T H E S P L E N D O R O F M E X I C O La Huaxteca in Time and Space Lorenzo Ochoa* LANGUAGE AND TERRITORY The Huaxtecs are related to the Maya without doubt. However, this group branched off from of the main macro- Mayan linguistic group about 3,500 years ago, at that time located at Cu- chumatanes on the border of what are now Guatemala and Mexico. That is where the Mayan languages diverge. Therefore, the material and ideolo- gi cal culture of the people we now know as Huaxtecs have nothing in common with those of the Mayan culture that flowered in the first cen - turies of our era. a s o j o n Rather, all the data tends to indi - i H r e i v cate that by the last centuries of the a J second millennium before Christ, the Huaxtecs had already reached the northern part of what is today the state of Veracruz and the south of Tamauli- pas. For several centuries before the Spaniards arrived, they shared a vast territory with Nahua, Tepehua and Oto- mí speakers, a territory that extended through the north of what is today Puebla, eastern Hidalgo, the southeast of San Luis Potosí, the south of Tamau - lipas and the north of Veracruz. The environmental mix of coast, coastal plains and mountains varies the climate from rainy tropical to * Researcher at the UNAM Institute for An- God of Death on the back of a sculpure from Ozuluama, Veracruz. Xalapa Anthopology Museum. thropological Studies. 73 Voices of Mexico • 60 The importance semi-dry with temperatures ranging peoples of pre-Hispanic Mexico. In the of the Huaxteca for the from 18 to 40 degrees Celsius. Agri- eighth and ninth centuries, it began culture was just as important eco - to feel the influence of Mesoameri- Mexicas can be seen both in nomically —the main crops were cot - can ideology and contribute to enrich ideology and the economy. ton, several types of chili peppers and that of many peoples of that broader corn— as hunting and gathering. The area. A century later, its integration exploitation of other natural resources into the Mesoamerican cultural sphere led to the creation of a network of was clear. It is in this period that roads that linked the coast and the important changes took place which coastal plain to the mountains and can be seen in archaeological data highlands; salt was particularly impor - and later in historical sources. The a tant. Rivers, streams, lagoons and even presence of aspects of the culture from o h c O o the sea were very important for trade central Veracruz and the Huaxteca z n e r o L of raw materials and luxury items that area in the tenth to the twelfth cen - spread throughout the extensive water turies in El Tajín is clear. Very little network, for communication and cul - has been researched about the rela - tural exchange and because of the flora tions between the Huaxteca and cen - and fauna they offered the inhabitants. tral Veracruz in the eighth to the ninth centuries, or the discovery of, for exam - ple, yokes and traces of central Vera- THE HUAXTEC CULTURE cruz iconography in the Huaxteca. By IN THE POST -C LASSICAL PERIOD the tenth to twelfth centuries, the Toltec presence, and later the Mexica Before the eighth century, Huaxtec presence in the Huaxteca, as well as culture was different from that of other the Huaxtec presence in central Mex- a o h c O o z n e r o L View of the gateway to the Hidalgo Mountains. Quetzalcóatl priest on a stela from Castillo de Teayo, Veracruz. 74 The Splendor of Mexico ico, are clear, both in written tradi - “Lady of the Huaxtecs,” the founders The Huaxtecs, considered 2 tions or codices and in archaeological of the great Texcocan line, passed by. themselves “the peo ple evidence. By the fifteenth century, the Mexi - of the deer”, descendents The story of the nude tohueyo , a cas had conquered different parts of seller of chili peppers in the Tula mar - the Huaxteca: Teayo, Tuxpan, Tzicóac, of Mixcóatl. ket , with whom the daughter of Hué- Temapache, Huejutla, Tamuín, Tempa - mac, the Lord of Tula, fell in love, is tal and Oxitipa, among others. The im - only a metaphor included in Friar portance of the Huaxteca for the Me- Bernardino de Sahagún’s book La xicas can be seen both in ideology and Historia general de las cosas de Nue va economy. Several Huaxtec deities, España (General History of the Things among them Tlazoltéotl and Mixcóatl, of New Spain) to emphasize the eco - adopted by the Toltecs would in turn nomic importance that the Huaxteca be embraced by the Mexica and later area had for the Toltecs and the rival - returned to the Huax teca with