XochiKwikatl. Flor Y Canto. Our ancestors equated the acquisition of knowledge with the beauty of nature and sacredness, with flower and song. Because nature is a part of the creator, the process of acquiring knowledge was considered sacred.

Cuitlapalli Teotlatoliztilli. The masses of our people were referred to in Tenochtitlan as Cuitlapalli. The masses were often considered the wings and the tail of the bird, the bird, being the entire nation. In this way Huitzilopochtli (the southern-facing hummingbird) represents the will of the nation. This new ceremony, distinct from others, is one based on a spoken message, Teotlatoliztilli, the act of speaking with spirit. So I understand the event to be the act of speaking with spirit to the masses of our people.

I see our people as a nation, and a nation which must work toward the restoration of our nation. We can only do this by taking a holistic approach to our community, and we must be willing to look at all of the afflictions and the treasures of our community, including some of the following themes in our messages:

Gender relations

Communication in relationships

The importance of strong families

Community empowerment

Current events/politics

Self development

Our true history and culture

The role of different ceremonias and the calendar

As far as the order of the floricanto, my ideas are as follows.

Opening lead by the danzates with Palabra for their group.

Danza:Cruz

Opening song lead by danzantes’ designated singer

Speaker provided by Teokalli 10-15 minutes

Song

One Danza

Speaker provided by LRJM 10-15 minutes Introduction to smudging

Drumming While Smudging The Attendees

Closing Song

Danza Cruz

I understand the hesitation and critiques behind the idea o the idea of embarking a new expression of spirituality. I have gone over these critiques in my mind many times, but I believe that the good that the benefits to the community outweigh the hesitations I might feel.

When everything is said and done, I would rather rest knowing that I tried new approaches to rebuilding our community and to reaching the hearts, minds and spirits of our people.

Hector A. Chavana Jr.

Feminism doesn’t confront colonialism.

Feminism fights white men, but we shouldn’t be fighting our men.  We should be developing them.

Our pre-Cuahutemoc culture valued women, therefore our strategy for equality should be restorative.

Please watch all of the three videos before judging.

He asked me to include his contact information:
(323)830-7479
zemazatzin @ hotmail.com
www.aztekayolokalli.com

Happy New Year to all, in this European colonial calendar count. It is a new year because we are measuring it from exactly 365.25 days before…so it is definitely a new year cycle.

El Maestro

On march 12, 2010, when the Sun first appears on the horizon the new year on the Ancient Mexika Chronological System will begin, and it will travel in 20 day cycles, 18 of them, giving us 360 days, then a small period of 5 1/4 days will complete the Solar year. The ancient ones used the last 5 and 1/4 days in a special way, setting them aside to dedicate for Reflection, Balance and Adjustment in reviewing the previous year and planning the new one.

They developed this system by learning to respect everything and everybody that surrounded them, and learning by patient obeservation and careful study that they were at once a great duality as an individual and as Cosmos. They not only developed the most precise system ever invented to measure and record time and space but they also incorporated that knowledge into their lives and their daily living obeying this law of duality, not in a superstitious way but in a scientific sense.

In essence what our most ancient ancestors found was that time was the most common denominator and that each individual living being had a right to as much of it as he could adequately use and enjoy, particularly if it represented use and enjoyment for the whole. They treated every day (actually every piece of time) with respect, knowing that every day presented an attitude, a priviledge and a warning.

This kind of thinking probably sounds a little too strange or Utopia…like…too good to be true…but there is proof and evidence, traces, and more importantly it is still practiced today, and can be taught and relearned. But it is very important to know that this type of thinking and life ways are not “indian” ways…these are human life ways that existed here, and probably all over the earth, long before anybody decided to call all the original peoples of this western hemisphere “indians”. This is simply a human story and their relationship with nature at the rhythm of the Cosmos.

None of this story is found in history.

Today on the first day of school at CCSF in the History of Mexico class the first lecture stated the fact that is supposed to lay without rebuttal or challenge “…everybody thought that the maya were very peaceful people, but now we know they were bloody too, because we can read the maya glyphs..and everyone knows that the Azteks based their society on warefare and sacrifice”, etc…etc… casting thousands of years and lives dedicated to finding that balance and taking their responsibility serious into the black hole of his-story.

On this day, 11 Jaguar, Matlaktli ze Ozelotl, my son looked at me and we smiled, fortunately on the way to the class we were discussing the day and all the possibilities it presented for us…so, like a Jaguar we used those qualities of being audacious and did not let anything bother us, then we used those tenacious qualities of the Jaguar to make our move, and we stayed after the class and waited patiently to meet the teacher and begin our new relationship with him as an ally in this mission to regain that equilibrium.

In our personal experience with original peoples from Onondaga in “canada” to Machu Picchu in “peru” we have found that the thread of time and the respect thereof runs throughout uniting one people, one culture, one continent with a multitude of customs and traditions. All original peoples life ways were based on the most simple yet profound acknowledgement and respect of the elements that give life, and their personal relationship with nature. Very interesting also was the fact that the original names of the peoples all refer to humans… people.

In conclusion, I submit this thought; a great big part of our lack of identity and progress as a people (hue-mans) comes from continuing to use and demanding that other original peoples use the term “indian” to define ourselves and our millenial life stories. When this happens we have no inheritance to offer our children, in short denying them their birth right.

The big problem with americans is that they don’t behave like humans.

Que Viva La Revolucion

About one million teenage girls in the United States, or one in three, gets pregnant before they turn 20.

More than 80 percent of those pregnancies are unintended and unintentional, and one quarter of the girls who have babies have another one within two years.

Hispanic girls have the highest teen birth rate at 83 out of 1,000 girls.

