#SLCancestors

[lvmdayofdead]

Daughter of Chalchihuitlicue and Oshún

By Xanath Caraza

Who was La Mulata de Córdoba? She was an African Mexican healer and midwife from the state of Veracruz, Mexico and born as a free individual around 1780 at a time when many African Mexican people were enslaved.  No one is certain about her birth name, and she was known as la Mulata de Córdoba because of her mixed background and for living in the surroundings of the city of Córdoba in the mountains of Veracruz. 

Around the time she was born, Mexico or New Spain was still a colony of Spain. Although there were other free African Mexicans, it was not common for all African Mexican people.  In that sense, she was fortunate to be free, and most likely her freedom was the cause of envy.

She became quite well-known because of her deep knowledge of Mexican traditional medicine, remedies, the use of medicinal plants and herbs.  This is a skill still appreciated nowadays throughout Mexico and especially in rural areas where doctors are scarce. 

Another medically related asset she had was as a midwife.  We can imagine how well-appreciated she must have been since giving birth at home is even today a challenging event for both the mother, the baby, and the midwife. In addition to her work with traditional medical practices, she was also known for another distinctive feature, her beauty.  Legend says that many men were bewitched by her eyes, hair, and youth. As her legendary fame grew as a practitioner of traditional medicine and also for her beauty, she was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition when she was about seventeen years old.  Some people supported her while others did not.   After her arrest, she was taken to the Port of Veracruz.  Community members lined the road to see her, la Mulata de Córdoba.  She was taken in chains where she was jailed for life in the Fortress of San Juan the Ulúa.  There, she was accused of witchcraft.  She had also recently refused the advances of an official from the city of Córdoba, which likely influenced her arrest. 

One day she disappeared from the Fortress of San Juan the Ulúa.  Since her disappearance was an embarrassment for Mexican authorities, a legend that reinforced the idea that she was a bruja, a witch, was made up in connection to her disappearance.  This legend says that she asked for a piece of charcoal and drew a window on one of the walls of her cell, and through that window, she also drew the ocean and a galleon ship. Then she asked the guard what was missing.  While the guard was thinking about the answer she vanished from her cell and the last time she was seen she was waving at the guard from the galleon ship sailing along with the waves of the ocean.  Since the actual guard was missing too, I have my own hypothesis. I like to think that they had begun a romance and fled together. However, what we know is that she was never seen again.  

Statue of La Mulata de Córdoba in Veracruz, Mexico by artist Juan Balderas Bello. 

Read, listen, and enjoy our homage to La Mulata de Córdoba, "Dressed in Marigolds” by Xánath Caraza.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Three Women Healers

It is our Day of the Dead tradition to honor Latin American historical figures. In previous years we have honored La Llorona, La China Poblana, La Catrina, among others, and this year we have chosen three women that represent the history and leadership of their cultures. This year we are honoring Salomé Ureña (Dominican Republic), La Mulata de Córdoba (Mexico), and Palla Chimpu Ocllo or Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo (Peru). 

Scholar and writer Xanath Caraza, and Frida Larios and Manuel ‘Ché’ León from Indigenous Design Collective have joined us to commemorate these emblematic figures. We asked Indigenous Design Collective to share their thoughts about their creative process during this project inspired by Caraza’s poems. 

“The three women, healers, and leaders hold their hands and rise in their indigenous light. On the left: the light of the Cempasúchil flower guiding our ancestors to the underworld gateway. In the middle the Inti: the strength of the Inka sun in our blood. On the right: four linked hearts, a symbol of agreement in Ghanian peoples mourning garments. Together, the three women unite in diversity to form a woven fabric: an unbreakable continuous pattern. We use textile and cultural visual language to illustrate the cultural essence and history of these notable women. LatinX and indigenous women in the US today are root to these same values, we must harvest our crop.” –Indigenous Design Collective, Frida Larios & Manuel (Che) León. 

Sun Princess/Princesa del Sol inspired by Palla Chimpu Ocllo or Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo (Peru). 

“Sun Princess, in your womb you conceived a new race. Within your forebear, love for your culture On his forehead, you tattooed gold. From Inti, strength in your bloodline”

Mother of the Lands/Madre de las Tierras inspired by Salomé Ureña (Dominican Republic)

“From your heart, letters grow, nature poet from the mountains of Quisqueya”

Dressed in Marigolds/Vestida de Cempasúchiles inspired by La Mulata de Córdoba (Mexico)

“Dressed in marigolds, your scent lingers along pathways shrouded in pearly fog.”

