By Alejandro I. López
“This monolith was found in the surrounding area of Coatlinchan, in the State of Mexico, whose inhabitants generously donated it to this museum in 1964.”
The first paragraph of the plaque at the feet of the statue located on Paseo de la Reforma is crystal clear: according to the official history, this 7-meter giant represents the god Tlaloc, and he was not taken forcibly, but rather generously donated to the Museum of Anthropology.
Before his arrival to the most beautiful avenue in Mexico City, Tlaloc was not known as Tlaloc, according to the people of the town where it was found, San Miguel Coatlinchan. The statue could not be the representation of a male Aztec god for a simple reason: it was wearing a skirt. For the people in the town, the statue was a representation of Chalchiuhtlicue, the female Nahua rain goddess, but most people just called it the “Stone of the tecomates,” because it had 12 indentations that filled with water as if they were gourds.
For centuries, the 168 ton monolith lay on the ground, facing up from the Santa Clara ravine in the Sierra de Texcoco, three kilometers from the center of San Miguel Coatlinchan. This ravine was visited regularly by the people of Coatlinchan and other nearby villages, who held it in great esteem and thanked it for the springs that originated in the mountain. The people asked the statue to bless them with a good rainy season, a good harvest, and an abundance of food; they also held festivals in its honor. Since time immemorial, people had an active relationship with the monolith, but that would all change in 1964.
People watching the Tlaloc Monolith in the Santa Clara ravine c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
Panoramic view of Tlaloc in Coatlinchaan in the Santa Clara ravine. c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
People walking towards the Santa Clara ravine. c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
Tlaloc in the Santa Clara ravine, Coatlinchan c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
Searching for a symbol
In 1963, 35 kilometers away, in a piece of land right next to Chapultepec Park belonging to the Ministry of Communications, the Museum of Anthropology was built, the jewel of the crown President Adolfo Lopez Mateos planned and built as a legacy from his tenure. The construction advanced steadily according to the plans laid out by architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, but there was something missing: a monumental piece to serve as a landmark for the museum’s exterior.
According to the magazine Proceso (in Spanish), Ramirez Vazquez presented a mockup for Lopez Mateos where an Olmec head brought from the archaeological site La Venta in the state of Tabasco graced the main entrance of the museum, but the proposal was rejected by the president. Other possible pieces that were considered were an Atlante from Tula, in the state of Hidalgo; a Maya stela from Yaxchilan or Edzna; or the mythical Sun Stone, which had spent over 60 years next to the Metropolitan Cathedral.
Ricardo de Robina, the man in charge of overseeing the construction, suggested using the monolith from Coatlinchan. Other versions of the story say that it was President Lopez Mateos himself who made the suggestion, but the truth is, after a technical evaluation –probably not a very thorough one– there came an order from the office of the President: the “Stone of the Tecomates” would be the chosen piece to welcome all visitors outside the National Museum of Anthropology.
Tlaloc Monolith, Coatlinchaan, reprography. c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
People standing over the Tlaloc monolith in the Santa Clara ravine c. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
Tlaloc’s kidnapping
The ideas about the monolith were completely different between the people of San Miguel Coatlinchan and the federal institutions in charge of construction. David Lorente y Fernandez describes how locals viewed “The Stone of Tecomates:”
“…in the area, the stone idol was not an object that represented something else, or an abstract with symbolic value, but the physical and immediate embodiment of a divine presence, inscribed in the current cosmovision. More than a timeless treasure to be preserved, it was a living entity, active, endowed with its own subjectivity, awareness, emotions, as a thing that gives life and needs to be nurtured with offerings or the “strength” it draws from the feasts in its honor; something completely detached from the ideal from a museum perspective, of the statue as a “work of art” or “representation”.”
It was following this second idea that government officers began visiting the area more often –some sources say that the first visit happened in 1962–, but the actual relocation work began in February 1964, when a construction company was hired to tamp down a portion of 2 kilometers of dirt road that led from the mountain to the Mexico-Texcoco road.
