The rain gods' rebellion : the cultural basis of a Nahua insurgency

2020·2.6 MB·English

by  Taggart, James M., 1941- author

The Rain Gods’ Rebellion

The Rain Gods’ Rebellion
The Cultural Basis of a Nahua Insurgency
James M. Taggart
•
University Press of Colorado
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ISBN: 978-1-60732-949-7 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-1-60732-950-3 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-60732-956-5 (ebook)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607329565
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Taggart, James M., 1941-author.
Title: The rain gods’ rebellion: the cultural basis of a Nahua insurgency /
James M. Taggart.
Description: Louisville: University Press of Colorado, [2020] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019058294 (print) | LCCN 2019058295 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781607329497 (cloth) | ISBN 9781607329503 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781607329565 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Nahuas—Mexico—Puebla (State)—History—20th century. | Insurgency—
Mexico—Puebla (State)—History—20th century. | Land use, Rural—Mexico—Puebla (State) |
Rain gods—Mexico. | Nahua mythology. | Nahuas—
Social life and customs.
Classification: LCC F1221.N3 T345 2020 (print) | LCC F1221.N3 (ebook) |
DDC 972/.48—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058294
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058295
Figures 1.2, 2.2, 5.1, and 9.1 first appeared in Remembering Victoria:
A Tragic Nahuat Love Story by James M. Taggart, University of Texas Press (2007). Figure 7.2
first appeared in The Bear and His Sons: Masculinity in Spanish and Mexican Folktales by James
M. Taggart, University of Texas Press (1997). They are reprinted
in this book courtesy of the University of Texas Press.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
Chapter 2
Rebellions in the Sierra Norte 13
Chapter 3
San Miguel and the Rain Gods 27
Chapter 4
“The Rain God,” 1975 39
Chapter 5
“The President and the Priest,” 1975 54
Chapter 6
“The President of Hueytlalpan,” 1978 78
Chapter 7
“The Water in Ixtepec,” 1978 93
Chapter 8
“A Humble Man’s Predicament,” 1978 108
Chapter 9
“Malintzin,” 1978 134
Chapter 10
“The Land Transaction” 143
Chapter 11
After the UCI 151
Chapter 12
“The Storm” 163
Chapter 13
Conclusion 175
Appendix
“Ahuehueht,” 1975 183
“The Drunk,” 1977 190
“The Drunk” II, 1977 199
Notes 211
References Cited 225
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to many foundations and people whose indispensable help enabled
me to carry out long-term fieldwork in Huitzilan and organize the results into a
book. Those who funded the fieldwork are the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the
Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the National
Science Foundation, the Fulbright Specialist Program, Sorbonne University,
and the Lewis Audenreid Professorship in History and Archaeology at Franklin
and Marshall College.
Their generous support enabled me to make many visits to Huitzilan between
1968 and 2012 where I met and received the indispensable help of Nacho Ángel
Hernández, who taught me his Nahua language, carried out a survey of labor mi-
gration, told me his stories, helped me correct transcriptions of stories I recorded
from him and others, and explained narrators’ obscure allusions. Other Nahuas
in Huitzilan, who contributed more stories and offered invaluable insights into
their culture, are Nacho’s older brothers, Miguel and Nicolás or “Colax,” Miguel
Ahuata de los Santos, de la Co Ayance, Antonio Veracruz, and Miguel Fuentes.
Juan Hernández shared his ideas and stories about rain gods that were key for
my understanding of how he and other Nahuas positioned themselves relative to
the Church. Mariano Isidro and Juan Mauro, of Santiago Yaonáhuac, told rain
gods’ stories in which they described their more egalitarian community, which
enabled me to place the Nahua experience in Huitzilan in a broader comparative
perspective. My beloved compadres, Juan Gravioto and Antonia Santiago, invited
me into their lives and gave me honest and needed advice for how to live my life
in Huitzilan. My dear compadres, Aurelio Aco and his wife, Mencha Cortés, and
their children, Alonso, Rolando, and Irene, provided me with generous hospital-
ity during my visits to Huitzilan over the span of forty-seven years.
Many scholars provided important criticisms on earlier drafts of this man-
uscript. They include: James Maffie, whose work clarified my understanding
of ancient Nahua metaphysics; Kelly S. McDonough, whose work on Nahua
intellectuals is an inspiration; and Alan and Pamela Sandstrom, whose work
on contemporary Nahua pantheism is a model of ethnographic clarity and sig-
nificance. I have also benefited from many discussions of Nahua culture and
ix