polihui (to perish) used when talking about material objects like flowers or other goods going to waste can also be applied to the meaning of death. This shows the connection between all material things that perish and die. This notion of materiality, including life, as transitory is reflected in the following passage.

Truly do we live on Earth? Not forever on earth; only a little while here. Although it be jade, it will be broken, although it be , it is crushed, although it be feather, it is torn asunder. Not forever on earth; only a little while here (Léon -Portilla 1963:7).

The second focus of philosophical thought was about life on earth, in particular, netiliztli, the truth, rootedness, or stability of life. Many composers of songs came to the conclusion of living life on earth to the fullest and deriving pleasure whenever possible. For example, one song explains, “Here, we only come to know ourselves; only in passing are we here on earth. In peace and pleasure let us spend our lives; come, let us enjoy ourselves” (Léon-Portilla 1963:73). The third theme salient in philosophical thought is the concern for a person’s fate in the afterlife. According to Nahuatl religious doctrine, all those who experienced a natural death took a four-year journey down the nine underworlds until reaching the ninth level, Mictlan (Land of the Dead). The second alternative afterlife destination was Tlalocan, the earthly paradise of Tlaloc, the rain deity, but only for the selective few who died by drowning, lightning, gout, or dropsy. The third alternative afterlife destination was Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac (the House of the Sun) for warriors, sacrificial victims (including warriors and Ixiptla), and women who died in

11 childbirth.10 The final alternative was reserved for children who died before the age of reason and who got to go to Chichihuacuauhco (Place of the Wet-Nurse Tree). It is necessary to delve into a deeper discussion regarding the conceptualization of death because of the central role it played in the lives of warriors. Every culture constructs a way of experiencing and interpreting death in a unique form. For the Nahua people destiny after death was not determined by how one lived according to moral conduct, rather each person continued a journey to one of multiple locations in the universe based on how they died. In other terms, life was perceived as taking forms in Topan (that which is above us), Mictlan (that which is below us), in addition to Tlalticpac (that which is on earth).11 This correlates with the Nahuatl conception of the universe as vertical space consisting of thirteen superimposed celestial layers above the earth and nine layers beneath (Aguilar-Moreno 2006; Léon-Portilla 1963). Horizontal space on earth was conceived as a disk of land surrounded by water that was referred to as (place next to water). Crossbars separated all the celestial and underworld layers, “which functioned as floor levels or passages between the heavens, allowing the various celestial bodies to move freely between region to region” (Léon-Portilla 1963:49). Within this scheme of destinies, warriors who participated in battle and died during battle or as sacrificial victims rested in Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac, the House of the Sun (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:138). After death the essence known as yolia, “a life force housed in and closely associated with the heart (yollotl)” would leave the body (Burkhart 2003:30). The yolia would ascend past the first celestial layer known as Ilhuicatl Meztli (Sky Moon), where the moon travels and from where the clouds are suspended, and past the second celestial layer known as Citlalco (Place of Stars), where stars like the Centzon

10 I refer to Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac as the House of the Sun as practiced by John Bierhorst (1985) and Manuel Aguilar-Moreno (2006). Ixiptla is the term applied to sacrificial victims who impersonated, embodied, and literally became deities before they were sacrificed, thus recreating mythical-historical scenes of deities sacrificing themselves. This is a sign that women were regarded as warriors because of their battle against the natural forces while giving birth. 11 Topan, Mictlan is a Nahuatl semantic couplet.

12 Huitznahua (400 Stars or Countless Stars of the South) are located. Finally, the yolia would rest in the third celestial layer known as Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac, the Sun Sky or the House of the Sun because the Sun traveled through this sky. Specifically, it inhabited the eastern realm of the House of the Sun where warriors engaged in mock battles and war songs, as well as the honorable act of accompanying the sun as it arose in the morning (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:163). After four years the warrior’s yolia would re-materialize into a bird or butterfly and was granted the ability to fly freely between Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac and Earth searching for flowers to sip (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:164). In contrast, women who died at childbirth inhabited the western realm, Cihuatlampa (Women’s Side), to join the sun as it settles at night and then became goddesses known as Cihuateteo (Divine Women) (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:164). The women were able to return to earth in search of spinning and weaving instruments, and become visible to their husbands. The conceptualization of death was heavily linked with the religious doctrine wielded by Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Each city-state worshipped a patron deity, but each calpulli (neighborhood) within the city-state also worshipped a particular deity with favorable attributes. Huitzilopochtli ( of the Left) was the patron deity of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and was the central figure of religious-militaristic beliefs in the city. The warrior class favored Huitzilopochtli because he was the deity of the Sun and war. He is also considered one of the four sons of Ometeotl (Dual Creator) and the personification of the blue (Léon-Portilla 1963; Aguilar-Moreno 2006; Caso 2009). The myth of Huitzilopochtli explains why he is associated with the Sun and war. He was born on the mountain of Coatepec through the virginal conception of the goddess Coatlicue. He appeared instantly in full war regalia when his jealous sister Coyolxauhqui (the moon) and his brothers, the Centzon Huitznahua (400 Stars of the South), were about to kill their mother. His birth was a metaphor for the daily cosmic battle between the sun and the deities of the night (the moon and stars), and the sun’s daily victory at dawn (Aguilar Moreno 2007:232). The myth of the sun’s daily struggle combined with the belief that people were living in the fifth sun, the prior ones having been destroyed, was heavily woven into the religious and social life of the (people from Mexico) and

13 by extension to the Nahuatl people under their influence. The Mexica concluded that there needed to be constant war or battles where warriors could capture enemies to sacrifice for the continuation of the Sun. I suggest this occurred through the process of the yolia leaving the hearts of warriors or sacrificial victims to ascend toward the House of the Sun and joining it in travel. It is in this religious-militaristic context that the Mexica have come to be known as the “People of the Sun.” So far, I have discussed how Nahua warriors risked the possibility of death or suffered the consequences of being captured enemies, but they were motivated and inspired by the opportunity of an afterlife in one of the most desirable destinations and places of honor, Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac. They would also have the opportunity to re- materialize or reincarnate into birds or butterflies that would live an eternal life of joy and pleasure. However, I take into account a notion of materiality, according to social practices, working as practical motivation for participation in war. This pulls us away from the ubiquitous belief that war was fueled by religion because it required the society to capture sacrificial victims to satisfy the “insatiable appetite” of the Aztec gods for “still beating,” “still pumping,” and “palpitating” human hearts. Practical motivation was manifested in two material forms. First, at the individual level, there was motivation because of the relationship between social status and clothing based on the stratification of war garments and style according to military rank. Second, at the community level there was an interest in war for the attainment of material goods. As such, Nahua warriors looked forward to a desirable afterlife by means of their death as warriors, but also had social stakes while on Earth by means of acquiring material goods. The article, “Girling the Girl and Boying the Boy: The Production of Adulthood in Ancient Mesoamerica” by Rosemary A. Joyce establishes the role and function of clothing before a young boy becomes a warrior who aspires to receive new clothing and in addition a personalized status. Joyce notices that children were presented at birth as raw materials and were constantly being referred to as precious stones and feathers that were shaped into body ornaments, so she proposes that Nahua “children were gradually socialized through habitual action, costume, and ornaments” (2000:474). Also, she states

14 that clothing should be considered as potential media for lifecycle transitions in order to highlight the importance of clothing as a medium for “materializing properly socialized embodied persons” (2000:474). For example, during a formal bath ritual “verbal rhetoric was given material form through the use of specific objects, for the boy ‘a little shield, a little bow, little arrows . . . his little loincloth, his little cape; and for the girl, ‘the equipment of women, the spinning whorl, the weaving sword, the reed basket, the spinning bowl, the skeins, the shuttle, her little skirt, her little shift’” (Joyce 2000:476). Lastly, the verbal rhetoric of labor and dress began to impose distinct adult male and female statuses on the newborn, so the material previously viewed simply as “costume” can be considered as “active mechanisms for socializing and materialization of preferred forms of embodied subjectivity” (Joyce 2000: 476). Incorporating clothing and materiality into rituals that transitioned Nahua people to a new symbolic status in life continued until the age of twelve in cycles of four years. At the age of twelve a man’s identity was highly variable, but the transition into a new status was still depicted through the clothing he wore and the clothing he wore depended on his military career. The warrior’s identity was displayed by his style of clothing, insignias, body paint, haircuts, and weapons. The style of clothing a warrior wore was dependent on his military success, which was achieved by the taking of captives. Military service was mandatory for all males. At the age of 20 they would go to war and those who wanted to become warriors in order to elevate their status pursued a military career, while the rest of the males stayed home as reserves until needed. Military ranking was tied to the overall social structure of Nahuatl society, and social ranking was tied to political offices for which one was required to have a specified status. Furthermore, a distinguished military career was one of the three major avenues for social advancement. The others included commerce or a religious career. Along with social mobility one gained the right to wear specific jewelry, daily military attire, to dress in cotton and wear sandals in the royal palace, to drink octli in public, to keep concubines, and to dine in the Royal Palaces (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:104).

15 Warriors received clothing that reflected their rank and distinguished them from others. Like the titles a warrior earned, the decorations adorning his new clothing depended on how many prisoners he had captured. Rosemary Joyce notes how hairstyle was also an aspect of bodily materiality incorporated into Nahuatl society (2000: 479). The shows images of young warriors during training with hair indistinguishable from that of women. It was not until a warrior participated in war that his hair set in accordance with his rank and a symbol of distinction. The Eagle (cuauhtli) and Jaguar (ocelotl) warriors we will see mentioned in the Cuicapeuhcayotl song make up special ranks amongst the warriors. They were required to have the title of Tequihuaqueh (veteran warriors; plural) and more than four captives. The taking of at least four captives earned one a ocelototec (our jaguar lord) war garment, which is a jaguar style tlahuiztli (body suit) with a helmet adorned with feathers, a mantle of two stripes of black and orange with a border, and permission for their hair to be cut like that of a Tequihua (veteran warrior; singular). Besides the quantity of captives, the quality of captives, such as those from Atlixco, Huexotzinco, or Tliliuhquitepec, earned warriors a variety of gifts like a blue lip ornament, a headband with two tufts of eagle feathers and ornamented with silver flint knives, leather earplugs, a bright red net cape, a diagonally divided two colored cape, and a leather cape. In contrast, the undistinguished warriors were not permitted to wear the fabric and attire of the accomplished warriors, rather they were allowed to wear only a maguey-fiber mantle with no distinctive designs or special embroidery, neither were they allowed to wear sandals. At the community level, there were tremendous material benefits for a society to participate in warfare. In the text, “Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control,” Ross Hassig situates Aztec (Nahuatl) warfare in a political and economic perspective. Hassig explains, “the [Triple Alliance] conquered and incorporated other polities into an over-arching political system, but it was a political system based on pervasive and dominating influence rather than on territorial control” (1988:17). The goal was to become a large polity built on “a system of alliances in which obedience and tribute were owed to the higher Tlahtoani (Ruler)” in order to control material production

16 and gain material wealth (Hassig 1988:17). The tribute included valuable goods, such as precious stones and warrior garments made of sewn cotton with stitched feathers by the cities that paid tribute to the Triple Alliance. Ross Hassig reminds us in “War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica” that the resources that societies are interested in controlling are culturally determined. For example “cotton and obsidian are material improvements, if not necessities, but others, such as cacao and quetzal feathers are materially nonessential though often highly valued” (Hassig 1992:3). So, the precious raw materials and clothing, including feathers for decoration, were socially constructed valuables that were not essential needs for the Triple Alliance. Warfare provided the means to obtain these goods desired by nobles, in particular from those distant sources in order to reduce internal competition and social disruption. In central Mexico the production of goods was highly specialized within the major urban centers. The importance is reflected through entire residential sections populated by full time artisans and merchants dedicated to one sector of production, including feather work, metal work, and stone work. The knowledge and skills for producing goods was passed on from parent to child. Material goods played such a vital role that quachtli (plain cotton capes) functioned as a medium of exchange throughout central Mexico, as well as for many other functions like marriage payments. The most productive craft were the textiles women produced. In this way, women have always played an integral role in the production of clothing and men have played an integral role in trading those goods or gaining them through war and tribute. For example, the tribute city of Cuauhnahuac (today ) annually sent 12,800 cloaks of various designs, 1,600 loincloths, 1,600 women’s tunics, 8 warrior outfits, precious feathers, jade, turquoise, gold, cacao, and cotton to the Triple Alliance (Berdan 1982). Before warfare, “one political tie that spanned 5,000 years was marital alliances between ruling elites” (Hassig 1992:174). This early method for the transmission of material goods is clearly imbedded and reflected in Nahuatl and Mesoamerican wedding rituals. According to Nahuatl scholar , “the central action in wedding ceremonies reiterated use of clothing in birth ceremonies as synecdoches” (Joyce

17 2000:479). These rituals are depicted in pictorial manuscripts such as the Codex Mendoza and the ethnographic work of Bernardino Sahagun.

