The Heart of Matlalcueye: Contemporary Nahua Cave Ceremonies in Huetziatl, Puebla, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

At the center of Matlalcueye Volcano resides Huetziatl Cave, a landmark of profound significance for the surrounding pueblos of Puebla, Mexico. For Delfino, my guide to Huetziatl, the cave is a powerful shrine of pre-Hispanic and ancestral importance. As opposed to many of his Catholic neighbors, Delfino understands Huetziatl as a canal that opens to the abode of the female entity Maltlalcueye-Chalchiuhtlicue, where devotees can place offerings to secure rain and agricultural abundance. In this paper, I will discuss my participant observation accompanying Delfino on pilgrimage from his pueblo of San Miguel Canoa to Huetziatl, which I conducted in February 2023 and 2024. I will discuss the ethnohistoric record surrounding cave rituals at Maltlalcueye, which includes 16th century cartography and chronicles, as well as analyze the Nahuatl prayers, narratives, and rites I recorded with Delfino. Since Delfino’s annual pilgrimage coincides with the Festival of San Juan Bosco near Huetziatl, I also explore how Delfino grapples with his heteronormative religious practices in a Catholic region, and what his commitment to ancestral traditions means for his political and cultural identity. Furthermore, I explore the phenomenon of overlapping practices of the ancestral landscape, which together make up Matlalcueye’s symbolic geography.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50367