Mexican Otomi Manuscript on Amate Bark Paper ❦ Prayers to the Rain Gods

Tellez, Alfonso Garcia

[MEXICAN OTOMI MANUSCRIPT ON AMATE BARK "PAPER"]. Tratamiento de una ofrenda para pedir la lluvia, de San Pablito, Pahuatlan, Pue[bla]. A ritual of an offering to ask for rain.]

San Pablito Pahuatlán in Puebla state, Mexico: 1978. Handmade and handbound codex (18 x 14 cm), folded accordion style, handwritten text in black in on amate bark paper. 28 numbered leaves plus covers, with 21 amate bark paper cut-out illustrations + 2 on the front cover = 23. Text in Otomi-Spanish. Handmade and handbound codex, folded accordion style, green ribbon ties. Front cover with inscribed title, original date of composition, location, and the genuine signature of Alfonso Garcia Tellez. Very good. Item #4603

Ceremonies and Prayers for Rain, a Highly Interesting Mexican Manuscript Book made of Amate Bark Paper. This example was a gift from Garcia Tellez to Carol Olin of the University of Colorado, Pueblo, in the 1980s and -- unlike almost all examples that have been on the market of late -- is no doubt in his autograph.

The author / artist Alfonso Garcia Tellez (b. 1938) is one of three known Otomi (shaman or witch healer) from San Pablito who produced books, the other two being Antonio Lopez M. and Santos Garcia (see Sandstrom and Sandstrom 1986, p. 33), This particular booklet was created by Alfonso Garcia Tellez in the style of an accordion fold booklet. The present codex book is literally "An Account of an Offering Made to Appeal for Rain," giving insight into the practice and custom of the Otomí curanderos.

This is one of four Garcia Tellez titles that he created in the Aztec tradition. The first copy of the present text was created by him on Aug. 10, 1978, the date which appears on the covers of all subsequent manuscripts, although by definition each manuscript is different from all others in varying degrees, thus blurring the classic opposition between the supposedly unstable oral and the supposedly immutable writing. In the last few decades members of Garcia Tellez’s extended family have helped construct inferior copies of his books for the tourist trade. There is every indication that Garcia Tellez was the sole artist of the present manuscript, as the handwriting and signature are correct and the provenance is long and unbroken.

Concerning the "Ofrenda para pedir la lluvia," Sandstrom (1981 pp. 54-82), reproduces an example by Garcia Tellez's former neighbor, the curandero Antonio Lopez M. There are significant differences between their texts and the associated iconography. To our knowledge, no analysis has been undertaken between these textual traditions.

The present text describes a severe drought in San Pablito and the urgency of the response by the curanderos. The villagers plan a special meeting, and it is decided to make a pilgrimage to a cave in Hidalgo where the ancient and powerful god Two-Church lives. Three "curers" are needed for the ceremony (Antonio Lopez M. gives the number to be "4"); requisite materials include "many fans and chains made from marigolds," "a thousand bunches of bark paper" to make the bed of Lord Two-Church. There the people will adorn the oratory in the village for the 15-day (and night) ceremony which involves offering money and bark paper, playing sacred music on violins and guitars day and night. Four seamstresses are charged with making the clothes of the gods ("8 seamstresses" according to Antonio Lopez M.). On p. 15 the Mother Siren is described as wearing green cloths and a "Texan Hat" (!)

The text gives extremely detailed instructions for the rituals and sacrifices required to appeal to the gods for rain. On p. 21 we are informed that the offerings are also appropriate for prayers for the health of animals. Illustrating the text are depictions of Mother Earth, Lord Siren, and the Spirits of the Pineapple Plant, the Black Bean Plant, the Chile Plant, the Peanut Plant, Bees, the Maize Plant, the Sugarcane Plant, the Coffee Plant, the Chayote Plant, the Tomato Plant, the Jicama Plant, the Climbing Bean Plant, the Papaya Plant, the Banana Plant, and the Orange Tree.

Scholarly interest in the Otomi people and their relationship with amate paper had increased dramatically over the past 10 years; however, actual amate bark "paper" curandero books are unrepresented in many library collections, and should be recognized holistically for both their agricultural craft and indigenous spiritual beliefs.