For  many reasons, activistas have never really touched on the subject teenage preganancy in our comunidad. This, along with other issues like health, have traditionally been seen as a personal issue, and traditional activism has always been about fighting the system. It seems that activists draw the line at the canton’s door.

There are complex reasons why activistas won’t touch the subject. Those on the far, far left have traditionally seen family values as a construct of capitalism, and some proponents of communism really believe that the family is an enemy to the state or at least an impedimet to the creation of the new human, which should see all humanity as his brother/sister, and not just his family. They see this as slightly elevated individualism. Addressing teenage pregnancy properly also requires a talk about personal responisbility. Many would rather focus on defeating the system.

There is also the feminista challenge. Some feminists resent the implication that children require a man to have a “proper” upbringing or that gay couples can’t do an explary job in rearing children.  Point taken.  I have seen very strong women and men grow up without a father, and I have seen others grow up in a situation in which a father has done more harm than good.

Even so, when speaking about the ideal situation for our children, I still believe that family is important.  Setting aside the requirement of a straight man, I believe that a positive family is a requirement for the strong nation that we shall build in Our New Anahuac. 

I accept that families can come with a variety of gender relations and that a traditional marriage might not be necessary.  But a positive family is required for us to be a strong people.  I don’t think that a movement promising a new tomorrow can ignore it.  If those of us who concern ourselves with flowering the pilosophy of Mexicayotl do not pay attention the the values of our community, then who will?

The Catholic Church has failed, as it was destined to when forced on us.  The schools won’t touch the issue.  Planned Parenthood has promoted women’s rights, but has no place in promoting our people’s culture.  Those of us who see our people as a nation have the responsibility to make sure that the nation is built upon values that will sustain our nation.  If a nation has no values, it will fall.

Do not confuse the ideas of this post with the Christian ideal of marriage being an intractable covenant with Jesus. 

I am not suggesting that we promote the idea of trying to force unhealthy marriages (I remember a pamphlet about 15 years ago.  I think it was from the Chicano Moratorium Committee which suggested 50 actions, and it included dissuading people from divorce).  I have seen single fathers be more involved than some fathers who live in the child’s home.  My ideal  would discourage the behaviors which lead to divorce, such as alcohol and spousal abuse, infidelity and materialism.

I’m not suggesting that the problem is “unwed mothers.”  This phenomenon is a symptom of the problem, and blaming mothers frees the young man of his responsibilities.

I’m not saying that gay couples can’t raise healthy families.

What I am saying is that we must promote the idea of a healthy family in our community.  Our sacred ancestors called their community their extended home (kalpulli).  Our best friends are honored by attaching them to our home: nonchantlaka, literally means homeboy in Nahuatl.  Places of worship, teokalli, is literally translated at spirit home.  All of this speaks to the important place that the home and family plays in our traditions. 

Our nations were build on the foundations of families, and exteneded families, and our nation must be re-built on families.  So what does the ideal Anahuac family look like, if traditional Christian marriage is not needed, if gay couples are not condemned to hell, and if we recognize the importance of extended families.  I have my own ideas, but I will leave it up to you to comment.  Please share your thoughts below.

In the past ten years, we have seen a great deal of growth in the practice of Mexicayotl around Aztlan-Anahuac.  Roughly speaking, Mexicayotl is the re-discovery of certain spiritual beliefs and practices of the Azteca and other indigenous nations, along with a compatible world view.   

Mexicayotl is a beautifully transformational set of beliefs and practices.  It possesses the beauty and enlightenment found in nature.  It has the potential to restore certain hidden truths to our people.  If Mexicayotl were adopted by the masses of our people, it could be a great force in guiding us toward our proper destiny.  

I believe that Mexicayotl could be more complete and powerful if the people were provided the opportunity to understand the beliefs on their own terms.  Bringing Mexicayotl to the masses will require adaptation to the understandings, availability and customs that the people are used to.    By offering a special ritual or ceremony oriented toward the masses, we will be able to offer them the principles of Mexicayotl in a format that will fit them. 

A floricanto that La Raza Justice Movement hosted a few years back was move toward that direction.   I understand that the idea of establishing a new tradition might seem out of the ordinary.  I know that challenges and objections exist, but many traditions, including the Mexica style of danza, are adapted and interpreted from older traditions. 

In fact, if the Mexica people had held that all traditions were immutable, I truly doubt that Tenochtitlan would have ever achieved the greatness that it did, as many Mexica traditions came from older societies.   Mexicayotl never existed as a compartmentalized practice among the few.  It touched every part of the lives of the people, and it occupied a special place in the nation! 

If we make a special effort to incorporate the people, our practice of Mexicayotl will be stronger, and we will move steps closer to the destiny that Cuahutemoc revealed to us.   I would like to invite you to discuss a new tradition-the XochiKwikatl-Floricanto-Cuitlapalli Teotlatoliztlli-as a way to encourage the masses to connect with Mexicayotl.

The sample text below is an excerpt from a statement issued in Nahuatl by Emiliano Zapata in 1918 in order to convince the Nahua towns in the area of Tlaxcala to join the Revolution against the regime of Venustiano Carranza.^[104] The orthography employed in the letter is improvised, and does not distinguish long vowels and only sporadically marks “saltillo” (with both <h> and acute accent).

PS. If you missed it, there’s always next year.

Roberto Rodriguez (left), recently featured for his conjunto music in Houston Free Press, and Nick Gaitan (right), just off his tour with Willie Nelson

Full House

Armas

arte

Arte on Wood (My Favorite)

Rock with a message

Osvaldo Hernandez with his new vestuario in the spirit of Mictlan

Xavier Herrera, voaclist, guitarist, and Chiahui Nahui event organizer