Gabriel Pareyon's Opera Explores Sexuality of Mexico's Nahuatl Culture Fox News Latino
go to original February 26, 2015

Ensayo técnico - Arcelia, Guerrero (Opera náhuatl Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli)

An opera sung entirely in Nahuatl and featuring an orchestra made up of indigenous instruments is bringing one of the erotic epic poems of Mexico's pre-Columbian communities to a modern audience.

Mexican musicologist and historian Gabriel Pareyon adopted the anonymous text "Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli," an epic poem that was sung and performed by actors from the Nahuatl culture centuries before the Spanish conquest.

Because of the mischievous quality, double meanings and profound eroticism of the text, it has been translated into Spanish as "canto florido de travesuras" (Flowery Song of Naughtiness)," Pareyon told Efe during a presentation of the work in this central-western city.

The poem survived the censorship imposed by the Spanish conquistadors, who arrived in present-day Mexico in 1519, thanks to Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagun, who transcribed it and included it in a 16th century collection of Nahuatl songs and poems titled "Cantares mexicanos."

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