- Stephanie Mendez
- BBC travel
August 5, 2022
Updated 5 hours ago
Credit, Brian Overcast/Alamy Stock Photo
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The ‘yácatas’ (pyramids) of Tzintzuntzan are circular and unique, made of volcanic rock perhaps the best preserved relics of the Purépecha people
“This is the heritage of our people,” my uncle would say when we admired the pyramids.
We were not in Egypt, but in the city of Tzintzuntzan in the state of Michoacan in southwestern Mexico.
The pyramids, or yácatas, that loomed before us were round and unique, made of volcanic rock perhaps the bestpreserved relics of the Purépechas, a preColumbian indigenous group that once ruled here, but are unknown to most people. In fact, I had never heard of them until a few months ago when I found out that I am a direct descendant of this people.
Born and raised in California, USA, I grew up unaware of this part of my heritage that was lost in my family with the death of my grandfather in 1978. My grandmother was left with five children and no income. But after a lot of savings, she brought my father and his brothers from Mexico to the United States in 1983.
The pressure to integrate into the new country caused my father to break away from our Purepecha culture. It wasn’t until recently, when I was starting to get curious about my identity, that I started asking him about our past.
Until he brought me to Michoacán for the first time in 2021 when I was 31 years old. That’s when I met my uncle Israel, who told me that not only are we purépechas, but that my greatgrandmother Juana was still alive and living in the small village of Urén nearby.
When you think of Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish, you automatically think of the Aztecs. But what they don’t know is that the Purépechas lived at the same time and their kingdom was so powerful that they were one of the few indigenous Mexican groups the Aztecs failed to conquer.
That’s exactly what Mexicans generally know about purépechas, says Fernando Pérez Montesinos, a professor of indigenous environmental history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Is [forma] It is very common to refer to the Purépechas and their history because we know that the Purépechas were just as powerful as the Aztecs,” he says, explaining that the Aztecs tried to fight the Purépechas but were unable to defeat them .
My Purepecha greatgrandmother is sturdy and strong at 5’11” and is one of the oldest in her community. She lives in a modest, weatherbeaten house with cement walls.
She speaks the mother tongue, an endangered heritage in a country whose official language is Spanish. Mexico has an estimated population of 128.9 million, of whom 124.8 million 97% speak Spanish as their first language and only 175,000 speak Purépecha, all in the state of Michoacán.
credit, personnel file
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My greatgrandmother Purépecha is solid and strong at 1.40 cm tall and is one of the elders in her community. She knows how to speak her mother tongue, which is in danger of extinction.
Speaking of greatgrandmother Juana in the kitchen, I watched everything I could: how she cooked without electricity or stove; its rows of earthen ware; and the deep stone pit in the center of the room, where she brews a giant pot of nixtamal — corn seeds processed specifically for making tortillas.
Excited about the new knowledge about my ancestors, I asked her where I could learn more about my Purepecha heritage. She stirred the food, gave my uncle an imperious look and told him in Spanish, “Bring it to Pátzcuaro.”
The next day we were in the basin of Lake Pátzcuaro my uncle, aunts and cousins admiring the monuments our ancestors had erected in honor of deities like their sun god, Curicaueri.
Between the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century, the Purépechas dominated western Mexico with an estimated population of over a million people. Tzintzuntzan was the capital where the Irecha, the ruler, lived. At the same time, the Aztecs controlled central Mexico while the Purépecha Empire prevented them from conquering the territories to the north and west.
Credit, Getty Images
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The Purépechas were one of the few indigenous groups in Mexico that the Aztecs failed to conquer.
According to geographer Jahzeel Aguilera Lara, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, “The yácatas of Tzintzuntzan — the ‘place of the hummingbirds’ (in the Purépecha language) — are the bestpreserved pyramidal structures in the region.”
“In addition to the public architecture of the Purépechas, (visitors) also learn how the Purépechas understood the world and what meaning Lake Pátzcuaro had for them,” says Aguilera Lara.
The Empire chose this region for a reason: the basin is home to a colossal lake with several habitable islands teeming with fish and surrounded by a lush landscape of pinecovered mountains. The region is so spectacular that the Purépechas believed the lake was a gateway to paradise.
