The Story

Colax’s story of the storm is notable for the extent to which he and his brothers develop its authenticity by naming the narrator who told it to them. That narrator was Palatzin, the compadre of Colax, whose grandfather was a rain god’s human companion and the main character. The story is important because it is an affirmation of the contemporary Nahuas’ belief in rain gods and their human companions after many had abandoned milpa farming. I shall argue that it is also a collective memory of the UCI rebellion.

According to Colax and his brothers, the storm came into Huitzilan because a rain god [mixcoat = cloud serpent] from Jonotla, another community to the north, decided to pay a visit to Huitzilan to steal the church bell and cause a storm that threatened to bring down the surrounding mountains, burying the community in mud and debris. The protagonist is a wise person who knows that the cloud serpent from Jonotla is coming to Huitzilan. He warns his work companions what to expect and guides them through a frightening experience.

There are parallels between Colax’s story and the UCI rebellion. The storm came from another community (Jonotla) just as the UCI and Antorcha Campesina came from outside of Huitzilan. Some Mestizos told me that the UCI leader, Felipe Reyes Herrera, came from Xochiapulco, and others said he came from Veracruz. There are similarities between a violent rainstorm and an armed conflict, such as those that took place during the UCI rebellion. Nahuas in Huitzilan described a battle between the UCI and Antorcha Campesina, in the locality of Talteno, as consisting of bullets flying as thick as rain drops during a downpour. The flashes of lightning and claps of thunder resemble guns firing during the concluding phase of the UCI rebellion as well as during the second battle of Puebla, which involved the participation of a battalion of 100 Nahuas from the southern Sierra Norte de Puebla (Thomson 1991: 205).

1. Colax: And here is another story.
2. It was my compadre Palatzin over there who told it to me.
3. He was working in a sugarcane press.
4. In those days they worked sugarcane presses.
5. Palatzin’s grandfather told them, “And this morning a rainstorm is coming.
6. A cloud serpent is coming,” he said.
7. And the cloud serpent’s companion spirit was this boy who lived here in Jonotla [north of Huitzilan].
8. And he told his father, “Tomorrow I’m going over there to pay a visit.”
9. His father asked, “What is your purpose? Where?”
10. “I am going over there to Huitzilan,” he replied.
11. “What is your purpose?”
12. “I am going there to go inside.”
13. “You are not really going to go there!
14. Yes, [the rain gods in Huitzilan] are the ones who shine.
15. I know them well,” he said to his son.
16. “No [don’t go], “the father said, “I went there, I was traveling among [the rain gods from Huitzilan] in the bell tower.
17. [But] I did not see them anywhere.
18. I did not see one of them.
19. I know the inside of that bell tower very well.
20. It is not a place for you to enter.
21. Because they are like wasps, those guardians are,” he said to his son.
22. “Who is going to go inside?” the father asked.
23. “But no.
24. I can go inside,” the boy insisted.
25. “I am going to find [the rain gods in Huitzilan]” he said, “in those mountains on this and that side [of Huitzilan].
26. I am familiar with those mountains, and we are going to flatten the town,” he said to his father.
27. He wanted to leave the town flattened.
28. “You cannot do it,” his father replied.
29. “And you know that I am telling you do not go there.”
30. “No, I am going,” the boy replied.
31. So then, as the workers in the sugarcane press were telling each other stories, there was one man who was the grandfather of Palatzin.
32. He was the deceased grandfather of Palatzin [who is our neighbor].
33. Perhaps he was the grandfather or the father of the deceased Lomen Chepa, Sevais Chepa, I am not sure.
34. We did not know him.
35. He also had a sugarcane press.
36. [Palatzin’s grandfather] said [to the sugarcane workers], “But no, do not be afraid.
37. We shall see what they will do.”
38. The next morning was very cloudy.
39. The clouds appeared down below.
40. “And they are coming here now,” [Palatzin’s grandfather] told them.
41. “But do not be afraid.
42. You see them down below, and it is already cloudy.”
43. So then those clouds came, and right away they heard the claps of approaching thunder.
44. Nacho: That is how the wise persons are.
45. Colax: Uh hu, the wise persons.
46. “Ah, do not stop being careful,” Palatzin’s grandfather said.
47. “We shall see what they will do.”
48. In a little while clouds came, and soon it rained.
49. And lightning flashed, and the claps of thunder were very loud.
50. [Palatzin’s grandfather] said they had arrived, they had arrived here, they finished [arriving].
51. They say they began shining brightly and thundered, they shone brightly and thundered until they lit everything up, according to the deceased [grandfather of] Palatzin.
52. So then that old man [Palatzin’s grandfather] said, “Do not be afraid,
53. We shall see what [the cloud serpents from Jonotla] will do.”
54. The [sugarcane workers] saw how it thundered until the [rain gods from Jonotla] lowered [the bell] to take it away.
55. To that place down river they call Teteliah where they threw [dropped] it as they took the bell to Jonotla.
56. They rang it on top of Cozolin [and] took the Ahuehueht with them.
57. The bell is on top of the mountain below on the Zempoala River.
58. The chicken crowed at eleven o’clock.
59. Miguel: It is a big mountain.
60. Colax: It is a big mountain.
61. Jim: It is near Zoquiapan.
62. Colax: It is around Zoquiapan but further on down.
63. Miguel: “Below Zoquiapan, and heading downriver.
64. Here they call it San Miguel Atiquizayan (Altequizayan) and it is down below here.
65. Colax: It is right there.
66. Miguel: It is that mountain that is in the pine grove.
67. It is in a pine grove but no pine trees grow on its sides.
68. Colax: It does not have any pine trees.
69. Miguel: It is the only [one without pine trees], those [other mountains] have pine trees.
70. Colax: And that is how it is.
71. Miguel: And the mountain looks like Cozolin’s twin.
72. Colax: It is shaped like a needle.
73. And there the story ends.
74. Jim: Thank you, Nicolás [Colax].

