"Oaxacan who left their mark."
"I love Oaxaca a stone ..." (Gabriela Mistral)
I received this unique book: "Oaxaca who left their mark." This offering of 60 portraits of women "who drew with ethics, wisdom and goodness, light trails in a bountiful land," as the editorial coordinator and designer of the investigation, Dulce María Méndez. A collective and pluralistic news that rescues the most outstanding women in Oaxaca, the charming sprouting from pre-Columbian times to the present. In an excellent edition, 560 pages, the collective Women in Time, published in June 2010, the book also rescues unpublished illustrations and photographs, framed in a design of Diana M. Chagoya Gonzalez, illustration and cover design and Mere Alma Rosa Balderas Migoya (beautiful work of plastic that goes back to the master Rufino Tamayo technically but with a new look delicate, mainly female), this book "Oaxacan who left their mark" born under the Silvia Rosa initiative Méndez García de León, founding president of Women of Oaxaca Navigating the Time, AC She writes in the introductory note (excerpts):
"There were two main criteria used for selection who would be the subject of this work: 1) Origin. Being born in Oaxaca and / or lived a significant period in the state, 2) contribution. Have made some contribution to the community and excelled in different areas, to remain in the collective imagination ... Almost all of our assessment of women was a long process, between the temporal and meritorious variants. Proposals to integrate the book arose from a reflection that we undertook, from the December 7, 2007, when he formed the Association of Women of Oaxaca Browsing Time. Other proposals came through a call that launched for this purpose, various suggestions of stakeholders and specialists in the field. This gave resulted in a great eclectic content, as in this book we will find from the academic writing neater and even the language more direct and colloquial. Despite the different styles, variety of authors and the heterogeneity of the profiles there is a point of support: the significance of the women whose stories make up this anthology ... Open the volume of "Oaxaca who left their mark" a text on women's pre-Hispanic era in which prevailed the dual principle: male / female, Ometecutli-Omecihuatl and where indigenous farm women images rooted in the earth and life. We continued with a reference to the presence of women during the Viceroyalty, stage where his work space was restricted, since they were generally confined to the closure, the faculty or subordination. Although then their access to education was forbidden, many of these women found their way to own and share their wisdom of life. The development of the profiles actually occurs from the nineteenth century to today. It recounts the life of women with significant merits and degrees, but also addresses the traditional woman, one that lacks studies only distinguished by value and substance to get ahead. It is she who goes and flows inexorably over time and is indispensable for progress and the balance of world ... This inventory outstanding women covers the geography of Oaxaca and is just a ball of light memory sketches ... a kind of historical memory of an anthology open ... a contribution to McLuhan's global village, "published with private support and collaboration of Alfredo Harp Helu Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, the Institute for Oaxacan Women and Coordination of Social Communication of the Government of the State of Oaxaca .
When Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral Nobel Prize visiting the area, then writes: "The city of Oaxaca was founded in a valley that we should all just news if America were seised of the best of herself, all doubt it, which is wonderful geography. " Oaxaca is oil refining, is harness, textiles, ceramics, tourism and Quelaguetza, the jewelry and mining resources, is focused graphite, mica and iron, coal, gold, silver, copper, zinc, titanium. Is corn and sugar, beans, wheat, rice and green alfalfa, sesame and snuff. Is coffee called "gold." It is the role and beautiful languages \u200b\u200band dialects. It is the fruit: avocado, golden pineapple, sour lemon, watermelon, guava scented, melon and papaya. Oaxaca is the land of deer and golden magpie, a bird that inhabits the curve mysterious charm. It is a furious expression on earth. And their wives.
When carefully observed natural phenomena-the day and night, changing seasons, the ages of metal and pink-flowering of a conviction of some hidden power that necessarily must move these forces, and the quest to be born agreeable to that power, and that suits us. Thus, we have gradually come to understand the rhythm mercy, for example, for certain dates for planting, others to collect the fruits as expensive to pull from the earth, but also the pace, the man confides in his acts of respect for the god or the gods they are, waiting for better crops and do not fall under the divine anger kills.
