Xolotl

Publication Instance Details #306

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Gender-based violence Indigenous Rights (incl. culture & language)
Irish Context	Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned
Languages	Irish
Genre	Lyric Sequence
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	Very long, two-part lyric sequence in which the speaker of the poem is the character of Xolotl, an Aztec deity who was the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl, and who was the god of lightning and death, amongst other things. This poem is mostly about the character of Xolotl, his wanderings and cares, but it does point to the rape of native American and south American women by 'hombres dios' - presumably Spanish and Portuguese settlers who arrived to South America in the wake of Christopher Columbus. Xolotl lists the tribes from which these women originate as well: including Nahua, Huastec, Olmec, Totonac, and so forth - all of them real Mesoamerican tribes. Notably, Xolotl himself notes the 'year of our lord 1992' - which is the 500th anniversary of Columbus having reached the American continent - and in the same section of the poem, a few lines later, he mentions 'scáth Cholambas' - 'the shade of Columbus' as well. Interestingly, the poem refers many times to Ireland, including Ireland's poetic names: Fodla, Banba, etc - and the god speaks through the speaker of the poem, as his 'muse'. Note that the poem is very long and not all of it is included within the attached images.