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GUARDIANS of IDOLATRY GUARDIANS of IDOLATRY GODS, DEMONS, and PRIESTS in Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón’s Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions Viviana Díaz Balsera GUARDIANS of IDOLATRY GUARDIANS of IDOLATRY GODS, DEMONS, and PRIESTS in Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón’s Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions Viviana Díaz Balsera UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS : NORMAN Publication of this book is made possible through the generosity of Edith Kinney Gaylord. Parts of the introduction and chapter 2 in this book were previously published as “Nombres que conservan el mundo: los nahualtocaitl, el Tratado sobre idolatrías de Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón,” by Viviana Díaz Balsera, in Colonial Latin American Review 16.2 (2007), 159–78. Part of chapter 3 in this book was previously published as “Voicing Mesoamerican Identities on the Roads of Empire: Alarcón and the Nahualtocaitl in Seventeenth-Century Mexico,” by Viviana Díaz Balsera, in To Be Indio in Colonial Spanish America, edited by Mónica Díaz (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2017), 169–90. Part of chapter 6 in this book was previously published as “Atando dioses y humanos: Cipactónal y la cura por adivinación en el Tratado sobre idolatrías de Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón,” by Viviana Díaz Balsera, in Estudios coloniales latinoamericanos en el siglo XXI: Nuevos itinerarios, edited by Stephanie Kirk (Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, Serie Nueva América, 2011), 321–49. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Name: Díaz Balsera, Viviana, 1957– author. Title: Guardians of idolatry : gods, demons, and priests in Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón’s treatise on the heathen superstitions / Viviana Díaz Balsera. Other titles: Gods, demons, and priests in Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón’s treatise on the heathen superstitions Description: First edition. | Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 2018 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018011942 | ISBN 978-0-8061-6040-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que oy viven entre los indios naturales desta Nueva España.—History and criticism. | Aztecs—Religion. | Aztecs—Medicine. | Indians of Mexico—Religion. | Indians of Mexico—Medicine. Classification: LCC F1219.76.R45 D538 2018 | DDC 299.7/8452—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011942 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc. ∞ Copyright © 2018 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Manufactured in the U.S.A. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act— without the prior written permission of the University of Oklahoma Press. To request permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, University of Oklahoma Press, 2800 Venture Drive, Norman, OK 73069, or email [email protected]. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 In memory of my mother, Lilita Balsera Díaz, and of my true friend of many decades, Mr. Shahpoor Arjomand Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 3 chapter one. The Christian Preternatural 25 chapter two. The Nahualli 36 chapter three. Quetzalcoatl Fights Highwaymen: A Nahualtocaitl for Safe Travel on the Roads of the Empire 53 chapter four. Requesting White Blood Tears of Sacrifice: A Nahualtocaitl for Harvesting Pulque Maguey 74 chapter five. Fatal Attraction: Transgression, Love, and Death in a Nahualtocaitl for Hunting Deer with Bow and Arrows 95 chapter six. Light, Mirror, and Knowledge in a Nahualtocaitl for Divining with Maize Kernels 114 Conclusion 134 Notes 145 Bibliography 181 Index 199 Illustrations 1. Quetzalcoatl, god of Cholula 60 2. Trecena 11 of the tonalpohualli 85 3. Detail of the first panel of the Mapa Quinatzin 112 4. Oxomoco and Cipactonal divining with maize kernels 121 ix Acknowledgments A book is a long journey of discovery. In order to give it full and rightful closure, one must look back to express thanks to the many people and fellow travelers who helped to carry it to completion. My deep gratitude goes to Louise M. Burkhart for her generosity and warmth in sharing with me her authoritative knowledge of all things Nahua. I am indebted to Kris E. Lane for his support and encouragement of many ideas in this book and for inviting me to present them at the Colonial Latin American Review’s 20th Anniversary Symposium. Many thanks to Raquel Chang- Rodríguez for endorsing that invitation and for her affectionate introduction at the event in which she recalled—and graciously excused once again—my delay in turning in an article to CLAR; I had just given birth to my son and could not manage to send off the revisions quite on time. I am grateful to Rolena Adorno for having read a related article to this book, for her conscientious comments written in beautiful longhand, and for her true care. Thank you to Margarita Zamora for