The mother of the man went to give gifts to the bride. She then placed a blouse on her, and a skirt before her. And the mother of the woman also went to give gifts. She tied a cape on the groom, but this breechclout she placed before him . . . and the elderly matchmakers tied them together. They took the corner of the man’s cape, they drew up the woman’s blouse, then they tied these together (Joyce 2000:479).

I have examined the philosophical, religious, and social practices that were interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors. I argue that this habitus led singers to embed the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors in the Xochicuicatl genre and the evidence comes from the performance keys in the songs. Historical evidence demonstrates that most singers were rulers or nobles, and these social statuses were linked to successful careers as warriors (Léon -Portilla 1992). Also, the nobles had access to the calmecac where they learned to sing and compose songs. Therefore, many nobles and rulers were warriors, such as the most famous Nahuatl poet, Nezahualcoyotl (the ruler of Tetzcoco when the Triple Alliance formed).

Cuicapeuhcayotl (The Origin of Song) I translated the first song of the Cantares Mexicanos, titled Cuicapeuhcayotl (The Origin of Song) because I predicted that it would provide deeper insight into the meaning of the semantic couplet in xochitl, in cuicatl (the flower, the song). It turns out that the song is one of the most insightful about the meaning and origins of the metaphor, as well as a complete example of the keys indicating the interpretive frame in use. Thus, in the appendix I provide a complete translation in order to support my argument that the epistemology of the flower, the song, is utilized in the context of a Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors. Further, the reader can use the song as a reference in chapter two, when I discuss colonial practices of accommodating or adapting features of the Xochicuicatl genre.

18 In summary, the protagonist is a singer who ponders the possibility that and butterflies will guide him to what I argue is Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac, the House of the Sun. The singer is certain that cuicatl (songs) and xochitl (flowers), which are capable of bringing joy to the nobles, the lords, and the Owner of the Earth will be found in abundance at the House of the Sun. Then the singer encounters hummingbirds and asks them if he could be taken to the “beautiful fragrant flowers.” Addressing the protagonist as cuicanitzine (beloved singer), they agree to show him the flowers if it is true he will “bring out the sorrow” of “[their] male companions, the lords.” At last the singer is taken to Tonacatlalpan, Xochitlalpan, a semantic couplet for Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac, where he will be able to cut the flowers he wants in order to give them to “[their] friends, [their] lords” and to give joy to the Owner of the Earth. While filling his apron with flowers, he states he will tell his friends how they will always be able to get flowers and listen to songs in order to give joy to the people on earth and the eagle and jaguar warriors.

Keys I support my argument that the Xochicuicatl genre reflects a Nahuatl ontology associated with the cultural habitus of warriors by laying out the performance keys in the song that identify the interpretive frame. Specifically, by laying out the keys of the song Cuicapeuhcayotl, we will also see reflected the third group of thinkers, who believe in the scheme of afterlife destinations, which in this case is the Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac destination associated with warriors.

1. Where to find flowers and songs. 2. The presence of and communication with birds and butterflies. 3. Environmental indications of Tonatiuh-Ilhuicatl. 4. Concerns for people who have no merit. 5. The purpose of flowers and songs.

19 The first key introduces us to a prominent concern in the Xochicuicatl genre. The protagonist of the song poses the question, “Where will I take the beautiful fragrant flowers?” While some singers posit that flowers and songs are only found on earth, this singer ponders an alternative possibility. The second key involves the presence of a “diversity of birds,” such as the tzinitzcan bird, quechol bird, turquoise bird, bellbird, and hummingbird. Specifically, communication occurs with hummingbirds most likely because of their association with Huitzilopochtli. The protagonist states, “I wish to ask the beloved hummingbird, precious as quetzal plumes, the beloved hummingbird, precious as jade. I wish to ask the butterfly, precious as the yellow feathered zacuan bird.” The reason he wants to communicate with hummingbirds and butterflies is “Because they have knowledge, they know where the beautiful fragrant flowers blossom.” As I reviewed, according to Nahuatl religious beliefs, hummingbirds and butterflies are granted the ability to fly freely between earth and the House of the Sun in search of flowers. They also have knowledge of songs because “music was formerly kept in the House of the Sun” and they spent their time singing there (Bierhorst 1985:19). In one scene the singer encounters hummingbirds and asks, “Where are the beautiful fragrant flowers?” In another scene the hummingbirds respond, “cut many flowers, which ever ones you will want, be happy, singer.” The third key includes the different environmental features indicating that flowers and songs are located specifically in Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac. The first environmental feature includes the mountains echoing the “flowery songs” and the precious water that flows besides it (the water source of the turquoise bird). The presence of a mountain and water refers to the semantic couplet “in atl, in tepetl” or “the water, the hill,” which under exception was combined to form the word altepetl, meaning town or city. This leads to the conclusion that flowers and songs are found in an inhabitable place (the House of the Sun). The second environmental feature is the location found “within the mountains” or in the altepetl that is referred to as Tonacatlalpan, Xochitlalpan (Land of Sustenance, Land of Flowers). I argue that this is a semantic couplet used to invoke Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac because the Land of Sustenance, the Land of Flowers is described as the place where

20 there are precious flowers and hummingbirds. The third environmental feature is alluded to when the singer claims flowers and songs are located where “the sunrays give radiance to the dew” indicating that they are in the presence of the sun, which could be interpreted as them being in the House of the Sun. Further, the singer describes the Land of Sustenance, the Land of Flowers, also as a place where “the sunrays give radiance to the dew,” but now adds that there are flowers “clothed in dew” and “the rainbow reflected on the sunshine.” Finally, the song also mentions that flowers and songs are located in an environment where “one has the honor to be joyful” and the most joyful afterlife destination is the House of the Sun because there one goes about singing, engaging in mock battles, sipping flowers, traveling between the celestial layers, and accompanying the Sun. The fourth key includes the concern for people who have no merit in the sense that they do not deserve a reward. The protagonist of this song ponders where those who have no merit will see and take the flowers. He further ponders, “is it the case that he will arrive with me to the Land of Flowers, the Land of Sustenance, he whose merit is nothing, he who is in affliction, he who corrupts things on earth?” I interpret this as the indication that only warriors deserve to go to Tonatiuh-Ilhuicatl and enjoy flowers, but those who die by other means do not deserve this. The protagonist explains that “only the Owner of the Near, Owner of the Close can make people worthy here on earth.” Then, he states, “my heart (associated with the yolia) cries,” he is remembering going to Tonatiuh- Ilhuicac and comes to the conclusion that “Certainly, it is not a place of good here on earth; certainly, it is at another place, the place of departure, there is the good fortune.” Thus, he perceives real happiness not on earth, but “where one lives without flesh” by means of the yolia. The singer provides evidence that he is in the House of the Sun by saying, “I will go there, I will go singing there besides the diversity of precious birds” and enjoy the flowers that make people happy by means of fragrance. Miguel Léon- Portilla (1992) identifies three groups of thinkers for the concern of the afterlife. The first group believes that “only here on earth is the place of death . . . for only on earth shall the fragrant flowers last and the songs, which are our bliss” (Léon-Portilla 1992:131). The

21 second group makes the more skeptical statement, “Truly earth is not the place of reality . . . or is that we come to earth in vain?” (Léon-Portilla 1992:132-33). Cuicapeuhcayotl reflects the third group of thinkers who certainly believe that “Truly earth is not the place of reality . . . indeed one must go elsewhere; beyond, happiness exists” (Léon-Portilla 1992:132). The fifth key involves the collecting of “precious variety of fragrant flowers” and the hearing of a “variety of beautiful songs” to bring joy when they are presented to “our friends, the people on earth, the nobles,” but also explicitly “the eagle warriors, the jaguar warriors.” The songs are also to be “raised” or invoked before Tloque, Nahuaque (the Owner of the Near, Owner of the Close, or the one who is omnipresent). In the scene where the singer asks the hummingbirds where the flowers are to be found, the hummingbirds respond, “if we show them to you . . . can you provide joy to our male companions, the lords,” thus establishing a relationship not just to all the people on earth, but specifically with lords who are their fellow warriors since the hummingbirds were warriors before they re-materialized into birds at the House of the Sun. The protagonist assures his friends (the nobles and warriors) that they will be reunited with the warriors who have now become precious birds by informing them that “We will always come here (Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac) to cut the precious variety of fragrant flowers, and we will come to take a variety of beautiful songs.”

In Xochitl, In Cuicatl: The Flower and Song as an Epistemology Central to the Xochicuicatl genre is the use of in xochitl, in cuicatl (the flower, the song) as an epistemological practice embedded in a Nahuatl ontology conceived of philosophical, religious, and social practices interwoven in the cultural habitus of Nahua warriors. Miguel Léon-Portilla (2000, 1992, 1963) broadly defines in xochitl, in cuicatl as a semantic couplet expressing the idea of poetry, art, symbolism, and truth. Some pre- colonial references to the metaphor are available because Tecayehuatzin, a ruler and sage from Huexotzinco, called for a dialogue on the meaning of flower and song, which is preserved in the Cantares mexicanos. The flower, the song, is referenced as “perhaps the

22 only truth on earth” and “the only possible way to invoke the supreme Giver of Life” (Leon-Portilla 203, 204). I add to the current knowledge of the semantic couplet by showing how in xochitl, in cuicatl is a way of making meaning (epistemology) about materiality and it is this materiality that is “the only truth on earth” because everything that is material has netiliztli (truth, rootedness, and stability). I posit flowers as a representation of the materiality that is perishable, such as the human body, life, and material goods. The songs, however, represent the materiality that is enduring such as songs that can be carried of by birds throughout the celestial layers or can endure on earth past one’s lifetime. Also, songs can be interpreted as representing the yolia, the essence that leaves the heart at death and ascends to the House of the Sun where it is re- materialized into a bird or butterfly after four years. The semantic couplet is almost always used in connection with the itta (to see), caqui (to hear), and cui (to take/grab). They are also frequently used along with the adjectives yectli (beautiful), ahuiac (fragrant), and huelic (delicious). For example, we can see it being used with these verbs and adjectives in phrases like nicuiz yectli auiacaxochitl (I will take beautiful fragrant flowers), nicaqui in ixochicuicatzin (I hear their precious flowery songs), and quittaz in huelic xochitl (he will see a delicious flower). Due to the use of these verbs and adjectives with the semantic couplet, I conclude that what the meant about flowers and songs being the only truth on earth is that reality can only be constructed through the process in which people are engaging with flower (material world) and song (non-physical material world) through the senses, such as hearing (caqui), seeing (itta), feeling (cui), tasting (huelic), and smelling (ahuiac). The flower, the song, is able to function within the philosophical, religious, and social practices associated with the cultural habitus of Nahuatl warriors because it is the way of making meaning about and expressing the notion of materiality that is central to those spheres. In regard to philosophical thought, there was a focus on the transitory nature of materiality, whether a human body or valuable goods. The second theme was a concern for materiality, including life, as rooted on earth. The third theme was a concern

23 for the re-materialization of life after death. The metaphor is also pertinent to religious beliefs of flower and songs being present at the House of the Sun. Further, flowers and songs were part engaging in war. For example, warriors participated in (flowery wars) and referred to their shields as (flower shields) because if they died they would perish like a flower, but endure, like a song, to the House of the Sun. This association is reinforced by the fact that when warriors took their first captive they were given a mantle with a flower design called a tiyahcauhtlatquitl (brave man’s equipment).

