Indigenous populations throughout the Americas had thriving cultures and lives before European conquest. They had a range of societal types, ranging from foraging to state level societies. In addition, each group had their own languages, belief systems, subsistence strategies, social systems, and more. Examples of this brilliance is present at Cahokia and among the Ancestral Puebloans, Maya, Olmec, the Chinchorro, and many other Indigenous American populations throughout time and space.
These people were not the godless heathens that European conquerors made them out to be. This narrative was promoted by the Spanish Conquistadors as justification for conquering and controlling Indigenous American populations. One of their base accusations that “validated” the Spanish Conquest was that Indigenous populations were sodomites living in sin. The Spaniards claimed Indigenous populations were accepting and supporting sinful behaviors, including but not limited to homosexuality and sex work, and therefore these populations needed to be beaten into submission to live a sin-free life. The Spanish were successful in their mission, going forth and wiping out Indigenous ways of life by burning their records, temples, and more, and forcibly converting and assimilating Indigenous populations to Catholicism and Spanish/European ways of life.
It is within these frameworks that creates a situation where it is difficult to accurately assess what Indigenous people’s lives were prior to conquest. While some evidence does exist they are often interpreted through contemporary lenses, not necessarily from the perspectives of the Indigenous populations themselves. Furthermore, much that has been written about Indigenous populations at the time of Conquest was written by individual who were strongly influenced by the Spanish, leading to a Spaniard-bias when interpreting Indigenous ways of life. With this in mind this blog post will address the topic of whether or not homosexuality existed within the Aztec culture and to what extent it was accepted or not.
The Aztecs, or as they called themselves the Mexica, maintained a massive state level society. Its capital is currently under the modern-day site of Mexico City, and the Mexica’s territory covered much of modern-day Central America. There is much known about the Mexica due to archaeological analyses of their material culture and the Spaniard accounts of their lives during the Conquest. One such text, the Florentine Codex, was written by Friar Bernadino de Sahagún, a Catholic clergyman who worked closely with the Mexica and other Náhua people. He also learned their language and formed a rudimentary dictionary of several of their words.
Some of these words included those associated with homosexuality and gender, including transgender identity. Sahagún reported at least three words, which include xochihua, cuiloni, and patlachuia or patlache, that fall within these categories. He provided translations of the Náhua words based on his Spanish worldviews, leading to some potential bias and inaccuracies within the interpretations he provided. Xochihua has been interpreted as either meaning a transwoman or homosexual male. Cuiloni is interpreted as mean a transwoman, although it could also be a slur against effeminate homosexual men. Patlachuia or patlache can mean either a transman or a homosexual woman.
Within Sahagún’s view and interpretations none of these words were positive or favorable. He provided very vulgar and offensive analogies of what he thought the associated concepts of homosexuality and transgender identity meant among the Aztec/Mexica/Náhua worldview. This complicates understanding and interpreting the values and beliefs of homosexuality and transgender identity among Central American populations. What is clear is that homosexuality and transgender individuals did exist among these populations. What is unclear is if they were taboo, tolerated, or celebrated. Scholars are unable to agree on this matter. The very existence of homosexuality and transgender identities, however, demonstrates that these are phenomenon that have existed for far longer than some believe.
Bibliography
Garcia, F. (2020). Exploring the Colonization of Mexico by the Spaniards: Homophobia in the Mexican Community through the Catholic Church. Davis: University of California.
Gontijo, F., Arisi, B., & Fernandes, E. (2021). Mesoamerica. Queer natives in Latin America: Forbidden chapters of colonial history, 9-23.
Sigal, P. (2002). Gender, male homosexuality, and power in colonial Yucatan. Latin American Perspectives, 24-40.
Wawzonek, J. J. (2017). Sodomitical Butterflies: Male Homosexual Desire in Colonial Latin America. Mount Royal Undergraduate Humanities Review (MRUHR), 98-114.