differ - ry that existed because of the rela - ent characteristics. For the Mexicas, tionship. The sixteenth-century Anales Tlazoltéotl was a goddess of carnal plea - de Cuauhtitlán (Annals of Cuauhti- sures and the devourer of filth, while tlán) explains how the Ixcuinanme, 1 for the Huaxtecs, under the generic the goddesses of the Huaxteca, intro - name “Teem,” she was the god dess duced sacrifice by arrow shot in the of women in childbirth who whisk ed Central Highland through Tula. Ac- away evil vapors. Mixcóatl, god of z e d n cording to Don Fernando de Alva the hunt, was the name sake of the á n r e F r a Ixtlilxóchitl, when the Toltec capital Huax tecs, who considered themselves s é was in ruins, Xólotl, “Lord of the “the peo ple of the deer” or “the people C Chichimecs,” and his wife Tomiyauh, descendent of Mixcóatl.” Tenek , the a o h c O o z n e r o L The Otontepec Mountains in Citlaltépetl, Veracruz. Zacamixtle stela depicting the God of Death. Tancoco, Veracruz (drawing). 75 Voices of Mexico • 60 first part of the term tenek bichim , structures often had curved lines or cir - a meaning deer, is the name the Huax- cles or forms that included them, as well o h c O o tecs call themselves today. as rectangular floors with rounded cor - z n e r o L But these were not the only deities. ners as the foundations for temples lik e The god of death ruled the Tamzem- Tamtok in San Luis Potosí or Tabuco in lab, or the underworld; for the Huax- Veracruz. The buildings had thin beams tecs, this god is associated with evil to delimit stairways, and they used stuc - and putrefaction. Mam, an impor tant co as finishing that was then some - god of this culture, was depicted as a times decorated with murals, such as stooped old man leaning on a cane in Tamuín, in San Luis Potosí. They used for planting; he is linked to the constructed houses of considerable di- cult of fertility. Ehécatl, whose original mensions on low platforms for the most name in the Huaxtec language is un- important lords. On occasion, they built known, was the god of the wind who ball courts, like in El Águila Zacamiztle was originally represented as a cross- and Tepetzintla, Veracruz. Artesian wells section of a conch shell, and later as have been found at some sites and for a human body with a large beak. In security, they erected fortifications or Quetzalcóatl on a tablet from Castillo de Teayo, central Mexico, written and pictorial walled their cities, like in Yahualica, Veracruz. Xalapa Anthropology Museum. sources depict him as a representa - Hidalgo, or Metlaltoyuca, Puebla. tion of Quetzalcóatl, god of the wind, The lay-out and distribution of the who is described or depicted in Huax - political-religious centers do not seem tecan clothing: a cone-shaped cap with to follow the norms of Mesoamerican a semicircular fan at the base of the urban organization, which generally neck, hook-shaped ear jewelry and a reproduced their understanding of the necklace in the shape of a cross-section structure of the cosmos, or Tehuayca- of a conch shell or eheilacacózcatl . lal for the Huaxtecs. They understood Like all the Mesoamerican cultures, it to be organized in four parts: the a s their material goods were closely linked east or Elelquí , the west or Ozalquí , o j o n i H r to religion. The representation of the the north or Tzaylelquí and the south e i v a J planes of the universe have been found or Quahtalquí . This conception led in some pectoral made of shell, one of them to an understanding of the chang- the most refined forms of aesthetic ex - ing seasons and to register the pas - pression of this culture. Some of their sage of time by a 365-day calendar customs, known through chronicles, (the tamub ) and another, 260-day cal - were depicted in murals and their main endar (the tzobnalquí ). They imagined deities have been sculpted with great the universe to be divided into three majesty. According to Friar Bernardino horizontal planes: the celestial plane, de Sahagún, they were recognized as the earthly plane and the underworld. great artisans for their cotton weaving; These concepts are reproduced in some this can be seen in the codex of the Reg- of their ceremonies to pray for rain. ister of Tributes. They also achieved great technical capacity in the manufac - ture of funeral ceramics, figurine mo d- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION eling, bone carving and goldsmithing. Scene of the cosmos on a shell pectoral. Their architecture, sometimes mon- When the Spaniards came, the Huax- Tamaulipas.