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Tonantzin (Classical Nahuatl:Tonāntzin[toˈnáːn.tsin]) is aNahuatl title composed ofto- "our" +nān "mother" +-tzin "(honorific suffix)". When addressing Tonantzin directly, men use the suffixed vocative formTonāntziné [toˌnaːntsinˈé], and women use the unsuffixed vocative formTonāntzín [tonaːnˈtsín].
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 includeChicōmexōchitl [tʃikˌoːmeˈʃóːtʃitɬ] (literally "Seven Flower") andChālchiuhcihuātl [ˌtʃaːɬtʃiʍˈsíwaːtɬ] (literally "Emerald/Jade Woman").[citation needed] A "Tonāntzin" was honored during the movable feast ofXōchilhuitl [ʃoːˈtʃíɬwitɬ].
Some[who?] have claimed that upon the apparition ofOur Lady of Guadalupe in the hill ofTepeyac where Tonantzin's temple had been destroyed by the Spanish priests, the natives recognized Our Lady of Guadalupe as TonantzinCoatlaxopeuh (Meaning "Our Lady" who emerges from the region of light like the Eagle from fire).[1]
Mexico City's 17th-centuryBasilica of Guadalupe—built in honor of theBlessed Virgin and perhaps Mexico's most important religious building—was constructed at the base ofthe hill of Tepeyac. 16th centuryFranciscan friarBernardino de Sahagún wrote in hisFlorentine Codex that Indians traveled to Tepeyac to worship Tonantzin. In her bookGoddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History,Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote:
"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 wordGuadalupe in this appellation may derive fromCoatlaxopeuh, meaning "the one who crushes the serpent",[3] and perhaps referring toQuetzalcoatl[citation needed]. The name really came about because the Spanish remembered the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain, and they realized that by giving this apparition the same name as the one from their homeland, the etymological slippage between their term and the Nahuatl term would further contribute toward their project of conquest through cultural colonization. Of note here is the historical fact that La Virgen de Guadalupe is of tremendous significance in Mexico, reflecting a pre-Columbian understanding on the part of colonized people that Guadalupe must be understood in relation to Coatlaxopeuh, despite ongoing effort by colonizing forces to erase this historical context.[citation needed]
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]
Tonantzin is sometimes used as afemalegiven name;Native Californian actressTonantzin Carmelo is an example. Tona, Tonzi, Toni, Nantzin, and Nancy are possible nicknames.
Tonantzín (spelled with an accent on the final syllable) plays an inspirational role in theSandra Cisneros short story "Little Miracles, Kept Promises", from her collectionWoman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). The story includes Cisneros's portrait of the artist as a young Chicana.
In the comic seriesLove and Rockets byGilbert Hernandez andJaime Hernandez, Tonantzin is the name of a central character in Gilbert's world of Palomar. The character is often linked to the Aztec goddess.
Marian apparitions inVilla de Guadalupe (1531) | ||
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Readings in classic Nahuatlhttp://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nican/NicanMopohua.html
