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Compa_Mighty
Dor-Lomin
Jul 27 2010, 1:48am
Post #1 of 8
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Mexico from A to Z: Letters P and Q
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Hello! First of all, I want to apologize for not posting the corresponding letters for the last two weeks. I was caught up in an uninspired streak for writing, apart from having little time to sit down and write the note. In any case, I’m back, and hopefully letter P and Q will be the only ones I’ll have missed by the end of the series. Today, I will be posting both P and Q, although in separate posts for organization and archive purposes. I am also presenting the full posts, and the fact that they are posted together won’t make abbreviated versions of either of them. So without further ado, let us begin with Letter P!
P is for Peso
The Peso is the Mexican currency since 1821, year of the Independence. However, the Peso exists as a type of coin since colonial times, when American coins were minted to match the weight of Spanish doubloons, or Castillians. Peso means weight, and it was by matching this weight that you got a peso. To date we have coins that are the Silver Peso, which still maintain some kind of actual metallic weight equivalence in their mint. The Peso is also the currency of many Latin American countries, as a result of this historic reality.
Silver Peso
The Peso was initially minted in Coinage Houses across the country, but as the 19th century progressed, changes were made. Bills were originally printed in American Banks, as can be seen in older bills. In time, as technology progressed and a greater control of the economy was achieved, the central Bank, the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) was established as the sole printer of paper money and the National Coinage House as the sole minter of coin. They remain so to this day.
The Bank of Mexico's building to the right. Left, the Mexico Post Office building. Downtown Mexico City
As with most developing countries, the Peso hasn’t been stable in either form or value, far from what we see with an American Dollar or a British Pound. Very high inflation before the fifties and starting from the seventies all the way to the year 2000 provoked the change in bills, to higher values, which in turn permitted the creation of new designs, which were to a great extent, a result of political matters. In 1993, the traditional Peso changed to the New Peso, which has an equivalence of 1 New Peso to 1000 Pesos. This results in the following: the lower peso bills disappeared altogether many years ago, and there was a time when we had 500,000 peso bills. The New Peso generated the last big change in bill and coin design, which stands today; although a new polymer bill technology has caused a slight change in design of several bills during the last 5 years.
Last badge of bills
Today, we have coins in the following denominations: 10, 20 and 50 cent; 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 Pesos.
And the following bills: 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 pesos.
 
Current coins
Current bills. This actually depicts all the latest.
Currency stability has been reached since the year 2000, and in spite of a 30% devaluation in 2008 after the mortgage crisis in the States, an autonomous Central Bank and a responsible Treasury Ministry, our currency is pretty stable now.
The Mexican Central Bank’s mission nowadays is to maintain the price levels and contain inflation, which is now in the 4% order.
Today, Mexico’s main economic indicators are GDP growth, Inflation rate and Exchange rate against the US Dollar, which as of 2008, is around $13 Pesos/ USD, something many Mexicans track on a daily basis, since more than 80% of our international trade, and most our international tourism in with and in the United States. In fact, the Mexican Peso is one of the Top 5 most circulated currencies in net US Dollar value, along with the British Pound, the Euro, the Japanese Yen and the Chinese Yuan.
P is for Popocatepetl
Popocatepetl, the Smoking Mountain is the second tallest mountain in the country, after the Orizaba Peak, standing at 5500 meters. Along with the other famous volcano, the Iztaccíhuatl, the White Lady literally and traditionally the Sleeping Lady, it dominates the landscape of the Valley of Mexico, and has been thus, a millenary icon of popular legends and imagery.
Both volcanoes as seen from the city
Popocatepetl
Mexico is a mountainous and volcanic country, with the Eastern and Western Mother Mountain Ranges connected by the Transversal Volcanic Range, in which these two volcanoes lie. Today, the serve as the border of the State of Mexico and Puebla, and in pre-Columbian times they were roughly the border of the zone of influence of the Aztec and that of the Tlaxcaltec, who were ultimately the bane of the Aztec by allying with Cortés in his campaign.
