Introduction
Broken spears lay in the road, temples, and palaces; the great market, schools, and houses were in ruins; rulers, priests, sages, warriors, the youth, and the gods themselves were lost or dead. The bad omens that Motecuhzoma and others contemplated had been fulfilled: The Aztec nation appeared crushed to the ground. But was everything truly lost? The testimonies included here demonstrate the extent to which some surviving native priests and sages managed to rescue images of the tragedy that had taken place and the heroism that had sustained their people. In their annals, those with detailed pictures and glyphs and those employing the letters, newly adapted by the friars to, represent the sounds of their language, they recalled the ominous events, the appearance of the unexpected invaders, the acts of bravery, the devastation.
With the passing of time, while most of the ancient sacred books had been reduced to ashes, the elders and their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons kept producing numerous manuscripts that told of their daily and difficult coexistence with the men of Castile. Documents of many different genres were composed reflecting life in these new circumstances, including many petitions asking for justice, several chronicles made up of compilations of oral traditions, numerous songs, poems, and theatrical pieces to be acted and sung, as well as translations or reworked versions of works originally in Spanish or Latin. All of these form part of an unexpectedly rich literature, which at times mixes the indigenous traditions with the content and style of what was introduced by the Europeans. As could be expected, a recurrent theme at the time, which continues to be addressed today in some works produced by contemporary Nahuas, was the tale of daily suffering and incessant confrontation. In these compositions new images of the Nahuas themselves and of the intruders are offered.
The Nahuatl language, spoken since at least the fourth century by some of the inhabitants of the metropolis of Teotihuacan, has conveyed the Aztec accounts of the Spanish conquest along with many other testimonies about the pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary periods. In the manner of a testimonial to the "aftermath" following the decades of conquest, I present in this chapter several particularly eloquent texts originally recorded in Nahuatl during these last two periods, including two composed only a few years ago. Together they draw vivid images of the difficult relations that have always existed between the descendants of the Aztecs and their others"-the colonial Spaniards and contemporary Mexicans.
Nahua Men of Noble Lineage Write to the King, May 11, 1556
Only thirty-five years after the Spaniards had captured the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan a significant number of Nahuas, mainly Aztecs, had not only learned to read and write in their language and in Spanish, but had also become acquainted with the nature of the newly imposed procedures for the presentation of claims and the filing of complaints. In particular, many of the surviving members of the native nobility and their descendants, raised in the schools of the friars, had come to develop these and other pragmatic skills. And while some of them, to preserve their privileges, collaborated with the new lords, others kept to their people and acted on their behalf.
A son of Motecuhzoma named Pedro Tlacahuepantzin and the native governors and judges of the important towns of Tlacopan (Tacuba), Iztapalapa, and Coyoacan assembled early in May 1556 to write to the king denouncing the many offenses by which they and their peoples were victimized. Dramatically describing in Nahuatl their situation, they provide a triple image of the others: of the Spaniards with whom they had to coexist, of the distant king who although unknown was thought to be good and just to his vassals, and of a Dominican friar, Bartolomew de las Casas, whom they recognized as a man "of good will and very Christian." Theirs is a powerful letter of petition.
To His Majesty Don Philip, king of Spain, from the lords and principals (leaders) of the peoples of New Spain, May 11, 1556.
