Tlateochihualatl

[mdmorris at indiana.edu]

To cast my net more broadly on this issue of purgatory, I am also
sending out this exchange between Sergio Romero and myself on the
letter that cites tlateochihualatl.  Thanks, Mark Morris


Sergio,

Thanks a lot for your reading.  The text is a brief letter from the
ex-governor of Tlaxcala Pascual Antonio Moreno to a younger colleague
Juan Nicolas Jacinto Flores who he had installed as the cabildo's
interpreter while in office.  Now, Moreno is facing a number of
problems and is being attacked on a number of fronts by his former
colleagues in the cabildo.  He is miffed at Flores' for his
indifference and has urged him to remain loyal, on one occasion
comparing Flores to Nicodemus and on another frankly reminding him to
"remember who made you the interpreter."  I transcribed this letter
from the Tlaxcala State Archives some time ago from a box of Nahuatl
documents that had been set apart under the administration of Mercedes
Meade Angulo and that now the current administration just doesn't know
where they might be.  Without a signature and not in Moreno's hand, I
didn't know how the letter fit into this story until I connected it to
the lawsuit over water rights to the Zahuapan river between the
cabildo and the Santa Martha hacienda on one side and Moreno's home
community of Panotlan on the other wherein the cabildo quit the
community of its access to the water and then ran out the three
judicial rebellions over 14-16 months.

I like your resolution of "itlatitlani" as "nitlatitlani" and I think
I will adopt it, considering that the final "n" of yzquipan could
easily have been intended as the initial consonant of titlani.  I am
not sure about reading tlatlatlahtilistli as burning incense, and I
wonder if you could cite its association or leaning toward that type
of incineration--I am only familiar with it as a verb used to mean
light a fire.  And with tlateochihualatl, I am still uncertain whether
he is talking about holy or unholy water, since tlateo was used by the
friars to denote idolatry, but the whole point with these texts is
seeing their own local Mesoamerican interpretations of colonial
ideology.  A friend mentioned to me yesterday he thought there was a
medieval European tradition of portraying hell as full of fire and
water, but neither of us is very familiar with the tradition.  In
revised orthography, the letter reads

Auh tlazohmahuizpilli oniquicac tlen tinechhualmonahuatilia.  Cuix
yotimotlatlaneli* yca yn Autos yca yn Atli.  Cuix ayemo quinanquilia
yn yey Rebelion oquicalaquique yn altepetlaca.  Yhuan yca yn Santiago
Autos motepotztoca; cuix ayemo ohuitze yn asesoria, noso ayemo
quinhuica.  San noyuhqui yca yn Pascual Melchor, yca yn icausa
amonictlatlanitica yn procurador ypanpa huel embustero.  San noyuhqui
se noAmah onimitzmotitlanili hasta axcan amo otinechmocuepilia ypanpa
yzquipan (n)ititlani* amo mitzmaxilia quenin omopalehuisquia se anima,
purgatorio yca tlatlatlahtilistli yhuan tlateochihualatl.
Matinechhualmonahuatilis mitzmotlacuilhuia yn aquin cemicac
mitzmotlazohtilia

* marked notes below

Beloved esteemed noble, I heard what you've come informing me.
Perhaps we will have justice with the Autos related to the Water.
Perhaps they will no longer answer the third Rebellion that the
townspeople filed.  And, regarding the Autos that are to be pursued in
the case of Santiago; perhaps the counsel will no longer come, maybe
they won't bring them.  Likewise, in the case of Pascual Melchor, I am
not going to be asking the procurador about his case because he (the
procurador)is a big liar.  Likewise, there is one letter that I sent
you that you still to today haven't answered, because as many times as
I send the message* it doesn't reach you how there will be help for
one soul in purgatory with fire and water.  May you inform me.  He
writes you he who will always love you.

I would appreciate any further comments on this brief and puzzling
letter and any ideas about its imagery and conception of purgatory
would be very welcome.  Thanks, Mark

*(perhaps should be read as "nehuili" which this crowd used when they
received judicial dispatches)

* However, if we keep the literal transcription, it becomes "his
message," given that titlani was their noun for message.  Messenger
was (mo,no,amo)titlantzin.

"Teochihualatl" is simply holy water.
>
>   Sannohiqui yca yn Pasql melchor, yca yn icausa
>   Likewise, because Pascual Melchor, because of him (his cause)
>
>   amo nictlatlanitica yn procurador ypa’pa huel embustero
>   I am not asking the procurador because he is a deceiver.
>
>   sannohiqui se noAmah onimitzmotitlanili hasta axcan
>   Likewise, a letter I sent you, as of today
>
>   amo otinechmocuepilia ypanpa yzquipan (n)itlatitlani amo
mitzmaxilia
>   you have not answered, because everytime I send you something it
does not
> reach you.
>
>   quenin omopalehuisquia se anima, purgatorio yca tlatlatlahtilistli
>   yhuan tlateochihualatl?
>   How would a soul in Purgatory help itself with (incense) burning
and holy
> water?
>
>  Again, I would love to see know what the rest of the document says.
What kind
> of text is it?
>
> Good luck!
>
> Sergio Romero
>
> >
> > Round off:  matinechhualmonahuatilis mitz motlacuilhuia ynaq Cmc
> > mitzmotlaçohtilia
> >
> > Tlazohcamati, tochan Bloomington,
> > Mark
> >
>
>
>
>