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[lvmdayofdead]

Dressed in Marigolds

By Xánath Caraza

“¡ay! que bonito es volar a las dos de la mañana a las dos de la mañana ¡ay! que bonito es volar” Dressed in marigolds, your scent lingers along pathways shrouded in pearly fog. Mexicana de bronce, you emerge from the mountains, range of tropical Veracruz. From heart of the jungle where Chalchiuhtlicue and Oshún entwine their spells Coursing through your veins, you are born with magical conga drum and huehuetl rhythms. Mulata de Córdoba, your enlightenment and vision of loveliness daunt men. Your bewitching eyes trap anyone who sees them. Sacred Obsidian stone, allowing to see the future and past, is embedded in your gaze. You bear the smoke of copal, making a path through the thickness of the damp jade jungle. On evenings of full moons, you seek talauma flowers, vanilla orchids, and passion fruit vines for love potions. Dressed in marigolds, your scent lingers along pathways shrouded in pearly fog. Root beer plant foliage guides you in darkness. Arnica, tobacco, and sage shower your long and silent gait. Jimson weed, angel’s trumpet and St. John’s Wort flow through your red veins. Rue, spearmint and anise combine on your bronze skin. Woman of power: As midwife, bringing others into the world is one of your daily tasks. Seashell and sea snail reader, revealing the future is a cherished gift. Exquisiteness of your long and curly hair can make anyone quiver. For this reason and wicked tongues, the Inquisition condemned you. Divinely and adeptly, you drew a galleon ship on the wall of your cell. Only you were missing for the launch to the deep and frigid sea. Daughter of sea foam, of Chalchiuhtlicue and Oshún, mystic lineage, nothing again has been known of you until today. “…volar, volar y volar’ a las dos de la mañana, a las dos de la mañana, ¡ay! Qué bonito es volar”

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza.

Translated from the Spanish to the English by Stephen Holland.

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel “Che” León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Gilded Dreams

By Xánath Caraza

Photo courtesy of Xánath Caraza

Palla Chimpu Ocllo or Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo was a noble woman of Indigenous ancestry from Cusco, Peru. She was Incan. Before discussing Chimpu Occllo’s life more specifically, first let us briefly explore who the Incans were. Originally, the term Inca was a title of nobility and made reference only to the royal families from what we today know as part of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northern and central Chile, and parts of Argentina, the Inca Empire.  After the arrival of Spanish, the term Inca became synonymous with mostly Quechua, and Aymara speaking peoples from South America.  Before the arrival of Spanish, the city of Cusco, the Inca Empire capital, was where Chimpu Ocllo was born and later died. Born in 1523, Palla Chimpu Ocllo was the daughter of the Túpac Huallpa and the granddaughter of the powerful Inca Tupac Yupanqui.  As a noblewoman, the privilege of servants was at her disposal.  In addition, she had an abundance of food and had access to certain luxuries, such as jewelry, and textiles with intricately embroidered designs. She most likely learnt how to weave herself, and how to read, among other activities. She was also taught to love her culture and respect her ancestors, her family tree and sacred Incan cities.  After the colonization of Peru, Palla Chimpu Ocllo was baptized as Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo. In 1538, when she was only fifteen years old, she met Capitan Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega who had just arrived in Cusco, Peru from Spain.  They never married, as was common among the high rank officials from Spain with Indigenous women.  They had one Mestizo, biracial, child together. Chimpu Ocllo and Garcilaso de la Vega’s son was Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, later known as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.  He, himself, had significant accomplishments as well.  Born in 1539, he spent his childhood in Cusco, Peru in the care of his mother since he was born out of wedlock. His first language was Quechua and he later learnt Spanish. He had a great deal of appreciation for his Indigenous background from her mother’s influence.  At age twenty-one, after the death of his father, he went to Spain where he became the first chronicler and writer of an Indigenous background from the Americas.  He wrote of Peru, the Conquest of Peru, and the Mestizo identity.  His works were well-known and widely-received among Europeans readers. Later, Chimpu Ocllo married a Spanish businessman, Juan del Pedroche, and had two daughters with him, Luisa de Herrera and Ana Ruiz. Importantly, Chimpu Ocllo was as symbol of the grandeur of an Indigenous civilization and a link between two worlds that violently collided.  She was the proud daughter of the Peruvian earth, Pachamama, and the sun, Inti, both symbols of Peru’s ancient and contemporary identity. In 1571, Chimpu Ocllo died at the age of thirty-three in Cusco.