Our very High and very Powerful King and Lord:
The lords and principals of the peoples of this New Spain, of Mexico and its surroundings, subjects and servants of Your Majesty, we kiss the royal feet of Your Majesty and with dutiful humility and respect we implore You and state that, given that we are in such great need of the protection and aid of your Majesty, both for ourselves and for those whom we have in our charge, due to the many wrongs and damages that we receive from the Spaniards, because they are amongst us, and we amongst them, and because for the remedy of our necessities we are very much in need of a person who would be our defender, who would reside continuously in that royal court, to whom we could go with [our necessities], and give Your Majesty notice and true accounts of all of them, because we cannot, given the long distance there is from here to there, nor can we manifest them in writing, because they are so many and so great that it would be a great bother to Your Majesty, thus we ask and humbly beseech Your Majesty to appoint to us the bishop of Chiapas Don Fray Bartolome de las Casas to take this charge of being our defender and that Your Majesty order him to accept; and if by chance said bishop were unable because of his death or sickness, we beseech Your Majesty in such a case to appoint to us one of the principal persons of your royal court of good will and very Christian to whom we can appeal with the things that would come up, because so many of them are of such a type that they require solely your royal presence, and from it only, after God, do we expect the remedy, because otherwise we will suffer daily so many needs and we are so aggrieved that soon we will be ended, since every day we are more consumed and finished, because they expel us from our lands and deprive us of our goods, beyond the many other labors and personal tributes that daily are increased for us.
May our Lord cause to prosper and keep the royal person and state of Our Majesty as we your subjects and servants desire. From this town of Tlacopan, where we are all assembled for this, the eleventh day of the month of May, the year one thousand five hundred fifty-six.
The loyal subjects and servants of your Royal Majesty, Don Esteban de Guzman, judge of Mexico, Don Hernando Pimentel, Don Antonio Cortes, Don Juan of Coyoacan, Don Pedro deMoctezuma, Don Alonso of lztapalapa.
Letter of the Council of Huejotzingo to King Philip 11, 1560
The following document is a relevant section from another letter petitioning the king, this time to reduce the amount of tribute that had recently been assessed by colonial officials. The authors were members of the council of Huejotzingo (Huexotzinco), a community southeast of Mexico City that before the arrival of the Spaniards had fought with the Tlaxcalans against the "Triple Alliance" (Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco, and Tlacopan [Tacuba]). This was a region that included important poet-rulers who seemed to oppose the militarism of their more powerful neighbors. This sentiment appears to continue in this text, which underlines with extraordinary detail the ethnic complexity of central Mexico as the Tlaxcalans, former and still ongoing enemies, are attacked not for being traitors, but for being unfaithful allies of the Spaniards. In classical Nahuatl written in the elegant style of the nobility, the authors describe in vivid prose the painful aftermath following the fall of Tenochtitlan, the variety of responses to Christianity at that time, and the great esteem in which they and others held the conqueror of the Aztec city.
Our Lord sovereign, you the king don Felipe.
Before anyone told us of or made us acquainted with your fame and your story, and before we were told or taught the glory and name of our Lord God; when your servants the Spaniards reached us and your Captain General Don Hernando Cortes arrived; our Lord God the ruler of heaven and possessor of earth, enlightened us so that we took you as our king to belong to you and become your people and your subjects; not a single town surpassed us here in New Spain in that first and earliest we threw ourselves toward you, we gave ourselves to you, and furthermore no one intimidated us, no one forced us into it, but truly God caused us to deserve that voluntarily we adhered to you so that we gladly received the newly arrived Spaniards who reached us here in New Spain. We received them very gladly, we embraced them, we saluted them with many tears, though we were not acquainted with them, and our fathers and grandfathers also did not know them; but by the mercy of our Lord God we truly came to know them. Since they are our neighbors, therefore we loved them; nowhere did we attack them. Truly we fed them and served them; some arrived sick, so that we carried them in our arms and on our backs, and we served them in many other ways which we are not able to say here. Although the people who are called and named Tlaxcalans indeed helped, yet we strongly pressed them to give aid, and we admonished them not to make war; but though we so admonished them, they made war and fought for fifteen days. But we, when a Spaniard was afflicted, without fail at once we managed to reach him. We do not lie in this, for all the conquerors know it well, those who have died and some now living.
