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Description

Pictographic map of Cuetzalan showing hybrid Spanish indigenous features

This pictographic map shows rural Cuetzalan and its environs, which include a trapiche, or sugar mill. Cuetzalan is a mountain village in the modern state of Puebla. Sugar cane was grown primarily to turn into aguardiente, an alcoholic drink.

The map is oriented to the west, with a moon sign in the middle of the word "poniente" at the top. A main road, lined with trees, bisects the center of the page. Two smaller roads branch off from it. To the west, a road meanders past a hill and the buildings of the trapiche. Toward the east, another road passes the small pueblo. There is a signature, that of Goncalvo Sanches de Flandes, is in the northwest quadrant.

Although there is a definite orientation to this drawing, as indicated by the cardinal directions labeled on each edge, the pictures are oriented as they would look as someone walked up to them. This document is also pictographic. These elements point to its being a hybrid indigenous and Spanish creation. As Barbara Mundy points out, geographic and cartographic documents were often prepared by local officials, some of whom were creoles born in Latin America. At other times, the creation of geographic materials was passed to the local indigenous communities to complete.

Even when not creating materials for the Spanish state, those living in Latin America developed a hybrid style that shows the innovation bred from cultural encounter. The Spanish language and cardinal directions indicated here point to Spanish influence, while the pictographic nature of the buildings and multiple-orientation of their placement indicate an indigenous tradition. Little is known about Goncalvo Sanches de Flandes, but he has clearly been marked by the place he lives and is making materials that are a mixture, not just Spanish or indigenous.

Cuetazlan is located in the Sierra Norte region of Puebla. Known for its cobbled streets, it is a destination for tourists in search of waterfalls, caves, and handicrafts. It is one of the listed 'Pueblos Magicos', or Magical Towns, due to the experience it offers visitors.

In centuries past, the town was a center for the production of aguardiente from sugar cane, a legacy borne out on this map. Located far from the larger cities in Puebla, Cuetazlan was an ideal place to make the drink. Revealingly, all could grow sugar cane, but those of mestizo descent operated a monopoly on the production of aguardiente. The indigenous peoples used the cane to make panela, a sort of caramel. Unsurprisingly, the aguardiente was more lucrative to sell than panela, making the mestizo population of Cuetzalan powerful in the region. The indigenous peoples protested this arrangement, led most famously by Francisco Agustín Dieguillo, a nahua known as Pala Agustín, in the mid-nineteenth century. This map pre-dates Pala Agustín but still reflects the power of sugar cane for the pueblo.

Reference
Michala Bernkopfová, La identidad cultural de los Nahuas de la Sierra Nororiental de Puebla y la influencia de la unión de cooperativas Tosepan (Prague: Charles University, 2014), 48-9.
Barbara E. Mundy, “Hybrid Space,” in Mapping Latin America, eds. Karl Offen and Jordana Dym (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 51-5.
http://www.pueblosmexico.com.mx/pueblo_mexico_ficha.php?id_rubrique=334