Since the early years of New Spain, religious figures related to Christianity began to be created in the region and later exported to Spain. Among the different paraphernalia produced were the corn cane Christs that came mostly from Michoacán, Mexico. It was in one of these figures that a Nahuatl tributary codex was found hidden inside. It was a real accident, as it was uncovered thanks to a mouse that decided to make its lair inside the Cristo de Caña.
The production of cane Christs
Very early in New Spain, this type of religious figures began to be produced, and specifically, the way of elaborating the Christs responded to both religious and practical needs.
Pablo Amador Marrero, part of UNAM’s Institute of Aesthetic Research, explains that these were mainly made for rituals like processions. They needed big-scale but light sculptures, otherwise the march would become impossible. He says that to achieve this, “local artists recovered a Purépecha modality that used corn to make very light deities, and then fused it with an Italian method known as cartapesta.”
The mixture of both techniques resulted in figures that seemed to be made of paper-mâché and measured up to three meters while weighing only seven kilos. The production was mainly based in Michoacán, but with the discovery of this codex, it has been proven that many of these sculptures made their way to Mexico City and other states.
The content of the codex
There have been six codexes identified inside religious figures. In this particular case, known as the Christ of Valverde, the recovering and analysis of its contents was a real challenge.
The mouse damaged part of the document, but it was not unsalvageable. After various chemical analyses and camera observation, they determined that the codex was a tributary codex that had been made during the early colonial period on amate paper.
A tributary codex was a document used at that time to register payments, similar to a receipt. They were administrative pieces, so if you were expecting it to hold previously unrevealed secrets of pre-Hispanic cultures we are sorry to disappoint you.
How did that get there?
It is still unknown why several codexes ended up hidden inside religious figures; currently, there are two theories.
The first one, and somewhat romantic theory, says that placing codexes inside Spanish religious figures was a way for the indigenous population to perpetuate their pre-Hispanic legacy for posterity. It does not sound so far-fetched, as there is evidence that different ingenious people in Mexico did attempt to preserve their culture at all cost.
However, due to the administrative nature of the codexes found, researchers are more inclined to a second theory: that these pieces were recycled to create these particular types of Christ figures. Marrero is inclined to this theory because of the little importance that the “receipts” of each transaction had.
Although we do not know what the real reason is, today even the most mundane things of the past are of high importance in the present. Any “piece of paper” can be historical, and each piece is preservation of forgotten cultures that speak for a time.
Images from: UNAM, Semana Santa Callosa de Segura, Mexico Unknown.
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