And when they began their conquest and war-making, then also we prepared ourselves well to aid them, for out came all of our war gear, our arms and provisions and all our equipment, and we not merely named someone, we went in person, we who rule, and we brought all our nobles and all of our vassals to aid the Spaniards. We helped not only in warfare, but we also gave them everything they needed; we fed and clothed them, and we would carry in our arms and on our backs those whom they wounded in war or who were very ill, and we did all the tasks in preparing for war. And so that they could fight the Mexica with boats, we worked hard; we gave them the wood and pitch with which the Spaniards made the boats. And when they conquered the Mexica and all belonging to them, we never abandoned them or left them behind in it. And when they went to conquer Michoacan, Jalisco, and Colhuacan, and there at Panuco and there at Oaxaca and Tchuantepec and Guatemala, we were the only ones who went along while they conquered and made war here in New Spain until they finished the conquest; we never abandoned them, in no way did we prejudice their war-making, though some of us were destroyed in it. There was no one as deserving as we, for we did our duty very well. But as to those Tlaxcalans, several of their nobles were hanged for making war poorly; in many places they ran away, and often did badly in the war. In this we do not lie, for the conquerors know it well.
Our lord sovereign, we also say and declare before you that your fathers the twelve sons of St. Francis reached us, whom the very high priestly ruler the Holy Father sent and whom you sent, both taking pity on us so that they came to teach us the gospel, to teach us the holy Catholic faith and belief, to make us acquainted with the single deity God our Lord, and likewise God favored us and enlightened us, us of Huejotzingo, who dwell in your city, so that we gladly received them. When they entered the city of Huejotzingo, of our own free will we honored them and showed them esteem. When they embraced us so that we would abandon the wicked belief in many gods, we forthwith voluntarily left it; likewise they did us the good deed of telling us to destroy and burn the stones and wood that we worshiped as gods, and we did it; very willingly we destroyed, demolished, and burned the temples. Also when they gave us the holy gospel, the holy Catholic faith, with very good will and desire we received and grasped it; no one frightened us into it, no one forced us, but very willingly we seized it, and they gave us all the sacraments. Quietly and peacefully we arranged and ordered it among ourselves; no one, neither nobleman nor commoner, was ever tortured or burned for this, as was done on every hand here in New Spain. The people of many towns were forced and tortured, were hanged or burned, because they did not want to leave idolatry, and unwillingly they received the gospel and faith. Especially those Tlaxcalans pushed out and rejected the fathers, and would not receive the faith, for many of the high nobles were burned, and some hanged, for combating the advocacy and service of our Lord God. But we of Huejotzingo, we your poor vassals, we never did anything in your harm, always we served you in every command you sent or what at your command we were ordered. Therefore now, in and through God, may you hear these our words, . . . so that you will exercise on us your rulership to console us and aid us in this trouble with which daily we weep and are sad. We are afflicted and sore pressed, and your town and city of Huejotzingo is as if it is about to disappear and be destroyed. Here is what is being done to us: now your stewards the royal officials and the prosecuting attorney Dr. Maldonado are assessing us a very great tribute to belong to you. The tribute we are to give is 14,800 pesos in money, and also all the bushels of maize.
Our lord sovereign, never has such happened to us in all the time since your servants and vassals the Spaniards came to us, for your servant Don Hernando Cortes, late captain general, the Marques DelValle, in all the time he lived here with us, always greatly cherished us and kept us happy; he never disturbed nor agitated us. Although we gave him tribute, he assigned it to us only with moderation; even though we gave him gold, it was only very little; no matter how much, no matter in what way, or if not very pure, he just received it gladly. He never reprimanded us or afflicted us, because it was evident to him and he understood well how very greatly we served and aided him. Also he told us many times that he would speak in our favor before you, that he would help us and inform you of all the ways in which we have aided and served you. But perhaps before you he forgot us. How then shall we speak? We did not reach you, we were not given audience before you. Who then will speak for us? Unfortunate are we. Therefore now we place ourselves before you, our sovereign lord.
Your poor vassals who bow down humbly to you from afar,
Don Leonardo Ramirez, governor, Don Mateo de la Corona, Toribio de San Cristobal Motolinia.