And if through our history we list deities and powerful name we give to the achievement and to counter evil (whatever the idea that we have of them) take refuge in our God and man closely linked to them, their life, finding an explanation to many mysteries and help than not know, from the indecipherable. It is known that the greatest pain of the soul is feeling abandoned by their gods because the man only survived being humble, so superior beings invented to help you interpret the phenomena of nature, think gods seeking faith and confidence that life is not vain, to lessen the pain with dignity, to respond to everything that our intelligence can not explain and most notably, superior beings invented not so alone to face the inevitable end of the time we live up to everyone.
As is common in most ancient centers of human flourishing, in Oaxaca over the great gods, the Sun, Water, Earth-complement their cosmogony countless lesser gods, who generally believe that everything in existence carries with it essence divinity, and talk of a storm god, god-tree, god, lightning, animal god, god-man ... seeing in these ways human gods and deified human, on a scale that goes from the little of being in front of the Universe, to the powerful man who can go to the stars and back at will. And on this scale are the steps Oaxaca countless; occupying site attributed fantastic magical beings, armed with divine characteristics, capable of disrupting the order of things, taking place soothsayers, wizards, warlocks, shamans, healers of good and evil, which for some mysterious reason have access to the secrets of life, such an area closed.
The danger of death and disease are trances in which magic can provide some palliative action, why not?, Preferably divine help if asked who is likely to do with learned rituals thousands of years oral transmission. Meanwhile, in addition to plant and harvest at the right time, man will learn other things; know, for example, that there are herbs that feed and sometimes not. Some plants are effective remedies, others provide a pleasant condiment, these will be rare indeed in the mind, those are poisonous and there on this side are for the persistence others, or permit the life of the fauna, also sacred. Admired for the skill of the animal, it tries to achieve its speed, strength and another that his ability to survive. The clear air and fog, stone, water, fire, hills and mountains, the meadow, every valley, the cave, cavern and cave, river, jungle, desert Oaxaca divine shelter and loved life wonderful, some awful, including for each tribe in a different way, with explanations of their own individual and ethnic origin, according to their own culture, because it understood, each of the fourteen tribal settlements in Oaxaca has its own culture, becoming in many languages \u200b\u200bthought, word, singing, music, art and fear and fear of the unknown.
Zapotec, Mixtec, Mazatec, Chinantecos; Mixes; Chatinos; Amuzgos; Cuicatecos; Huaves; Chontales Triques; Popolocas; Ixcatecos; Chochos; Zoques; Naoas, some with completely unknown origin, some with ancestors going back thousands of years, that neither their internal wars and evangelization have fully succeeded in banishing their gods, which are alive, some disguised in robes and Christian names, in an odd mix that somehow binds the fear of the Indian with the fears they had in their minds of Europeans. Thus, the Pitao, great god giant Zapotec interpolated survives in the Christian God, the Sabi, Mixtec rain spirit is also San Marcos, and the Virgin of Guadalupe has the power to naoatls Tonantzin it is true that in Oaxaca is very difficult to distinguish where they end the old gods and start working the new, making it impassable to find the definition of the territory "of power" between them.
For sure, it is unknown where they came from the first that settled in Oaxaca; researchers deduced diverse backgrounds to disagree. Some say that but there were strong Toltec Olmec influences: it is assumed that at times came near one another, for millennia. However, the teacher says Gabriel Lopez Zapotec China, "the researchers may perhaps find the scientific truth of our origin, but we binnizá of Oaxaca live, dream and die in the grip of the poetic truth of our ancient mythology.
