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Description

MALINALXOCHITL (literally "Grass Flower" in the Nahuatl language) is a woman in the traditional narrative of the migration of the Mexica people (one of several group of Nahuas who migrated from the north into the central valley of Mexico, they became founders of Tenochtitlán / Mexico city, later the center of the Aztec empire), who was a powerful sorceress / witch, considered a sister of Huitzilopochtli ("Hummingbird of the South" or Left-handed hummingbird, God of War, the Sun and patron of the Mexica who was leading them on their migration). She was associated with scorpions, centipedes, spiders, arthropods and animals of the desert.

During part of their long migration out of Aztlán, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli (who reputedly appeared to their priests in dreams), the Mexica found themselves somewhere near Malinalco, where they found the beautiful Malinalxochitl and her followers, who accepted their stay after they were travelling for several years. According to the traditional narrative, she could kill people just by looking at them; to twist their eyesight and make them hallucinate and see an enormous terrifying beast, and to eat their hearts without them noticing (the kind of sorcerers and sorceresses who were heart eaters or blood drinkers were called Teyollohcuani). She was also said to be able to transform into any animal, and, with her powers, she wished being worshipped as a goddess - the people were too afraid of her not to treat her as she wished.

Huitzilopochtli saw the people suffering under her demands, and as his plans were that the Mexica continued their migration, he decided to help them, appearing in a dream and telling them to sneak away, in the night, while she was asleep, without her. So they did — they abandoned her in the middle of the night, with a few of her followers. Malinalxochitl was disappointed, and alongside the few followers she had left eventually settled at the nearby town of Malinalco, intermarrying with the locals. She became the wife of Malinalco's ruler, Chimalcuauhtli, and a priestess, who took on the title of Cihuacoatl ("Snake Woman" a priestly title used by Nahua peoples in pre-hispanic central Mexico, also used by men. In Nahua cosmology, the Cihuacocoah - plural of Cihuacoatl - were snake women who helped the gods to create the bodies of the first humans).

Meanwhile, the Mexica traveled on, then settled on the hill of Chapultepec, on the shore of what became known as the Lake Texcoco.
Malinalxochitl and Chimalcuauhtli had a son, named Copil, whom she taught her magic, and told him what the Mexica done to her, as he swore to avenge her. Copil later gathered the peoples that surrounded Chapultepec, and incited them against the Mexica. The nations of Azcapotzalco, Tlacopan, Coyohuacan, Xochimilco, Chalco and Colhuacan formed an alliance and prepared to attack the Mexica, but before they could, Huitzilopochtli appeared in a dream to his priests Tenoch and Cuauhtlequetzqui to warn them. Tenoch and Cuauhtlequetzqui seized Copil in the night, cut out his heart, and took Copil’s daughter Xicomoyahual to be Cuauhtlequetzqui’s wife.
Tenoch presented the heart to Huizliopochtli, who told him to throw the heart into the lake. Tenoch obeyed; when he threw the heart out into the water, it landed on a marshy island in the middle of the lake. From the heart sprouted nopal, or prickly pear cactus.

Later, the Mexica angered the king of Colhuacan (for sacrificing the daughter which he sent to marry Huitzilopochtli) and fled to the islands in the middle of the lake, to escape the Colhuacan warriors. As they explored their refuge, Huitzilopochtli appeared to Cuauhtlequetzqui in a dream, and told him to search until he found an eagle perched atop a prickly pear.
The people did as the dream directed, and they found the eagle, eating its prey atop the prickly pear, which had sprouted from Copil’s heart. They called the plant tenoctli (after the priest Tenoch — the eagle represents Cuauhtlequetzqui), and they called the place where they found the eagle Tenochtitlán, and there they built their city.

This is Mexico, this is Tenochtitlan, where the eagle screams, spreads his wings, and eats, where the fish flies, where the snake rustles.

This is Mexico, this is Tenochtitlan. And many things will be done.

In quexquichcauh maniz cemanahuatl, ayc pollihuizyn itenyo yn itauhcain Mexico-Tenochtitlan

This shall be our fame: as long as the world lasts, so long shall last the renown, the glory, of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

- Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin of Chalco, Memorial breve acerca de la fundación de la ciudad de Culhuacán (brief memorial about the foundation of the city of Colhuacan), ca. 1637

Vilified by the Mexica as a goddess of crawling insects and the desert, and associated by them with the people who inhabited Malinalco later in their time - the Pjiekak'joo / Matlatzinca, whom they fought and conquered during the rule of Tenochtitlán by Axayacatl, a time of military expansion (1469 - 1481), as they founded garrisons and a temple dedicated to their elite cuauhtin (eagle) and ocelome (jaguar) warrios. The Mexica considered the inhabitants of Malinalco "sorcerers" (Tlacatecolome literally "owl people"). Some people believe that a historical priestess and religion from Malinalco were suppressed by the Mexica's own sun priests and a cult centered on the god of war, though this interpretation is up to debate.

I took a considerable amount of creative liberty here, portraying her as a giant scorpion monster, partially inspired by her reputation as a shape-shifter, Teyollohcuani and her association with arthropods and the desert. Like Huitzilopochtli's other sister, Coyolxauhqui, she's an often misunderstood character.

