Quetzalcoatl Analysis

The Circle

Life implies death, or shall I say death implies life. This cycle of life and death as a continuum, having complementary opposites within the whole sequence, is known as the Law of Duality. In other words, although life and death appear as opposites, they are in fact two extremes of the same thing; this becomes apparent in the creations stories told to us by our maestros’ through the act of regeneration. Maestro Andres Segura Granados uses duality to support his creation story of Quetzalcoatl. Segura, in his video recorded lecture, argues that if there is no positive and negative there is no creation; that in order for life to continue being “[life] has to use death, life is based on death [and] death is life” (“The Path of Quetzalcoatl”).

Dr. Cintli argues that the ability to tell and retell our ancestor’s story of the power of corn; that we the people are corn; corn is what we are made of and where we come from. According to Dr. Cintli, we can regenerate from these stories and reverse the de-indigenization process Europe has constructed and return to our corn-based indigenous culture. In other words, Dr. Cintli argues that corn has united unequal people throughout the Americas for centuries, even those he terms “de-indigenized” (p. 40). Without regeneration, western stories de-indigenize and sever the connection between individuals and their languages, stories, and traditions. Regeneration of “the seven-thousand-year-old story of centeotzintli [sacred maíz] frames the history of this continent,” a history later appropriated and “reframed” by Europeans for the purpose of marginalizing indigenous claims to the land (9-10). Similar to Segura’s creation story of Quetzalcoatl, Dr. Cintli recalls the story of the “Five Suns” in which the mountain corn was split open by lightning (signifying its death) so that its corn could be distributed among humans (providing life). Thus, life implies death and death implies