When the English arrived in Oaxaca were features of things never seen before: far were the days when one of their holy cities, the pride Monte Alban had been abandoned by its builders, the beautiful giants called "binnigulaza": "from the clouds, appeared in Daniban sacred hill, where they buried the huge body of legendary warlord Xozijo, located in the heart of the giant buried was built the magnificent Monte Alban" (Codex Zapotec). At the beginning of foreign invasion closed the door of Mitla, in Zapotec, where the input and output of eternity, although the city for centuries of time had been swallowed by the earth, and the English found little unless it stands today: half-buried stone walls covered with carved writing the history of Mitla, designated as one of the ceremonial cities America's most important, which housed schools of botany and mathematics, poetry and medicine, his astrologers left written in stone the round shape of the Earth and an event calendar that starts in the past forgotten and lost in the unknown future .
Oaxacan Indians, and in general the natural of our America, is a clean man from birth renders worship to the use of water, hygiene and simple wisdom about the hidden powers of nature's milk. They think of the hills comes the water, in the Oaxacan Isthmus areas named dani valley, the geographic feature that allows water to escape the heart of the hill, and found explanation of the many rivers that cross the area, and the aqueducts and canals continued to use English, many of which are still in use. Mixteco
Al mighty river, which gathers water from various other sources, he is seen flowing into the Atoyac, to deign Mezcala tributary, the famous eastern Balsas. Atoyac many rivers to give life, as Etla, the Tlacolula, the Salado and Miahuatlán, until it becomes Green River and other waters receiving crosses the Sierra Madre del Sur. For seven streams Jamiltepec Pinotepa and gleam like silver ribbons, including the Tierra Colorada, the Tecoyames and the Arena. Sixteen streams come together in the Sierra to the sea, forming a watermark between Green and Tehuantepec, contained in Benito Juarez Dam from where it gives way to Bahia Ventosa. From the Sierra Crossed, rivers and Ostuta Juchitán are led to silver mirrors are gaps and East Superior. Rushing to reach the Gulf slope currents Papaloapan Bravia and Coatzacoalcos, which are like seas contain liquid momentum. Much water, however, is not sufficient, because it does not coatzaqueñas highlands, suffering from thirst, so that agriculture there is not favorable. Nor does such a mountain range, not always, life becomes difficult because the fog tired at the end of life, as the principle. The sea Oaxaca itself that never tires, so that reveres him so much respect and fear: Nizataopani, the sea is for a huge living Zapotec is angered when something red about it, which is good but evil genius, So if you walk beside him, must be done with care to not send the wave brave man snatching their environment, drowning. Water
linking seas, lakes and rivers with extensive coastlines and ports, bays, headlands, beautiful beaches, bars, ropes that since before the birth stimulated the imagination of the people of this land ... bays, for example, are snatching up the best, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Angel, Salina Cruz and Huatulco Ventosa. I in Huatulco in 1988, when he began what is now an important tourist, I was invited by the Ministry of Tourism of Mexico, and I must say that its waters are the cleanest they can be seen, a bathing among exotic fish and sand golden sun. Others who claim their tickets at sea are Chacahua with Punta Galera, or Bay of Punta Conejo. Others have their island, like Tangola. Unforgettable places Oaxacan up many points, so that only one would like to be there naturally, perhaps because it has always been the man in the region praised the gods to keep him his world. I've seen, "when they are dying in our eyes" ("BIA ziyati miati lucid "in Zapotec), ie, at dusk, when it gets dark I saw the Oaxacan pray to their gods and imploring them to protect their land, taxed the gods who live here, living in every corner of this geography violent chaotic, aggressive, when Hernán Cortés explained to the King of Spain, just a sheet of paper crumpled and extending sovereign's eyes told him that he could thus better understand it.
