136 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 137 Something About Coatlicue

Notes Miguel Ventura strict caste system like that employed in the 1 Spanish American Colonies for three hundred Misha Glenny, An unemployed cultural engineer discovered years, and in Old India for thousands of years; McMafía: El crimen sin the following anonymous manuscript in the each different caste was instructed in the fronteras year 2645 among the ruins of the specific dialect of its class; infringing linguistic (Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 2008), 74. NILC Trans Corporate Library. The following is regulations was a seriously castigated crime a fragment of: and, after many decades, became one of the 2 Or, “Slasher main reasons for the existence of social tension Capitalism.” within the NILC world. After the NILC Wars of 3 Something Appropriation, Mexico, the principal setting of this narrative, becomes the central force 4 This translates into of the NILC Empire. Successful revolutionary “monster, beast, NILC economic, racial, and linguistic practices ogre.” About guaranteed well being and the continuation 5 of a neo-colonial NILC form of life for the Félix Guattari and Suely Rolnik, Coatlicue financial and cultural elites comprising .75% Micropolítica: of the population of the great empire; the Cartografías del deseo (Madrid: The Museum Director and Her Board other 99.25% was predominately made up of Traficantes de Members: A Novel in a Still Unknown Number dark-skinned workers, displaced peasants, Sueños, 2006), 41. of Chapters unemployed migrants and other forms of lesser 6 subject beings. In the great cities of the NILC Sergio González Rodríguez, The Dedicated to the great Mexican emporium, the rich lived among their kind Femicide Machine cultural bureaucrats of our times. safely guarded in well-designed, bunker-like (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2011), housing settlements on the periphery of every 7. NILC and NILC culture will be destroyed! NILC urban centre, in oases of comfort and 7 NILC dispenses culture in order to rule. NILC security within the city proper. These housing Guillermina promotes its own form of beauty which only settlements, opulently graced with swimming Miguel Ventura Valdés-Villalba, “La desmitificación enslaves. They have been very successful pools, private schools, universities, museums, de la frontera,” in creating a literate ignorance among libraries, and their own exclusive shopping in Entre la magia y la historia: their privileged classes. Everything is well and entertainment districts, catered to the Tradiciones, conceptualized and designed; nothing is left sophisticated whims and tastes of the rich mitos y leyendas de la frontera, to chance. Chains! Everything they do forges oligarchy accustomed to centuries of privilege ed. José Manuel chains and enslaves. But slaves always revolt! and pampered existence. In Mexico City, one Valenzuela Arce (México: El Colegio of the great NILC urban centres of the NILC de la Frontera Norte/ The year is 2114, sixty years have passed since emporium, the upper-class neighbourhoods of Plaza & Valdés, 2000), 366. the existing balance of power on the planet La Condesa, La Roma, and Polanco survived Earth was destroyed during the NILC Wars of the Wars of Appropriation intact; shortly 8 Ibid. Appropriation; the result was the creation of a afterwards, thick walls were built to allow in new world order dominated by NILC (The New only residents and a few domestic workers: 9 Roberto Saviano, Interterritorial Language Committee) and its maids, gardeners, masseuses, sex workers, Gomorra corporate allies. NILC elites had consolidated chauffeurs, cooks, and the like. On the other (Barcelona: Editorial De Bolsillo, 2008), their power base in the year 2054, creating a hand, displaced peasants from all over the 145. genuinely transformed society characterized by country had joined the legions of poor workers racial, linguistic, and social equality based on living in massive tenements comprising models of apartheid practiced in South Africa, most of the urban mass of Mexico City and Israel, and Guatemala before the revolutionary other cities in the NILC Empire; even though NILC Wars. NILC linguists created a special NILC doctors had enforced the use of new hierarchical language system based on a contraceptive practices aimed at controlling 138 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 139 Something About Coatlicue population growth among the working classes Something about Coatlicue being a problem, Coatlicue was forced to make of the empire, the “mongrel” population momentary appearances in NILC society and continued to rise every year. Everyday, millions Thousands of years had gone by since sell off parts of her extraordinary collection of of poor workers entered the efficient subway Coatlicue, a dozen of her 400 children, and a pre-Hispanic