Listen to our tribute to Chimpu Ocllo “Sun Princess”/”Princesa del Sol”

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[lvmdayofdead]

Heart of Quisqueya

Salomé Ureña was a poet and educator from the Dominican Republic.  She was a 19th century leader, born on October 21, 1850 in the city of Santo Domingo.   She was raised in a well-read and cultured family.  Her father, Nicolás Ureña, was himself a well-known writer.  He introduced her to the classics of Spanish and French literature and cultivated her love of writing.  These are assets that help her develop as a poet, herself. At the young age of seventeen, Salomé Ureña, or Herminia as her pen name, became a published poet.  Her publishing was historically a unique achievement.  Also, at this time, many women had to take on a male pen name in order to publish if they were to publish at all.  Therefore, her female pen name of Herminia was, from the beginning of her career, unique.  Years later, she wrote under her birth name, Salomé Ureña. Her signature writing style had several attributes, including feminism, nature, and multiculturalism.  Her lyrism, female perspective, patriotism and the presence of nature in her poetry became key. In her writing, she celebrated the land, the mountains, plants, the island of Quisqueya, the original, indigenous name for the island of Hispaniola.  This is significant because Quisqueya is a Taino indigenous word which means mother of the lands.  Ureña wanted to celebrate Taino culture, the original culture of the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean Islands.  Importantly as well, African rhythms are present in the lyrism of her poetry, in addition to the influence of European poetry, mainly from Spain and France. As an educator, Ureña was influenced by her mother, Gregoria Díaz, considerably.  Her mother introduced her to education and the importance of the learning process, especially for women, who many times did not have access to formal education.  In 1881, Salomé Ureña founded the first institution of higher education for women in the Dominican Republic, another unusual achievement at that time.  This institution was an opportunity for education for many women, who, upon graduation, became educators, themselves.  This was a very meaningful logro, an achievement not only for Salomé Ureña but also for women in Latin America since education had been in general unattainable for women beforehand and at this time in history. Salomé Ureña married Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal at the age of thirty.  He was instrumental in the foundation of Ureña’s institution of higher education in the Dominican Republic, as well. Making Salomé Ureña a leading 19th-century figure, her love of education and literature was central.  She died on March 6, 1897, at forty-six years of age, leaving a legacy for women’s rights for generations to come.

Read, listen, and enjoy our homage to Salomé Ureña, “Mother of the Lands” by Xánath Caraza. 

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[lvmdayofdead]

Vestida de cempasúchiles

Por Xánath Caraza “¡ay! que bonito es volar a las dos de la mañana, a las dos de la mañana ¡ay! que bonito es volar” Vestida de cempasúchiles dejas tu aroma en los caminos de nacarada niebla. Mexicana de bronce emerges de las montañas y sierras del tropical Veracruz. Del corazón de la jungla donde Chalchiuhtlicue y Oshún entrelazan sus conjuros. Naces con los mágicos ritmos de la conga y el huehuetl en el torrente sanguíneo. Mulata de Córdoba, tu erudición y belleza atemorizan a los hombres. Tus hechiceros ojos encadenan a quien los vea, estremecen el alma quieta. La obsidiana, piedra sagrada, la que deja ver el futuro y el pasado, la llevas incrustada en la mirada. Cargas contigo el humo de copal. Te abre camino en la espesura de la húmeda jungla de jade. En noches de luna llena buscas la yolloxochitl, la vainilla y la pasionaria para pócimas de amor. Vestida de cempasúchiles dejas tu aroma en los caminos de nacarada niebla. Las frondas de la hoja santa te guían en la oscuridad. El árnica, el tabaco y la salvia deslavan tu largo y silencioso andar. El toloache, el floripondio y la hierba de San Juan fluyen en las rojas venas. La ruda, la hierba buena y el anís, mezclados en la bronceada piel. Mujer de poder: traer a otros al mundo como partera es una de tus tareas diarias. Revelar el futuro, lectora de caracoles y conchas, es un precioso don. La belleza de tu larga y rizada cabellera hace temblar a cualquiera. Por esto y viperinas lenguas, la Santa Inquisición te condenó. Con destreza divina dibujaste un galeón en la pared de tu celda. Solo tú faltabas para zarpar hacia el profundo y gélido mar. Hija de la espuma, de Chalchiuhtlicue y Oshún, linaje de hechicera, de ti nunca más se volvió a saber hasta el día de hoy. “…volar, volar y volar’ a las dos de la mañana, a las dos de la mañana ¡ay! Qué bonito es volar”

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza.

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel “Che” León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

Smithsonian Latino Center, 2017.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Madre de las tierras

Por Xanath Caraza

Desde tu corazón crecen las letras, poeta de la naturaleza y montañas de Quisqueya.

