An offering, a fire, a prayer. How a Mexico City community celebrates its pre-Hispanic origins

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Santos’ spiritual journey has left a mark on her skin.

Soon after the 50-year-old embraced her pre-Hispanic heritage and pledged to speak for her ancestors’ worldview in Mexico City, she tattooed the symbol “Ollin” — which translates from the Nahuatl language as “movement” — on her wrist.

“It’s an imprint from my Nahuatl name,” said Santos, wearing white with feathers hanging from her neck. She was dressed to perform an ancestral Mexica ceremony on Tuesday in the neighborhood of Tepito.

“It’s an insignia that represents me, my identity.”

Since 2021, when she co-founded an organization that raises awareness of her community’s Mexica heritage, Santos and members of close Indigenous communities gather by mid-August to honor Cuauhtémoc, who was the last emperor or “tlatoani” of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, as the capital was known before it fell to the Spaniards in 1521.

“It’s important to be here, 503 years after what happened, not only to dignify Tepito as an Indigenous neighborhood where there has been resistance, strength and perseverance,” Santos said. “But also because this is an energetic portal, a sacred ‘teocalli’ (‘God’s house’, in Nahuatl).”

The site that she chose for performing the ceremony has a profound sacred meaning in Mexico’s history. Though it’s currently a Catholic church, it’s also the site where Cuauhtémoc — a political and spiritual leader — initiated the final defense of the territory that was lost to the European conquerors.

“Our grandfather, Cuauhtémoc, is still among us,” said Santos, who explained that the site where the church now stands is aligned with the sun. “The cosmic memories of our ancestors are joining us today.”

Though he was not present during the pre-Hispanic rituals, the priest in charge of the Tepito church allowed Santos and fellow Indigenous leaders to move freely through the esplanade of the temple. Their preparations started early each morning, carefully placing roses, fruit, seeds and sculptures of pre-Hispanic figures among other elements.

“I’m very thankful to be given the chance of occupying our sacred compounds once again,” Santos said. “Making this connection between a religious and a spiritual belief is a joy.”

Before Tuesday’s ceremony, as this year’s activities began August 9, a Mayan spiritual guide was also invited to perform a ritual at the church’s main entrance.

“This is an act of kneeling with humbleness, not in humiliation, to make an offering to our Creator,” said Gerardo Luna, the Mayan leader who offered honey, incense, sugar, liquor and other elements as a nourishment for the fire.

“The fire is the element that links us to the spirit of the Creator, who permeates everything that exists,” said Luna, also praising the opportunity to practice his beliefs in a Catholic space.

“There are different ways of understanding spirituality, but there is only one language, the one of the heart,” Luna said. “Our Catholic brothers breathe the same air as us. We all have red blood in our veins, and your bones and mine are the same.”

Some locals approached the church and joined both Mayan and Mexica ceremonies. They were drawn in by the sound of a conch shell that was blown to announce the rituals and the smoke released by the lighting of a resin known as “copal.”

Lucía Moreno, 75, said that participating made her feel at peace. Tomás García, 42, added that he is Catholic, but these ceremonies “purify” him and allow him to let go of any wrongdoing.

Others, like Cleotilde Rodríguez, call upon the ancestors — and God — with a deeper need of comfort.

After Tuesday’s Mexica ritual, the 78-year-old said that she prayed for her health and well-being. No doctor or medicine has cured her aching knees, and none of her 10 children visit her or call to ask how she is. Another son of hers, she said, died by suicide some years ago, and she has not felt at ease since.

“This is what has happened to me, so I hope that God allows me to keep working, that my path is not shortened,” Rodríguez said. “Otherwise, what is going to become of me?”

The “tlalmanalli,” as the Mexica ceremony is known, is as an offering to Mother Earth. All members of the community are encouraged to participate and benefit from its spiritual force.

“What people take with them is medicinal,” Santos said. “It is all blessed, so people leave with medicine for life, which they can use in moments of sadness.”

She was not always aware of the depth of the Mexica and other pre-Hispanic worldviews, but a couple of decades ago, feeling that Catholicism no longer fulfilled her spiritually, she started looking for more.

She researched Buddhism and Hinduism. She practiced yoga and studied the awakening of the mind. But still, she wondered: “What’s in my country? Why, if other nations have gurus, aren’t there any widely known spiritual references in Mexico?”

And then she found them. The Mexica provided her with answers. They were wise, spiritual people, who resisted what others brought upon them, always connected to their ancestors and the profoundness of their land.