jewellery, clothing, idols and system, developed by NILC industrialists, handful of loyal servants had decided to move textiles to rich collectors above ground. Luckily bankers, and urban planners, traveling into a series of apartments located several for her, the twentieth century Diego Rivera and from their distant homes on the fringes of thousand feet below the Earth’s surface. Life studio complex in San Angel, that Mexico City to their jobs at distant factories, hadn’t been particularly easy for Coatlicue, who businesses, and, of course, the homes of the thousands of years before had given birth to the rich, where many were employed as servants, moon, stars, and , the god sex workers, gardeners, and day labourers. of the sun and war. Living conditions before the The well-devised program of social and racial Spanish Conquest had been much better, apartheid had brought prosperity to the land for and somewhat worse after that dreadful several decades, but the NILC Empire was again event. Of late, though, her quality of life had on the verge of another revolution. Even though suffered immensely during the NILC regime. the powerful drug cartels of the empire had As a young woman, Coatlicue underwent a been successfully integrated into the NILC social series of dramatic physical transformations. and economic fabric, the recent development of Having once been a beautiful woman, born into a family of wealthy chilli merchants from a small village in Puebla, not far from the great volcano Popocatépetl, Coatlicue, suddenly and for no apparent reason, turned into the double- headed serpent monster she’s commonly continued functioning as an important site known as. After thousands of years and tired of for NILC culture pilgrims, was located directly wearing her unwieldy snake skirt, the goddess above her apartment. Coatlicue couldn’t finally decided to undergo a complete physical understand why her apartment, built thousands make- over. Even though she was known of years before, was so similar to the famous Miguel Ventura throughout the world as one of the most painters’ studio designed by Juan O’Gorman in hideous-looking goddesses of the Aztec world, the early twentieth century. It was really no those who knew her were immediately seduced coincidence at all because, unknown to most, by her warmth, wit, and genuine love for her Tláloc Nortenectl, an enterprising and quite parties and other raucous celebrations had subjects. ingenious young Teotihuacano architect of the made pre-Hispanic Mexico a rather loud place. new drugs aimed at halting the human ageing Nonetheless, it was time for a change. After a late classic period had devised buildings not so Coatlicue’s decision to live at least 55 floors process and enhancing the mind-control powers successful operation by one of the best plastic different from what Le Corbusier and his pupils, beneath the Earth’s surface was a way of fleeing of those in certain elite NILC circles had created surgeons of the pre-NILC world, Coatlicue was including Juan O’Gorman, would design a from the calamitous events taking place above. commercial tensions among the powerful again a beautiful woman and spent much of her thousand years later. It wasn’t very hard for Similar to many of Le Corbusier’s apartments NILC pharmaceutical corporations, and a new time not only catering to the needs of her 400 Coatlicue, wanting to keep a low profile in the and homes from the 1920s, the spacious white generation of drug lords and their supporters children but also cleaning her spacious centuries following the Spanish Conquest, to apartment offered Coatlicue an elegant setting were no longer willing to share their profits modernist apartment and tending her exuberant keep her home an architectural secret because for her hectic social life. Well, at least, that was with NILC officials and corporations. The liberal underground cactus garden. Money always as I’ve already mentioned before, it was built her situation in the early days. As the centuries theoretical naiveté and complacency of the NILC several thousand feet below the Earth’s surface. went by, Coatlicue continued to visit friends on elites had only served to disguise the enormous The Teotihuacano architect had first built a deep the surface. She was amazed to see Mexico City frustration of the masses and the escalating well into the earth’s upper crust. He then not only grow so quickly into one of the world’s decadence of the lifestyle of their elite leaders. directed his workers to dig doorways every 100 largest urban centres but also into a great This is the story of the fall of the NILC empire, meters along the well’s sides. The doors were cosmopolitan city where cultural rituals had and how it was precipitated by several heroic meant to open into spacious glass and stainless replaced the religious ones of her youth. One figures whose exploits are here remembered. steel apartments for other