Coatlicue or How to Write the Dismembered Body

Abstract

Coatlicue or How to Write the Dismembered Body Ann De León Non-Mexicans probably ought not to laugh at death. Whoever dares to laugh is punished by the terrible goddess Coatlicue, whom I have accidentally kicked in the ribs. Sergei Eisenstein1 I. Introduction In "Latin America, Native America, and the Politics of Culture" Clemency Coggins notes that it was surprisingly not until the nineteenth century that Pre-Colombian Art was essentially re-discovered and rearticulated in order to construct visual and textual discourses of the incipient Mexican Nation (97–113). The idea of recovering knowledge from reading the text inscribed in bodies of stone drove explorations and expeditions to uncover ruins in the Mexican territory. The discovery of Mexican pre- and post-Conquest Códices (such as the Florentine Codex), material objects (such as the massive Aztec stone sculpture of Coatlicue) and the creation of an Aztec archive, thus coincided with projects of Latin American Nation formation and the creation of discrete academic disciplines such as literature, archeology, and medicine. In fashioning an idea of Mexico, many Mexican and European intellectuals set about to recover and re-write the Aztec past as unique and representative of the Nation. [End Page 259] The statue of Coatlicue was accidentally rediscovered in 1790 in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City (located above the ancient ruins of the Aztec Templo Mayor) when workers were constructing an underground aqueduct near the palace of viceroy Conde de Revillagigedo. Revillagigedo had Coatlicue transferred to the University to be studied, where the professors (of the Orden de Santo Domingo) buried her under the patio of the university, as they did not want Mexican youth to be exposed to such a horrible sight. The sculpture of Coatlicue was indeed read, however through European aesthetics. Her mutilated body was read as an object of curiosity and horror instead of as an abstract sculpture that narrated through its body the foundation of the Aztec empire. Interest in preserving Mexico's archeological past had reached its climax under the government of Porfirio Diaz, in his desire to celebrate Mexico's 1910 Independence centennial. By 1867 president Benito Juarez had established a social order to enable future projects of Nation formation. Disciple of a positivistic philosophy, Benito Juarez engaged in educational reform and helped establish various disciplines in the social and natural sciences. One strategy was to create educational centers to form a sense of Mexican National identity. Important to our interest in Coatlicue, the Gallery of Monoliths was opened on September 16, 1887 (to commemorate Mexican Independence day). This gallery was created to foment an interest in the pre-Hispanic past and was located in the front of the National museum patio to welcome all visitors. The majority of pieces exhibited were Aztec. The colossal statue of Coatlicue (circa 1454–1506) along with the Sun Calendar was situated at the entrance of the hall. Today, these two impressive Aztec sculptural pieces are located in prominent places in the Aztec (Mexica) gallery of the Museo Nacional de Antropología as visual narratives representative of the Mexican Nation. Standing today in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the monumental statue of Coatlicue astonishes observers by her sheer size (see fig. 1). One observer might be amazed at the statue's sculptural craftsmanship, while another might be repulsed at the violent nature of the dismembered hands, hearts, snakes, and skull that configure her body. Through her body, its fractures, mutilations, earthly and cosmic connections, Coatlicue symbolizes and narrates the violent birth of the Aztecs. It is surprising that the larger than life sculpture of Coatlicue, previously reburied three times (the sculpture was viewed as esthetically unpleasing and dangerous), began to occupy a prominent place in Mexico's national and visual discourse. [End Page 260] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Coatlicue at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City (photograph by the author). [End Page 261] II. Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder: Reading Ruins The first work to perform a detailed interpretation of the sculpture of the goddess Coatlicue can perhaps be attributed to the Mexican Creole, Antonio de León y Gama's Descripción...

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