(Mis)translation and Appropriation:
Indigenous Resilience in Colonial Reverberations
*This is a short overview of my work, for a more in-depth analysis and further academic work, see my presentation at the American Folklore Society in November 2024.
As I have been doing research on Mexica music, dance, and ritual, it is apparent that there are limited resources predating the brutal invasion and cultural erasure of the Nahua and the knowledge base of the triple alliance of the Mexican Central Valley, which consisted of Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco and Tlacopan.
This research has thus led me to The Florentine Codex, a foundational document used for the study of Mexica history, that until recently has not been questioned for its validity. The colonizing efforts of New Spain become clear through this codex and the like. Created under the auspices of the Catholic church they reveal highly questionable procedures in documenting and translation, contributing to the colonial project that continuously resonates in the dominant rule of Mexico.
My work examines two strategic and interrelated tools of colonial tactics
1) lexical mistranslations in the Florentine Codex and
2) the musical appropriations in Carlos Chavez’s Sinfonía India.
The latter illuminating the colonial project’s continuity and functioning as an alternative form of mistranslation in which the musical logic of indigenous groups is erased and reinterpreted within a western aesthetic.
The musical logic of indigenous groups is erased…
Historia General de las cosas de nueva España, commonly known as The Florentine Codex was produced by Nahua scribes and Fray Bernardino de Sahagún beginning in 1545 to document Mexica life in twelve books using a Nahuatl narrative, a Spanish translation, and illustrations.[1] Unfortunately, between the Nahuatl and the Spanish versions there are abhorrent differences. According to UCLA Historian Kevin Terraciano the Nahuatl contains 1330 more lines than the Spanish, which is about 30% less.[2]
In “Book Twelve” of the Florentine Codex, which describes the Toxcatl festival, there exist a number of appalling mistranslations and misconstrued concepts, such as that of teotl, which is commonly translated as “god,” but within the indigenous community, it is a much more complicated concept centered around the personification, integration, and omnipresence of “energy”. These mistranslations go beyond innocent misunderstandings as can be seen in the description of the Toxcatl massacre which began with the beheading of a huehuetl drummer by the Spaniards followed by torture, dismemberment, mass murder, and the destruction of the community. [3] [4] Five-pages of Nahuatl describe these brutal killings, whereas the Spanish offers a single sentence stating, “Nothing else is said.” This shows the dismissal of the Nahua perspective and a pattern of archival omittance of Spanish engagement in brutal, barbaric, or potentially non-Christian acts.
“Nothing else was said.”
The indigenous population of Mexico is positioned at odds with the nation-state as colonialism has melded a hierarchal order into the dominant mindset categorically devaluing the native peoples. Even the cultural endeavors intended to uplift the indigenous identity were impacted by nationalism, a reverberation of colonialism confining these efforts into mere acts of appropriation, which I suggest is another form of mistranslation.
Carlos Chavez was an influential enactor of the colonial project through his role as general director of the National Institute of Fine Arts, being the first director of the Mexican Symphony Orchestra, and opening Mexico’s National Conservatory of Music. Carlos Chavez’s Sinfonía India is an example of this type of mistranslation. It is an orchestral work based on three melodies from the Huichol, Yaqui and Seri, while utilizing instruments from other indigenous communities. As Leonora Saavedra states, Chavez’s use of indigeneity did not promote the inclusion of indigenous musical elements as part of the unification of the nation, but rather positioned it as a central component of Mexico’s past.[5]
He created a symbol for national identity that romanticized indigeneity, while disregarded the elements of music these communities considered vital to the expression. Form, structure, and balance are of the utmost importance in the rituals, but Chavez instead emphasized the western notions of melody while reappropriating the use of certain ceremonial instruments. For example, the huehuetl is a large drum that is used in ritual practice as the leading omnipresent force that guides dance circles. Chavez took this instrument and exoticized it by using it at select moments in his work as an adornment that contributed to an orchestral soundscape reminiscent of a primitive past.
Translation is never a neutral act
Translation is never a neutral act, but rather an inveigled action that attracts us through the incentive of global access to exclusive material. Unchallenged foreign and domestic scholars and authoritative figures often default to specific ways of knowing that continuously dismiss indigenous epistemologies. The Mexica people experienced mass murder, cultural decimation, and the great pestilence at the hands of the Spanish invaders. They continue to be marginalized, misunderstood, and manipulated at the hands of the Franciscan friars, scholar, composers, and the general population consuming literature and art inspired by erroneous notions of Mexica culture. In spite of the atrocities enacted against the community, their resilience continues through ritual dance circles now sanctioned by government-sponsored permits, ad hoc native song circles, and a renaissance of indigenous values informing modern day protest and resistance across Mexico.
[1] While the pictograms are not the focus of this paper, for more context on the information that they provide, see Carreóne Blaine’s “Colors Between Two Worlds.”
[2] Terraciano, “Reading Between the Lines,” 46.
[3] Huehuetl is a sacred drum instrument. The word huehuetl comes from the root hue hue meaning ancient or very old.
[4] Along with the Florentine Codex, these events are outlined in Durán. “Historia de las Indias” both in text and through pictograms.
[5] Saavedra, Leonora, ed. Carlos Chavez and His World. 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cg4n5s.
Stephanie Valadez, M.M. 