I spent many hours in the Oaxaca market, resembling most equal to the "flea market" to describe their relations chroniclers of New Spain. It is almost impossible to list everything that is sold, because on weekends, especially on Saturday, arrive with their goods from all points, and it's huge range of foods, many artifacts, trinkets, ornaments and authentic works of art in different materials, stone, wood, fabric, and wool embroidery, wrought iron indescribable unparalleled in diverse ways and for all the profits possible to imagine. There are two buildings, in the first, largest, sold itself in a pleasant food, beautiful flowers are always fresh around the center stack, and the sides clothing, brightly colored blankets, barrilería, and across numerous devices Jarc: hammocks, backpacks, networks, belts, anqueras and everything needed for the field man and animals. The other building is mainly for household items like dishes: black, which is preferred, natural colored earthenware, glazed earthenware, green or color of wine, or fine polychrome ware such as Talavera. Bells sound black metal candle holders for altars, censers three feet to burn incense, clay pots red and black of all shapes and sizes, round, ovoid, fusiform. Planters holes to hang from the ceiling of the corridors in all shapes and sizes, toys bizarre, black monkey with a gesture perpetual, prehistoric elephants, manatees and turtles from glass globes filled with water dyed or guarding religious forms. Sold mud legions of saints, a whole procession of his images, tiny and medium-sized figures, painted the living, with strong colors, with strong popular flavor. Along with roadside ware are the baskets and baskets, an infinite variety, the finest with a lid, made from reeds otate and to withstand shock, there mats and beautiful palm-leaf mats that are bent a little bump and extended covering three to four meters. Brooms and palm fans, also tapes and hats, all kinds of them. Elsewhere irons sold: the greater variety of shapes and potential profits. On the other hand sell the wood, on the other blond corn in piles stack ... tejate vendors abound, a refreshing drink from the most varied tastes, and the snow fields (I tested exquisite squash blossom ice cream, the maguey and other plants that are unique to Oaxaca).
A primary concern are the Indian market vendors who come from remote villages in the state, each with their clothes and local products, the market is the mecca and its empire: they come with one or two days notice, sell the goods brought from their villages and buy what they lack. If I have any money, staying in the city on Sunday, invade the interior garden benches listening enraptured the music of the bands that meet there, on Sunday afternoon are going to return next week, without leaving the population before he prayed fervently at the altar of the temple near the Virgen de la Soledad, without having rubbed their legs with loose rock dust that embedded to the right of the entrance of the temple, for strength for the walk back. Sitting cross-legged in the manner of his old idols seem monolithic sculptures, those of the Sierra are dark and serious, very own, those of the Mixteca are clear and very nice features, those of Yalala are said to be aristocratic and any, have their hair braided with thin cotton strings up a kind black and white headdress that drops them on the back of garments very white, his gait slow and stately by that touched so high that carried with great poise. I say that in the vicinity of the holiday Etla are many Tehuanas, which wrapped up in their beautiful clothes are the most attractive and lively. Almost all Oaxacan wear headgear, do a sort of turban with a shawl, and even the humblest cover her hair, wrapped in black tape, with the same gourd and pumpkin painted on drinking and eating. Many breastfeeding their children. Women are the most popular herbal and have great importance in Oaxaca, because they relieve the diseases of the people with his knowledge of plants grown by them and their elders for thousands of years. The Sabbath day is formidable. Those who have been late with their products are installed in the adjacent streets, a man comes running to a bell that hangs in the center of the market and gives three bells that are heard throughout the premises, is to call the police: a thief or a quarrel, but we should note that the site is safe for tourists who are here only artifacts and foods imaginable. Are the meals in each country as integral anthropological tab of the people as an integral brand, collective history of the body and soul, and one always ends in the market environment ready to serve dishes of the region.
tastes from Oaxaca is known that more than anything books say. To see the wealth in this market is enough to see the variety of food to check. The kinds of cheese are endless, the cheeses of narrow strips, braided, are delicious. There are countless loaves which I found very tasty one they call fine resobado, buttery, salty, perfect for lunch. We were invited to Oaxacan tamales, which in Chile is emparientan with native corn tamales, but filled, which are wrapped in banana leaves two crusades that will open like a book that springs open when you finish the delicious tamales, no Hard as is often the City of Mexico, but workable, plenty of sauce and chicken. We were also invited to test Oaxacan food summit, the famous mole, which has several forms of preparation, I've tried is as black as coal, taste less complicated than the mass of Puebla, but just as delicious to the palate. Are a few flavors of Oaxaca in which life seems to rejoice and to soften a little its contours.