Juventud inundada de poesía, versos taínos y caribeño mar. El lirismo desborda ríos, la lluvia se vuelve tinta que de los dedos emana. Mujer de letras, memoria de un pueblo, de ritmos de África llenos de sol. Huracán bravío, Salomé Ureña, consagrada a la educación. Ráfaga de sabiduría al servicio de jóvenes deseosas de seguir tu camino. Visionaria poeta, la educación superior, tu revolución. Inyectas en las manos corrientes marinas. Emprendes el vuelo, Salomé Ureña, en tu isla taína. Alcanzas el mar, siembras letras, cosechas libros, conquistas montañas.

Esparces sabiduría y poesía en Quisqueya, madre de las tierras, poeta de la naturaleza.

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza.

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel “Che” León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

Smithsonian Latino Center, 2017.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Mother of the Lands

by Xánath Caraza

From your heart, letters grow, nature poet from the mountains of Quisqueya Youth inundated with poetry, Taino verses and Caribbean Sea Lyricism overflows rivers. Rain becomes ink which emanates from your fingers. Woman of letters, memory of a people, of rhythms from Africa filled with sun Untamed hurricane, Salomé Ureña, devoted to education Gust of knowledge in service of youth keen to follow your path Visionary poet, higher education, your revolution You inject ocean currents into your hands. You take flight, Salomé Ureña, on your Taino island. You reach the sea, plant letters, harvest books, conquer mountains. You sow wisdom and poetry in Quisqueya, mother of the lands, nature poet.

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza.

Translated from the Spanish to the English by Stephen Holland.

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel “Che” León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Princesa del Sol

By Xánath Caraza

El fragor del Urubamba y el vuelo del cóndor en tus áureos sueños. El rojo ocre del valle sagrado tiñe las telas que cubren tu cuerpo. Orgullo indígena del Cusco, es la herencia para tu descendencia. De tu alma, la gloria de los incas para los demás. Princesa del Sol, engendraste una nueva raza en tu vientre. Amor de tu cultura en tu progenitor. Tatuaste oro en su frente. La fuerza del Inti en su sangre. Implantaste arquitectura, el secreto de las plantas, el susurro de la zampoña y la quena en tu hijo varón. El reflejo de un tiempo manchado de sangre, en tu nombre: Palla Chimpu Ocllo, Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo. Los eternos telares del tiempo con delicadeza bordan tu corazón en el vuelo sagrado del cóndor. La chicha morada se derrama en la tierra. La Pachamama recibe tu canto. Tu áurea esencia en el Sol.

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza. 

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel "Che" León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

Smithsonian Latino Center, 2017.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Sun Princess

By Xánath Caraza

Roar of the Urubamba and flight of the condor in your gilded dreams Sacred Valley red clay dyes cloth which covers your body Indigenous pride from Cusco, this legacy is for your descendants. From your soul, Incan glory for those remaining Sun Princess, in your womb you conceived a new race. Within your forebear, love for your culture On his forehead, you tattooed gold. From Inti, strength in your bloodline In your male child, you instilled architecture, secret of plants, whispering of Pan and Quena flutes. In your name, reflection of a time stained by blood:                                                                                       Palla Chimpu Ocllo, Isabel Suárez Chimpu Ocllo In the sacred flight of the condor, eternal looms of long ago delicately embroider your heart Chicha morada spills onto the earth. Pachamama receives your chanting. Your gilded essence in the Sun

Poem by scholar and writer Xanath Caraza. 

Translated from the Spanish to the English by Stephen Holland.

Artwork by Indigenous Design Collective. Frida Larios & Manuel "Che" León.

Recorded by New Letters On the Air.

Smithsonian Latino Center, 2017.

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[lvmdayofdead]

Literary Calaveras

By Dr. Xóchitl Chávez

Calaveras, yes literally translate into skulls. There is also a tradition during the Día de los Muertos where Literary Calaveras began to appear in the second half of the nineteenth century.  Literary Calaveras are satirical poems that critique or poke fun of the living individuals many time political figures or other in the public eye.  During this time of literary in Mexico, Calaveras can be written among friends and family, some even are printed in the newspapers all in the spirit of fun, but beware because they point out one of your shortcomings.

For instance, the poem generously provided by writer Luis Topiltzin playfully describes our group of friends during the season of Día de los Muertos in 2012.

Written by Luis Topiltzin Dominguez Burton, with much pride born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico. Currently resides in the San Jose, CA and is an accomplished Software engineer.

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