gods and goddesses day she took the elevator up to the surface as tired of living above ground. The constant wars, she usually did every couple of months. The 140 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 141 Something About Coatlicue goddess had selected an ancient plumed helmet been eliminated from the roster of idols.” is greenish grey, and her eyes don’t sparkle like the precious pre-Hispanic artifact. Frida Kahlo’s that had been worn by her cousin Quetzalcóatl Putting aside her grievances, Coatlicue, mine. And what is this about keeping NILC mysterious disappearance made the news thousands of years ago to sell to an important elegantly dressed in a vintage Chanel mother of culture alive? She must be an impostor, a fake, for several weeks as NILC police unsuccessfully collector from a major NILC corporation. Instead pearl chiffon dress and Jimmy Choo heels, receiving so much attention while I receive none searched for clues that might help explain of the elevator opening discretely behind a slowly entered the studio room, blending in whatsoever.” Feeling an irrational surge of the event. several-hundred-year-old nopalera, Coatlicue with all the other visitors of the privileged anger and an insatiable taste for revenge, Having momentarily forgotten about found herself inside a closed dark space that classes gathered there. What Coatlicue learned Coatlicue grabbed an old baseball bat lying on Frida’s murder, Coatlicue spent the rest of turned out to be a closet in a building not too had a great impact on her perception of life the floor and unknowingly invoked her own the day sipping margaritas with Eustacio different from her own apartment. Coatlicue during the NILC regime. The first thing she disused and forgotten powers of mass Carrera de la Fuente at a bar in a mall in Inter timidly peered out from behind the door. A found out was that Kahlo had been a painter, destruction. As the long-forgotten goddess ran Inter Lomas Plus, the new exclusive district group of people stood admiringly around a married off and on to Diego Rivera, both towards Kahlo, still handing out autographed preferred by members of elite NILC society. female figure dressed in a flowered huipil and of whom had been dead for hundreds of years. photographs of herself to her loyal followers, a A team of the most talented architects had long velvet skirt. The braided hair, punctuated What Coatlicue couldn’t yet understand was bright red serpent’s head sprouted from her spent years devising the shopping mall’s with silver pins and multi-coloured ribbons, why the painter had attained such worldwide chest. The viper’s long tongue quickly wrapped revolutionary design. Shortly after the NILC crowned a small dark face whose black fame over the past few centuries. Little did itself tightly around Kahlo’s neck, as its eyes, Wars of Appropriation, the American Embassy eyebrows merged like one thick brushstroke she know that the cult of Frida Kahlo had sent out bright pink laser beams towards the in Baghdad went up for sale. The gargantuan, above the eyes. “Who is this person standing become a great money-making industry in the painter’s eyes, tits, and pussy. Lifting the 440,000 square-metre building complex, built at here? Where am I?” wondered Coatlicue as she NILC world. The painter’s resurrection followed bat high over her head, Coatlicue took careful huge expense by the North American Colonial continued observing the social gathering. The the social integration strategies of NILC cultural aim at the head of the living NILC icon. The bat Army after their complete dismantling of the person turned out to be none other than Frida engineers bent on maintaining NILC hegemony fell squarely on her skull as a couple of laser Iraqi nation had become a nesting ground for Kahlo and the building turned out to be her at whatever price. Nonetheless, Coatlicue went beams blazed their way inside her sockets and anti-NILC terrorists who found refuge there in studio. Coatlicue remained behind the closet on gathering information about the woman another burnt a path to Frida’s heart, splattering the anarchic transition to NILC domination that door as Kahlo continued handing out standing there in front of her. While reading one the room and visiting pilgrims with blood and followed the turbulent wars. Several years later, autographed copies of photos of herself to the of the many texts on the walls of the culture thousands of body fragments. As she attacked the NILC Army cleaned up the place that would crowd of young people surrounding her. She temple, Coatlicue found out that NILC scientists her rival, Coatlicue’s face was replaced by a no longer be needed because NILC leaders had also couldn’t help noticing a large mound of had revived the painter’s body shortly after the mask of woven serpents whose tongues lashed decided to turn the entire Middle East into the gifts donated by culture pilgrims