1. Colax: Huan [oc]ce cuento yetoc no.
2. Yeh mismo nipa nocompadre Palatzin2 nechilica.
3. Yetoya tech ce trapiche.
4. No melauh tequitiah tech trapiche tequit.
5. Quinilia [Palatzin ihueitaht], “Huan nin moztah, huitza ce quiyahuat.3
6. Huitz(a) ce mixcoat, ” quitquilia.
7. Huan non telpoch mixcoat tonalle, nican ni[n] Xonota [Jonotla] ichan.
8. Huan quitquilia nitaht, “Moztah nen ompa nyaz tacalpanoti.”
9. Quitquilia, “Toni ticui? Can?” [quitquilia].
10. “Ompa nyo Huitzilan,” quitquilia.
11. “Toni ticuitiuh?”
12. Quihta, “Ompa nyo para nicalaquiz,” quitquilia.
13. “Ahmo melauh.
14. Quemah, aconi, milaquini.4
15. Neh nicmatoc cualli,” quitquilia.
16. “Ahmo, huan neh,” quitquilia, “nyaca, nicennemitoc tech nen tepozcal.5
17. Ca ahmo can niquittac.
18. Ce nen ahmo niquitta.
19. Neh nicmatoc cualli tech in tepozcal.
20. Ahmo para ticalaquiz.
21. Como yeh yetoqueh quemeh non altzimeh,” quitquilia, “tapiani.
22. Aconi calaquiti?” quitquilia.
23. “Pero ahmo.
24. Ta hueliz,” quitquilia, “nicalaquiti.
25. Niquinixnamictiuh,” telia, “nohon tepemeh de nepa centapal6 huan nican centapal.
26. Niquinixnamiqui tepemeh huan tamayan mocahauz,” quitquila, “in pueblo.”
27. No quinequi tamayan cahuaz nin pueblo.
28. “Ahmo tihueliz tahueh,” quitquila.
29. “Huan teh ticmati neh nimitzilia ahmo xyo.”
30. “Ahmo, ta nyaz,” quitquila.
31. Entonces non melauh quemeh nin axcan motapohuitoqueh trapicheros, yetoya ce tacat nican quiliaya Pala Petzin huehueht.7
32. Catca ihueitaht catca nin.
33. Cox yeh ne Lomen Chepa catca, Sevais Chepa,8 ihuan itaht o hueitaht catca, ahmo no nicmatic.
34. Ahmo tiquixmatqueh.
35. Yehha no quipiya trapiche.
36. Quilia, “Ma ahmo,” quilia, “ahmo ximauhhuilican.”
37. “Tehhan tequittazqueh,” quitquilia, “que chihuazqueh.”
38. Non imozticah melauh tanexitoh.
39. Monexti mixti nepa tani.
40. “Huan huitza,” quitquilia, “axcan,” quitquilia.
41. “Pero ahmo ximauhhuilican.
42. Namehhan quitztoqueh nepa tani huan tamixtemic ya.”
43. Entonces huitza ya non mixti huan niman ne caquizquia ya ne hualliuh ne tatzini ya.
44. Nacho: Ihcoya yec tamatinimeh9 ya.
45. Colax: Uh hu, tamatinimeh.
46. “Ah ahmo xicpolocan cuidado,” quitquilia (Palatzin hueitaht).
47. “Tehhan tiquittazqueh quen cihuazqueh.”
48. Ce tepitzin melauh tamixtemico pero niman quiyahuit.
49. Huan tapentantihuiz huan melauh nen tatataztini chicahuac.
50. Quihteuhqueh quiehcolticah, ehocah nican, que nin non tayehcohtoc.10
51. Peuhqueh quit tamilinih huan tatatzini, tamilinih huan tatatzini hasta ne taxoxotah, quihta ne Palatzin catca.
52. Entonces quihtoa nen tahtita, “Ahmo ximauhuilican.
53. Tehhan tiquittazqueh que chihuazqueh.”
54. Quitztoqueh quit ihcon ma ya tatatzinitih hasta ihcon cuicuiyahqueh quitemoltiah.
55. Hasta ta tani quit Teteliah11 tani ca nican non quitamotatoh, huan de nin nequepia[h]12, cualcuitiquizquih campana non Xonota [Jonotla].
56. Quitatatzilini tech non Cozolin [huan] cuicatilia in Ahuehueht.
57. Ompa yetoque campana icuaco non tepet Zempoala tani.
58. Ta quitzahtzi in pio a las once.
59. Miguel: Huei tepet.
60. Colax: Huei tepec.
61. Jim: Campa Zoquiapan.
62. Colax: Campa Zoquiapan para tani.
63. Miguel: Tani Zoquiapan huan hualtani.
64. Nican quilia San Miguel Atiquizayan huan nicuin tani.
65. Colax: Ompa mero.
66. Miguel: Ta yehha za non tepet yetoc ocoyoh.
67. Ocoyoh pero nochi lados ahmo tei ocot.
68. Colax: Ahmo tei quipiya.
69. Miguel: El único, non tepet yetoc quipiya ocot.
70. Colax: Huan ihcon no.
71. Miguel: Huan melauh motta como Cozolin compañero.
72. Colax: Cuatahuitztic.13
73. Huan ompa tami non cuentos.
74. Jim: Tazohcamatic Nicolás.14