24 Chapter Two: Colonial Accommodation of Nahuatl Tropes, Textual Figures, and Imagery My work is focused on the metaphor in xochitl, in cuicatl as a vehicle to for exploring a major cultural-social transformation in the Nahuatl communities of central Mexico. In the first chapter I situated the semantic couplet in its pre-colonial cultural and historical context that reflected the habitus or pre-dispositions of Nahua warriors (Bourdieu 1977). In this chapter, I review why and how missionaries, Nahua scholars, and Nahua assistants accommodated Nahuatl tropes, textual figures, and imagery in the project of religious conversion. Specifically, I focus on Nahuatl literature on the Virgin Mary before the publication of the Nican Mopohua in 1648 and show the process by which Marian literature was linked to the Xochicuicatl genre. Then following the work of William Hanks (2010, 1987), I use Bakhtin’s “sociological poetics” with Bourdieu’s theory of practice to demonstrate that the social agent, Antonio Valeriano, utilized Nahuatl symbolic forms when producing the Nican Mopohua. In particular, I seek to explain why Valeriano utilized the epistemology of in xochitl, in cuicatl and the interpretive frame (ontology) of the Xochicuicatl genre. This chapter highlights an aspect of cultural-social transformations creating a colonial habitus pre-disposing Valeriano to accommodate pre-colonial features into the Nican Mopohua, rather than suggesting that the text is a full-blown act of native resistance through the presence of cultural survivals or an act of Spanish religious manipulation to convert natives.

Missionaries and Religious Conversion After Spanish military conquest over Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1521, what becomes more prominent is the spiritual conquest that begun with the conviction of Cortez to destroy all manifestations of idolatry and spread the word of Christianity in order to convert the natives. Spanish religious were present from the inception of military conquest, for example Fray Bartolome de Olmedo, who baptized a Tlaxcalteca ruler and prince Ixtlilxochitl of Tetzcoco, advised Cortez not to raise crosses or build churches until the natives were knowledgeable of Christian doctrine (Ricard 1933:20). The spiritual

25 conquest remained without method until the arrival of the Mendicant Orders, including the first Franciscan Friars in 1523, the Dominicans in 1526, and the Augustinians in 1533. The Franciscan Friar’s effort of the spiritual conquest was established in Mexico- Tenochtitlan and the surrounding Nahuatl speaking territories with a shared culture such as Tetzcoco and Tlacopan because they occupied the center of what became . Later, the effort reached the territories of peoples governed by the Triple Alliance who did not necessarily share Nahuatl culture, but spoke Nahuatl as a second language like the . Lastly, it extended to the territory of peoples never governed by the Triple Alliance, groups outside the Basin of central Mexico, such as the Tarascans and the Tlaxcaltecas, as well as the farther , Zapotec, and Mayan regions. The Dominicans and Augustinians took up the latter efforts because they had arrived at later dates. Learning a native language was an essential prerequisite for evangelization because “it was the best means of penetrating the spirit of the pagans and conquering their heart” (Ricard 1933:46). In addition, it was crucial for communication and administration purposes, for example missionaries who did not speak the native languages pointed to the earth, fire, toads, and to represent hell (Ricard 1933:46). In regard to materials for the learning of native languages missionaries created two categories of books. The first consisted of artes () and vocabularios (vocabularies). The second consisted of doctrinas (catechisms), confesionarios, translations of the Gospel, the Epistles, lives of the saints, and manuals for every day services. It can be noted that throughout Mesoamerica the Nahuatl language was centered and preferred amongst the missionaries for several reasons, primarily because when New Spain was first established it was located mostly on Nahuatl speaking territories. Other reasons included the fact that it was the second language of most groups in Central Mexico and missionaries found the language easy to learn. As a result, there is an abundance of textual materials created in Nahuatl and by 1584 the language was known from to Nicaragua. For the most part missionaries found it acceptable to allow natives to live by their customs with the exception of partaking in their religious costumes. The instruction of

26 Castilian speech was neglected because of the burden for missionaries to take on the task of teaching a language, as well as native resistance to Spanish social organization and customs. Allowing the use of indigenous languages actually helped missionaries “to insulate the native people from what they saw as the corrupting influence of Spanish colonists, who the friars did not consider model Christians” (Carmack, Gasco, Gossen 2007:191). However, the degree of freedom given to the natives led to blatant anxiety among the Mendicant Orders, as well as to that of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities because of their obsession with idolatry and heresy. For example, in 1555 they ordered the collection of all sermons in native languages, in particular because of “errors of translation and confusion committed by the natives themselves” (Ricard 1933:57). By 1577, the Holy Office and the Crown pursued the policy of Hispanization when Phillip II prohibited the recording of native customs and the Holy Office prohibited the translation of sacred texts into common speech, which stopped the printing of some works and the disappearance of others. This led the Council of the Indies to confiscate the work of Friar Bernardino de Sahagun. Early missionaries had recognized the necessity for knowledge of native cultures and the languages expressing them in order to observe if the natives were openly or secretly continuing what they perceived as idolatrous and pagan acts. From this frame of thought emerged the first true ethnographer among the missionaries, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, whose work was the most methodical and substantial. For example, he composed the Historia general de las cosas de nueva espana (General History of the Things of New Spain), a work divided into twelve sections relating to religious, political, and social aspects of Nahuatl culture.12 Sahagun conducted the project with the help of “old men” who were knowledgeable in all aspects of Nahuatl life. Also, four students from the college of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martin Jacobita, and Pedro de San Buenaventura who were experts in Spanish, Latin, and Nahuatl, helped by facilitating communication and writing. It is the case that “many Christian texts in Nahuatl were group enterprises in which the ‘author,’ always a Spanish

12 This manuscript is also known as the .

27 cleric, worked closely with native assistants” (Durston 2007:226). The most prominent students, such as Antonio Valeriano and Martin Jacobita, studied at the Colegio Imperial de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco where they learned Latin and Spanish. The institution was opened in 1536 and the distinguished Franciscan teachers included Bernardino de Sahagun, Andrés de Olmos, and Juan de Gaona (Aguilar-Moreno 2006:285). Missionaries like Sahagun also recognized the need to understand native ways of life in order to transition them into Catholic ways. By studying the collected information, such as songs, missionaries were able to develop poetic resources, primarily tropes, textual figures (parallelism), and imagery that could produce appropriate levels of devotional engagement and speed up the process of conversion (Durston 2007:221). Those poetic resources could then be utilized for the production of Christian doctrine in the Nahuatl language. For example, Sahagun published the Psalmodia Christiana in 1583 with the use of native tropes, textual figures, and imagery. The work was meant for the “praising of God and his saints with Christian expression,” but also included “the stylistic features of the indigenous songs assembled in Cantares Mexicanos (Léon-Portilla 1992:26).” Miguel Léon-Portilla cites, “the songs, or cantares, go with their proper style and elegance so that Your Reverence will take profit from them and insert them where it will be convenient,” as a statement from a native assistant referring to Sahagun (1992:23).

Marian Literature Alan Durston examined colonial uses of Quechua tropes, textual figures (parallelism), and imagery in associations with God, Christ, and Mary in order to provide clear examples of strategies of accommodation or deliberate syncretism and to explore mechanisms and purposes of these strategies (Durston 2007:246). In the same manner, I examine the use of Nahuatl tropes, textual figures, and imagery that were accommodated in the Marian literature, which I show share strong resemblance to the Xochicuicatl genre. Specifically, I focused on Louise Burkhart’s “Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature” that provides Nahuatl texts on Mary between 1540

28 and 1620. These were written with participation by Nahua scholars and assistants and were published in or around Mexico City after being heavily scrutinized by Catholic priests. Also, they represent the work of Franciscan, Augustinian, Dominican, and Jesuit orders. Burkhart considers the texts “before Guadalupe” because they predate the publication of the shrine legend in 1648 and its propagation by creole priests. In addition, although Nahua assistants had a stronger role in the text production of these texts they are more European than the 1648 apparition story. This is so because “it is inscribed into the Mexican landscape, with a named, Nahua protagonist and a date. It is specific and local. Thus, it bears the seeds of the nativist and nationalist interpretations that would become deeply rooted in Mexican culture” (Burkhart 2001:2). Further, these texts reflect what Mary meant to priests and colonists in the European context, because they only accommodated Nahuatl stylistic features to appeal to the natives. Last, various texts are posited as songs or chants, but they read more like tlahtolli (spoken word) than cuicatl (songs), so the natives were singing to the Virgin in a new form, a chanted tlahtolli (Burkhart 2001:6). Examining Marian literature reveals how the prominence of flower metaphors like the frequent association of Mary with flowers and gardens brought her “into a realm of Nahuatl sacred discourse with deep linguistic roots” (Burkhart 2001:20). Durston notes, how this “flower language” is of pre- origin and merged with the floral components of the Marian iconography (2007:266). Burkhart also makes reference to Hill (1992) who “delineated a ‘flower world’ running throughout the Uto-Aztecan ,” in which flowers are associated with the spirit world, solar heat, fire, souls, and the heart (2001:20). The flower language reflects a shared cultural and linguistic heritage across Mesoamerica that was most likely developed in foundation cultural centers like and . For example, at Teotihuacan there are sound scrolls depicted with flowers affixed along their edges, thus reflecting the flowery words that were sung or recited (Léon-Portilla 1992:3). The flowery invocations adapted from Nahuatl song were a part of Marian literature. In fact, “flower imagery is applied to Mary more than to any other Christian figure” (Burkhart 2001:20).

