Spring 1999-- NCX

Tiahui! Tiahui! Tiahui! Tiahui! These were the words that we all shouted in unison as Tonatiuh (Father Sun) was slowly setting in the west. The copal was burning, the aroma and smoke filling the air around us. The huehuetl was reverberating with the loud thumps of a pulsating heart while the caracol was sounded by Ehekatl Mitl four times before the sun would eventually set. As I looked to the west and the evening sky I felt as though our Mexika/Toltek ancestors were looking down at us with big smiles of appreciation, for we the Mexika are returning.

After the ceremony concluded, my family, our Kalpulli, and I bid farewell to our Maestro/Elder Tlakaelel and our Mexika brothers and sisters of the Kalmekak De Tonantzin and with strong abrazos of love, gratitude and spirit, drove down the mountain. When we glanced back at the group waving their hands, we saw tears on the faces of some and of course tears on some of our faces.

We had just concluded a ten-day stay at the Kalmekak de Tonantzin, a Mexika/Native American school under construction in the mountains overlooking the pyramids of Teotihuakan in Cemanahuak, Mexico. It is a very humble construction, but we felt honored to lay the bricks and foundation of the actual Kalmekak (school) that would house us during the 10 days of classes and danza. The climb up the steep mountainside was difficult so getting building materials up there was a slow process. A small kitchen on site provided our daily meal of frijoles, tortillas, nopales, and of course chilli.

The landscape of the Kalmekak and soon-to-be built Tekpan (Pyramid) De Paz is covered with nopal and maguey plants, virtually untouched since the time our ancestors walked this land. The pyramids of Teotihuakan were always in sight, and we could imagine being in a different period in time. Our teachers, our songs, our Danza, and our prayers brought the beauty of the surrounding landscape to life everyday.

The Kalmekak will be open to all people, year round. It will be the site of Mexika, Mayan, Lakota and all Native American teachings for our children. People of different backgrounds will be encouraged to teach there, even if it is for just one day. People are already living on site and a small office space is being leased in San Martin de los Piramides, to handle communication needs. But what will attract people from all over the world is the spiritual connection with our land and our ancestors. Young people have to feel it and experience it, not read about it in books or see it on TV.

This trip came at a very good time in the growth of our Mexika/Indigenous movement in the north and our own developing spiritual and cultural identities. Whether Mexika, Lakota, Chumash, Raramuri, Tsalagi, Maya, Crow, Ojibwa, Seminole, Dine, Hopi, Apache, Purpecha, Dakota, Taino, Iroqouis, Choctaw, Zapotec, Toltek, Pima, Kickapoo, Chichimeka, or the hundreds of other Nations that walked this land, we are all spiritually and physically connected. We are the Red (red-bronze) people put on this land by our Creator, Ometeotl-not to own it or buy little parcels of it or build huge monstrosities of steel and metal; not to massacre the wolf, the eagle, the buffalo, the coyote, the deer or the bear; not to reap huge profits from mining it and ripping huge holes in our Tonantzin Tlalli (Mother Earth); and not to build imaginary external and internal borders. The land is not "property." It is our Mother, which gives us life and nurtures us.

The trip to Teotihuakan to learn more about Mexikayotl, Nahuatl, natural/herbal medicine, healing, Mexika Danza, history, the Mexika Sunstone (Aztec Calendar), and our ceremonies helped us refocus our energy and ask ourselves what we, the Mexikah/Chicanos/Mexicanos in El Norte, are searching for. The Mexika and Native Nations have been systematically assimilated by the European-American culture. Awakening from this assimilation, we feel anger, then perhaps sadness for our loss, then a yearning and passion to learn about our culture and recapture what was once ours.

It doesn't matter if you still call yourselves Catholic or Christian; we're still all indigenous. It doesn't matter what street colors you wear. We are all in pain, and we are all tired of being oppressed and colonized. Check our streets and observe what 507 years of colonization and assimilation have done to our people--the elders living in poverty, our youth killing our youth, the intimidation and abuse at the hands of the police, sheriffs, and prisons, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and the terrible abuse of our mothers, wives and daughters. We have to put a stop to the drive-bys, the in-fighting, the gang wars, and the disrespect for each other.

The Euro-American culture puts away more youths in prison than any other culture or country on this planet. Prisons are a booming business. And the dominant culture knows that we are angry and vengeful because of what we have experienced since 1492. So they bait us, manipulate us, antagonize us, and badger us until we bite, and then they reel us in and lock us away. The wisdom of our Elders and the wisdom of our veteranos will provide us the spirit to stop the madness.

If you would like to be added to our mailing list and receive our complete publication Kalpulli Yetlenezi-Tolteka 13, please send name and address to Tekpatltzin, 204 Gregory St., Unit E, Aurora, IL 60504. (mexicapride@earthlink.net)

Spring 1999-- NCX Home -- Archives -- Electrons to the Editor