Interpretation

Colax identified his source as his compadre Palatzin, whose grandfather is the original narrator Colax was quoting (lines 2, 5). Later in the story (lines 31–34) Colax went into detail with his brothers to establish Palatzin’s grandfather’s identity by defining his relationship to people they knew or did not know. Nahuas in Huitzilan place a great deal of importance on the personal experiences of particular narrators whom they believe are credible, so they take pains to name the source of their narratives. Palatzin is Francisco Pasión, and his grandfather is the rain god’s human companion (quiyauhteot) who lived in Huitzilan. Colax placed his story in the ancient past; he explained the formation of a mountain that resembles Cozolin and the church bell in Huitzilan, located on an island in the middle of the Zempoala River.

The story is about a mixcoat or cloud serpent that comes from Jonotla, a community north of Huitzilan (line 7) and brings a powerful rainstorm. Colax explained the significance of Jonotla’s location when he quoted Palatzin the elder telling his coworkers at the sugarcane press “they are coming here now,” referring to the clouds down in the valleys north of Huitzilan (line 40). Colax has in mind the view from the ridge above the northern end of Huitzilan from which one can see in the direction of the sea and the source of the tropical depressions that strike the Sierra Norte. When Colax and his brothers cultivated a common milpa, they climbed to the top of that ridge and then descended toward Zapotitlán and on to Apango, where they had their corn plot. From the top of that ridge one has a spectacular view of the high ridge to the north, across the Zempoala River, and the Totonac communities of Ixtepec and Nanacatlan. At one time Miguel, seeking work, had crossed that ridge and walked beyond Ixtepec to Huehuetla, a Totonac community further to the north. On his journey he could see Jonotla.

Colax anthropomorphized the agent who brought the storm to Huitzilan from Jonotla as an adolescent boy (telpoch), who tells his father about his plans (line 7). As an adolescent, he is brave—too brave, in fact—and prone to excess (ilihuizti). Rain gods or cloud serpents can be prone to excess and bring too much rain, such as in the storm that actually caused the mudslides that nearly destroyed Totomoxtla in 1999. The boy’s father tries to discourage him, as many fathers try to keep their sons from causing or getting themselves into trouble. Colax (line 12)] described the boy saying that he planned to go inside the church tower in Huitzilan with the daring intention of stealing the bell. Colax described the father as warning his son that he will run into those who shine referring to lightning-bolts or rain gods in Huitzilan who will defend their community from rain gods coming from other communities, like Jonotla. Colax employed the imagery of warfare telling of invading cloud serpents attacking the rain gods inhabiting the mountains flanking Huitzilan on the east and the west, dislodging tons of mud [lines 26–27].