29 Among the plant metaphors are those drawn from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastics, such as cedar, cypress, palm, and rose (Burkhart 2001:17). These plants are depicted with Mary in many early colonial images. Mary could be referred to as a rose by using the Spanish loan word rosa, although the natives “would probably be unaware of the rose’s extensive cultural associations and of the textual sources of the Christian rose iconography” (Durston 2007:263). These flower metaphors were meant to be signs of Mary’s beauty and virginal purity (Durston 2007:263). Some of the native flowers associated with Mary are the yolloxochitl (heart flower) and the Talauma Mexicana, a white flower used for medicinal and ritual purposes (Burkhart 2001:20). A frequent semantic couplet accommodated to fit this scheme for Mary is in xochimilli, in xochitepancalli (flower garden, flowery enclosure) (Burkhart 2001:15). As Nahuatl singers describe, “our body is a flower” and “as a flower she poses,” so too is Mary considered an actual flower (Léon-Portilla 1992:63; 1963: 72). For example, one composition states, “Oh, may you be joyful, oh Saint Mary, oh fresh and pure one who is in a sacred way a flower!” (Burkhart 2001:20). Also, in “the way that in God’s flower garden there lie gathered together many flowers that are very good, very wondrous, just like that is the noble woman, Saint Mary” (Burkhart 2001:20). In addition, Mary is described as ahuiyac xochitl (fragrant flower) as the phrase occurs in pre-colonial songs, including Cuicapeuhcayotl (Burkhart 2001:129). Further, she is applied the semantic couplet for flowers, in teotzopeliliztli, in teuahuiyayaliztli (sacred sweetness, sacred fragrance), “which means, the signs of good living” or a materialization of her good virtues (Burkhart 2001:15). Similarly, in the song Cuicapeuhcayotl the composer uses tlazoahuiac xochitl, tlazohuelic xochitl (precious fragrant flower, precious delicious flower). The differences include the colonial use of teo- (sacred or divine) over tlazo- (precious) and tzopelic (sweet, tasty) over huelic (delicious, tasty). The semantic couplet Tonacatlalpan, Xochitlalpan (Land of Sustenance, Land of Flowers) appearing in the Cuicapeuhcayotl song can also be said to have been adapted through the interchangeable forms xochitepancalli, xochimilli (flowery enclosure, flower garden) and xochitepancalli, xochitlalli (flowery enclosure, flower land) with a difference

30 only between the use milli for garden and tlalli for land (Burkhart 2001:16). Although Mary is described as “God’s sacred flowery enclosure, his sacred flowery land,” the couplet also represented a terrestrial paradise (Burkhart 2001:16). This can be observed in the phrase “God guarded his flower garden, his flowery enclosure, terrestrial paradise” (Burkhart 2001:16). The use of this semantic couplet to represent a terrestrial paradise must certainly come from the pre-colonial practice of using Tonacatlalpan, Xochitlalpan to represent the Tonatiuh-Ilhuicac, the House of the Sun. Deeper similarities arise from the fact that the terrestrial paradise is described as having “an abundance of produce, fruit. It grows each month, such that its fruit will never disappear, will never end” (Burkhart 2001:16). Durston also notices metaphors in the Quechua Marian literature “alluding to harvesting and food storage” and agricultural fertility (2007:264). This can be compared to the House of the Sun, which is the “Land of Sustenance, Land of Flowers” precisely because of the “life giving creative force of the sun, whose heat brings forth flowers and sustenance and who in turn was associated with Christ, the ‘sun of righteousness’ who manifests himself in the mass in the shape of a tortilla” (Burkhart 2001:150). The word sustenance makes it clear that it is a place where one finds food, but it is important to mention that flowers can represent any type of produce as it is noted by the word for fruit, xochicualli (good or edible flower). Burkhart notices that Nazareth, the home of Mary’s parents, is referred to as Xochitepec (Flowery Mountain) and described as a garden (2001:34, 44). This comes from the association of Nazareth being thought to mean flower and Nahuatl imagery between mountain and gardens to cities. However, I observed no semantic couplets being applied to Nazareth. The missionaries, native scholars, and native assistants also relied on accommodation and strategies that mirrored pre-colonial Nahuatl religious traditions. It all begins with Cortez as an evangelizer who ejects the image of Huitzilopochtli from the Great Temple in Mexico-Tenochtitlan in order to replace it with a crucifix and a statue of Mary. Mary’s virginal conception of Christ when “Her precious body did not tear, did not open, He just came forth from inside her” can be compared to the virginal conception and instantaneous appearance of Huitzilopochtli (Burkhart 2001:59). Also, Mary’s birth is

31 associated with the dawn and with accompanying the Sun. However, in Nahuatl culture warriors accompanied the Sun at dawn and women who died at childbirth accompanied the Sun at dusk. This shows how Mary was transitioned into a more honorable role always reserved for males. Her acceptance is probably due to the fact that she is the mother of Christ who symbolized the Sun. In turn, Christ’s association with the sun linked him to Huitzilopochtli who had traditionally symbolized the Sun. While recounting the presence of Mary at dawn, one composer recounts how “all the little birds” rejoiced, spread their wings, flew, and greeted Mary with songs (Burkhart 2001:27). The presence of birds in some instances can be associated with the presence of angels. The basis for this link is formed through the concept of the yolia (essence inhabiting the heart). Burkhart identifies how the concept was accommodated to create the semantic couplet “spirit, soul” by pairing the term yolia with the Spanish loan word anima because it was believed the term yolia alone did not convey the Christian notion of soul (2001: 30). Further, the concept of yolia is utilized in the texts during Mary’s assumption to describe how her precious yolia (iyoliatzin) left her body and then her precious heart (iyollotzin) became visible (Burkhart 2001:102). Burkhart suggests that such close association between the yolia and the heart could signal native authorship (2001:102). Thus, yolia as it was based on the pre-colonial belief in an essence that can be re-materialized into a bird or butterfly that could fly between the House of the Sun and earth was accommodated to represent the leaving of the soul and its re-materialization as an angel who could serve as a messenger between heaven and earth. Burkhart explains that angels have no material form in heaven, but they do materialize on earth, like when Gabriel is said to “take his body” by forming “a very resplendent body from the air, in which he could be seen (2001:44).” This would not be difficult for the Nahuatl people to comprehend since they had thought the yolia lived as an essence for four years before it could materialize. In a scene when Mary moiolnonotzino, “conferred with herself in her heart,” she is approached by the Archangel, Saint Gabriel who serves as a messenger between heaven and earth (Burkhart 2001:41). I note the parallel between this scene and how the

32 protagonist of the Cuicapeuhcayotl song begins by stating, Ninoyolnonotza, which I translate as “I discussed with my heart” before he is approached by birds. However, in the Marian context the phrase is fixed into the honorific form by applying a reflexive (mo-) and the reverential (-tzin). The Marian scene occurs in the Psalmodia Christina published by Bernardino de Sahagun in 1583 and by this time both the missionaries and natives had access to the collection of pre-colonial Nahuatl songs from where they could draw stylistic features. The association between angels and birds is reinforced when Saint Gabriel is described as quetzaltototl, a bird precious as quetzal feathers, from ilhuicac (a layer of sky), which Burkhart translates as “heaven” because it was meant to have that meaning in the colonial context (2001:43). Additionally, it is stated about the angel, how “its wings, quetzal feathers are not so wide! They are quite pointed, quite green” (Burkhart 2001:43). The metaphorical comparison to a blue-green bird and blue-green feathers for angels instead of the use of pure white common in European texts is evidence of native authorship in Sahagun’s work. At last, the accommodation of the concept of yolia and the reference to quetzaltototl served to associate the presence of birds with the presence of angels and to draw a parallel between heaven, where angels reside, and the House of the Sun, where birds reside. Durston notes how Mary has a celestial association derived “primarily from John’s vision in Revelation 12:1 of a woman ‘clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (2007:264). Durston also explains Mary’s role in Counter-Reformation Catholicism “as an intermediary between Man and God, and from the belief that although she was one of the children of Eve she had a unique proximity to God through the Incarnation and her physical assumption into heaven” (2007:261). As an intermediary between heaven and earth, Mary is associated with the terms tower, door, and ladder. A Marian text13 about the Assumption states, “That the pitiful ones may enter the stars, you have become a window to heaven. So that we may enter into heaven, you are opening the door for us!” (Burkhart 2001:109). Burkhart makes the following interpretation of a scene in this text.

13 Codex Inianorum 7, The John Carter Brown Library, Brown University.

33

Each of the nine categories of angels in the heavenly hierarchy also greets as she goes to take her place about all of them. The enumeration of these greeters suggests a layering of the heavens, with different set of inhabitants at each level; at the top, Mary and the Trinity take the place occupied by the creator couple [Ometeotl] in the thirteen-layered upperworld of pre-conquest conceptions (2001:102).

Also, it is in this text that the witnesses are said to see her yolia and her heart. This particular text shows clear signs of native authorship and how Mary replaced the Nahuatl warrior as the one whose yolia ascends through the layers of skies, as opposed to descending into Mictlan (Land of the dead). The presence of the thirteen-layered upperworld was an acceptable inclusion in the eyes of the native authors, like the Yucatec Maya in who incorporated this notion in the Book of Chilam of Kaua because the European model of the universe had a similar practice of dividing the universe into eleven spheres or heavens (Bricker 2002:67). In the Cuicapeuhcayotl song, the protagonist informs his fellow nobles and warriors that they will always be allowed to enter the House of the Sun, assuming they continue to be warriors, and that he who has no worth or merit, because he is not a warrior, has to depend on Tloque Nahuaque (Owner of the Near, Owner of the Close) for his worth. Then, Mary’s role as an intermediary who opens the door for the pitiful ones to enter heaven must have been greatly appealing to the masses of Nahuatl people. In fact, it is stated, “may [Mary] speak for us so that we will be able to merit joyfulness in heaven” (Burkhart 2001:118). In this phrase the word for merit or worth is –macehua- as it appears in the Cuicapeuhcayotl song. Further, in the same text Mary responds to Jesus Christ, “My lord and ruler, lord of the near, lord of the neigh, may it be done as you wish,” thus showing how in turn Mary is dependent on Tloque, Nahuaque.14 In examining the Marian literature, I also encountered the following instances of accommodation that mirror features in the Cuicapeuhcayotl song. The phrase

14 Appears in the Nahuatl as Tloque Nahuaque, but Burkhart translates it as “lord of the near, lord of the neigh,” which has no semantic difference compared to my translation as “lord of the near, lord of the close.”

34 motonameyotzino, “spread sun beams,” appears in the Marian literature to symbolize “her compassion, her pity, with which people of the world are given compassion, are pitied” (Burkhart 2001:111). The same phrase –tonameyo- (sun rays/beams) appears twice in Cuicapeuhcayotl to signal the House of the Sun and the presence of flowers. But, the colonial form is fixed into the reverential by adding the reflexive (mo) and reverential (tzin) to –tonameyo-, creating motonameyotzino. The protagonist in Cuicapeuhcayotl concludes how the earth is not a place of good and the place of good fortune is elsewhere. This belief is reflected in a Marian text in which the earth is referred to as a “place of weeping,” but they “will delight in the place of utter joy and happiness, heaven” (Burkhart 2001:118, 128). Essentially, as Burkhart argues, “Mary did not simply take the place of one or more pre-conquest divinities,” rather “she was in many ways a new and unprecedented sacred figure that can be better understood as part of the colonial milieu than through a search for pre-conquest parallels” (2001:490). However, I have demonstrated that pre- colonial parallels do exist, not as cultural survivals, but as accommodated Nahuatl tropes, textual figures, and imagery. In particular, I showed how multiple aspects from the pre- colonial Xochicuicatl genre were accommodated specifically for the Virgin Mary. Durston realizes the unlikeliness of “a true correspondence of attributes and associations between the original images and their Andean substitutes” when examining Quechua Marian literature (2007:263). The same can be said about the Nahuatl case of Marian literature. The features Nahuatl people recognized “did not simply reinforce a preexisting belief or practice but drew Nahua devotees toward new modes of conceptualizing and interacting with the sacred” (Burkhart 2001:149). In this sense, the native tropes, textual figures, and imagery were accommodated by missionaries, native scholars, and native assistants for the purpose of making Christian devotional themes more familiar and emotionally engaging, as well as to present Nahuatl cultural aspects as Christian (Durston 2007:269).

