I was still a snot-nosed little twerp when I first saw the commercial for Night of the Comet playing on the living room TV. I remember thinking to myself, “Cool, a movie where kids inherit the Earth. That would be fun.” …

The colonialist roots of La Virgen de Guadalupe — When Spanish forces under the command of Hernando Cortes first set foot on the eastern coast of Mexico on April 22, 1519, they christened the site of their landing Veracruz, “the true cross” (Cortes et al. 2001:4). Within five years of Cortes’ arrival, a group of Franciscan missionaries arrived in…

While doing research for the makwawitl (macuahuitl, macana) episode of my youtube series, I came across a lot of really interesting information that I thought was worth examining further. One of the things that I came across was the catalog of the Royal Armory of Madrid, Spain. In particular…

Today I want to talk about the word “jicara,” one of my favorite words in the Nawatl language. But before we get into that, I would like to briefly touch on some basic Nawatl pronunciation. In particular, the pronunciation of the letter X. This sound tends to get mispronounced a…

What’s up, everybody? It’s your boy Kurly Tlapoyawa, the hardcore archaeologist, and I’m writing this from deep inside occupied Pueblo territory in the beautiful state of New Mexico, sitting in the shadow of Oku Pin (Also known as the Sandia Mountains). This is something I’ve been wanting to do for…

The colonialist roots of la Virgen de Guadalupe — When Spanish forces under the command of Hernando Cortes first set foot on the eastern coast of Mexico on April 22, 1519, they christened the site of their landing Veracruz, “the true cross” (Cortes et al. 2001:4). Within five years of Cortes’ arrival, a group of Franciscan missionaries arrived in…

The feast of Kecholli is named for the roseate spoonbill, a bird with resplendent pink feathers that migrates south into Mexico during the winter months. The word Kecholli literally means “rubber neck” in the Nawatl language. The feast was held in honor of Kamaxtli/Mixkoatl, the lord of the hunt, who…

The twelfth month of the traditional Mexika calendar system is known as Tepeilwitl, “the Feast of the Mountains.” It is believed that the Teteoh known as Tlalok, along with his helpers the Tlalokeh reside within the mountains and misty caves that dot the Mexican landscape. …

Tlaxochimako (offering of flowers) is the 8th month of the Mexikah calendar system. It was also known as Mikailwitl or Mikailwitontli (the small feast of the dead.) Like most of the other months in the Mexikah calendar system, Tlaxochimako lasted 20 days, and concluded with a large feast to commemorate…