Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Rememberer

During Aztec times, every sizable village had a Rememberer, someone who mentally stored all the history of their village, maintaining an oral history of important things and events so that nothing would ever be forgotten. The person had an aura of spiritual connection and was "gifted" by possessing an expansive memory, used on the spot by village leaders. This position of esteem existed for generations within the elaborate structure of Aztec life---until the time of the Spanish conquest. A Rememberer was chosen early to train the mind and immerse himself in memorizing ideas, lengthy history and spiritual tasks.

Sitting in the 1959 station wagon, I would listen to Dad as he clucked out the names of Aztec gods, blending the "t" and "l", as in chocolatl, and the “t” and “z”, expertly enunciating “Quetzacoatl, Popocateptl, Huitzilipoztl”. I wondered why he wanted me to know these difficult names, and he would just laugh and tell me that speaking Spanish was good, but knowing Nahuatl was revealing about nature and people. He would cite names of Aztec poets like Cuahtemoc and recite a poem in Nahuatl, with me staring at him wondering how he could ever REMEMBER the detail, difficult pronunciations and even poetry.

Over the years I heard so much about the gods, Teotihuacan, la Malinche (the wicked Aztec woman who helped the Spaniards), and why we still used words like “chancla”, “pozole” and “tamal” . At some point, I asked Dad why he felt so strongly about it, thinking it was because of Mama Felipita, but instead of a direct answer he would offer parables on the wrongs of organized religion, i.e. Catholicism, a big negative in his mind. He would also scorn the government on their attitudes against Native Americans in both Mexico and the U.S. Since his passing, thinking about Dad’s history conversations, his extensive knowledge of the indigenous people of Mexico, the Apaches and Comanches, I slowly realized what a great and joyful Rememberer he would have made!

Josie Simons

Monday, June 20, 2011

Yaquis versus the Federales

One day my dad told me that his mother's resemblance to Native Americans was not by chance, as oral tradition in his family had passed down the story that very possibly, her antecedents began with the Yaqui tribe. Now, these native people were considered obstinate, and held down the uppermost western corner of Mexico for themselves through the most savage and entrenched fighting ever seen because this mountainous region was never conquered, since the Spanish Conquest began in 1547 until the early twentieth century. This area is in the state of Sinaloa and the Yaquis inhabited the region stretching past the border into Arizona. The historical data pinpoints seven Yaqui villages at the time of the Conquest, which over time dwindled to fewer than four. Dad related that his father had been told by her people that Mama Felipita's family originally inhabited one of those villages. The story goes that her people were taken away and rescued from death at the hands of the Federales (Mexican government soldiers) who were raiding a village, killing any Yaqui men, women and children over land rights during the early 19th century.

Geographic isolation up high in the mountains of the Sierra Madre offered natural protection for the villages at the time favoring the Yaquis insular way of life, and they honed their vigilance against anyone entering their lands, often amid violent responses towards interlopers, some who barely survived to report back to the Mexican government. By the end of the 19th century, the Mexican government had made it a persistent priority to get at the Yaquis by whatever means in order to claim and parcel out the land.

Dad said that Mama Felipita's family were rescued by a scout in the Mexican army because he couldn't agree with going into the village to kill. He heard what was going on, the screaming, babies crying and old men being shot. The people were running and hiding, but the scout took young people and women out safely through the pines to a safe place. Papa Luis said he was told this by Mama Felipita's family, this was an old story in her family, and that she wasn't born yet when this happened to them. We don't know where Felipita was born, but I know she was 20 years younger than my grandfather Papa Luis, and he knew her people and Mama Felipita when she was a little girl. From Dad's account, all the little kids in the village ran up to him when he would visit because he was very kind and would bring them sweets on his travel to whereever her family lived in the latter 1880's.