However, the legend is more interesting. There are two versions: one involves deities, and other involves simple men, but the story is the same. A non-noble warrior, or a lesser god, Popocatepetl, fell in love with the King’s daughter, beautiful Lady Iztaccihuatl. She reciprocated the feeling. When the King learned about this, he became enraged, and sent Popocatepetl to die in a hopeless campaign, in spite of him being one of his top warriors. Popocatepetl was away many years, and Iztaccihuatl lost hope. Eventually she died of love sickness. The tragedy was that Popocatepetl returned victorious the day after her death. So, heartbroken, Popocatepetl carried her body to the countryside, and placed her there, where he promised to stay beside her for all eternity. The gods, moved by their love, turned them into mountains, so that their love would be forever visible to all mortal men.
Popular art depicting the legend
Popocatepetl, has been in activity since 1994.
P is for Palenque
Palenque is the Spanish name of Otolum, a Maya City in the modern State of Chiapas, very near the Guatemalan border. Its name means the Place of the Strong Houses. It’s one of the three most important Maya Cities of the Classic, the pure Maya period, before the Toltec influence, along with Tikal, and Calakmul. Its architecture demonstrates this, being dramatically different from that of Chichén Itza. Have you played Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion? Aztec and Maya towers were designed after the signature tower in one of Palenque’s Great Palace. Other important building in the site are the Inscriptions Temple and the Temple of the Foliated Cross.
Overview of a section of the city
Palenque was founded circa the year 200 A.D. and slowly grew into the powerful city it became under the rule of Pakal the Great and his son Kan Balam II, during most of the 7th century. These two Kings built most of the City as it stands today, including its magnificent temples, and its great hydraulic infrastructure. In spite of being a Jungle, Southeast Mexico is fairly dry, most of the water being underground. Massive collection infrastructure was built in most Maya cities to ensure supply for the population.
Pakal the Great’s life is perhaps the most studied of any Maya individual, and Palenque’s history and prominence is simply inseparable from his own. He leapt into fame in 1952.
French-Mexican Archaeologist Alberto Ruz was studying the Temple of Inscriptions in the city’s main plaza, when he came a across a loose tile on the floor. His curiosity awakened he looked down for a close look and saw that there were a few loose tiles, and that they could be removed. Quickly, he started removing whatever could be removed and was incredibly excited to find a step below the floor. Calling upon his team, they started digging further. After a couple of years of digging a stairway was uncovered, and at the bottom, burial chambers, which still contained the body and burial paraphernalia –including the 20 ton sarcophagus- of Palenque’s great king, K'inich J'anaab Pakal, Great Sun *something* Shield (no definite translation for J’anaab).
Temple of Inscriptions
Pakal’s tomb might be the single most amazing discovery in Mesoamerican archaeology. Pakal’s Jade Mask, shown below, was later proved to be an extended funerary tradition among the Maya, but this particular mask is regarded as one of the most important material evidences of Maya life, and the splendor of the King’s rule. However, was has fascinated archaeologists, occultists, esoteric followers and many different scientists is the lid of the sarcophagus. Seriously speaking, it’s a depiction of life, death, resurrection, and transiting through different levels of the Maya universe showing the tree that unites the various underworlds and heavens. Less serious accounts have been in charge of creating the artistic piece’s popular name: The Astronaut. These pseudo-scientific analyses see a spaceship with levers, knobs, buttons, and Pakal floating without gravity inside it.
 
Pakal's Jade Mask / Complete Jade ornament
 
Reproduction of the burial chamber and sarcophagus / Drawing of the bass relief of the lid
Today, Pakal’s tomb has been definitively closed to visitors, but a reproduction exists in the Site’s museum. More importantly, an exact reproduction of the tomb can be seen in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, which includes the actual and original sarcophagus lid, and Jade Mask.
