The Huehuentones

HISTORY

Can you lend me your deceased soul to dance among the living?

It is noon on October 28, in the Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca, little by little the flower offerings begin to arrive at the graveyards, and those who died are commemorated. The holy fields of the Mazatec Sierra are dressed in the dream world of the dead that opens its doors to the deceased during the faithful holidays who each year leave their abode to reunite with their families.

"Huehue" is Nahual origin word that means "old" or "elder", and is linked to the ancestral fire god "Huehueteotl", in turn this old god is associated with the Sun. A Huehuenton "Chaj tó xo'ó" in the Mazatec language is an old soul that clings to the sun to dance among the living.

Men, women and children arrive at the graveyard as every year, the premise is to leave the soul and invite and keep in the body the soul of a deceased, no matter the name of the one who has died, nor the name of the huehuenton who will be the lent house for the soul of the deceased: the important thing is to commune among equals, open the portal of time and transform the life-death dimension into a single space.

Once the soul of the deceased incarnates in a huehuenton, he annuls his self, he loses his identity as an individual person to become a collective subject that will dance during the holly days in front of the offerings for the holly deceased, he will receive as symbolic payment bread, fruit, coffee and cane brandy.

The ritual music that accompanies the huehuentones is composed of a large number of sounds, whose repetitive melody by guitars and violins creates an ideal atmosphere; No one who hears a Huehuenton melody can be emotionally untouched, even if the Mazatec language is unknown, which is the language in which these repertoires are sung.

The Huehuenton must retain its anonymity, any indication that can betray the identity must be annulled: women dress as men, men as women, they cover their faces with the traditional Huehue mask - "old man" -, the voice must be faked, to be canceled as a subject to exist as a great community that allows the dead to dance in front of the offerings, which families have generously and lovingly prepared to be together again in a spiral ritual time that will be repeated every year in Oaxaca's remote mountains.

It is noon on November 2 and the portal is about to close, it is time to return the holy field and deliver the soul that the Huehuenton incarnated during this sacred time, just when the soul returns to the body, the virtuous ritual circle is complete. It will be until next year when the Huehuenton returns for another soul, so that the deceased faithful dance and sing among the living, since in these blessed lands the extended nuclear family encompasses the living and dead in an endless and eternal spiral.