Tonantzin
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Tonantzin (
Aspects
Such Goddesses as "Mother Earth", the "Goddess of Sustenance", "Honored Grandmother", "Snake", "Bringer of Maize" and "Mother of Corn" can all be called Tonantzin, as it is an honorific title comparable to "Our Lady" or "Our Great Mother". Other indigenous (Nahuatl) names include Chicōmexōchitl [tʃikˌoːmeˈʃóːtʃitɬ] (literally "Seven Flower") and Chālchiuhcihuātl [ˌtʃaːɬtʃiʍˈsíwaːtɬ] (literally "Emerald/Jade Woman").[citation needed] A "Tonāntzin" was honored during the movable feast of Xōchilhuitl [ʃoːˈtʃíɬwitɬ].
Some [
Alleged syncretism
"Sahagún’s protests have been understood in modern times to mean that an Aztec Goddess named Tonantzin had a temple on the hill of Tepeyac, but this has been questioned. Tonantzin was a title for the maternal aspect of any Aztec goddess, not the name of a particular goddess. When it was used as a title for Mary, the maternal aspect of the Aztec Goddess could be read into the Spanish Marian cult by Nahua Christians. This seems to be what happened, rather than the cult of Guadalupe intentionally replacing an earlier temple or cult of an Aztec Mother Goddess at this particular site.” [2]
It has been asserted that the word Guadalupe in this appellation may derive from
In her book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria E. Anzaldúa notes that "lopeuh" is a Nahuatl word meaning "the one who is at one with the beasts", and "coatl" is the Nahuatl word for serpent. In the story of the virgin's apparition to Juan Diego, Guadalupe tells Juan Diego that her name is "María Coatlalopeuh". Anzaldúa suggests this name equates to "the one who is at one with the beasts".[3]
Modern usage
Tonantzin is sometimes used as a
Tonantzín (spelled with an accent on the final syllable) plays an inspirational role in the Sandra Cisneros short story "Little Miracles, Kept Promises", from her collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). The story includes Cisneros's portrait of the artist as a young Chicana.
In the comic series Love and Rockets by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, Tonantzin is the name of a central character in Gilbert's world of Palomar. The character is often linked to the Aztec goddess.
References
- González, Ondina E. and Justo L. González, Christianity in Latin America: a history, p. 59, Cambridge University Press, 2008
Readings in classic Nahuatl http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nican/NicanMopohua.html