downtrodden, sullen and suspicious — still lived in the
Barrio Occidental
.”
Old Santiago Tuc nodded his head. “
Si, Viejo Poderoso
… it is true. That is why they would try to capture his catafalque during the procession each year. They believed that this would help them to find where the Great Heart was hidden. And then they would have the key to open and to close the rain and then they would make all of Anahuac do their bidding.” He sighed and groaned. “It is known and revealed how we Moxtomí have suffered since the Spaniards came. Generation after generation we have lost some of our communal lands — confiscation, sequestration, rectification of boundaries, taxation — what names haven’t they used! They have eaten our lands like a child eats
gomitas
. The King, the Viceroy, the First Republic, the First Emperor, then Santa Anna, then our good Juarez, the Second Emperor, again Juarez, Diaz, revolution, revolution…. Now and then we regained a little
milpita
here or there, but mostly it has been loss….
“Still,
Viejo Poderoso
, though we hold only a handful of our
ejido
lands, it is better than being flung upon the altars of the vile Tenochas, to have our hearts cut out and our skins flayed off!
Ai!
I do not know what powers the Huitzili still may have, or how such power may compare to the military and air force and the armada of Mexico. I have heard it said, though, that it matters but little to the pitcher whether it is dropped upon the stone or if the stone is dropped upon the pitcher. We do not want war, we do not want sacrifices, we do not want drought. We want only our old
ejido
lands — and if we cannot have them back, then let us at least have peace. We look to you, Great Old One, to save us from this present threat.”
A faint and infinitely patient smile passed across the massy features of the Elder Old One. “We hope you do not look in vain…. There is, we must tell you, more at stake here besides Anahuac. In the Great Heart of Tlaloc — and need I tell you that it is not indeed a real heart — that it is, how shall I compare it, an engine, a device of infinite power and infinite potency, such as our own much reduced capacities are no longer capable of replacing … dwindled as we are from centuries of combat — in the Great Heart of Tlaloc lies more than the ability to insure rain. In it lies the means of turning life to death, matter to not-matter. Should the Huitzili succeed in capturing and mastering it, not Anahuac alone, but the entire universe may well be helpless before them. The struggle between us has been costly to them as well as to us. The few of them who are here once again, once again masquerading as gods, are all of them that are anywhere.
“This is their last chance!”
Some of the men spoke in favor of proceeding at once, then, to seize and remove the Great Heart from where it had so long lain concealed. But others counseled caution. “It is not the Huitzili alone who are sniffing like dogs,” Domingo Deuh pointed out.
“They know that the Great Heart exists, but they do not —
yet
— know that it is hidden inside the Tlaloc under the Monte Sagrado,
“But the government has sent troops — the government is going to remove the Tlaloc and take it to the new Big House of Old Things in ‘Mexico’ — but the government and the military does not know —
yet
— that anything is inside of it. Many of the people in the district are very uneasy, and say that if Tlaloc is moved then there will be no more rain within the whole land of Anahuac, that is, the Valley of Mexico. And, they, too, stirred up as they are without fully realizing the whole of the matter, may prove a danger.”
The huge head of the Elder Old One slowly went down and as slowly came up again. “Then we must move,” he said, “not only as swiftly as possible, but as secretly as possible.” His great golden eyes sought those of his fellows, and, as slowly and deliberately, they nodded as
Barrio Occidental
.”
Old Santiago Tuc nodded his head. “
Si, Viejo Poderoso
… it is true. That is why they would try to capture his catafalque during the procession each year. They believed that this would help them to find where the Great Heart was hidden. And then they would have the key to open and to close the rain and then they would make all of Anahuac do their bidding.” He sighed and groaned. “It is known and revealed how we Moxtomí have suffered since the Spaniards came. Generation after generation we have lost some of our communal lands — confiscation, sequestration, rectification of boundaries, taxation — what names haven’t they used! They have eaten our lands like a child eats
gomitas
. The King, the Viceroy, the First Republic, the First Emperor, then Santa Anna, then our good Juarez, the Second Emperor, again Juarez, Diaz, revolution, revolution…. Now and then we regained a little
milpita
here or there, but mostly it has been loss….
“Still,
Viejo Poderoso
, though we hold only a handful of our
ejido
lands, it is better than being flung upon the altars of the vile Tenochas, to have our hearts cut out and our skins flayed off!
Ai!
I do not know what powers the Huitzili still may have, or how such power may compare to the military and air force and the armada of Mexico. I have heard it said, though, that it matters but little to the pitcher whether it is dropped upon the stone or if the stone is dropped upon the pitcher. We do not want war, we do not want sacrifices, we do not want drought. We want only our old
ejido
lands — and if we cannot have them back, then let us at least have peace. We look to you, Great Old One, to save us from this present threat.”
A faint and infinitely patient smile passed across the massy features of the Elder Old One. “We hope you do not look in vain…. There is, we must tell you, more at stake here besides Anahuac. In the Great Heart of Tlaloc — and need I tell you that it is not indeed a real heart — that it is, how shall I compare it, an engine, a device of infinite power and infinite potency, such as our own much reduced capacities are no longer capable of replacing … dwindled as we are from centuries of combat — in the Great Heart of Tlaloc lies more than the ability to insure rain. In it lies the means of turning life to death, matter to not-matter. Should the Huitzili succeed in capturing and mastering it, not Anahuac alone, but the entire universe may well be helpless before them. The struggle between us has been costly to them as well as to us. The few of them who are here once again, once again masquerading as gods, are all of them that are anywhere.
“This is their last chance!”
Some of the men spoke in favor of proceeding at once, then, to seize and remove the Great Heart from where it had so long lain concealed. But others counseled caution. “It is not the Huitzili alone who are sniffing like dogs,” Domingo Deuh pointed out.
“They know that the Great Heart exists, but they do not —
yet
— know that it is hidden inside the Tlaloc under the Monte Sagrado,
“But the government has sent troops — the government is going to remove the Tlaloc and take it to the new Big House of Old Things in ‘Mexico’ — but the government and the military does not know —
yet
— that anything is inside of it. Many of the people in the district are very uneasy, and say that if Tlaloc is moved then there will be no more rain within the whole land of Anahuac, that is, the Valley of Mexico. And, they, too, stirred up as they are without fully realizing the whole of the matter, may prove a danger.”
The huge head of the Elder Old One slowly went down and as slowly came up again. “Then we must move,” he said, “not only as swiftly as possible, but as secretly as possible.” His great golden eyes sought those of his fellows, and, as slowly and deliberately, they nodded as
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