her support of this project and to Aída Beaupied and Gladys Rivera Ocasio for their unwavering belief in it. A lot of sincere gratitude goes to Anne J. Cruz for all her good advice and firm encouragement to keep working hard. Very special thanks to Maria Elena Díaz, sister and colleague who, with her invaluable readings and critiques, helped me take this book to a higher level. Thank you to my colleagues and to my graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Miami, who have nourished me throughout the years with their enthusiasm, ideas, and insights. I also wish to acknowledge the financial support from a Provost’s Research Award and a Max Orovitz award from the University of Miami. They afforded me precious time for research and writing. My recognition to the Faculty Research xi xii Acknowledgments Fellowship at the University of Miami Center for the Humanities directed by Mihoko Suzuki, which provided one full semester course release, and to the great colleagues who read my work during our tenure as fellows at the center. I thank the UM College of Arts and Sciences for their book fund support. I also thank the UM Animal Studies and Environmental Humanities Research Group for their interest and critiques of the chapter on the nahualli. My gratitude extends to Alessandra J. Tamulevich, acquisitions editor at the University of Oklahoma Press, for her support and to my readers for their valuable comments and observa- tions. Special thanks to Kirsteen E. Anderson, my eagle-eyed copy editor, for her inestimable effort in helping me improve the flow and accuracy of my Spanish- accented prose while always conserving my voice. I also thank Emily J. Schuster, my manuscript editor, for her kindness and forbearance with my questions and requests. My recognition to the staff of Special Collections of the Richter Library at the University of Miami for their help in providing the great image of Chicom- ecoatl for the dust jacket of the book. Lastly, and most importantly, my deep, heartfelt gratitude to my husband Alberto Jorge Carol for his resolute and inspiring belief in my work, his endless patience, and for his careful, insightful readings. Without his support this book would not have been possible. And many, many thanks to my son Dylan Carol for having always been there for me, who as I wrote and completed this book became an upright and trustworthy high schooler, ready to take on his responsibilities as an adult and global citizen in a world that needs him and the likes of him so much. GUARDIANS of IDOLATRY Introduction One hundred years after the cataclysmic fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Nahuas of Central Mexico and its surroundings had adopted the practices and beliefs of the globalizing discourses of Christianity. The grand-scale, time-conserving ritual practices that had served the pre-Hispanic gods and ruled the people had been criminalized and abolished by the Spanish intruders. Innumerable temples, or teocallis, had been destroyed, and the tlamacazque, or Nahua priests, who formerly maintained them, had devolved from highly esteemed, principal figures in the city to deluded, ignorant agents of the devil. Legions of Nahuas were baptized, and thou- sands of them followed the friars for weeks in order to confess their sins (Motolinía 1951, 178–83; Mendieta 1993, 258–67). The indigenous peoples built impressive churches and monasteries, and lobbied tenaciously to have friars permanently assigned to their towns, or altepetl (Mendieta 1993, 321–58; Gibson 1964, 98–135; Lockhart 1992, 203–60). The natives presented evangelizing plays of epic dimen- sions, in which they showed off their acceptance and competent understanding of Christianity, and thousands walked in procession on Holy Thursday, whipping themselves and “singing the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, the Credo and the Salve Regina” (Motolinía 1951, 144), the cardinal prayers that proclaimed the Christian faith—making many Spaniards cry from joy and remorse over their own sins. 3 4 Guardians of Idolatry And yet, even with the modern city of Mexico sitting securely over the ruins of Tenochtitlan and the Indian peoples showing all mandatory devotion, maintaining the requisite Christian appearance, and conducting public observances with pomp and circumstance, many Spanish and creole priests and friars were apprehensive. They suspected that the slowly recuperating populations of Central Mexico were still calling forth imperceptible Mesoamerican Postclassic entities to intercede in the private spheres of their lives.1 One of these worried priests was Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, brother of the famous playwright Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. In the pueblo of Atenango del Río, 125 miles southwest of modern Mexico City, in the mountainous province of Chilapa, he lived and wrote his bilingual Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentilicas que oy viuen entre los indios naturales desta Nueva España (henceforth the Treatise).
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