An Eighteenth Century Nahua Testimony
(Introduced as if it were a text from 1531)
The vanquished communities became involved in innumerable litigations to defend themselves and their lands. The General Archives of the Nation in Mexico City, along with others throughout the country, preserve thousands of documents in Nahuatl produced during the lawsuits, some of which include native drawings and glyphs. In the following example from this legal genre one can make out the language of bitter protest and resignation of the people of Santo Tomas Ajusco, a community in the southern part of the Federal District that encompasses Mexico City. The words, attributed to a native leader said to have founded the town in 1531, were presented to the Spanish authorities in 1710 by the community's inhabitants. Through the invented narrative the descendants of the Aztecs sought to support their rights to the town's adjacent lands. The aim was to present the text as a copy of a lost original while contending that its testimony represented speech uttered almost two hundred years before.
From internal evidence this text can be related to the several manuscripts known as Techialoyan codices, which made their appearance early in the eighteenth century as copies of or supplements to the much required but by then lost pre-Hispanic communal and titles. To the extent that this text is of the same type, the Ajusco testimony has a double significance: as a Nahuatl document used in litigation and as an eighteenth-century representation of the sorrowful expressions the Nahuatl ancestors should have pronounced when, as refugees, they established themselves onood! And what for? Why was it done? Learn it once and for all: because they want to impose themselves upon us, because they are utterly gold hungry, voracious of what belongs to others: our chiefdoms, our revered women and daughters, and our lands.
It is known that the Castilian Cortes, the recently named Marques del Valle, was authorized, there in Castile, to come to distribute our lands. Thus it is said that secretly the lord Marques will come to take our lands, take possession of ourselves and establish new towns. And where will they throw us? Where will they place us? A very great sadness afflicts us. What will we do, my sons?
Still my heart recovers. I (i.e., the supposed founder of the city) remember, I will establish a town here on the slopes of Axochco mountain, in Xaltipac on the sand's surface. Because from down there to here is the place of the men of Axochco. From down there on, this land is ours, it was left to us by our grandfathers, it was their property since ancient times.
I remember, I will establish a little temple where we will place the new god that the men from Castile have given us. Truly this new god wants us to worship him. What will we do, my sons? Let us receive the water on our heads (be baptized), let us give ourselves to the men of Castile, perhaps in this way they will not kill us.
Let us remain here, do not trespass by going on another's land, perhaps in this way they will not kill us. Let us follow them; thus, perhaps we will awaken their compassion. It will be good if we surrender entirely to them. Oh, that the true god who resides in heaven will help us coexist close to the men of Castile.
And in order that they will not kill us, we will not claim all our lands. We will reduce in length the extension of our lands,and that which remains, our fathers will defend.
Now I declare that, in order for them not to kill us we accept to have water poured on our heads, that we worship the new god, as I declare he is the same as the one we had.
Now I reduce in length our lands. Thus it will be. Their limits will begin in the direction from which the sun rises and continue (he mentions each of the limits).
I presume that for this small piece of land they will not kill us. It does not matter that it was much larger. This is my decision because I do not want my sons to be killed. Therefore, we will work only this little piece Of land, and thus our sons will do so. Let us hope in this manner they will not kill us.
Dance of the Great Conquest, Eighteenth Century
In many different forms Nahuatl-speaking people continued over the centuries to express their feelings about what had befallen them. Among the existant testimonies that recall the Spanish invasion, there are several compositions conceived to be performed accompanied by music, song, and dance. They are productions belonging to a genre of native plays that were developed throughout the colonial period. Among the numerous "dances" or ballet-dramas whose theme is the "Conquest", there is one written in elegant Nahuatl that deserves special consideration, among other reasons because it was still being performed as late as 1894 in the town of Xicotepec (today Villa Juarez) in the state of Puebla.