35 The Nican Mopohua: Historiography The Nican Mopohua is a manuscript written in Nahuatl that describes the four apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) to a Nahua man named at the Tepeyac, a pre-colonial sacred mountain. Mary explains that she is the mother of God. She then gives Juan Diego the task of going to the Bishop of Mexico, Friar Juan de Zumárraga, in order to get him to raise a temple or shrine at the foot of the hill. Juan Diego is perplexed and believes he might be at Xochitlalpan, Tonacatlalpan (Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance), of which his ancestors spoke. He also ponders as to why a commoner like himself is being chosen for this task. When he informs the bishop of the situation he is asked for a sign, which turns out being precious flowers from the tip of the Tepeyac, where only and mesquites grow. Juan Diego is able to see the flowers, places them on his apron, and takes them to the bishop. When he opens the apron the flowers fall and reveal an imprinted image of the Virgin Mary. In the book, “Tonantzin Guadalupe,” Miguel Léon-Portilla argues that the Nican Mopohua (Here It Is Told) was written by the Nahua scholar, missionary assistant, and governor, Antonio Valeriano in 1556 and was copied and published for the first time by the Spanish priest Luis Lasso de la Vega in 1649. He also argues that the Nican Mopohua is significant because it is a colonial Nahuatl text and it is a presentation of Christian themes expressed in thought and in the form of speaking of the wise men of Nahuatl culture. Léon-Portilla does not discuss the history of the apparitions or the existence of a real man named Juan Diego because the supernatural cannot be confirmed or denied by historical analysis. Finally, his goal is to provide a poetic translation that reflects the Nahuatl worldview embedded in the text. Léon-Portilla explores various testimonies as evidence that the author of the original manuscript is Antonio Valeriano. The first testimony is by Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora who claims that the original in Mexicano (Nahuatl) is written by Don Antonio Valeriano, which he found among the papers of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (Léon- Portilla 2000:24). This is confirmed by Luis Bacerra Tanco who affirms the presence of a Nahuatl manuscript about the four apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego among

36 the papers of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (Léon-Portilla 2000:24). After the death of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora in 1700, the manuscript made its way to the College of San Pedro and San Pablo in Mexico City. Between 1736-1743, Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci testifies that he took parts from the original manuscript belonging to Sigüenza y Góngora, now present at the college (Léon-Portilla 2000:25). He insists the manuscript was written by don Antonio Valeriano and was later published by Lasso de Vega. He notes that he has signatures or samples of Valeriano’s writing to compare them to pieces of the manuscript whenever they would appear. He also claims he has found fragments of a Spanish version by Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl that he has been searching for diligently. In addition, there are two more testimonies verifying the existence of the story of the apparitions in “torn and mistreated” papers made from maguey and written in Nahuatl in the inventory of Lorenzo Boturini (Léon-Portilla 2000:31). These testimonies suggest that Luis Lasso de la Vega copied both the 16th century Nahuatl manuscript, described as “torn and mistreated,” by Antonio Valeriano and most likely the Spanish manuscript by Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (Léon-Portilla 2000:31). This would have been acceptable given the tradition of the era to publish new copies of existing texts under your name because of the lack of a notion of intellectual property (Léon-Portilla 2000:31). Edmundo O’Gorman confirms in his work that it is most plausible that Antonio Valeriano composed the Nican Mopohua in 1556 (Léon-Portilla 2000:33).15 This is further supported by the fact that Miguel Sanchez had published a work in 1648, one year before Lasso de la Vega, inspired by content in the Nican Mopohua (Léon-Portilla 2000:31).16 In addition, Léon-Portilla (2000) adds how all the texts by Lasso de la Vega are written in a Spanish based literary style, except for the Nican Mopohua. Also, the original, housed at the Public Library of , differs from Lasso de la Vega’s in that the former represents the with an “h” and the latter represents it with an apostrophe following the Arte de la lengua mexicana

15 Destierro de sombras. Luz en el origen de la imagen y culto de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe del Tepeyac, 1986. 16 Imagen de la Virgen Maria Madre de Dios Guadalupe, 1648.

37 ( of the Mexican Language) by the Jesuit published in 1645 (Léon-Portilla 2000:78). In their edition of Luis Lasso de la Vega’s text, Sousa, Poole, and Lockhart (1998) argue for the sole authorship of Laso de la Vega because the use of native assistants had declined in the seventeenth century and the manuscript contained errors that a native speaker would have corrected. They also describe the Virgin of Guadalupe story as “entirely European” because it was consistent with European legends about apparitions and the foundations of shrines (1998). Louise Burkhart recognizes that the text makes several accommodations to the Nahuatl worldview, however, she argues in support of Laso de la Vega by stating that he “had over a century’s worth of Marian discourse in Nahuatl on which to build in constructing his version of the story” (2001:2). As such, when approaching Marian literature before 1649, she argues, “the intent was not to create some local, syncretic cult but to transplant the full-grown devotion of the late medieval and Catholic-Reformation Europe into Nahua communities” (Burkhart 2001:2). I argue in support of Miguel Léon-Portilla to demonstrate that the author of the original Nican Mopohua manuscript was Antonio Valeriano. In this way, Luis de la Vega was the first to publish the manuscript, but was not the original author. The major piece of evidence of native authorship comes from the presence of tropes, textual figures, and imagery, specifically from the Nahuatl ontology associated with the genre Xochicuicatl. After translating the Cuicapeuhcayotl song and looking at the Nican Mopohua, I realized how the song served as a frame of reference for the apparition story. Seeking to learn more about the apparition story, I read the work of Léon-Portilla (2000) and noticed how he also singles out the Cuicapeuhcayotl because of clear parallels. I will now point to the keys in the Nican Mopohua that mirror those of the Cuicapeuhcayotl and thus make reference to Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors that is embedded in the Xochicuicatl genre. This work differs from Léon-Portilla’s because he is concerned with making connections to Nahuatl thought in general and in demonstrating how someone who must have known a vast amount of Nahuatl texts and stylistic features of the Tecpilahtlatolli, language of the nobles, could have written the document. Those stylistic

38 features, such as the use of semantic couplets, parallelism, recreation of dialogues, and concepts are clear and have been noted by several Nahuatl scholars including Angel Garibay, John Bierhorst, and James Lockhart (Léon-Portilla 2000:22-23). The first key I point to in the song Cuicapeuhcayotl is the concern for flowers and songs. The protagonist asks, “campa niccuiz yectli auiacaxochitl” [where will I take beautiful fragrant flowers?]. In the Nican Mopohua there is also a concern for “nepapan xochitl” [a variety of flowers], in particular there is syncretism because there is a concern for “nepapan Caxtillan tlazoxochitl” [a variety of precious flowers from Castilla] (Léon- Portilla 2000:134, 136). These flowers said to be ahuiaxtoc (fragrant) like in the Cuicapeuhcayotl are separate entities attributed the quality of good smell, while in the Marian literature flower terms are accommodated to represent an embodiment of Mary according to Catholic ways of association, thus it is she who is fragrant and sweet. The second key concerns the presence of and communication with birds and butterflies. As Juan Diego is walking at the beginning of the story, he comes across the mountain called Tepeyac and hears “nepapan tlazototome cuica” [a diversity of precious birds singing] (Léon-Portilla 2000:94). He describes how it was “iuhquin quinnahnanquilia tepetl” [as if the mountain was echoing (the songs)] (Léon-Portilla 2000:94). Specifically, he hears the “coyoltototl, in tzinitzcan ihuan in occequin tlazototome ic cuica” [the bellbird, the tzinitzcan black bird and other precious birds with song] (Léon-Portilla 2000:94). When the singing stops Juan Diego is called and he sees the Virgin of Guadalupe apparition “icpac tepetzintli” [on top of the beloved mountain] (Léon-Portilla 2000:96, 98). The protagonist of the Cuicapeuhcayotl shares this experience with Juan Diego because before he encounters and communicates with hummingbirds he hears the singing of the same bellbird and a diversity of birds, and he describes that it was as if the mountain was echoing the singing. Also, the protagonist claims he wishes to communicate with hummingbirds “because they have knowledge, they know where the beautiful fragrant flowers blossom.” He is correct because they later guide him to see the variety of flowers and say, “cut many flowers.” In a later scene in the Nican Mopohua, we see another syncretic act

39 because it is now the Virgin of Guadalupe who has the knowledge of the flowers. She says to Juan Diego, “icpac tepetzintli . . . oncan tiquittaz onoc nepapan xochitl . . . xictetequi” [on top of the beloved mountain . . . there you will see lying down a variety of flowers . . . cut them] (Léon-Portilla 2000:134). Léon-Portilla agrees that is was the precious hummingbird that appeared to those who sought flowers and, besides hummingbirds being re-materialized warriors, he points out how it is possible that the hummingbird represents the Mexica deity, Huitzilopochtli (2000:54). When we take this into consideration, it is clear how there is an emerging syncretic practice in which the Virgin of Guadalupe takes the place of hummingbirds and of Huitzilopochtli as a knowledgeable divine entity capable of appearing and communicating with the Nahua man. This is reinforced by the fact that she appears at dawn, in the presence of the sun, and the role of accompanying the sun at dawn was reserved for the yolia of dead warriors and hummingbirds. The Cuicapeuhcayotl and Nican Mopohua share environmental indications that flowers and songs are found at Tonatiuh-Ilhuicatl, the House of the Sun. First, both protagonists hear the songs of birds “iuhquin quinnahnanquilia tepetl” [as if the mountains were echoing them], establishing the presence of a mountain. Also, the Virgin of Guadalupe acknowledges how on top of the beloved mountain Juan Diego will see lying down a variety of flowers. The mountain in turn, is a metaphoric indication of a city. Then, the second indication comes from Juan Diego climbing up the mountain and asking the following. “Canin ye nicah? Cuix ye oncan? In Xochitlalpan, Tonacatlalpan, cuix ye oncan in Ilhuicatlalpan?” [Where am I? Perhaps there? In the Land of Flowers, the Land of Sustenance, perhaps there in Celestial Land?] (Léon-Portilla 2000:96). As such, Juan Diego makes a direct reference to the pre-colonial Nahuatl celestial layer of sky known as the House of the Sun, the same place where the protagonist of Cuicapeuhcayotl finds flowers and songs. Léon-Portilla attributes the Land of Flowers, the Land of Sustenance as a semantic couplet for the home of Tlaloc, god of rain (2000:58). However, there is more evidence that it refers to the House of the Sun because it is there that hummingbirds enjoy flowers and songs; the creative force of the sun