The culture of amate paper dates back to pre-Columbian Meso-American times. The word amate derives from "amatl," the Nahuatl word for paper. Mayan and Aztec Indians painted on amate paper to create codices (accordion folded books) depicting stories historical events and even astrology. The Otomí people still use amate paper today for creating cutout figures for religious ceremonies while other village artisans use it for Mexican folk art depicting colorful urban scenes festivals and celebrations. The paper is created from the bark of the amate wild fig tree (xalama) the nettle tree (jonote) and mulberry (morus celtidifolia). Each type of bark produces a different tone of color ranging from coffee browns to silvery whites. The pulp from these barks is often combined to produce a swirling marble effect. The artisans first wash the bark, then boil it in a solution of lime juice for several hours and lay the strips on a wooden board. They beat the strips until they fuse together to form the desired texture, and then dried in the sun.

San Pablito, a settlement of Otomi speaking Indians in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, is renowned as a village of brujería (witchcraft) and the only remaining major center of indigenous papermakers in Mexico. At one time, the village of San Pablito was banned from producing the "magical" amate bark books, as considered a form of witchcraft. Curanderos, sometimes called witches (brujos and brujas in Spanish), cut images of spirit entities from this paper for use in various rituals. Earlier researchers reported that light paper is used in white magic and dark paper is used in black magic, but modern investigators have not affirmed this assumption. Both types of bark paper are used in rituals associated with agriculture, divining, and curing. The brujos/curanderos, or more appropriately termed as ritual specialists, use scissors to cut anthropomorphic images (in Spanish: munecos, or "dolls") of spirit entities, each with iconographic motifs that indicate whether the spirit is benevolent or malevolent.

The Otomi cut paper camas (beds), upon which the paper figurines are laid during rituals. Ritual specialists first fold the paper before it is cut, producing symmetrical images when unfolded. The muñecos and camas are central features of Otomí rituals. During a particular curing ceremony, the ritual or religious specialist (healer, curer, medicine man, sorcerer, shaman) may kill a chicken and sprinkle its blood over the paper figurines lying on their paper beds while praying and chanting. This practice is described in our manuscript on p. 16.

A lesser known aspect of Otomi art is the making of small books from handmade paper where the lighter paper is used as a background surface, and brown and darker munecos, the “sacred paper cuttings”, are glued on. These figures are accompanied by texts in Spanish written in capital letters with ink pens. The description and explanation found in the texts focus predominantly on ceremonies involving offerings to rain deities and countless spirits of seeds, fruits, and plants, as well as traditional, old curing practices. The accordion-bound manuscripts are essentially testimonials, written by indigenous curanderos, revealing their knowledge of the beliefs, the religious world, the cosmovision, and secret costumbres (customs) of their ancestors. The libritos (booklets) indeed represent valuable indigenous ethnographic reports.

Comparison with another "Ofrenda para pedir la lluvia" codices written by Alfonso Garcia Tellez is instructive; cf. the unsigned (and no doubt later) example published in the great "Alfonso Garcia Tellez Ecrits: Manuscrits a miniatures otomi" (Nanterre, France, 2018), especially pp. 103-162, which exhibits textual variants, slightly different paper spirit dolls, and different handwriting. NB: While not perfect, the "Ecrits" does give complete French translations of the Otomi- Spanish which can be very difficult to read, even for native Mexican Spanish speakers.

PROVENANCE: Alfonso Garcia Tellez; his gift to -- Carol Olin (1930-2020), formerly a professor of literature and theater at Univ. Colorado Pueblo, later of San Tan Valley, AZ. Olin met Garcia Tellez in his hometown of Pahuatlan, Puebla in the 1980s; her gift to -- her granddaughter Danielle Duran of San Tan Valley, AZ; sold to -- Michael Laird Rare Books.

SELECTED LITERATURE: Alan and Pamela Sandstrom's colossal 2022 monograph "Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain" is positively epic and must be consulted by all persons interested in the field. See also: "Amate manuscripts of the Otomi of San Pablito, Puebla" in: Mexicon, Journal of Mesoamerican Studies – Revista sobre Estudios Mesoamericanos, Vol. XXXIV, Nr. 6, December 2012. Alan Sandstrom, Traditional Curing and Crop Fertility Rituals among Otomi Indians of the Sierra de Puebla, Mexico: The Lopez Manuscripts (1981) pp. 54-82. Alan Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom, Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico (1986).

Price: $4,200.00