Mixed media illustration (ink on paper + digital painting), 2023

Description

MALINALXOCHITL (literally "Grass Flower" in the Nahuatl language) is a woman in the traditional narrative of the migration of the Mexica people (one of several group of Nahuas who migrated from the north into the central valley of Mexico, they became founders of Tenochtitlán / Mexico city, later the center of the Aztec empire), who was a powerful sorceress / witch, considered a sister of Huitzilopochtli ("Hummingbird of the South" or Left-handed hummingbird, God of War, the Sun and patron of the Mexica who was leading them on their migration). She was associated with scorpions, centipedes, spiders, arthropods and animals of the desert.

During part of their long migration out of Aztlán, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli (who reputedly appeared to their priests in dreams), the Mexica found themselves somewhere near Malinalco, where they found the beautiful Malinalxochitl and her followers, who accepted their stay after they were travelling for several years. According to the traditional narrative, she could kill people just by looking at them; to twist their eyesight and make them hallucinate and see an enormous terrifying beast, and to eat their hearts without them noticing (the kind of sorcerers and sorceresses who were heart eaters or blood drinkers were called Teyollohcuani). She was also said to be able to transform into any animal, and, with her powers, she wished being worshipped as a goddess - the people were too afraid of her not to treat her as she wished.

Huitzilopochtli saw the people suffering under her demands, and as his plans were that the Mexica continued their migration, he decided to help them, appearing in a dream and telling them to sneak away, in the night, while she was asleep, without her. So they did — they abandoned her in the middle of the night, with a few of her followers. Malinalxochitl was disappointed, and alongside the few followers she had left eventually settled at the nearby town of Malinalco, intermarrying with the locals. She became the wife of Malinalco's ruler, Chimalcuauhtli, and a priestess, who took on the title of Cihuacoatl ("Snake Woman" a priestly title used by Nahua peoples in pre-hispanic central Mexico, also used by men. In Nahua cosmology, the Cihuacocoah - plural of Cihuacoatl - were snake women who helped the gods to create the bodies of the first humans).

Meanwhile, the Mexica traveled on, then settled on the hill of Chapultepec, on the shore of what became known as the Lake Texcoco.
Malinalxochitl and Chimalcuauhtli had a son, named Copil, whom she taught her magic, and told him what the Mexica done to her, as he swore to avenge her. Copil later gathered the peoples that surrounded Chapultepec, and incited them against the Mexica. The nations of Azcapotzalco, Tlacopan, Coyohuacan, Xochimilco, Chalco and Colhuacan formed an alliance and prepared to attack the Mexica, but before they could, Huitzilopochtli appeared in a dream to his priests Tenoch and Cuauhtlequetzqui to warn them. Tenoch and Cuauhtlequetzqui seized Copil in the night, cut out his heart, and took Copil’s daughter Xicomoyahual to be Cuauhtlequetzqui’s wife.
Tenoch presented the heart to Huizliopochtli, who told him to throw the heart into the lake. Tenoch obeyed; when he threw the heart out into the water, it landed on a marshy island in the middle of the lake. From the heart sprouted nopal, or prickly pear cactus.

Later, the Mexica angered the king of Colhuacan (for sacrificing the daughter which he sent to marry Huitzilopochtli) and fled to the islands in the middle of the lake, to escape the Colhuacan warriors. As they explored their refuge, Huitzilopochtli appeared to Cuauhtlequetzqui in a dream, and told him to search until he found an eagle perched atop a prickly pear.
The people did as the dream directed, and they found the eagle, eating its prey atop the prickly pear, which had sprouted from Copil’s heart. They called the plant tenoctli (after the priest Tenoch — the eagle represents Cuauhtlequetzqui), and they called the place where they found the eagle Tenochtitlán, and there they built their city.

This is Mexico, this is Tenochtitlan, where the eagle screams, spreads his wings, and eats, where the fish flies, where the snake rustles.

This is Mexico, this is Tenochtitlan. And many things will be done.

In quexquichcauh maniz cemanahuatl, ayc pollihuizyn itenyo yn itauhcain Mexico-Tenochtitlan

This shall be our fame: as long as the world lasts, so long shall last the renown, the glory, of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

- Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin of Chalco, Memorial breve acerca de la fundación de la ciudad de Culhuacán (brief memorial about the foundation of the city of Colhuacan), ca. 1637

Vilified by the Mexica as a goddess of crawling insects and the desert, and associated by them with the people who inhabited Malinalco later in their time - the Pjiekak'joo / Matlatzinca, whom they fought and conquered during the rule of Tenochtitlán by Axayacatl, a time of military expansion (1469 - 1481), as they founded garrisons and a temple dedicated to their elite cuauhtin (eagle) and ocelome (jaguar) warrios. The Mexica considered the inhabitants of Malinalco "sorcerers" (Tlacatecolome literally "owl people"). Some people believe that a historical priestess and religion from Malinalco were suppressed by the Mexica's own sun priests and a cult centered on the god of war, though this interpretation is up to debate.

I took a considerable amount of creative liberty here, portraying her as a giant scorpion monster, partially inspired by her reputation as a shape-shifter, Teyollohcuani and her association with arthropods and the desert. Like Huitzilopochtli's other sister, Coyolxauhqui, she's an often misunderstood character.

Mixed media illustration (ink on paper + digital painting), 2023