40 promotes the growth of flowers and sustenance, and there are multiple references to the sun, while there are no references to Tlaloc or rain. For example, the Nican Mopohua describes how Juan Diego was looking toward the tepetzintli, beloved mountain, where Tonatiuh, the Sun, rises and it was from there that ilhuicatlazocuicatl, the precious celestial song came (Léon-Portilla 2000:96). The fourth key mentioned in the Cuicapeuhcayotl song is the concern for people who have no merit. This is also a concern for Juan Diego who after hearing the songs of birds near the beloved mountain of Tepeyac asks, “Cuix nomocehual in ye niccaqui?” [Perhaps I hear my merit?] (Léon-Portilla 2000:95). This indicates that Juan Diego is confused because it is only the noble warriors who encounter and communicate with the divine. He makes this distinction by describing nicuitlapilli, natlapalli (I am a tail, I am a wing), which is a semantic couplet for commoners (Léon-Portilla 2000:112). He goes on to ask the Virgin of Guadalupe to give the task to the more suited tlazopipiltin (precious nobles) (Léon-Portilla 2000:112). However, the Virgin of Guadalupe explains to Juan Diego that he needs to build a shrine “ihuan miec oncan ticmacehuaz” [and there you will merit plenty] (Léon-Portilla 2000:104). Again, we see another syncretic act in which we transition from warriors, who have merit through participation in war, to people who can get merit from the Owner of the Close, Owner of the Near, and from a belief that all commoners will have merit if they are devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Lastly, in the Nican Mopohua, flowers and songs also play an important role. Léon-Portilla argues that the presence of in xochitl, in cuicatl, (the flower, the song) serves as a way to express a Christian theme through a Nahuatl worldview (2000:56). I argue that since the Nican Mopohua is being framed around Nahuatl ontology from the Xochicuicatl genre, then the author knew that flowers and songs must serve a high purpose. In this case, the flower, the song, is also working as an epistemology to perceive materiality and truth. However, this pre-colonial epistemology is now being used for colonial materiality and truth. The Virgin of Guadalupe explains to Juan Diego that “inin nepapan xochitl yehuatl in tlaneltiliz, in nezcayotl in tic-huiquiliz in Obispo” [these varieties of flowers are the proof, the sign you will take to the bishop] (Léon-Portilla

41 2000:138). Further, after Juan Diego reveals what is in his apron, the variety of flowers from Castilla begin to fall, followed by the appearance of the sign, the precious image of the complete Virgin, Santa Maria, Precious Mother of the Divine God (Léon-Portilla 2000:150). As such, flowers serve as an epistemology to create truth through the way they materialize the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is true that Lasso de la Vega had over a century’s worth of Marian literature from which he could accommodate that worldview to the Virgin Mary. However, after reviewing the pre-colonial features from the Nican Mopohua, specifically the keys from the Xochicuicatl genre, it is clear that the author did not rely on Marian literature. The Marian literature reveals that Mary literally embodies the sweet and fragrant, a flower, sunbeams, a flower garden and flowery enclosure. These tropes are present in the Nican Mopohua, but they are not directly applied to Mary. For example, the use of the semantic couplet, Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance, refers to the top of the mountain, the place where the Virgin of Guadalupe appears. This semantic couplet distinguishes a location, but in the Marian literature, similar agricultural semantic couplets like flowery garden, flowery enclosure, are used to symbolize embodied aspects of Mary. Also, in the apparition story the beautiful fragrant flowers, in particular roses, only represent a divine sign and not Mary herself. This demonstrates how in the Nican Mopohua the use of tropes, textual figures, and imagery from the Xochicuicatl genre are not adaptations, but a more ambiguous syncretic practice. This is clear evidence of native authorship, since no Spanish missionary would risk such an ambiguous and risky association. Lasso de la Vega insisted that it was necessary for the Nahuas to know Mary in their language to contribute “al derrumbe del reino del Diablo” [to the demise of the Devil’s kingdom] manifested in idolatries (Léon-Portilla 2000:21). So, why would the Nican Mopohua reflect the use of tropes, textual figures, and imagery of Nahuatl worldview in such an ambiguous manner, perpetuating the hidden manifestations of idolatries, which the author sought to eradicate?

42 Antonio Valeriano Antonio Valeriano was born between 1522 and 1526. By 1536 he was a student at the College of Santa Cruz of Tlatelolco where he studied under the Andrés de Olmos and Bernardino de Sahagun. Valeriano did not belong to pipiltin (nobles), but he was highly regarded as a Nahua scholar who mastered Latin and Spanish. He was also said to be a great wise man inclined toward Nahuatl history and philosophy. In fact, Sahagun describes him as “el principal y mas sabio” [the principal and most wise] (Léon- Portilla 2000:34). Sahagun had recruited Valeriano to gather information on the Nahua natural, human, and divine, a project initiated in 1558. Eventually, Valeriano became governor of Azcapotzalco for eight years and in 1570 he was promoted to governor of the Nahua of Mexico-Tenochtitlan for over thirty years until he died in 1605 (Léon-Portilla 2000:35). As I have shown, the parallels between the Cuicapeuhcayotl and the Nican Mopohua suggest native authorship, specifically someone who would be knowledgeable of the Nahuatl oral traditions. Antonio Valeriano is a perfect fit, since most Nahuatl scholars suggest him as the compiler of the Cantares mexicanos between 1560 and 1570 from songs collected between 1520 and 1560 (Aguilar-Moreno 2006; Léon-Portilla 1992, Bierhorst 1985). It is possible then, being a renowned scholar, that he also participated in collecting the songs or at least had access to the song Cuicapeuhcayotl by 1556. I will now review how Valeriano is also fitting as the author of the Nican Mopohua based on the use of colonial Nahuatl doctrinal language and methods for translating Christian concepts. The practice of translating Christianity into Nahuatl can be divided into three generations (Tavarez 2000). The first generation, between 1520 and 1550, includes the Franciscan and Dominican orders, and friar Andrés de Olmos who was a teacher at the college where Valeriano studied. The second generation, between 1550 and 1590, included the Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian orders and friars such as Bernardino de Sahagun who worked closest with Valeriano. The first and second generations translated Christian concepts through two processes of lexical invention

43 (Tavarez 2000). However, the meanings created through both processes were still ambiguous. The first method was through recruitment, or using a pre-existing root to express a concept. In this case only the meaning changes. For example, tlahtlacoa (he/she damages something) was used as tlahtlacolli (sin). The second method was neologism formation, using existing roots to form neologisms. In this case are combined in ways to produce meanings that the Nahuas would not have produced themselves. For example, the missionaries would combine the word teotl (divine) with tlaxcalli (tortilla) to form the new word teotlaxcalli (divine-tortilla) to refer to the Eucharist. The third generation of translators, between 1590-1620, did not get involved in the same level of production; rather they focused on revising earlier works. These were focused on working under the ecclesiastical and doctrinal reforms of the Council of Trent and the Mexican Councils, so they concerned themselves with making the concepts less ambiguous. This concern arose from the requirement that the works had to be approved and contain a signature. By 1556, Antonio Valeriano had been influenced by both Andrés de Olmos and Bernardino de Sahagun, thus he followed the practices of the first and second generation of translators. For example, Sahagun recognized the practice of calling the Virgin of Guadalupe Tonantzin (Our Precious Mother) as a satanic invention to hide idolatrous acts under the mistake of this title (Léon-Portilla 2000:37). The ambiguity linked to a pre- colonial deity caused Sahagun to use the proper name, Dios Inantzin (God’s precious mother) (Léon-Portilla 2000:37). Also, note the use of the word Dios (God) instead of the Nahuatl word teotl (divine). This was based on the Franciscan preference to use Spanish loan words (Dios) or neologisms (Inantzin) because they were influenced by nominalismo, a cognitive process through which a universal specific (signified, the concept) is reduced to one term (signifier, the word) (Garcia-Ruiz 1992). Following the same practice, Valeriano does not use the term Tonantzin in the Nican Mopohua, rather he uses the proper name Sancta Maria, Dios Inantzin (Léon-Portilla 2000:92). Also, when referring to God, he uses nelli Teotl Dios (the true Divine God), so he uses the

44 Spanish loan word in combination with the Nahuatl term teotl in order to make it less ambiguous. It is clear that Antonio Valeriano mastered and co-opted the colonial practice of Nahuatl doctrinal language, in particular making the signified and signifier associations less ambiguous. However, it is also clear that he contradicts himself through his ambiguous use of pre-colonial tropes, textual figures, and imagery. A possible reason why Valeriano did not publish his work or why it was not widely known could be the fact that round 1556 he was pursuing a governor position and the manuscript would have reflected inappropriate behavior. It is also possible that his teacher, Sahagun, disapproved of the manuscript because of its ambiguities. In 1576, Sahagun’s Spanish text, “General History of the Things of New Spain,” states how there was a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, Tonantzin, and how it is there that they dedicated the church to , who they also called Tonantzin (Léon-Portilla 2000:37). This reflects Sahagun’s fear of the ambiguous association between Tonantzin and the Virgin of Guadalupe. The fact remains that Antonio Valeriano co-opted the use of Nahuatl doctrinal language as a colonial agent in the Spanish reducción project. It is also clear that as a colonial agent he was able to become a governor and benefit from the colonial project. William Hanks discusses the three main elements of the Spanish reducción project as based on spatial distribution, conduct, and language (2010). First, the objective was to relocate natives into centralized towns (pueblos reducidos), a process referred to as congregación, in order to facilitate missionary instruction and surveillance. In the context of Central Mexico, relocating natives played a lesser role since the cities were already heavily populated. Part of this process includes the incorporation of natives into the cabildo (town council) or in other sectors to encourage their participation and collaboration. In particular, collaboration made it possible for the training and legitimization conferred on the native collaborators by the missionaries, which also brought with it access to writing, public office, and the privileges of monastic support (Hanks 2010:20). In this way, Valeriano was a colonial agent because he participated in

45 the colonial project through his collaboration with missionaries in collecting information and textual production, as well as by benefiting from access to writing and public office. The second objective was for natives to be “convinced or persuaded” to conduct their behavior accordingly with policia Cristiana (Christian civility). Valeriano is certain to have conducted himself accordingly since he attended a Franciscan college, was knowledgeable in Christian doctrine, collaborated with missionaries, and was eligible for public office. Further, because he became a governor, it is likely that he played a role in perpetuating the behaviors the colonial project prescribed. Lastly, Hank argues that in relation to space and conduct, language was a third objective of Spanish reducción for several reasons. These include language as the medium of persuading natives, the medium in which prayer and religious practices took place, and language as an of reducción. Valeriano’s co-optation of Nahuatl doctrinal language for his own texts and for the texts of the missionaries he assisted shows how he was engaging in the colonial practice of using Nahuatl as a medium to convert natives. Thus, reducción was a method of controlling the dispositions of natives in regard to social space, the human body, and everyday social conduct (Hanks 2010). Antonio Valeriano, as a colonial agent, behaved according to the dispositions of the colonial habitus (Bourdieu 1977). With this understanding, it can be argued that Valeriano was seeking to help convert the Nahua people through his own scholarly interpretation of how Christianity could be fitted into a Nahuatl worldview, rather than just accommodating Nahuatl features to express Christianity as we see in the rest of the Marian literature. Poole (1995) argues how the Spanish population was more devoted to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, until the publication of the foundational Nahuatl apparition story in 1649 when natives from outside central Mexico began to pay more attention to the Virgin in response to creole priests rather personal interests. However, already by 1576 Bernardino de Sahagun recognized how natives from very far away continuously visited the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Regardless, Lockhart describes how the Nahuatl publication in 1649 inspired a rise in devotion to Guadalupe in central Mexico (1992:247-248). When Antonio Valeriano wrote the Nican Mopohua it is possible that he