also caught my attention like that used by Oaxacan unmistakable to say things, your speech is special in a country in the world in which every province, every region, every village has its own dialect and speaks differently. In Oaxaca the stress of city dwellers is not only peculiar, not only the ll is pronounced soft and long, as French g, but the words vary in its location, sentence construction is different without changing the meaning. Sometimes they are very pure and rescue of sounds from his past forgotten. The verb used alone as a statement.
- Do you have report cards? I ask a seller what is built with beautiful bark paper, and she simply replied: "I have
.
Other times, the construction gives the phrase an exotic sound:
- How have you been? Have you been well?
Some words are altered in meaning by the people seem more logical. Thus, instead of lemon, lemon say, instead of apple orchard say, instead of orange, orange. The alteration is sometimes in the morphology of the floor to give better agreement, as the following compliment widely used in the market:
-bye beautiful, charming, pantorrilluda, do you want?
Another peculiarity is to collect words that by their nature are not brought, as verbs with the interjections:
- Look, ah ...!, resulting from an extraordinary simplicity. In this case the verb itself is an interjection and its effect is destroyed when used with the interjection ah, indefinite, and escape from a deep past.
Oaxaca, in full Selva Madre del Sur of Mexico, stands proudly the title of "Cultural Heritage of Humanity." Walking through the streets and markets, talk to your people is passing through the recesses of the most ancient past of America. So, Oaxaca is many things: life is a perpetual ritual, is the Sierra Madre, is the fifth of Mexico with its 95,364 square kilometers and over two million residents, is the legendary Maria Sabina and the sacred flowers ... Oaxaca is the gastronomic universe, and music, as the wind moves the leaves of the glens, and the fragrant breeze that echoes rhythmic waves of the coast, so is the heart of Oaxaca: musical and full of tenderness - one thing goes with the other, "because not in vain are the two thousand or so verses of "La Llorona" to check:
"clear bells say (Llorona), their bells are turning
:
If you die, you die (Llorona)
if you live, I still love you;
it is true what you say
(my Llorona Ay!):
can publish it in side ... "
I've been in Monte Alban, which reads the inscription at the entrance to the Ceremonial City:
" There time when humans were giants, a beautiful giant
called binnigulaza. "
Some of them came from the clouds,
of which fell in the form of birds harmonic singing,
with plumage in which they held the polychromy of the rainbow.
Other giants sprouted from the roots of the tree, flexible but indomitable. Others, strong and brave, born of rocks and wild beasts. And there were those who simply showed up.
Lovely pita, the great god giant maker of all things, built in honor of a huge mound of fiery element;
Daniban called it "sacred hill, and on this hill was buried
huge body Xozijo its legendary leader.
