THE AZTEC CALENDAR AND THE DANCE TEATRO DE TECUANES

 By Óscar Cortés Palma

  

In Axochiapan, a pair of stones with precuauhémémicos symbols are added in one of the frontal walls of the atrium of the church dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle. One of these stones is so deteriorated that it is very difficult to distinguish its image, but some elderly people of the community comment that previously it could be observed in her a serpent; The other stone is clearly a representation of the Aztec Sun.

It is known, thanks to the book of Elisha Aragon, that these stones have been present since at least the year 1901, when the fence of the church atrium was built, at that time the stones were in the center and from there Moved and were placed in the fence of the atrium of the Church San Pablo, and since then they have remained, since although the fence was remodeled in 1987, it was decided to keep these stones because they are considered part of the history of the city.

There are also legends about these stones, one of them is about the occasion that was tried to relocate them, which was done only for a brief period since many deaths began to occur and some people attributed it to the relocation of the stones, so It was decided to place them again in the fence of the Church's atrium.

The stone of the sun of Axochiapan resembles other stones carved with mexican solar symbols that are found in other places, for example, one is in Huaquechula, a nearby town, but in the state of Puebla and another is in the city of Mexico, and others are found in other parts of the Mexican Republic.

On the stone of the sun of Axochiapan, some specialists like Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, in his book titled "The Aztec calendar and other solar monuments" mentioned that the solar disc carved in the stone of Axochiapan could be a "temalacatl", and is believed That the "temalacatl" were placed in the places recently conquered by the Mexicas.

Another hypothesis could be that this stone represented to the Sun like object of cult for the ancestors of this town. Since the sun has been the vital star that gives us the light, and that makes together with the water and other natural elements that exist life, that is why more than 500 years ago this impressed much to our ancestors, who built many solar monuments , Whose most famous representation is the Stone of the Sun or Aztec calendar that is in the National Museum of Anthropology and History.

Curiously, the Tecuanes (Jaguares) were also related to the Sun in the precuauhteémica time, since 17 of December of 1790, when the called "Aztec Calendar" was discovered.

One of the scholars of the period called Antonio de León y Gama wrote and published an essay titled: "Historical and chronological description of the two stones that on the occasion of the new pavement that is being formed in the main square of Mexico, were found in it The year 1790 ".

Antonio de León y Gama (1735-1802) addressed the subject of this discovery and cited a famous Aztec legend of the creation of the world that says:

"Origin of the sun according to the Mexicans. The sun died four times and there were four suns, the fifth of which was shining, the first lasting 676 years at the end of which men were destroyed, lacking seeds and food, and destroyed by tigers or TECUANES and other ferocious animals; It took the destruction of this sun fifteen years. "

With this information we can realize that for the inhabitants of the city of Mexico of the year of 1790 the word "tecuanes" was not foreign to his vocabulary to them since they defined with this word the tigers, but since in the American continent there was no Tigers, they most likely referred to animals very similar to them: The Jaguars.

This is until now the oldest reference of the Nahua word "tecuanes" and as we can observe it is defined by Antonio de León y Gama in its publication of the year 1790, as tigers or ferocious animals. So it is probable that the traditional dances of the Tecuans and their variants that are currently danced in more than 136 surian towns, in which a "tecuani" participates, are referring by this name to a jaguar, that was of the most ferocious animals of These lands.

 

To finish, if you visit Axochiapan, you can see the Piedra del Sol of this village, which is a circular stone that is 80 centimeters in diameter and 40 centimeters thick. And it is carved only in its front part. Since 1901 it is located on the front wall of the Parish Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, where you can still appreciate the pre-christened symbols of this stone.

Book of the Tecuanes

Book of the Tecuanes

Cel: 7351506920

Email: cami17_4@hotmail.com

Facebook.com/oscarcortespalma

twitter: oscarcortespalm