As is common in Greek drama, the plot of the "Dance of the Great Conquest" develops in a single day. The story concerns the arrival of Hernan Cortes, his encounter with Motecuhzoma, and some important events said to have immediately followed the meeting. The text conveys a type of Christian lesson centered on the benefits believed to have come from Cortes's advent as the bearer of the true faith. From this one can infer the intervention of a friar's hand; yet at the same time it includes a dialogue between Motecuhzoma and prince Cuauhtemoc that no one but a Nahua could have introduced. This dialogue transforms the play, perhaps created originally as a piece of "missionary theater", into a courageous condemnation both of the Spanish intrusion and of Motecuhzoma's attitude towaroung prince's courageous rebuke against Motecuhzoma. The words, notwithstanding a few anachronisms, ring true to our understanding of the character of the last Aztec "emperor".
Emperor Motecuhzoma, great Lord, Monarch, as you are named here in the land called America.
Improperly are you so named, for you no longer ought to wear the crown, for you have lost courage and you are afraid. Tell me if you dare to speak to this great city? Can you give something to those whoare down and out in the country from which they came?
They come to mock you. All those who come here are second rate or Spaniards who lost out, who come telling you that in their country there are great cities, talking of another king at the head of the empire of Castile by the name of Charles the Fifth, and of a Catholic religion.
These are only stories, lies. I do not believe in other books (i.e., except indigenous, picto-glyphic codices). I feel that their words are only like dreams. You have no courage, but I have, and I will make war and test the strength they claim to have. I shall see it, and many fearful arts will be practiced. There are flints, arrows, new stones. Flints that they will take, those who go out to war, fearful warriors, also Chichimeci, like wild beasts who maintain their anger. They are making straight (truthful) my gods, they all give me great knowledge, science. I shall lead them. I shall encourage them, all who come together, and the armies will show every form of war.
You will likewise lose your kingdom, your crown, and your scepter. You will lose all the esteem that I maintained for you because you gave yourself up. Your kingdom and you shall suffer those lost ones here present, the bandits, Spaniards who have come over here. They come to fool you, for you no longer deserve your dominion.
I deserve it. It belongs to me because I am strong of heart, valiant. I do not want the honor of our gods to come to nothing. You shall see, you shall experience who is the one who calls himself, who is named prince Cuauhtemoc. I have in my hands flames, noise, lightning, embers, smoke, sand, dust, winds, whirlwinds with which I shall drive them back. If they do not want to die, let them go right back to their country. If they do not, they shall perish here no matter what you do to prevent it.
The Manifestos of Emiliano Zapata, April 1918
Nahuatl-speaking Indians and other natives, among them the Yaqui of Sonora and the Maya of Yucatan, took part in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-19.
Emiliano Zapata, a well-known leader of the Revolution and champion of the landless peasants of southern Mexico, was not himself an Indian, but he was a mestizo, born in Anencuilco, a small town in Morelos, who, endowed with a charismatic personality, had managed to attract large numbers of Nahuas and others to join the army he had raised. However, the mere idea of an Indian uprising caused such alarm among the elite that a prominent conservative congressman, Jose Maria Lozano, warned his fellow partisans of Zapata's successes and threat in these terms: "Zapata has rebelled. He poses as the liberator of the slave; he offers something to all. He is not alone. Countless people follow him. He offers them lands. His preaching begins to bear fruit: the Indians have rebelled!"
Several testimonies exist that describe the pleasure felt by the Nahuas on hearing Zapata addressing them in their own language. One is provided by a native woman, Luz Jimdnez, in an account she gave of Zapata's arrival in the village of Milpa Alta, just south of Mexico City: "First news we had about the revolution was the arrival of a great man, Zapata, who came from the state of Morelos. He was well dressed with his tall, crowned, broad-brimmed felt sombrero. He was the first great man who spoke to us in Nahuatl. All those who came along with him spoke Nahuatl very much the same as we do. Zapata spoke Nahuatl. When he and his men entered Milpa Alta we could understand what they said."
