Mixtec Colonial Maps as Sacred Landscapes

Co-authored with Izaira López Sánchez. Fundamental to cultural continuity in the Ñuu Savi communities has been the permanent possession of their territory, defended since the arrival of the Spaniards to the present day. We maintain a spiritual relationship with the land that is based on an ethic of profound respect towards Ñu’un Ndéyu, the Earth Deity, who, in the colonial period, has become identified with San Cristobal or velo Toba. This spiritual relationship with the land of the Ñuu Savi people contrasts with the dominant Western vision and, therefore, its origin can be considered Mesoamerican. For example, when we sow in a new place, we present ourselves to Ñu’un Ndéyu and we offer whatever we are carrying, as an act of respect to this deity. With this act, we initiate a cordial relation and we ask the Earth Deity for our work to give us the results we expect for a good harvest. If this spiritual relationship with the land is important today, it would have been even stronger in the past. This is important for the study of the codices, the maps made in the colonial period; especially those of the 16th century, as these form part of the Mesoamerican tradition, in the sense that the narratives of foundation and the lineages that they contain were adapted to the format established by the Spaniards. In this paper we argue that, at the moment the Mixtec communities had to define a territory according to legal requirements established by Spanish authorities, the sacred landscape played an important role in the election of places that were to function as boundary markers (mojoneras). Thus, the Mixtec colonial maps represented sacred landscapes.