“This is a very important region for the emergence of Purépechas in the precolonial era of our history,” says Sandra Gutiérrez de Jesus, a Purépecha native and professor of Latin American studies at California State University in Los Angeles. “It was a framework for gastronomic, cultural and linguistic encounters and exchanges.”
When the Spaniards arrived in the Lake Pátzcuaro basin between 1521 and 1522, they captured the Purépecha ruler and forced the empire to relinquish its power.
Still, Pérez Montesinos explains, historians would consider this transition to be more peaceful than the Spanish siege by the Aztecs. The Purépechas achieved more autonomy than the Aztecs, and their elites continued to have influence and authority over the region.
“Nothing could be done without the permission or authorization of the Purépecha elites,” explains Pérez Montesinos.
“The traditional view is that the Spaniards came and did what they wanted, but what we know now is that the Spaniards have always had to consult and negotiate with the Purépecha elite to remain in power.”
According to him, an example is the Basilica of Our Lady of Health, built in Pátzcuaro around 1540.
“Conventional knowledge is that [o bispo] Vasco de Quiroga built the cathedral, but it was the work of Purépecha’s hands,” says Pérez Montesinos. He explained that the Spaniards did not have to use slave labor to build the cathedral because the Purépecha community agreed to provide their labor.
“There’s this heavily dominant narrative that attempts to belittle the daily achievements of the Purépecha people which emphasizes that it was the Spanish monks who taught them how to make these crafts, but in the face of daunting challenges the Purépechas did incorporating new things into their lives to do something original,” he counts.
As we traveled across the state, I began to see glimpses of Purépecha architecture. Because Michoacán is rich in oak and pine, the Purépecha Empire was known for its skills in timber construction most notable were the traditional wooden houses called trojes.
With colonization, the Purépecha incorporated their craftsmanship into the Spanish colonial infrastructure that still exists throughout the Michoacán region today.
Because the Purépechas managed to retain much of their autonomy, their three administrative power centers—Tzintzuntzan, Pátzcuaro, and Ihuatzio—remained economic centers throughout the colonial period.
“I lived in Pátzcuaro all my childhood and it is the most beautiful place to visit for the history of the Purépechas. There is no other place like this,” said my uncle.
As we arrived at the city’s Plaza Grande, as every weekend in Pátzcuaro, there was a celebration of Purépecha culture. Teenagers performed a traditional dance, the Danza de los Viejitos (“Dance of the Old Men”).
Dressed in white, they wore colorful handmade caps or straw hats topped with bright rainbowcolored ribbons. They stood there with their sticks and strange older man’s masks until they started to tapdance.
This precolonial dance was originally performed by the elders as part of a ritual to the old gods. But after colonization, the Purépechas used dance to mock the Spanish. The dancers wear funny masks in their exaggerated imitation of the old gentlemen.
credit, personnel file
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The Purépecha community agreed to collaborate with the Spanish to build the Basilica of Our Lady of Health in Pátzcuaro
Despite the empire gaining tremendous power and leaving behind all this incredible legacy, the Purépechas were all but forgotten in Mexican history, overshadowed by the Aztecs.
“It has more to do with how Mexican nationalism emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Everything revolves around Mexico City, and the narrative of Mexican identity has been built largely on Aztec heritage,” says Pérez Montesinos.
“And as there are more tales of battles, wars and resistance against the Spanish, there is a lot more material [entre os astecas] for an epic story, while with the Purépechas you don’t have the same kind of drama.
I came back from Michoacán a different person, proud of this new knowledge of my ancestors, their culture and their traditions. I was so excited that six months later I returned to Mexico with my father and sat down with my greatgrandmother to pick up where we left off.
“Can you teach me Purépecha?” I asked. Greatgrandmother Juana pointed and replied: “He can teach you”. I turned and noticed that she was pointing at my father.
“What? Can you say purépecha?” I asked in disbelief. He laughed and replied, “It was a long time ago, I knew it, but I don’t know anymore.”
Juana replied: “You can teach her. Nobody ever forgets, this is our culture.”
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