placed along seemingly endless NILC Wars of Appropriation. out at whatever was left of the old pre-NILC world’s largest resettlement camp for displaced Miguel Ventura the walls of the studio. The gifts were made The reincarnated Kahlo was then forced to live artist, sucking up any of Frida’s body parts until workers, farmers, and other NILC subjects up of articles of antique clothing, ribbons, in her recently restored studio, which had nothing was left. Coatlicue then burned all whose lands and homes had been expropriated paintings, and drawings made especially for suffered heavy damage. After carefully the photographs, letters, paintings, and after the NILC Wars of Appropriation. The Kahlo. Coatlicue suddenly had flashbacks to her informing herself about Frida’s life, reputation, memorabilia accumulated in the culture temple. huge complex having been put up for sale, own youth, thousands of years previous, when and importance within the NILC cultural and The studio was left totally absent of any trace was bought up by the New Interterritorial she was cared for and worshipped by pilgrims social worlds, Coatlicue pretended to be a of Kahlo’s existence. Even the shocked pilgrims’ Working Services Connection (NIWSC), a huge in awe of her formidable powers and menacing passionate culture pilgrim avidly seeking an bodies were licked clean by Coatlicue’s tongues consortium of Mongolian, Paraguayan, and physical appearance. The Spanish conquest had interview with the legendary painter. “Hello as the goddess hypnotized them, clearing their Namibian businessmen heavily invested in brought all of that to an end, substituting the Frida, my name is Coatlicue and I’m a reporter minds of any memories of the bloody event. buying and selling Mexican displaced workers old pantheon of gods with their European with NILC News. Tell me about what you’re Coatlicue felt satisfied after having destroyed to interested business corporations throughout Catholic imports. But now, NILC had supplanted doing right now, your latest passion, your Frida Kahlo. It had been centuries since she’d the NILC Empire. Once the former American the old religion with a new one: the religion of favourite hobby, or your latest love.” “Nothing killed anyone in that manner. The last time had Embassy came up for sale, NIWSC decided culture and the deification of its great excites me more than furthering the cause of been after giving birth to Huitzilopochli, when the huge complex could be transplanted architects, artists, theoreticians, critics, and NILC culture and its positive impact on future he waged war against her 400 children and in its entirety to a new location outside Mexico collectors. This was the first time Coatlicue had generations to come.” Coatlicue couldn’t help unsuccessfully tried to kill them. City. NILC’s new elites and privileged classes observed the activities inside a NILC culture noticing that Kahlo’s voice and expression After regaining her human aspect once had moved out of the older neighbourhoods temple. She knew of their existence but she had seemed rather hollow, disembodied—even again, Coatlicue remembered why she had destroyed during the insidious NILC Wars never shown any interest in visiting one. “Why dead. “Who is this person really? I’ve been alive decided to come up to the Earth’s surface. of Appropriation. Inter Inter Lomas Plus became should I visit one of these places of worship that for so long, hidden away, perhaps, underground With Quetzalcóatl’s plumed helmet in hand, a new state built on the outskirts of what had no longer worship me and my colleagues? Not for hundreds of years but I’ve been alive. Frida Coatlicue proceeded to her appointment with once been Interlomas, and shopping facilities only have I been demoted and supplanted, I’ve seems so dead, like she’s been pickled. Her skin the very rich collector interested in acquiring had not yet been built, so NIWSC saw this as 142 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 143 Something About Coatlicue

society women considered Eustacio to be not old Interlomas. What do you say?” Feigning only an attractive, eligible bachelor, but also a boredom and a certain fatigue, Coatlicue finally well-connected NILC businessman dedicated nodded in agreement: “I’m not too busy to culture and NILC’s civilizing crusade. Even today. I did have an appointment with a few though Eustacio’s encounters with Coatlicue to girlfriends but they can just wait. I’ll be nice to acquire new objects for his collection were far you today. Okay, let’s go. I’d love to see your from frequent, the collector felt deeply attracted collection.” In the back of her mind, Coatlicue to the mysterious and beautiful woman who continued thinking about having killed Frida always appeared not only perfectly coiffed and Kahlo. She couldn’t help feeling that her dressed, but who also brought him some of the nerves—and her entire body—were somehow