The Land of the Sun Archer: Mixtecs

Mixtli means cloud; the Mixteca is the land of clouds. In the mountainous heart of Oaxaca we find the Mixtecs, a people who live beyond the clouds and the sun. 

In pre-Hispanic times, there were almost a million Mixtecs, notable for being a warrior people. 

The Mixtec codices recount the creation in Apoala, where two sabino or ahuehuete trees loved each other so much that they procreated a son named Dzahuindanda.

Dzahuindanda, the creator of Mixtec culture, who, having no one to fight with, began to shoot arrows at the sun and that is why it bleeds in the afternoons. 

Mixtec women and men spin on a waist loom and create huipils for daily use and certain religious ceremonies, full of symbolic elements. 

For dyeing, they use the cochineal grain, the cempasúchil flower, and the pericón. 

Their textile symbolizes the grandeur of Mixtec colors and nature, where each woman and man expresses their ancestral knowledge. 

Therefore, each embroidery has a meaning: the diamonds, starting from top to bottom, represent the sky crossed by the stars and the next line represents the flag with a divided rectangle.

The third line is one of the most important parts: it embodies butterflies, the heart, change, and evolution, all wrapped in flags.

The fourth line represents the fallen leaves in fall; the fifth is the path of the human being; the sixth represents "the corn tortilla" and the seventh the arrowheads of the warriors. 

The dance of the devils is a representation danced in honor of James the Apostle.

It tells how the devils take Captain Celín, who prefers to be taken to hell rather than be an apostle. The devils are happy because they took him to hell. 

The dance represents the journeys of the muleteers, who came from the coast and passed through the entire Mixteca region. 

The outfit consists of moccasins made with goat fur over the pants and a dark brown mask that simulates the heat to which the muleteers were subjected. 

In the upper part they used a kind of jacket known as a capulina, made of leather and complemented with scarves and neckerchiefs.