Emiliano Zapata, who became a legendary hero to thousands of mestizo peasants and Indians, was fighting to get back for them the communal lands that had been usurped by Spaniards, Mexicans, and others of European provenance over the course of centuries. To the eyes of his followers, Zapata's struggle was a fight to regain lost personal freedom and ancestral lands, a battle to assure that land would be owned only by those who worked it.
After several years of fighting, and already suffering from a decimated army, Zapata tried to regain his forces by issuing two manifestos in Nahuatl on April 27, 1918. In one he urged some Tlaxcalan armed bands, who had previously followed Domingo Arenas, his former ally and later his murdered rival, to come to his side. In the other he repeated the call to the people living in the nearby villages. These manifestos are the last existant examples of public documents in Nahuatl in which, once again, the images of the vanquished and of those who abuse power are vividly depicted. The first manifesto reads as follows:
To you, chiefs, officers, and soldiers of the Arenas Division.
What we all suspected has already occurred. That which had to happen today or tomorrow: your separation from those engendered by Venustiano Carranza (president and head of thefederal army). They never favored, nor loved you. They merely deceived you, envied you. They wanted to hurt you, dishonor you, get rid of you. They never behaved as humans toward you.
To turn the face against those who so badly abuse power, honors you, erases the memory of your past deception when their Chief Arenas sided with the federal government.
We hope you will take part in the ideals for which we are fighting. In this manner we will be one, pressed closely against one flag. Thus our unified hearts will excel. Those who make fun of us, the ones engendered by Carranza, will not be able to destroy us.
Join us, our flag belongs to the people. We will fight together. This is our great work which we will achieve in some way, before our revered mother, the one called Patria (i.e., homeland or ancestral land).
Let us fight the perverse, wicked Carranza, who is a tormentor of us all. If we work for our unity, we will fulfill the great command: land, liberty, justice. Let us perform our work of revolutionaries and know our duties toward our revered mother the ancestral land. This army's command invites you. That is why I express this word. All those who will follow it, who will fight at our side, will enjoy a righteous and good life. In it we place our word of honor, of sincere men and good revolutionaries.
Tlaltizapan, Morelos, April 27, 1918
The Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army, Emiliano Zapata
The other manifesto, dated the same day, was addressed to the people in general who lived in the region (where Chief Arenas had fought). Here Zapata expresses himself echoing the centuries-old complaints and hopes of the Nahuas:
Our great war will not come to an end, will not conclude until that obscure tyrant, envious, who mocks the people, makes their faces turn around, is defeated. He is Venustiano Carranza who dishonors and makes ashamed our revered mother the ancestral land, Mexico.
Here is the people who keep strong and confront the great possessors of lands -Christians (i.e., hacienda owners and caiques), those who have made fun of us, who hate us. We will receive the valiant ones, our hearts will rejoice being together with them.
Let us keep fighting. We will not rest until we come to possess our lands, those that belonged to our grandfathers, and which the greedy-handed thieves took from us.
It is now more than ever necessary that we all, with our hearts and courage, achieve this great work, following those who began the uprising, who preserve in their souls the true aims and have faith in a pure life.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army, Emiliano Zapata.
The Nahuas and the "Coyotes" Today
The Nahuas, their invincible spirit, and their language are still very much alive today - contrary to what some had expected or even desired, indigenous endurance, after hundreds of years of adversity, has made possible the survival of a people with a long cultural history. Today, in the last decade of our millennium, there are more than forty million native people in the Americas, one and a half million of whom are Nahuas engaged in the centuries-long struggle to preserve and foster their ancestral cultural identities. The intellectual effort of a growing number of them is currently contributing to a renaissance that includes the production of a new literature, aptly named by them YancuicTlabtolli, the "New Word."