An interesting thing about Maya royal burials in general, and Palenque’s in particular, is that the sarcophagi’s inner cavity were completely covered in red cyanide powder, deadly upon touching it, both for ritual purposes, and most likely to discourage tomb robbers.
Another famous burial site was uncovered in Palenque this very decade, in this case, a woman’s. She has come to be known as The Red Queen, in relation to the cyanide filled sarcophagus in which she was found. Although her identity has not yet been conclusively defined, it is said it was either Pakal’s mother or wife. The History Channel and the Discovery Channel have already made specials regarding the Red Queen.
Red Queen Mask and Jade ornaments
Palenque is one of the great archaeological treasures of Mexico. A place that is, without doubt, worthy of a visit.
P is for Pictorial Writing
This particular topic interests me quite a bit, but I will try to be concise. Aside from Maya writing, Mesoamerican pictorial writing features several characteristics and motifs that are worth mentioning.
Anthropologist Christian Duverger says: “Phonetic writing, appeared as a response to two very precise situations: it was born in languages that had a fair stock of monosyllabic words that allowed to associate a sound and symbol; and it showed a strong ethno-centric will, because the written code can only be comprehended when one knows the language it transcribes. […] Phonetism, historically, was used mainly to restrict communication, imposing the use of a particular language to the reader: therefore, it would not be false to say, in this sense, that phonetism and nationalism have a close relationship.”
He continues: “[The Mesoamerican] rejection to phonetism answers to two fundamental reasons: There are mechanical limitations to the morphology of Mesoamerican tongues. [Many] depend on an extremely difficult phonology and some are tonal tongues, which change meaning depending on the pronunciation. […] The other reason is the multi-ethnic reality of ancient Mexico. Nowhere and never did a sole people monopolized a territory, for the simple fact that the Nahua always settled in lands already occupied by others. […] Language never worked as a tool for exclusion. […] Phonetism, a strategy of linguistic domination, seems to contradict the characteristic Mesoamerican modus Vivendi, and the spirit of the civilization, founded in cultural sedimentation.”
When describing the system, he says: “Its principle is simple. The drawing represents the thing. […] Often this pictogram possesses an ideographic dimension that translates an idea or concept beyond the represented object. In Aztec codexes, a round shield with arrows expresses the idea of war […].”
Duverger says that evidence of his conclusion lies in the incredible permanence of the symbols. He shows how the same symbol, only stylistically modified prevails over a 2000 year span, found in different places of Mesoamerica.
To round this up, an example: it is now confirmed that Teotihuacan, in central Mexico, circa the year 1 AD, had several different “boroughs” which consisted of foreigners that collectively migrated to the city to perform different jobs. The most famous one is the Zapotec. Coming from Oaxaca, they spoke a different language, but had essentially the same writing. The Teotihuacan government could consequently place a sign or issue an edict to all inhabitants of Teotihuacan, and they could understand it, not mattering whether they were Zapotec, Nahuas or native Teotihuacans.
    
Malinalli symbol means Dry Weed. It is the 12th day of the Aztec month. Different stylistic representations across sites and centuries.
P is for Paz
Octavio Paz was the sole Mexican Nobel Prize winner. Poet and essayist, he won the prize in 1990. His most famous work is perhaps, the essay titled The Labyrinth of Solitude. He also had a diplomatic career, serving as the Mexican ambassador for India for while.
Paz was an intellectual, and his work shows it -and is universally regarded and acknowledged as such, most of us have never read Paz-. He died in 1998.
Join the Fantasy Discussion at the Off-Topic, this weekend reviewing the contents of the discussion!
Visit Mexico from A to Z! This week Letter O.
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Jazmine
Dor-Lomin
Jul 27 2010, 5:36pm
Post #2 of 8
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Palenque seems like an awesome place to visit
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I love old ruins like that, where you can immerse yourself in the history of a place.
Have you visited there Compa?
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Compa_Mighty
Dor-Lomin
Jul 27 2010, 6:56pm
Post #3 of 8
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You really can immerse yourself!