Located in the heart of the giant Xozijo,
built the magnificent splendor is Monte Alban. "
(Codex Zapotec)
themselves, today the inhabitants of Monte Alban archaeological site called People of the Clouds: Ben'Zaa in Zapotec and Mixtec language Ñusabi. Aztecs also designated as mixtecatl Nahuatl, "the people of the clouds." Monte Alban locked in their traditional names his secret to the Zapotec is Danibéeje or Danigalbeeje (Tiger Hill). In the official titles of the town of Xoxo, its custodian, read Jucu-oco "Nana, that romance means" hill of the twenty tigers. " These documents, some of the eighteenth century, Monte Alban English carries the designation of "Tiger Hill." The truth is that many hypotheses exist to explain the name, address even historical comparisons between Monte Alban and places of the same or similar traditions elsewhere, as Lazio Albano, near which his greatness was Alba Longa, the legendary rival of Rome. It is true that Monte Alban was always considered a sacred place. This is how the older tradition appointed Tanibaana site ("holy mountain" in Zapotec archaic language, the vocabulary of the voice Córdoba designated as word naming Baanah untouchable, sacred, and mountain or hill Tani as interchangeable.) Another voice Aztec acelotepec, so called "hill-tigre", the Aztecs arrived in the area when Monte Alban was already a ghost town, immediately before the Conquest. Failure to make this ancient citadel all contemporary chroniclers of the conquistadors, who named themselves less important than other settlements in the area, because in the sixteenth century Monte Alban had been missed: wrapped in the mystery of its walls, became a place haunted object of profound evocation of the descendants Mixtec and Zapotec, the two great cultures of the valley with the same apparent origin divided into branches about four thousand years, and those who come Xoxos. The unique architecture of Monte Alban cropped at the top exercising such a suggestion and mystery that until the early twentieth century, was considered as a zone of enchantment, inhabited by the last ancient deities and divinities.
Tradition has it that after the demise of giants that inhabited the earth a day, to be buried the last of his heroes, which were built in honor of Monte Alban. After the Great Flood, when he spent time with no historical record, the first land to emerge from the water, the monument of giant Xozijo was first seen, yet never saw him again one whole, having to do so, dug large depths at the site, something for which even archaeological science is not ready. This story that there were giants before us is doubtful but not impossible. Some say frankly that is true, and to address the issue requires a separate text, but we can at least note that the human being, scientifically, is getting smaller, which is being developed in a process of millennia, this The twentieth century science proving that supported him everything in nature tends to the atomic. Genetics, in this regard, it is set out in everyday life: it is true that the old man is losing more and more his demeanor. Perhaps our tendency to atomic lies precisely the greatest mystery of man. And this enigma rose Monte Alban, which, as anyone can read in the Codices Zapotec and Mixtec, it reached city status wise around the year 550 before us, where, historically, the site agglomerated to the deities of Mesoamerica: from that time they have rescued some of the stelae (carved stone) more unique of the ancient world as the number of the Dancers and Men of the Word, also correspond to this time the figures enclosed in what looks like an egg (which are associated with "air things on their machines) and the Astronomical Observatory South Platform, which has not been restored yet, but is similar to those found in Machu Pichu, Peru and some excavated in the Peten, Guatemala, and has led some researchers, such as Oaxaca archaeologist Martínez Gracida, to articulate a common origin for the most ancient cultures of America, which is very likely, but unverifiable now, but it can be when they move in our archaeological rescue continent. In Monte Alban, the rescue site was started in the 1930, but work has been abandoned in later times for lack of funds, never an exploration in this important area has spanned more than two years of continuous work. The National Institute of Archaeology and History of Mexico, with its meager resources has only managed to almost completely restore the Great Plaza, and lack done. It is the reason that this archaeological site, included in the list of cultural heritage of all mankind, channeled through the INAH for rescue aid. Help you, dear reader, you can deduct from their taxes by international agreements and may require information in the delegation of UNESCO in your country or directly to INAH, Mexico City
I conclude by saying that I have visited twice Monte Alban. On the first occasion, I was sent to do an interview with Mary Beaver wise guide and photographer, to work the second time was different: a dawn, before signing off on a subsequent visit to Oaxaca, to enjoy another perspective, I went to visit Monte Alban, alone. And, in my ignorance fueled by the heat that was cool, I decided to just lie down to rest among some ancient rock carvings I saw in the open air site seemed the most suitable because it could see further excavation immediately that someone had recently done , and its location allowed me to make out much of the valley of Oaxaca. Mary Beaver had told me to go up an offering, brought incense and a white candle, I lit between two rocks with hieroglyphics that protected from the wind. It is true that from time to time I seemed to see little snakes across swift close to me, but they seemed so small I simply fell into the break, ignoring them. The place was wrapped in a unique atmosphere that is dropped from the sky like a blessing. That was, deep in contemplation, when I was awakened virtually screaming for a group of workers who showed me something from the rocks nearby ... Instantly I saw as far as I was approached two men, tights and gloves protected with hard, they were horrified to see me where I had chosen to rest: monoliths had recently rescued from the land covered a nest of vicious "yellow beard "a small but deadly snake that has the distinction of jumping several feet when he decides to attack. In my amazement I saw as quickly, one of the guards installed on "my" site a freshly painted sign, strictly forbidding traffic in what seemed like the place better protected ... and I must say, while I was exposed to the hidden danger that slides into the rocks of Monte Alban, something in the air, or in my spirit told me to stay calm, you could stand there, the huge Xozijo whoever protects arrive at the site in whose heart lies the darkness of the days when giants lived here.