Among the contemporary Nahua writers we find professionals teaching in rural communities, journalists, and university students. Some are already well acquainted with Nahuatl grammar and the ancient literature inscribed in the language. To them the compositions of pre-Columbian poets, such as the famous Nezahual Coyotl (1402-1472), the existant literary narratives, and the detailed chronicles - including those concerning the Spanish invasion found in this book - are a source of inspiration. It has been a great honor and pleasure for me that some of these masters of the "new word" have attended the seminar on Nahuatlculture and language which I have conducted for more than thirty years at the National University Of Mexico.
One of these native authors, Joel Martinez Hernandez, born in the Huaxteca in the state of Hidalgo and himself a teacher, has penned in Nahuatl a literary declaration expressing his thoughts regarding the present and future of the Nahuas. In it he paints a painful image of those he and many Nahuas call "Coyotes," referring to the astute and voracious non-Indians who take advantage of the few possessions left to the indigenous peoples.
Some Coyotes are saying
that we Nahuas will disappear,
will vanish,
our language will be heard no more,
will be used no more.
The Coyotes rejoice in this,
as this is what they are looking for.
Why is it that they want us to disappear?
we do not have to contemplate this too long,
because four hundred years have shown us
the aim of the Coyotes.
They are envious of our lands,
our forests and rivers,
our work, our sweat.
The Coyotes want us living
in the slums of their cities,
naked and hungry,
subject to their falsehoods and frauds.
The Coyotes want us to work for them,
they want us to abandon
our communal lands, our labor,
our endeavors and language,
our ways of dressing and living,
our forms of thinking.
The Coyotes desire to make Coyotes out of us,
and then they will deprive us
of all that is ours,
the fruits of our labor
which has caused us fatigue.
We must strengthen our hearts with one,
two words, which will illuminateour eyes,
so we can become fully conscious of it.
We have many tasks to perform.
I will add only a few words.
Where and how many
are the Nahuas in Mexico?
We, the Nahuas,
are not just in one place,
we are scattered in sixteen states
and eight hundred and eight municipalities.
One has to understand
thatit is not only in our farms,
not only in our villages,
that we Nahuas exist.
Sometimes we hear
that we Nahuas are vanishing,
but the census figures
speak very differently. Truly we can assert that,
although some want us to disappear,
we Nahuas continue to live,
we Nahuas continue to grow.
The Nahuas, formerly vanquished and for centuries oppressed, are indeed growing in numbers and, above all, have become fully conscious of the right they have to preserve their language and culture. With this assurance, today they are busily reflecting upon their culture and its destiny. The "others", imagined and described in many forms by them since the days of the invasion, must come to grips with and understand this new perspective. As is daily becoming more evident, the Nahuas and the millions of other Native Americans throughout the hemisphere are no longer asking for mercy. Like other Americans, north and south of the equator, they know they have their rights as individuals, communities, and ethnic groups. But now another issue has come to the fore: How does one learn to trust in oneself? Some indigenous writers claim that for this to take place a new self-image must be created. One Nahua poet, Natalio HernindezXocoyotzin, a native of Ixhuatan, Veracruz, has conveyed this insight beautifully.
Sometimes I feel
that we, the Indians, are waiting
for the arrival of a Man
who can achieve all,
knows everything,
is ready to help us,
will answer our problems.
But, this Man who
can achieve all,
knows everything,
will never arrive
because he is in ourselves,
walks along with us.
He has been asleep,
but now he is awakening."
The broken spears, the net made of holes, was it all merely adream? Ancient poetry was like "the flowers that wither", as a fifteenth-century Nahua poet expressed it. But now it is different The "person-within" is already awakening, giving strength to the heart of the Nahuas. The words of that inner American being are different from those heard daily in our busy lives, but by listening carefully one can perceive in them the wisdom of the Nahua elders.
They shall not wither, my flowers,
they shall not cease, my songs,
I, the singer, lift them up.
They are scattered, they spreadabout.
But even though my flowers may yellow,
they shall live
in the innermost house
of the bird of the golden feathers.