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I had the opportunity of visiting it once, yes. It must have been some 7 years ago, perhaps? Maya land is fairly far away of the Mexico City, and it takes a carefully planned Holiday to visit.
Visiting Maya ruins, especially the ones that are really well taken care of, is an amazing experience. Generally, the excavated and restored areas of the cities are "groomed" with short grass so it looks great and people can move freely, but 30 centimeters outside of these areas, there's jungle everywhere. It's an interesting feeling.
Pakal's Tomb's reproduction in Mexico City is also an impressive site, and much easier to visit. 
Join the Fantasy Discussion at the Off-Topic, this weekend reviewing the contents of the discussion!
Visit Mexico from A to Z! This week Letter O.
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Compa_Mighty
Dor-Lomin
Jul 28 2010, 2:12am
Post #4 of 8
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And now, let’s get on with Q.
Q is for Quetzalcoatl
Of course I had to start with Quetzalcoatl. He is one of the most studied, polemic, and defining figures of what Mesoamerica was and how we regard it. It’s a figure that spanned the centuries, the cultures and the distances. It’s a figure enveloped in myth, legend and reality, all at the same time, and probably in equal proportions. In many ways: historically, anthropologically, mythologically, philosophically and in terms of evolution, Quetzalcoatl condenses all that Mesoamerica is.
Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Snake, was the Father and Creator of Mankind, patron of priests, God of the Wind, under his Ehécatl representation, and Venus, the Morning Star, under his representation of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. (as hard as Náhuatl gets! TLAH- WIZ- SCALP- PAN- TECH- OOT-LEE) He was also the Lord of Wisdom, the White Tezcatlipoca and Lord of the West, traditional antagonist of Tezcatlipoca, the Black. Let us remember these colors are ritual. They are related to certain characteristics in each corner of the Universe, and his being the White Tezcatlipoca in no way implies that he was Caucasian, as has been suggested.
 
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl / Quetzalcoatl
 
Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli / Kukulkan
His name comes from Quetzal, a bright green Mesoamerican bird. This bird’s feathers were used in Moctezuma’s headdress. The Guatemalan currency is called Quetzal. In its animal representation, Quetzalcoatl was a snake with quetzal feathers. Coatl means snake.
A quetzal
Quetzalcoatl was a much loved god. He created men by putting himself in danger in Mictlan, the underworld, when he went there to pick up the bones of the lesser species of men that had come before, in order to create modern men. He deceived Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Underworld, and he managed to get the bones. He also features heavily in the myth of the discovery of corn, which was the base of Mesoamerican diet.
Mictlatecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl
The cult of Quetzalcoatl is one of the uniting traits of Mesoamerican culture. It appeared very early on in the region, and reached its first splendor in Teotihuacan, where he was the most important god, as can be seen by the huge carved feathered snake stones in one of the temples down the Avenue of the Dead, Main Street Teotihuacan.
Feathered Snakes in Teotihuacan
The god was quickly absorbed into the different pantheons of Mesoamerica, making his temples almost omnipresent. It is important to say that all details aside, Quetzalcoatl was a god that did not demand human sacrifice.
 
Feathered Snake in Xochicalco / Feathered Snake in Cacaxtla
 
Aztec Feathered Snake / Feathered Snake in Chichén Itzá
Quetzalcoatl’s cult’s second splendor came in Tollan, the Toltec capital, where both Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl were worshipped. It is here that the myth meets reality and becomes an interesting legend.
Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, Our Lord One Reed Quetzalcoatl, was a historic person circa 950 A.D., high priest of Quetzalcoatl and Ruler of Tollan. As High Priest of Quetzalcoatl, he led a life of virtue, sacrifice, wisdom, contemplation, compassion, and celibacy. He shunned all earthly pleasures. He was a wise ruler, and a very apt scientist and astronomer. One day he was tricked by the High Priest of Tezcatlipoca (or Tezcatlipoca himself? At one point the priest and the god are interchangeable, especially once the legend fully kicks in) into drunkenness, in which state, he broke his celibacy oath. Disgraced, Quetzalcoatl left Tollan heading East, vowing to return one day and reclaim his throne. Mythically speaking, a raft of Snakes picked him up at the coast. Historically, it seems that it was he who travelled to Maya lands, installed the cult of Kukulkan, and began the Maya-Toltec period which culminated in cities like Chichén Itzá and Tulum.
When the Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico around the year 1300, Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl was already a legendary character, completely merged with the God Quetzalcoatl. It was through this legend, and Ce Acatl’s promise to return, that the “Moctezuma thought Cortés was Quetzalcoatl” myth prospered. It didn’t help that 1519, the year Cortés landed in Mexico was again the year Ce Acatl, according to the Aztec cyclical calendar.
Quetzalcoatl, as the White Tezcatlipoca and Lord of Wisdom had an unfortunate combination of white skin and a long beard (in spite of the lack of beards in the natives) in the codexes, which also fed the White God post-Conquest legend. In reality, the long beard was a sign of old age, and consequently of wisdom in ancient Mexico.
Q is for Querétaro
Querétaro is one of the central states of the country. Meaning the Place of Big Rocks, or the Place of the Numerous People, depending on what root you draw from (both from the native purépecha), Querétaro cemented its reputation during the Independence War. Halfway through Guanajuato and Mexico City, the state’s capital, Santiago de Querétaro –referred to simply as Querétaro- was a strategic place in trade and information routes. It was there were the conspirators including Hidalgo, Allende and the executive of the province’s wife, Josefa Ortiz had their meetings.
Downtown Querétaro
Today, Querétaro is one of the quieter and more peaceful states in the country, something which, in conjunction with its closeness to Mexico City has attracted important foreign investment, including Mexico’s HQ for Kellogg’s.
Outside the beautiful capital, where Colonial and modern styles blend together like they do in very few places of the country, Querétaro has to offer two main tourist attractions: la Sierra Gorda and Peña de Bernal.
The Sierra Gorda, the “Fat Mountain Range”, offers sinuous roads for those who like to drive (it’s a favorite of bikers, who in Mexico are actually middle-aged, upper middle-class professionals who can afford a Harley and to take a couple weeks off work) and a series of Franciscan Missions turned “resorts” by a prestigious Mexican hotel chain –adequately- named Misión.
 
The Mission in Concá / The Sierra Gorda
Peña de Bernal is one of the largest monolithic hills in the world. You can visit the colonial town, climb up the Peña, or go charge up energy during an equinox!
Peña de Bernal from it colonial town
Cultural note: the capital of the state, as I mentioned above is Santiago de Querétaro. Santiago is actually St. James the Great, apostle of Jesus Christ. Santiago is a form, only existent in Spanish through a heavy evolution of the name. St. James’s name in Latin would appear as follows: SANCTUS IACOBUS MAIOR (yes! Jacob =James, not sure how that went for English evolution, though). Dropping MAIOR, the evolution would go something like: SANCTIACOBUS > SANCTIACOBO > SANCTIACO > SANTIAGO. Santiago is the patron saint of Spain, and he who accompanied their armies to war. The Spanish war cry is Santiago! This warlike personification of Santiago led to two of his famous renditions: Santiago Matamoros (Moor Killer) and Santiago Mataindios (Indian Killer, referring to American Natives).
Q is for Quesadilla
Quesadillas are one of the most famous and simple preparations of Mexican cuisine. In their roughest form, they consist of a corn tortilla and cheese, from where they get their name. (queso=cheese) One important variation is preparing the quesadilla with wheat flour tortilla.