The father of the cloud serpent tells his son that he too went to Huitzilan when he was younger, and brought one of the many storms coming into Huitzilan from the direction of Jonotla (line 16). On line 21, the father tells his son that the ones who shine, referring to the rain gods from Huitzilan who appear as bolts of lightning, are like wasps (altzimeh), are guardians (tapiani), and are fierce. In another story, Miguel used more militant language, describing the rain gods of Huitzilan as defending their community with Mausers, World War I era rifles.

Colax described Palatzin’s grandfather telling the sugarcane press workers what to expect during the storm and counseling them not to be afraid (lines 36–37, 40–42, 46–47). These lines are a good example of a narrative as a lesson (neixcuitil) from the ancestors that Nahuas in Huitzilan try to apply in their own lives. The ancestor in this case is Palatzin’s grandfather, who was a rain god’s human companion and a wise person who knew things that others do not know (lines 44–45). Colax related how Palatzin’s grandfather prepared the workers for the storm that was coming by quoting the grandfather as saying (lines 41–42): “[D]o not be afraid. You see them down below, and it is already cloudy.” The grandfather was clairvoyant and knew about the conversation between the boy and his father. As a rain god, the grandfather also knew about the weather and could sense the danger of a powerful storm.

Colax described the storm approaching by referring to the rain gods from Jonotla as bolts of lightning, which “began shining brightly and thundered, they shone brightly and thundered until they lit everything up” (line 51). Colax’s description of the storm approaching is like what his younger brother, Nacho, recounted of the battle that took place on Talteno in Huitzilan that contributed to the end of the UCI rebellion. The story of “The Storm” could also be a collective memory of earlier battles such as those Nahuas would have experienced during the French Intervention.

After the storm, the cloud serpents return to Jonotla after first ringing the bell on top of Mt. Cozolin and taking Ahuehueht with them. Ahuehueht drops the bell on an island north of Huitzilan in the Zempoala River, and it is now Mt. San Miguel Atiquizayan (Altequizayan, alternate spelling) (lines 53, 63–64). Colax conflated the bell from the church tower in Huitzilan with the chunk of Mt. Cozolin shaped like a bell, which Ahuehueht took with him when the rain gods accompanied him to his home in the sea where he can no longer destroy Huitzilan with a flood. (See Appendix.) Colax’s brother explained (lines 66–67, 69) that Mt. San Miguel Atiquizayan is in the middle of a pine grove and is the only mountain that does not have any pine trees growing on its side. It resembles the smooth sides of Mt. Cozoltepet and the current bell in the Huitzilan church tower.

The Rain God’s Advice

The grandfather’s advice in Colax’s story offers a lesson for how to handle the next rebellion as well as terrifying weather events by controlling fear. The grandfather tells the workers not to be fearful saying: “But no, do not be afraid. We shall see what they will do” (lines 36–37). He repeats this advice as the storm approaches, saying: “They are coming now. But do not be afraid.” He advises the workers: “Do not stop being careful. We shall see what they will do” (lines 46–47). After the storm begins with bright flashes of lightning and loud claps of thunder, the grandfather says for a third time: “Do not be afraid. We shall see what they will do” (lines 52–53).

Nacho blamed fear for the many acts of violence carried out by Nahuas in the UCI. He said:

After they killed the head of the UCIs, the one they called Felipe Reyes [Herrera], the time of fear began. There was fear. [The UCIs] started spying [on those they thought were their enemies]. They spied on them. Until they killed even those who did not have any blame. They snuck up on them to kill them. (“Zatepa de quimictiqueh tayecanqueh de ne in UCIs, non monotzaya Felipe Reyes, pues pehuac mauhcayot. Oncaya mauhcayot. Peuqueh mopihpiyah ya. Mopihpiyah ihcon. Hasta que ihcon quintamictiah que mas ahmo tei itahtacol. Quichtacamictiqueh.”)15

Things got much worse after Juan Aco allegedly orchestrated the burning of the UCI’s corn plants on the Talcuaco pasture around 1979, and Nahuas in the UCI erupted with fury (cualayot). Relations among Nahuas were already very tense, as the Nahuas in the UCI were wary of those who stayed on the margins. The death toll probably exceeded 200 victims, mostly Nahuas; it is difficult to come up with an exact figure. (See Taggart 2007: 44.) Suspicions of witchcraft were rampant and may have contributed to the death of Juan Hernández’s mother and the massacre of Nacho’s wife, Victoria, and her sisters and brother, who perished as the UCI was imploding in October 1983. Near the end of their rebellion, Victoria’s brother was drinking with his UCI companions when they got into an argument about a pistol, which ended in the brother’s death. Victoria’s sister confronted the killers, threatening them verbally. While the family gathered to mourn their loss, the killers, perhaps fearing revenge by witchcraft, broke into their house and killed them with repeating shotguns, leaving Victoria’s infant son attempting to nurse from his dead mother’s breast.