According to an article by Arturo Cruz Barcenas published in La Jornada (in Spanish) (who in 2014 interviewed Guadalupe Villareal, junior high school professor in Coatlinchan and witness to the whole operation), it was Ramirez Vazquez himself who met the village representatives to let them know that the “Stone of The Tecomates” would be taken to the new museum:
“The village elders told them the stone would not leave. Lopez Mateos said if the people refused, they wouldn’t take it. He didn’t want to engage in a confrontation because he was about to finish his term, but Ramirez Vazquez insisted in one meeting that they would be taking Tlaloc away.”
People standing over the Tlaloc monolith in Coatlinchan. 1960. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
People standing over the Tlaloc monolith. 1964. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
The resistance from Coatlinchan
The most known version says that, in 1963, an assembly that was only attended by a few people decided to accept the offering from the Federal Government, which included infrastructure and social programs for the area, in exchange for allowing them to take the monolith away. But the general feeling about the idea was the opposite, and people tried to stop the relocation by all means.
Tlaloc’s removal required an unprecedented engineering feat. The stone was 7 meters high and weighed 167 tonnes, and there were no proper roads. The operation would be complicated and costly.
By early 1964, the rumors that pointed to a government operation to take Chalchiuhtlicue grew to the point when, on the afternoon of February 23, dozens of workers drove a couple of semis plus a steel platform with steel wire ropes to the monolith.
Men standing near the Tlaloc monolith on a semi platform. 1964. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico
By midnight, Chalchiuhtlicue was ready to leave for the City, but the people of San Miguel Coatlinchan got organized and tried to sabotage the operation. According to Lorente y Fernández, the people fought with the very tools the peasants used in their daily work:
“Several versions say that some people trie to destroy the platform and they definitely did some damage to it. Under the cover of darkness, some cut the steel wires that held the stone to the platform. The collective memory still remembers the moments when the army arrived to protect the operation from people with sticks, shovels and other tools wielded as weapons.”
After deflating the semis’ 72 wheels and doing some minor damage to the steel structure, the situation escalated to the point that the army had to take control of Coatlinchan. The relocation process finally began on April 16 along with a heavy army operation, and Tlaloc began its final journey to the National Museum of Anthropology, to the disbelief and anger of the people. Guadalupe Villareal’s account for La Jornada gives a better idea of the drama that unfolded:
“…they took the stone in a platform made specifically for that purpose. It was pushed by two large roller skids and pulled by four semis. People were crying. Some people that had just found out what was happening ran to confirm if the rumors were true. Soldiers yelled orders to people, telling them to go back to their houses.”
Arrival in Mexico City
People in Zocalo watching the arrival of Tlaloc from Coatlinchan. 1964. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
After a whole day on the road, Chalchiuhtlicue arrived in Mexico City the night of April 16, 1964, in the middle of a heavy rainstorm which, due to the heavy press coverage the whole operation had, cemented the identity of the stone as Tlaloc, god of the rain.
The mood in the City was the precise opposite to that in Texcoco: the media coverage of the relocation was one of joy and it was pointed out how daring and bold the enterprise had been, one that served to reinforce the care for Mexico’s cultural heritage, something completely in tune with the national values the country was trying to achieve. At 11 pm that night, the monolith went around the Zocalo once and finally, at 1:13 of the next day, it arrived to its last (and current) home on Reforma Avenue, where it has been for the last 55 years.
The arrival and unloading of the Tlaloc monolith at the National Museum of Anthropology. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
People looking at the sculpture of Tlaloc of Coatlinchan at the entrance of the National Museum of Anthropology. 1965. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
People gathered around the sculpture of Tlaloc at the entrance of the National Museum of Anthropology. 1966. Fototeca Nacional. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.
The last paragraph of the plaque underneath the statue reads: “The giant sculpture is unfinished and represents a water deity, a fundamental element for the life of the Teotihuacan inhabitants, a city devoted to agriculture and whose inhabitants sculpted it.”
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