most exquisite pre-Hispanic objets d’art he on fire. Coatlicue felt exhilarated. It was great had ever seen in his entire life. Never did to feel the taste of blood again. he inquire about the whereabouts of the Coatlicue entered Eustacio’s private objects she seemed to pull out of a hat. helicopter and in three minutes they had Emboldened by her exploits earlier in the arrived at the hilltop Palladian mansion day, Coatlicue exuded an accented aura the collector had acquired from Munib al-Masri of sensuality and desire never before felt by shortly before NILC forces attacked Israel Eustacio. and liberated Palestine during the NILC Wars of Appropriation. Eustacio had lovingly rebuilt the massive enclave, including Roman and Arab ruins, in his fortified enclave in Jumex Hills, Mexico City’s most exclusive neighbourhood. “This is an impressive a great opportunity to invest, buying up the old had made this collection in particular so unique installation you’ve got here. Wow, look at the embassy and selling it to the Inter Inter Lomas was that the objects were not only in mint view of the city from your terrace.” Coatlicue Plus City Investment Corporation. The complex condition but had never been seen before, was not only overwhelmed by the city’s size was sold at an outrageous price, dismantled which led many to suspect they were fakes. but also by the countless fortified ghettos Miguel Ventura stone by stone, transported to Inter Inter Lomas The pieces he had acquired from the collections providing safe and luxurious housing to the Plus at great cost, and then rebuilt with a that had once belonged to the British Museum, privileged classes. Even though the city’s thick totally redesigned interior by Zaha Hadid Inc., the Metropolitan, and countless other major layer of smog blocked out almost everything in a fusion of high Modernist and Aztec styles. museums—no longer in existence after the NILC else, the tall towers surrounding each walled Shortly after its completion, the new shopping Wars of Appropriation—paled in comparison “You’ve done it again Coatlicue. You’ve enclave glimmered brightly like Christmas centre became the most fashionable and to the marvellous pieces he had acquired from brought this fantastic piece. I’ve never seen trees. Thomas Glassford, an accomplished expensive installation of its kind in the dazzling Coatlicue. After endless carbon-14 tests carried anything like it before. Look at the thousands and highly acclaimed NILC interior decorator, new suburb. (The old American embassy in out by NILC archaeologists, the pieces proved and thousands of hummingbird feathers in had designed the intricate patterns made up Iraq, a stately building designed by Josep Lluís to be originals. What Eustacio Carrera de la perfect condition, not like the moth eaten of different coloured neon and strobe lights. Sert in the mid-twentieth century, was also Fuente revealed to no one was from whom he headdress, supposedly worn by Moctezuma, Thanks to Glassford’s decorative interventions, bought up by NIWSC and reinstalled in had acquired these precious objects. Many NILC that I acquired several years ago. You know, NILC citizens finally felt their city could finally Inter Inter Lomas Plus, properly restored in I’ve never asked you to tell me where you find boast having the necessary landmarks of a its pure modernist splendour as the central these things, but where did you find this? It’s great metropolis, especially when seen from culture temple.) priceless, it’s exquisite…” “Ha, ha, ha,” she one of the many aircraft landing at all hours Eustacio, the owner of a fabulous collection laughed, “your head would fall off if you knew of the day. The buildings outside the walled of pre-Hispanic art whose pieces had once where it comes from. You’d never believe me enclaves were largely in ruins, or in a miserable, belonged to none other than the legendary anyway.” He then said: “By the way, Coatlicue, dilapidated state. To the east, Coatlicue could Coatlicue, was a very handsome man whose may I entice you to visit my home and see all see the great wall separating the endless great great grandmother had been an the pieces I’ve acquired over the years? You grey blanket of cinder-block constructions Italian opera singer and his great great great might be amazed. Some of them, though only in Ecatepec, the workers’ dormitory ghetto, grandfather, a Lebanese banker. What a few, are on loan to my private museum in the from the rest of the city. She felt no nostalgic 144 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 145 Something About Coatlicue longing for the miniature Tenochtitlán, which that Eustacio was now not only dressed in a is a mythological figure. Her persona is charged had once reigned supreme in the idyllic lake plumed cape and headdress she with historical references that go back as far setting of the spectacular Mexico valley had sold him many years