I visited Mitla, just minutes outside of Oaxaca. Mitla is one of the most beautiful archaic architecture of America. And the site says where is the entrance and exit of Eternity. Mitla is a door more than a ceremonial city and for her, have the locals, everyone crosses, although no one knows who has returned. The palaces of Mitla are among the most sophisticated of antiquity. It highlights the monuments decorating their exceptional beauty, geometric design, skill and movement combine in the decorations shaped like a puzzle, with tiny pieces of carved stone together without the use of any type of stucco, which are way fretwork designs with its own meaning. English chroniclers when referring to the ceremonial architecture of this city, make mixing admiration the fear of recognizing such a dedicated architectural grandeur of death. Today, newly sprung from the earth by the grace of archeology, the city, like thousands of years, is protected by wild dogs at nightfall does not allow the passage to another living being. Writing covered walls carved in stone, like a huge book Mitla only be read using more than the eyes.
The mythology of the founders of Mitla is dragged to a time which we know nothing. The teacher tells Zaachila frames "already sprouted trees instead of fruit, were birds of many colors, which has long nestled in its branches, then fell to the ground and plucked and becoming men." After living two thousand years in the valley, a god revealed to the Zapotec they would be "custodians of the sacred site where ever people come and go." In one of his Codices tells how "they pointed to a spot where you should build a city on the threshold of what is not over." Mitla was born: as a place that guards an entrance to eternity.
In the "Monograph Zapotec", 1982, published by the National Indigenous Institute of Mexico, I read: "Despite the predominance of Catholicism, there are many villages that are still some pre-Hispanic beliefs, as referred to certain animals presumably totem, called ketones, which is connected with a person from birth ... There are animals like the dog wardens, who cares which hosted the most important religious and burial of the entire area Zapotec, Mitla, considered holy ground and entrance to the underground world and eternity, located in the center of the Earth. " Zapotec totemic religion inspires a pool of his tribal name, because they themselves never named "Zapotec." Believe that all things have a magical name (as it seems) not to act, that is how their newborns, as well as official name, other names have only their parents animist and midwives know: this is an existing practice, and human secret name so it is in their surroundings, so you do not know the actual name of Mitla inventing many hypotheses to explain the designation of the site where the first thing that hits are the carved stonework, considered among the most beautiful ancient America gave us. In the "Vocabulary", Cordoba, reads, in Zapotec voice, one of the names of the sanctuary was to Lichbaana or Vohobaana (sacred place, house of worship). According to Burgos, the proper name Mitla Yoho-pechelichi-pezelao or Pezelao strength, the supreme oracles Gentiles. "
For Contemporary chroniclers of the Zapotec people, like my friend Don Marcos de Zaachila, "Zapotec site called Lyobaa, which means place of rest. Mitla is the residence of the high Huijatóo, high priest of Eternity. He guards the door through which life enters and exits into existence. Mitla's real name is unpronounceable, of such force that he says it drops dead. " The word Mitla is Náhuatl, the Aztecs called to the site or below world Mictlan, the land of the dead. Mictlan was a mystical place in the philosophical conception of the Mesoamerican peoples, the contact point between life and death, between earth and nothing existed in Mesoamerica several hits on the domains of Mictlan, but the door Mitla was legendary. Religious mysticism that evoked the site to the Indians of the sixteenth century did the English call him San Pablo Mitla, in honor of this saint who lived in a cave. But they certainly raised concerns they did not understand, preferring to forget, going almost unnoticed, only recorded damage at the site of the Christian church was built on one of these monuments to death in his time place of worship of deities Zapotec sacred burial of kings and high-ranking priestly or Teozapotlán Zaachila. In any case, is one of the few archaeological sites coming the classical period, the English reached to see in operation, but could never understand. It was impossible to understand what Don Juan Carlos Castaneda tried to teach: that the only company we know that life is precisely the death, who can teach us not to cling to a person, object or feeling. Following completion of the task from.