However, the interesting thing is that anywhere in Mexico you have to ask for a cheese quesadilla. Why is that? Isn’t that already implied? Linguistically speaking, yes, but Mexican quesadillas have a wide array of fillings, the most popular of which are: tinga (chicken, onions and red tomato sauce), cuitlcoche (a fungus that grows on corn), mushrooms (like French champignons), chicharrón (salty fried pork skin, which is really good in spite of how it sounds!) and squash flower (which is also quite popular for crepes here).
Blue corn sqush flower Quesadilla
It is also important to mention there are two main ways in which you can prepare quesadillas: filling them in raw dough and deep frying them, which result in something that looks, but doesn’t taste like an Argentinean empanada; and simply on a grill, filling them after the tortilla is already cooked, which are the most common ones.
Join the Fantasy Discussion at the Off-Topic, this weekend reviewing the contents of the discussion!
Visit Mexico from A to Z! This week Letter O.
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squire
Gondolin
Jul 28 2010, 3:09am
Post #5 of 8
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The Feathered Serpent, and real quesadillas
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In my ever-increasing knowledge of Mexico, I've never forgotten my reading of D. H. Lawrence's The Feathered Serpent, which I brought along for beach reading during my most intensive trip there, to Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, and Mexico City. Lawrence wrote in the 1910s and 1920s, but one would think he was writing in the 1960s, for all the druggy atmosphere his prose captures. I don't remember the novel in full. But I will never forget the scene where the village removes the Christ figure from the church and takes Him out to the lake to bury/drown him - sending him home to Europe, exhausted and worthy of honor, to his mother Mary. Then the villagers resurrect the cult of the Feathered Serpent, Quetzacoatl, in the formerly Christian church. I think Lawrence, witnessing the nationalism of the Revolution, imagined that Mexico would go further than it ever did in reclaiming its native heritage from the Spanish conquest.
I like quesadillas. I wish more Mexican restaurants in the U.S. would honor the variety of ingredients and preparations that you list. What I get in my home town is generally what my wife and I call "glop": a meat filling inside a tortilla, lavish with sauce, and covered over with toasted cheese. Yum! and tasty with margaritas and chips. But I know that is technically "Tex-Mex", not Mexican food in its full glory. On the other hand, I just last week had one of the best meals in my life, at Topolobampo in Chicago. (The chef there was invited to the White House to prepare a meal for visiting Mexican president Calderon, since Obama knows the restaurant well). It was gourmet cuisine - exotic and delicious! - but again I know that is not really what most of Mexico has for dinner. Your quesadillas tinga, or chicarron, are what I can't get at home and wish I could. I guess another trip to Mexico is called for!
squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion; and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary
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Compa_Mighty
Dor-Lomin
Jul 28 2010, 4:43pm
Post #6 of 8
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You bring forth an interesting topic. I have not read the novel you mention, but it's definitely based on true events, albeit, in another time period. After the Conquest, natives were known to hide statues of their gods inside or behind Christian imagery. In that way, they continued to worship their gods while appearing as devout Christians, much to the pleasure of the Spaniards. Of course whenever this was found out, severe punishment was in order.
This eventually disappeared, or so would seem. It is unclear how many people -and to what extent- still practice some degree of native cult, which obviously would be very much transformed by now, and definitely does not include human sacrifice, por example.
As for food... I guess there's always a transformation when you eat food outside its original place. In Mexico we have sushi with chipotle sauce and you can find yakimeshi with peas.... of course there are also hamburgers with chile, and things of this kind.
But I like your solution. A trip generally solves many things! 
Visit Mexico from A to Z! This week Letter Q.
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Kyriel
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Jul 30 2010, 10:26am
Post #7 of 8
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Thanks for clearing up something I've been wondering about for years
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It seems like every time I go to a Mexican restaurant, it's decorated by paintings or frescoes of a man carrying an (as I thought) unconscious woman. I could tell it must be a scene from a myth, but I've never known what the myth was. Now I do!
Those left standing will make millions writing books on the way it should have been. --Incubus
(This post was edited by Kyriel on Jul 30 2010, 10:26am)
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