46 was hoping to inspire a rise in devotion. In this sense, Luis Lasso de la Vega’s goal to make the Virgin of Guadalupe better known by publishing the Nahuatl story was shared by Valeriano. Léon-Portilla (2000) describes some of the circumstances and motivations to make the Virgin of Guadalupe known. He mentions how the cult of the Guadalupe at Tepeyac was already popular among Spaniards and Nahuas by 1556, as well as how the story of Juan Diego was known at that time. He also notes a sermon by Friar de Bustamante in which he decried that Mary’s image should not be adored as if she were God (Léon-Portilla 2000:39). Further, he notes how Valeriano wrote a letter when he was governor of Azcapotzalco, asking for help with a temple dedicated to Guadalupe, which could have inspired him to write about the origin of the image (Léon-Portilla 2000:44). As a scholar trained in Latin and Spanish Christian doctrine, Valeriano would have known about apparition stories from multiple places and could have drawn on this European background to construct his story. If that is the case, then Poole, Sousa, and Lockhart (1998) were not completely wrong when they stated that the story was consistent with European legends about apparitions and the foundations of shrines. Louise Burkhart approaches Marian literature before the Nican Mopohua as an attempt to transplant an existing European Marian devotion into Nahua communities, rather than to create a local syncretic cult (2001:2). However, this distinction cannot be easily made with the Nican Mopohua. Instead, Antonio Valeriano, although a colonial agent seeking to promote religious conversion, inseparable from the colonial project, chose to depict Christianity through a Nahuatl worldview. In particular, he used the Xochicuicatl genre as a main frame of reference. This demonstrates his use of agency as an indigenous person engaged with colonial practices. It is possible that Valeriano understood Nahua people could not become replicas of Spanish Christians, but still sought to make Christianity intelligible to natives through a text that served as a space of accommodation. In the process of making the text intelligible and appealing to the natives, it was inevitable that Valeriano would produce a syncretic text. By syncretic I mean a text produced through a process of intercultural accommodations leading to a cultural production that is neither coherently indigenous nor Spanish Catholic, but is an

47 attempt to commensurate the two worldviews, rather than view syncretism as the inclusion of indigenous features corrupting a pure Spanish Catholic worldview. This argument opposes the perspective that the Nican Mopohua emerges from a space of resistance. It is not a case of resistance because Valeriano was apparently part of the colonial project, acting through a set of colonial pre-dispositions. It is evident how the author of the manuscript intended to depict Nahua people as good and capable Christians. Further, it is evident that the author was not attempting to mask Nahuatl culture or deities, but to make Nahuatl thought compatible with Christianity. For example, some scholars interpret the Virgin of Guadalupe as a mask for the surviving Coatlicue, a mother goddess and one of the manifestations of Tonantzin.17 Valeriano did not take the latter approach, but that does not necessarily mean that some of the Nahua community devoted to the cult could not have interpreted the Virgin of Guadalupe as a manifestation of Tonantzin. To demonstrate how the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a syncretic text I reveal how it represents a space of accommodation in which Nahuatl culture and Christianity are compatible through three main examples of syncretism. Specifically, these accommodations are made from the Xochicuicatl genre. The text also serves as evidence that Valeriano was a colonial agent seeking to promote conversion, so I conclude with examples of how Nahua people are depicted as already good and capable Christians. The latter depiction functions to “assert a certain reality, one in which Nahuas understand and participate fully in Marian devotion” and according to Burkhart, Hanks (1987) describes these colonial situations of displaying conversion as a regularization of the discourses of dominant society (2001:5). The first example of syncretism comes to light through the presence of flowers. In the Cuicapeuhcayotl there are references to “a variety of flowers” and Juan Diego also makes references to a variety of flowers, but adds how some are “nepapan Caxtillan tlazoxochitl” [a variety of precious flowers from Castilla] (Léon-Portilla 2000:134, 136).

17 See Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands: La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” for a syncretic interpretation (1987: 49-53).

48 As a scholar, Antonio Valeriano must have known of several Catholic miracles about revealing aprons that covered roses, such as the incidents with St. Elisabeth of Hungary, St. Casilda of Toledo, and St. Didacus of Alcala. This type of European Catholic miracle correlates with the act of the protagonist of Cuicapeuhcayotl who “placed a variety of fragrant flowers on [his] apron” and then revealed them to the nobles. In the three instances mentioned, St. Elisabeth, St. Casilda, and St. Didacus were attempting to distribute food to the poor or to prisoners, while they were prohibited from doing so. They attempted this transgression by hiding food in the aprons and in all three cases they were confronted, but before being caught the food was miraculously transformed into roses. This shows a connection between food and roses in the same way that in Nahuatl culture flowers are associated with crops and the Land of Sustenance. Adding to the phenomenon of these miracles is the fact that in some cases, for example in some versions of St. Elizabeth of Hungary’s miracle, the roses appear during a season when roses are not blooming. In correlation Juan Diego cuts the flowers from Spain in the month of December when they were not in season. However, the flowers in the Nican Mopohua are not brought over from Spain and are not part of a Catholic miracle. Rather, the flowers, which are like the flowers of Spain, come from the pre-colonial celestial layer, the House of the Sun. When Juan Diego talks to the bishop, he explains, “I went to get close to the top of the beloved mountain, I saw that it was the Land of Flowers (Xochitlalpan)” and it is there that he takes the flowers like those in Spain (Léon-Portilla 2000:149). A second major example of syncretism occurs as the Virgin of Guadalupe replaces the pre-colonial role of hummingbirds in four specific ways. First, in the Cuicapeuhcayotl the protagonist wishes to speak to hummingbirds because they have knowledge of where flowers are to be found. But, in the Nican Mopohua it is the Virgin of Guadalupe who tells Juan Diego where he can find flowers, thus showing how she possesses pre-colonial knowledge. In both of these works the location of flowers is the Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance; so in this sense the protagonist of the Cuicapeuhcayotl was correct when he assured his friends, “we will always come here to

49 cut the precious variety of fragrant flowers, and we will come to take a variety beautiful songs.” Second, according to Nahuatl thought it was the warriors who after death had the honor to follow the Sun at dawn. But, in the apparition story it is the Virgin of Guadalupe who follows the sun and appears at dawn. Third, it was the hummingbirds that resided in the Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance, which was in part signaled through the indication of a mountain. In the Nican Mopohua the Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego at the top of the beloved mountain, which he confirms is the Land of Flowers. In this way it can be interpreted that she resides in the House of the Sun. Fourth, in pre-colonial thought it was the hummingbirds that were granted the ability to fly freely between the celestial layers and earth, as well as to encounter and communicate with the Nahua man. However, in the Nican Mopohua it is the Virgin of Guadalupe who is able to cross the celestial layers, as well as to encounter and communicate with Juan Diego. This latter point is exceptionally important because it challenges the apparition as a Catholic miracle. It is evident that the author interpreted the presence of the Virgin of Guadalupe through a pre-colonial form of communication with the divine. I propose that it was not a Catholic miracle taking place on earth, but it was a Nahuatl form of encountering and communicating with the divine through the epistemology of the flower, the song, in combination with a spatial-physical transition to the Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance. This is evident in how Juan Diego must first hear the songs of birds and then see and smell the flowers, followed by walking to the top of the mountain, which becomes the Land of Flowers, Land of Sustenance, thus transitioning him to a celestial location metaphorically symbolized by the top of the mountain. It is necessary then to point out two events that can be considered European Catholic miracles within the apparition story. The first miracle is when in a marvelous way Juan Bernardino, Juan Diego’s uncle, was instantaneously cured by the Virgin of Guadalupe (Léon-Portilla 2000:157). The second miracle is how the precious image of the Virgin of Guadalupe marvelously appeared on the apron through the divine, since no man on earth painted it (Léon-Portilla 2000:158). The term tlamahuizoltica (in a marvelous way) is used to describe how Juan Bernardino was cured (tlamahuizoltica

50 oquimopahtili) and how the image appeared (teotlamahuizoltica inic omonexiti) (Léon- Portilla 2000:157-158). A third example of syncretism occurs when the Virgin of Guadalupe replaces Tloque, Nahuaque, Owner of the Near, Owner of the Close, as the divine being who can give someone merit and provide the opportunity for an afterlife in a celestial paradise. In pre-colonial thought it was the noble warriors who had merit, with the exception of those given merit by Tloque, Nahuaque directly. The Virgin of Guadalupe assumes this position when she explains to Juan Diego that if he builds a shrine, he and those who are devoted to her will merit plenty (Léon-Portilla 2000:104). Also, Juan Diego characterizes himself as a tail, a wing (a commoner) and this highlights a transition between the warriors who had merit and social privilege to a merit available to all people as long as they are devoted to Mary (Léon-Portilla 2000:112). Finally, in addition to the production a syncretic text, Antonio Valeriano depicts Nahua people as good and capable Christians. At the beginning of the story it is mentioned how after the conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan came the growth in the belief and knowledge of ipalnemohuani, nelli Teotl Dios, the Giver of Life, the true Divine God (Léon-Portilla 2000:93-94). This establishes how in 1531 the apparition occurred to a man from a Christian community. Later, during the first encounter between Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadalupe, Juan Diego’s first answer to her is that he is going to follow the teoyotl, a neologism for the “divine things” or Christian teachings, those delivered and taught to them (the Nahua people) by the priests about the image of Christ (Léon- Portilla 2000:101). This establishes Juan Diego as a good Christian who goes to mass and is devoted to Christ. One more example of the process to show Nahuas as displaying appropriate Christian behavior is evident when Juan Diego attempts to avoid the Virgin of Guadalupe from appearing to him. When she finally appears, he explains that he was going to get the toteopixcahua, a neologism for “our priests,” because he wants to get his ill uncle confessed and prepared for death (Léon-Portilla 2000:130). As such, it is established how Juan Diego and his family live according to the sacraments of Christian teachings, in this case the last rights performed when someone is near death.

