For thousands of years, the Aztec people and their neighboring indigenous tribes held a month-long festival during the summer to celebrate the death of their ancestors with a joyous celebration now known as "Día de los Muertos," or in English as "The Day of the Dead."
Following the Aztec empire's expedited demise by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, priests soon began converting the people of Mexico, which meant that traditional ceremonies like Day of the Dead would have to be reinterpreted through Catholic holidays like All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Trent Jacobs/The Daily Sentinel |
Victor 'Itzxochitl' Vazquez from Mexico City springs into the air during a dance honoring the earth at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center in front of area school students. Vazquez was visiting Nacogdoches with his Aztec cultural group, Quetzal Ollin Chicahuac, to celebrate 'The Day of the Dead,' which is celebrated throughout Latin America on Nov. 2.
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While much of their culture was eradicated by glory-seeking Spaniards and their priests, there are still those who, through the blood in their veins, hold allegiance to the Aztec nation.
And on Monday, several members of an Aztec cultural group from Mexico City called Quetzal Ollin Chicahuac were paying homage to the dead by demonstrating the sacred ceremony for students and the community at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.
Wearing feathered headdresses and blowing on conch shells, they jumped through plumes of burning incense made from tree resin and peppermint to the same drum beats their fallen ancestors once danced to by the thousands in front of the great pyramids of Tenochtitlan, which is present day Mexico City. In their attempts to save a lost civilization's essence, they said that the culture has now saved them from a world filled with unnatural distractions.
"This started as a humanitarian effort from our hearts to rescue what little Aztec culture was left," said Francisco Garcia, explaining why he and the others in the group stay so actively in touch with the ancient ways. "We made it pretty for tourists, but then you get into it, and I realized, the one who needs to be rescued is me, because I live such a fast-paced life that I forgot about the link I have with nature and how to have respect for everything I do."
Garcia's Aztec name, "Ehecatl," represents the wind, which eight years ago helped blow him north from Mexico City to his new home in Conroe, where he is a first-grade teacher at Sam Houston Elementary School.
The day-long celebration included poetry reading, even more dancing and the presentation of the altar covered in offerings and religious relics.
But the message that Garcia and his friends preached through their dazzling movements was one of tolerance, acceptance and respect, they said. As the Hispanic population in Texas continues to grow towards the state's majority ethnic group, Garcia said he worries that too many have already lost their "vision" and are all too often turning to crime as a way of life.
But through ceremonies and cultural outreach events like the one held Monday, Garcia said he hopes he can rebuild the connections between young Hispanics in Texas to their much fabled roots born in the jungles and mountains of Central America.
"We are the product of a mixture of cultures," Garcia said. "We love our culture, and we love our Aztec culture. Everything we do here is sacred, but we also live in a society that we inherited from our European ancestors. We honor that, too. So it's just as important to go to school, start a career and to do something good with your life as it is to connect back to nature. Because in the end, we go back to the earth."
Before others in the group head home, where they work as engineers, architects and teachers, they will visit their Native American "brothers and sisters" of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe Tuesday and Wednesday.
