Recreate the Xolotl Codex with puppets, cameras, music and projections in real time is the proposal of the montage Xólotl. The pictographic document of Mesoamerican tradition describes the settlement of the nomadic Chichimec populations in the basin of Mexico from the beginning of 1068 to 1429.
In interview with The Day, one of the directors of the show, Gabriel Silva (Mexico City, 1973), explained that the codex tells the story of permission to his father to explore territories in the south. On this trip he meets people and other leaders; He even marries the Huasteca queen Tomiyauh.
He then betroths his children to princesses of the region to forge alliances. Xólotl had a very peculiar vision of life; He arrived and talked. We are very shocked to imagine how he communicated at that time, because he did not speak the same language… how they reached agreements. We were also amazed by the perspective of the character, who, having no right to anything, forms his own universe.
he related.
Silva explained that the work begins at the end, “which marks the beginning of the story of Nezahualcóyotl, a descendant of Xólotl, who is persecuted along with his father by orders of Tezozómoc, leader of Azcapotzalco. Nezahualcóyotl manages to escape, but his father is murdered in front of him. We do like a flash-back; That is, we present the events of the past that lead us to that moment.
“This story is not told in schools, nor do we read it in books. It is mentioned that there was a Chichimeca culture, but I don’t remember it being explained beyond leaders or what they did. We know more about European culture; We even believe we are similar. For example Hamlet, the tragedy of Shakespeare, whose father is murdered… the same thing happened with Nezahualcóyotl, and that is how they built their life, their leadership,” he added.
The scene designer pointed out that before he worked with themes such as robots, surrealism or fantastic stories, but now “I am more aware as an artist that we must be spokespersons for the history of our country. That is a great responsibility, we must be well informed and documented to present to the viewer a small summary of what we have studied. With the Zona de Títeres company we are committed to offering an unprecedented artistic show that at the same time speaks about our culture and roots.
The codex is written in Nahuatl and Hñahñu, a variant of Otomi spoken in Hidalgo. Therefore, we decided that the show be narrated in indigenous languages, since they have a very special musicality. We have a system that we call cinematheatrino, through which the public attends the making of a film: they see the live music, the puppet animation and the video capture. We work with two cameras, we make mixes of pre-recorded and live video that are reflected on a large screen. This system makes it easier for us to introduce aesthetic proposals such as traditional language
he stressed.
Silva explained that “the puppets act with a black background, which allows us to put digital scenery behind the puppets, we see it a lot in the cinema, but we do not see the manufactured effect, and that is what we want to show. We have been working in audiovisual media for more than 20 years; This is the seventh staging that we have done as a cinemateatrino and the first time that we have added subtitles on the screen to remember and listen to the original languages.
The codex is preserved in Paris, in the National Library of France; It was stolen and kept. It is important to rescue pieces like this, heritage of the Mexicans, since it tells almost four centuries of Chichimeca history. Therefore we intend to make two more episodes
he concluded.
With the direction of Gerardo Buendía and Gabriel Silva, text by Ammi González, music and ambient sound by María Renée Silva, cinematography by Ivonne Lemoine and Gerardo Buendía, and scenic design by the company Zona de Títeres, Xólotl It is presented today and tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the Dinosaur Forum of the Chopo University Museum, with free admission for children.