51 Conclusion This report is a study of the semantic couple in xochitl, in cuicatl (the flower, the song) grounded in the examination of Nahuatl written sources in order to explore its cultural and historical trajectory as it was produced and reproduced from the pre-colonial to the colonial period. In chapter one I identified the pre-colonial context in which the semantic couplet was embedded. I argued that the semantic couplet was utilized as a native epistemology to conceptualize truth and materiality by engaging with flowers and songs through the senses. This notion of truth and materiality conveyed by the epistemology is specifically embedded in the Xochicuicatl (Flowery songs) genre. Exploring philosophical, religious, and social practices demonstrates how Nahua warriors are associated with a concern for truth and materiality. In addition, by translating the pre- colonial Nahuatl song Cuicapeuhcayotl (The Origin of Song), I was able to identify five keys or cues that serve as evidence of how this song and the Xochicuicatl genre are associated with the Nahuatl ontology of warriors. In chapter two I reviewed how missionaries, Nahua scholars, and Nahua assistants accommodated Nahuatl tropes, textual figures, and imagery in the colonial project of religious conversion. I focused on Nahuatl literature on the Virgin Mary before the publication of the Nican Mopohua in 1649 and identified examples of accommodation that highlight the process by which Marian literature was linked to the Xochicuicatl genre. Then, I supported the argument that Antonio Valeriano was the author of the original Nican Mopohua manuscript in 1556. I argued that Valeriano was a colonial agent acting out of a colonial habitus or pre-dispositions because of his emersion in the colonial project as a collaborator in researching Nahuatl culture and producing doctrinal literature, as well as by benefiting from a public office position as governor of Mexico- Tenochtitlan, a major accomplishment. Valeriano had a stake in the colonial project and would have been inclined to support religious conversion, thus the Nican Mopohua depicts Nahua people as good and capable Christians already behaving according to appropriate Catholic behavior by 1531. However, I also argued that the Nican Mopohua served as a space of accommodation for Valeriano to assert his agency and to attempt a

52 commensuration of Nahuatl and Spanish worldviews. As such, this text is more syncretic and ambiguous than the rest of the Marian literature. Specifically, I provided three examples of syncretism and demonstrated that the text is linked to the Xochicuicatl genre through the epistemology of the flower, the song and the Nahuatl ontology associated with warriors. It is possible than that this text, existing in 1556, served as a foundation from which the rest of the Marian literature drew accommodations and thus were also linked to the Xochicuicatl genre. In conclusion, I utilize in xochitl, in cuicatl as a vehicle for exploring a major cultural-social transformation among the Nahua people of central Mexico during the colonial period. This semantic couplet continues to be perpetuated as a cultural survival symbolizing and recalling a Nahuatl cultural past that is part of Mexican and Mexican- American cultural memory. It is important to recognize that culture is not static, rather it is malleable and if we treat in xochitl, in cuicatl as a cultural artifact we can comprehend how it was accommodated in the colonial period and how it is now appropriated by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as a cultural survival. The major way the semantic couplet is appropriated by Mexican and Mexican-American communities is as a title and theme for community events, musical groups, organizations, and a variety of products. For example, between 2001 and 2005 there was a non-profit community center and bookstore named “Flor y Canto Centro Comunitario” (Flower and Song Community Center) in Los Angels, California. Examples of products include book titles and a perfume inspired by Aztec culture and named “Flor y Canto” (flower and song). Also, at the University of Texas, Austin there is currently a student organized dance group called “Grupo Flor y Canto” (Flower and Song Group). Recently, on March 21, 2013 there was an event partially titled “flores y cantos” (flowers and songs) in Teotihuacan, a historical site with the remaining structures and temples of what was once a flourishing and influential city-state in Mesoamerican, located near Mexico City. This community event was a manifestation for the rights of Mother Earth and the love for life. In this case the flower, the song symbolized the sacred songs, Aztec dances, purification ceremonies, conferences, and theater conducted at the event. A Mexican-American example took

53 place at California State University, Northridge, when the student organization M.E.Ch.A ( Student Movement of Aztlan) organized a free community event on March 8, 2013 titled “Flor y Canto” (Flower and Song). In this event the theme was used to symbolize the spoken word, poetry, singing, and open microphone sessions that were to be conducted. Also, at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, California there was an event on April 6, 2013 titled San Francisco Flor y Canto Youth Festival. This event pursued peace through the celebration of art, culture, and friendship by hosting Aztec dance performances and poetry readings. Finally, in a musical composition by the Mexican-American rap group El Vuh and the Mexican singer Roco from the group Maldita Vecindad, Roco sings the following, somos flor y canto, sonido digital, musicas nuevas, raiz ancestral . . . somos cantores de paz . . . somos flor y canto, sonido digital, llamando a los hermanos es el tiempo de unidad [we are flower and song, digital sound, new music, ancient roots . . . we are singers of peace . . . we are flower and song, digital sound, calling our brother because it’s the time for unity] (Ciudad Celestial, 2012). In this context the semantic couplet is utilize to symbolize a cultural survival that marks Mexican and Mexican-American ancient roots, as well as a symbol for peace and unity through new music or digital sounds that promote Nahuatl heritage.

54 Appendix

Cuicapeuhcayotl The Origin of Song

Ninoyolnonotza, I discussed with my heart, campa niccuiz yectli auiacaxochitl? Where will I take beautiful fragrant Ac nictlahtlaniz? flowers? Manozo yehuatl nictlatlani Who will I ask? in quetzalhuitzitziltzin, I wish to ask the beloved hummingbird, in chalchiuhhuitzitzicatzin. precious as quetzal plumes, the beloved Manozo ye nictlatlani in zacuanpapalotl. hummingbird, precious as jade.18 Ca yehuantin in machizo I wish to ask the butterfly, precious as mati campa cueponi in yectli ahuiac the yellow feathered zacuan bird. xochitl. Because they have knowledge, they know where the beautiful fragrant flowers blossom.

Tla nitlahuihuiltequi in nican I will take the short route here through acxoyatzinitzcancuauhtla the branched forest with the black manoce nitlahuihuiltequi tzinitzcan birds or else I will go through in tlauhquecholxochicuauhtla. the flowery forest with the red-plumed Oncan huihuitolihui quechol birds. ahuachtonameyotoc, There the sunrays give radiance to the in oncan mocehcemelquixtia. dew, Azo oncan niquimittaz? There one has the honor to be joyful. Intla onechittitique, Perhaps there I will see [flowers]? nocuexanco nictemaz, If they are revealed to me, ic niquintlapaloz in tepilhuan, I will pour them on my lap, ic niquimelelquixtiz in teteuctin. with them I will greet the nobles, with them I will bring joy to the lords.19

Tlacazo, nican nemi, Certainly, they live here, ye niccaqui in ixochicuicatzin, I already hear its flowery songs, iuhquin tepetl quinnahnanquilia. the mountains are echoing them.

18 Quetzal refers to green-blue feathers. The pairing of quetzal and chalchihuitl (jade) is a semantic couplet for something precious and highly valued. 19 Literally, the word for joy means to take out someone’s liver.

55 Tlacahzo itlan in meya quetzalatl, Certainly, besides it flows the water, xiuhtotoameyalli. precious as quetzal plumes, the water Oncan mocuicamomotla, source of the turquoise bird. There your mocuicanananquilia songs are hurled, your songs echo in centzontlatoltozoh; as 400 words kept vigil; quinnananquilia in coyoltototl. the bellbird echoes them.20 Ayacachicahuacatimani There exists rattling [music] in nepapan tlazocuicani totome, by the diversity of precious singers, oncan quiyectenehua in Tlalticpaque, birds, there they beautifully praise the huel tetozcatemique. Owner of the earth, they resound their voices well.

Nic-ihtoa ya, nitlaocoltzatzi a, I was saying, I was yelling in sorrow ma namechelleltih, ytlazohuane. I cause you sorrow, his precious ones. Niman cactimotlalique. Immediately, they fell silent. Niman hullato in quetzalhuitzitziltzin. Then the beloved hummingbirds, Aquin tictemohua, cuicanitzine? precious as quetzal plumes soon Niman niquinnanquilia, niquimilhuia: approached. Who are you looking for Campa catqui in yectli ahuiac xochitl, beloved singer? ic niquimelelquixtiz Immediately I respond, I say: in amohuampohtzitzinhuan? Where are the beautiful fragrant flowers, Niman onechicahcahuatzque, with which I will relieve the sorrow of ca nican tla timitzittititi, ticuani, your beloved companions? azo nelli ic tiquimelelquixtiz Then they chirped to me, in toquichpohuan, in teteuctin. if we show them to you, singer, perhaps it is true that with them you can provide joy to our male companions, the lords.

Tepeitic, Within the mountains, tonacatlalpan, xochitlalpan to the Land of Sustenance, the Land of nechcalaquiqueo. Flowers, they took me to enter. Oncan onahuachtotonameyotimani. There where the sun rays give radiance Oncan niquittac to the dew. There I saw a variety of ca ya in nepapan tlazoahuiac xochitl, precious fragrant flowers, of precious tlazohuelic xochitl, delicious flowers, clothed with dew, ahahuachquequentoc, with the rainbow reflected on the ayauhcozamalotonameyotimani. sunshine.

20 400 also means countless or endless.

56 Oncan nechilhuia: There they say to me: Xixochitetequi Cut many flowers, in catlehuatl toconnequiz, which ever ones you will want, ma melelquiza, in ticuicani, be happy, singer, tiquinmacataciz you will arrive to give them in tocnihuan, in teteuctin, to our friends, our lords, in quelelquixtizque in Tlalticpaque. so they will give joy to the Owner of the earth.

Auh nicnocuecuexantia And I place on my apron in nepapan ahuiac xochitl, in huel a variety of fragrant flowers, they delight teyolquima, in huel tetlamachti. people much, they enrich people much. nicyhtoa ya: I say: Manozo aca tohuan tihualcalaquini, If someone came to enter with us, ma cenca miec in ticmamani. we would carry very many. Auh ca tel ye onimatico, But, I have already come to know, nitlanonotztahciz imixpan in tocnihuan. I will arrive to confer in front of our nican mochipa tiqualtetequizque friends. We will always come here to cut in tlazonepapan ahuiac xochitl, the precious variety of fragrant flowers, yhuan ticuiquihui and we will come to take in nepapan yectli yan cuicatl. a variety beautiful songs. Ic tiquimellelquixtizque in tocnihuan, With them we will give joy to our in tlalticpac tlaca, friends, the people on earth, in tepilhuan, cuauhtli ya, ocelotl. the nobles, the eagle warriors, the jaguar warriors.

Ca moch nicuito ya in nicuicani, As for everything I took, I, the singer, ic niquimicpacxochiti in tepilhuan, used to place the flowers over the inic niquimahpan in zan, inmac nobles, only like this I decorate them. niquinten. Then I raised a beautiful song, Niman niquehua ya yectli ya cuicatl, thereby exalting the nobles, ic netimalolo in tepilhuan, in front of the Owner of the Near, Owner ixpan in Tloque in Nahuaque. of the Close, the one who is Auh in ahtley ymahcehuallo, omnipresent. But can quicuiz, he who has no merit, where will he take, can quittaz in huelic xochitl? where will he see the delicious flowers? Auh cuix nohuan aciz aya in And is it the case that he will arrive with Xochitlalpan, me to the Land of Flowers, the Land of in Tonacatlalpan, Sustenance, he whose merit is nothing, in ahtle y ymahcehuallo, he who is in affliction, in nentlamati, he who corrupts things on earth? in tlaytlacohua in tlalticpac?

57 Ca zan quitemahcehualtia Certainly, only the Owner of the Near, in Tloque in Nahuaque, Owner of the Close can make people in tlalticpac ye nican. worthy here on earth. Ic choca noyollo, Thus, my heart cries, noconilnamiqui a in ompa, I remember going there, onitlachiato y Xochitlalpan, a nicuicani. to look about in the Land of Flowers, I, the singer.

Auh niquihtoa ya, Certainly, it is not a place of good here tlacazo amo cualcan in tlalticpac ye on earth; certainly, it is at another place, the place of departure, there is the good nican; tlacazo oc cecni in huilohuayan, 21 in oncan ca in netlamachtilli. fortune. Tle zanen in tlalticpac? I wonder if it is only vain on earth? Tlacahzo oc cecni yolilihximoayan. Certainly, it is at another place, the place Ma ompa niauh, where one lives without flesh. I will go ma ompa inhuan noncuicati there, I will go singing there besides the in nepapan tlazototome, diversity of precious birds, ma ompa nicnotlamachti yectli ya there I enjoyed the beautiful flowers, xochitl, the fragrant flowers, the delightful ones, ahuiacaxochitl, in teyolquima, only the ones that make people happy, in zan tepacca, that intoxicates people with fragrance, teahuiacayhuintia, only the ones that make people happy in zan tepacca auiaca yhuintia. and intoxicated with fragrance.

21 The place of departure refers to the afterlife destinations, in this case, the House of the Sun.

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