How Collective Memory Changes

Nacho and his brothers provided the most complete record of stories from 1970 to 2007, from which I shall offer a model of how they conserved as well as changed their oral tradition. To begin, the Ángel Hernández brothers attempted to conserve their stories by repeating the words of their ancestors exactly as they heard them. The members of their audience, who had heard the stories before, corrected them when they departed from expectations. Colax corrected his older brother, Miguel, for his lapses of memory on several occasions. Colax’s daughter did the same for her father when he failed to mention a detail that she remembered him including on prior storytelling occasions. Moreover, Nacho told the story of “The President of Hueytlalpan” in 1978, and his brother Miguel told it again in 2007 with a high degree of consistency. They did not have access to a written or recorded version of this story with which they could standardize their narration over twenty-nine years. Jan Vansina (1985:161) attributed such conservative tendencies in oral tradition to the tenacity of individual memories.

The experiences that led to the creation of the myths of the rain gods’ rebellion, recorded during the first and second stage of fieldwork, were fading but not forgotten. The Nahuas were still the subordinate members of an ethnically stratified community, although class relations are changing as more Nahuas marry across former class lines. The elite Mestizo families who owned most of the land before the UCI rebellion continue to be major landowners, and Nahuas are their workers. The Ángel Hernández brothers still told “The President of Hueytlalpan” and “The Water in Ixtepec,” which captured these experiences. However, they also told “The Achane of Apohpocayan,” “The Man from Ayehual,” and “The Storm,” in which they incorporated experiences following the collapse of the UCI rebellion. “The Achane of Apohpocayan” expresses what it meant to Nacho to cease working as one with his brothers to cultivate a common milpa. “The Man from Ayehual” captured Miguel’s view of changing interethnic relations during the post-UCI rebellion period. “The Storm” is Colax’s memory of a terrifying cyclone as well as the UCI rebellion.

The Ángel Hernández brothers adopted these new stories in a process that is in partial accord with Maurice Halbwachs’s (1992: 76) theory that change in one’s social position opens one to new memories. Halbwachs offered the example of the Roman wife who acquires new memories when she enters and become a member of her husband’s family. Halbwachs declared: “We change memories along with our points of view, our principles, and our judgments, when we pass from one group to another” (1992: 81). Halbwachs’s example of the Roman wife applies to any change that occurs in the life of an individual or a society that can help explain how some aspects of oral tradition change while other aspects stay the same.

Miguel and Colax Ángel Hernández did not change their residences at marriage, but their social circumstances changed when the elite Mestizo families lost their position of political dominance in Huitzilan. In his story of “The Man from Ayehual,” Miguel captured the meaning of this change by describing an ambivalent relationship between a rain god and an achane who are compadres. While appearing to love and respect each other, they have an ambivalent relationship, not unlike siblings in many Nahua families. The achane is wearing the garb of an ancestor, a narrative device that places the action in an earlier time, possibly before the arrival of Mestizo settlers in Huitzilan. Miguel did not forget what ethnic and class relations were like in Huitzilan prior to the UCI rebellion, because on the same storytelling occasion in 2007 he also told “The President of Hueytlalpan,” in which the rain gods organize and carry out a rebellion against the achane who is the tonal or animal companion spirit of a municipio president who takes orders from Spain. In his version of “The President of Hueytlalpan,” the rain gods have moral virtue and the achane is the animal companion spirit (coatonalle) of a municipio president who took orders from Spain.

“The Storm” reveals one of the limitations in Halbwachs’s theory, in which the focus is on the social origins of collective memory to the exclusion of other aspects of experience. To borrow from Tim Ingold (2000: 361), Colax demonstrated his skill in weaving experientially based perceptions of water and weather into the fabric of “The Storm.” In 2007, he and his brothers refreshed their memory of the fear they felt during the UCI rebellion of 1977–1984 by describing the fear they felt during storms like the one in 1999 that devastated the town of Totomoxtla.