ago but also sporting as human memory on this continent. If her hundreds of years earlier. She had accepted a massive Aztec cod piece in the shape of a existence becomes known among population Tenochtitlán’s fall centuries ago, with a bitter plumed serpent’s head. Coatlicue was sexually in general, her presence could certainly be sense of resignation that verged on indignation. aroused immediately. It had been centuries counter productive to our revolutionary But it was no use opening up old wounds. The since she felt any form of sexual excitement. interests. And her motives, well, her actions only thing that mattered now was selling off The cape, helmet and cod piece brought back seem only motivated by sheer jealousy. Seeing her great collection of pre-Hispanic art in order memories of another time of her life so long Frida surrounded by sycophantic admirers only to continue her centuries-old lifestyle. ago when she had fucked great warriors and ignited her own feelings of being ignored for Coatlicue couldn’t help feeling a certain déjà gods. Feeling that it was no longer possible to so long. I’m not sure we can use her image, so vu, sipping on a superbly prepared margarita, maintain her present human form, the goddess that means I’ll have to get rid of her somehow. as she sat on a Mayan Chac Mol Eustacio had gave in to her sexual instincts and desires, I would like to use it though, as I did at the recently acquired from a Saudi NILC prince. transforming into her archaic Aztec form. The funeral ceremony of Carlos Fuentes, the great heavy mass of green, blue, and red gelatinous Mexican writer, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. flesh, oozing purple and orange slime, slowly I think I carried out his widow’s death with approached the handsome Eustacio who had great wit, using a pendant to burn her alive. I already been paralyzed by the bite of a pair have to say that the recent destruction of at of vipers darting out from Coatlicue’s skirt, least part of the new Bellas Artes in Interlomas itself made of writhing serpents. She enjoyed was a great success. Nonetheless, the goddess sucking his thin cock and fucking him with Coatlicue, must die!” her countless serpents until they came out his mouth. What might have been pleasurable really wasn’t really pleasurable at all because her partner was drugged and unable to respond structure where she spent countless hours in any satisfying way. Coatlicue’s sexual ruminating about the state of the world. “I didn’t possession allowed complete control over her know about this character Coatlicue. I was sure Miguel Ventura sexual pleasure and his eventual destruction, she didn’t exist at all, but here she is killing off but that didn’t seem enough for Coatlicue. important NILC personalities. Why would she It was just about power. Feeling somewhat start now if she’s been around for so long. I can’t dejected and empty, Coatlicue left Eustacio’s say how happy I am that she got rid of Frida apartment a half hour later. No traces were ever Kahlo. The poor woman should have stayed found of the collector or his collection. dead. I sort of liked her when she was alive. I knew about her in the old days when I was at Observations from Campamento the Museum of Natural History. I’m pretty sure Libertad Revolucionaria she came to visit the museum one day with She said: “I feel I’ve seen this sculpture before. her very fat husband; she stared at me for the Of course! It reminds me a little of Tenochtitlán Spirits at Campamento Libertad Revolucionaria longest time but we didn’t connect. I never kept in the good old days. Funny city, how I were uplifted as camp leaders and soldiers were in touch. What I found pathetic was how NILC miss it!” She knew she was lying as she spoke informed of new and successful attacks aimed scientists resurrected her after the NILC Wars of but she wanted to sound naively coquettish. at destroying NILC infrastructure, and more Appropriation. “Coatlicue, come inside. I want to show you importantly perhaps, debilitating NILC morale. She never really seemed like her old self, something,” said Eustacio. Coatlicue entered As usual, Alex García the Squoonck reflected on living and working in her old home, which is, a high-ceilinged hall that housed Eustacio’s the events perched on the old branch, alone in or was, until her death, an important NILC collection of pre-Hispanic art. “Did I sell her room. She stared out the dirty windowpane culture temple. Yes, getting rid of Frida Kahlo Eustacio all this stuff? It really is quite a stash. that barely allowed her to observe an out of was extremely important, but what worries me And I still have so much of it left though,” she focus group of rebel children playing soccer in about Coatlicue are not only her motives but thought. The goddess couldn’t help noticing the small open space outside the simple log her origins as well. She might be real, but she