Mitla is located 40 kilometers southeast of Oaxaca City in the valley of Tlacolula trucks and taxis are Regular route. Only you can see daylight, because apart from the pack of dogs that took at sunset, is banned from entering after 17:00.
Not much remains of Mitla, but it is exceptional. Four groups of buildings have been rescued, of which nothing remains but broken walls and in the second group, surrounded by four rooms, two subways (as Mitla road was all provided by underground). Around a courtyard, is the most important groups of buildings that remain, one of them is the Hall of Columns, a hallway leads to the Palace of the board, which can be seen on the walls of the noblest works of ancient art: ten thousand pieces of pottery that are adjusted in an own language frets, representing elements such as water, wind, and phenomena like rain. This architectural plan (A central courtyard and four rooms on its side), is observed in almost all Mesoamerican architecture. Taken together, form the so-called Cross of Quetzalcoatl or Quincunx, the five items comprising the courtyard and the four rooms, this cross is the focal point that symbolizes the meeting of heaven and earth, the "co" or esoteric center, and also is the classical figure of Venus as morning star. Is applied here the powerful Law Center, which transforms the creative alliance between matter and spirit ...
on a road underpass, leads to the residence of the "Wishing Stone" and "Column of Life." If the gentle reader ever visit Mitla do not forget to embrace this so-called "Column of Life" is some monolithic column that supports the center of the cross-shaped roof, which is said in it one can measure their own arms around her longevity: the distance exists between the fingertips is the proportion (relative to the top of the body) of the measurement of time left to live. I must confess that I did, and was told that even I can live about forty years, which made me very, very happy. At the end of this visit, cited in published which ceremonial offering, a short verse of Gabriela Mistral, when he was here, on the threshold of eternity:
"In the field of Mitla
one day cicadas, the sun, running,
I bent down a well and an Indian came
to hold onto the water,
and my head, like a fruit,
was within his palms.
drank what I drank,
it was her face with my face,
and in a flash I knew
meat Mitla be my caste. "
I must say, however, it is little wonder so many in Oaxaca before one of the most unique experiences I have lived: when Huautla de Jimenez met the wise María Sabina, many years ago. And this is about the receipt of this book "Oaxacan makes its mark" I was filled with nostalgia, I returned to a time in my life, no doubt, made me better, when, with pleasant surprise, I see in this exceptional work, as a result of these Women of Oaxaca Navigating the time, including my story of that encounter with the priestess Maria Sabina, the knew of fungi, the woman who looks inside, woman daylight; woman moon morning star wife, woman cool mist, wet spray women, women of the dawn; woman beneath dripping tree; woman neat clothes, woman whirlwind; woman who can not lie; woman well, women working, you can enter and leave the realm of death, which comes under the water looking from the opposite bank, the woman who springs; the woman who cleans, the woman who manages, the woman boat, the woman in the White Paper, which came from the birthplace of people, wherever the flowers, the woman from whom I learned that the essence is what makes equal all beings, who differ among themselves depending on their proximity or remoteness with respect to that essence.
© Waldemar Verdugo Fuentes. Chilean writer DRAGON