As part of her transformation, she received a new name, this time in Nahuatl and tied to the pre-Hispanic calendar. And so, just as her parents baptized her in the very same Tepito church where she now performs Mexica rituals, she embraced her current spirituality in a “sowing” ceremony, where she became “Ollin Chalchiuhtlicue,” which means “precious movement of the water.”

The name, she said, also comes with a purpose. As directed, she defined her life mission after the ceremony. Santos chose to comply with Cuauhtémoc’s final wishes for his people: Maybe the sun has gone down upon us, but it will come out again. In the meantime, we must tell our children — and their children’s children — how big our Motherland’s glory is.

“Through the spirituality of our Mexica tradition we are taking back our dignity and the essence of our Indigenous community,” Santos said. “Being here today is a joy, but also a work of resistance.”

“Tepito exists because it has resisted, and we will continue resisting.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization use incense during a ceremony commemorating the 503 anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexica dancers burn incense during a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

People watch as Mexica dancers perform during a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization participate in a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hold corn during a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization participate in a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hug during a ceremony commemorating the 503 anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexica dancers perform during a ceremony marking the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hold an statue of a feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, during a ceremony commemorating the 503 anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexica dancers perform during a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Claudia Santos performs a ceremony with residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization to commemorate the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire's capital, Tenochtitlan, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

MELAMCHI, Nepal (AP) — In between the Himalayas' towering mountains, the town of Melamchi is no stranger to extreme weather, and its landscape bears the scars of years of floods and landslides.

Located just 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Kathmandu, lush green mountainsides are dotted with landslips and rubble. Amid the debris, people live and work, and children play.

Saroj Lamichane, a 24-year-old resident of the region, says he still remembers “the terrifying sound of the flood.” Lamichane fled that night, returning only to collect belongings wedged between boulders and broken walls.

Many houses in Melamchi are on stilts to avoid the worst of the flooding. Still, floors are covered in a layer of loose rock. Windows have been ripped out of walls. And some buildings still slant after Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquake.

Farms are also not spared.

Sukuram Tamang, 50, lost his land and field to floods in 2021, and his home was damaged in a landslide this year. When The Associated Press visited, Tamang stood holding one of his goats — a literal handful of what survived Melamchi's incessant weather extremes.

“Even the little that remained has been swept away by floods earlier this year,” said Tamang's wife, Maya. “The river used to be a 20-minute walk from our house but during the floods, we were shocked to see it overflow and wash away everything we had.”

Another farmer, Sita Pandit, 50, took a loan to rebuild her home that was destroyed in the earthquake. But one year after construction finished, her new home was swept away by the 2021 floods. Rocks and debris now cover her farm.

In a 2021 report, the Kathmandu headquartered International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development found that cascading hazards are becoming more common in Nepal and the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

Rising temperatures are leading to heavy glacial melt and glacial lakes overflowing. They also lead to shifting rainfall patterns which bring heavy sediments downstream, said Sudan Bikash Maharjan, one of the authors of the 2021 report.

Maharjan said local and federal governments need to be better prepared and give people time to evacuate.

Until then, many work hard to rebuild their old lives. People reconstruct homes among the debris or build new ones entirely. They walk and live among pieces of homes and furniture. Layers of mud cover up the lives they once lived.

Follow Niranjan Shrestha on Instagram.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A girl runs in front of the recent landslide at Gyalthum, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Abandoned houses are visible in Chanaute Market, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Footprints are visible at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, on the sand inside a house damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A man gazes out from an abandoned house in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A man walks by abandoned houses in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Saroj Lamichane salvages bricks from the ruins of his house northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, that was destroyed by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

The sand-filled entrance of a house is visible in Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Sukuram Tamang, 50, prepares to cook food inside a temporary shelter on rented land in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, after he lost his home in a landslide. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rocks and sand fill an abandoned home in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, June 26, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A man sets a fish trap near homes abandoned after flooding at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Sukuram Tamang, 50, stands with his goat in front of where his house once stood after it was damaged by recent landslides in Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A worker uses an excavator to clear land for a road that would connect to the upper villages of Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Laxmi Jyoti, 41, walks near where her home used to be in Chanaute, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, now covered with large rocks brought by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Suntali Jyoti, 56, sits where her house and field once stood, in Chanaute, Melamchi, northeast from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, now covered with large rocks brought by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Children play volleyball with a landslide-damaged hill visible in the background at Saraswati Secondary School in Gyalthum, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Sita Pandit, 50, walks in her house at Chanaute Market, Melamchi, northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, that was damaged by floods in 2021. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Kali Prasad Shrestha, 57, stands near Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, on the spot where his house once stood before it was swept away by floods in 2021.(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)