Taggart (1983:97) states that the power of displacement of Aztec motifs in indigenous oral traditon in Mexico is proportional to the degree of Hispanic
domination. If this is true, Huastecan Nahuas must have escaped Hispanic rule in a large measure, for the example of the flood tale examined here shows a wealth of precolonial motifs. The flood tale has not only greatly preserved the structure of its Aztec predecessor, it also incorporated into the tale Meso-American motifs that were not present in the Aztec version. This does not mean, however, that the Huasteca area did not undergo great changes over the centuries. Throughout time, disruptive forces caused by the introduction of cattle and the displacement of indigenous land in the sixteenth century, current problems like the low production in the fields, land invasions, and the arrival of protestant sects, all deeply altered the Huasteca’s outlook. Nahuas have had to cope with non-indigenous political domination, religious imposition, different rules for economical exchange, and, more recently, migration[158]. All these changes resonate in their oral tradition and have produced adjustments in the existing material.
One of the major differences in the tale in relation to its precolonial antecedent is connected to the conception of postdiluvian life. The punishment that entails changing men into dogs, as stated in the Leyenda and other precolonial sources, is missing in almost all Nahua flood tales. Likewise, the notion that the dog is today’s remnant of a former mankind or a predecessor of man is not present in today’s Nahua society[159]. Most probably, Nahuas have been influenced by Catholicism on this point; Catholic priests must have repudiated the idea of dogs being formerly related to humankind and the union between man and dog to procreate humanity: the episode --in whatever form-- has been erased from present-day versions. This omission in current tales makes the issue of post-diluvian life in the tale ambiguous. Thus, the tale is ready to admit Mesoamerican interpretations of the flood marking the origin of a new mankind, and Christian ones in which the same humanity outlives the cataclysm.
Another omission in Don Pancho’s version, this time derived from its precolonial antecedents, likewise provides a multivocal reading of the tale. Although the present lack of a justification for the flood is due to the Nahuas’ cyclical worldview, the same gap can be filled in by the audience with any explanation they see fit to provide; the issue’s open nature leaves room for individual interpretations. This way, the tale suits both Meso- American and Catholic outlooks. God’s decision to send a flood or the reason to rescue some persons is at times seen from a more Meso-American perspective, as an event whose causes are not questioned; other times, it is understood under a more Christian perspective.
Through the comparison with the Leyenda, it could be stated that many ancient elements have been preserved in the present-day Huastecan Nahua flood tale. For example, the smoking skies and eating the meat are treated
structurally in the same manner in both tales. The fire and its smoke cause the beginning of time, just like the precolonial fire announced the beginning of a new time count. The food metaphor of the present-day text -- Christianized by naming angels as messengers-- follows the same reasoning as that of its predecessor; in both accounts the survivors committed a fault by eating meat which belonged to a previous creation.
Regardless of its closeness to the Aztec antecedent, the Huastecan Nahua flood tale expresses Christian traits as well, and many motifs have their parallel in the deluge version from Genesis. The middle nuclear part of the Nahua tale remarkably resembles the biblical version: it is, apparently, the same God, who sends a universal deluge --at times during forty days-- and only a few people escape this fate by building a wooden device, which flows on the floodwaters. This way, analogies like the purpose for making a device in which to outlive the cataclysm are found in both traditions. Some analogies, however, have been given either a more Catholic or a more Meso- American assessment. In contemporary Nahua tales, Catholic influences have superposed precolonial variants of the wooden craft in which the people were saved, and Noah’s ark has become the model for describing its shape, either as a somewhat indefinite box or a wooden house. In this case, the craft’s description has acquired a more Christian outlook. In others, the elements have been integrated from a Mesoamerican perspective, as for instance when the complete village boards the craft or when it is said that the canoe crashes into heaven.
Despite analogies and influences from the Genesis tale, the current Huastecan Nahua account is not a plain mixture of two traditions, Aztec and Christian; first, because some aspects of the tale seem quite new and cannot be linked to either of them. None of the predecessors names a peasant wanting to clear a field. The episodes concerning the hare --raising the field, going on the canoe, and, eventually, jumping on the moon-- do not coincide with the two other tales, except for the part in which someone admonishes the peasant about the impending flood and tells him to build a canoe. The episode in which God’s messengers stay and eat on earth cannot be found in one of the previous versions either. As is understandable, the following punishment for the messengers is absent in Genesis and the Leyenda as well. Yet, all these episodes can be found in current Mesoamerican flood tales from other indigenous peoples, which have influenced the tale to some extent. This influence should not be underestimated, as it can clearly be derived from the events involving the hare, who plays such an important part in the current versions, that the tale is seen more as an etiological one that represents how the rodent got stuck on the moon than a universal flood tale. Though the hare’s symbolic construction and its link to the moon are,
clearly, vivid remnants of precolonial thought today, the current tale’s contents deviate strongly from the Leyenda’s plot.
Moreover, the condition of the Huastecan Nahua flood tale as a plain mixture has to be refuted since analogies with either the Leyenda, the Bible or both, cannot simply be traced back in order to point to its most probable antecedent. Motifs have been altered, their meaning has changed, and the tale handles new issues that are important in current society. When taking the flood tale that was presented as a reference, the interweaving of foreign elements into a primarily precolonial tale and the tale’s constant adjustment in order to fit new local circumstances, seems to have been a fairly smooth process. The tale is perfectly well constructed and all elements seem to have found their place without clashing. The fact that the tale is still told among Huastecan Nahuas demonstrates the process’ effectiveness and the flood tale’s validity as a rich, homogeneous and meaningful story in this society. Even when broken up and told in parts, the tale addresses current opinions on its subject matter.
The flood tale places Huastecan Nahuas in today’s world and reconstructs how they see themselves and their position as opposed to those of people before the flood. Essentially cosmogonic in its contents, the tale deals with fundamental questions like man’s origin and purpose on earth and the beginning of a new order. These questions are dealt with without attaching explicit values to each of them; they are meant to be meaningful to a large segment of society. Thus, many people still hold the tale to be true; the tale has accordingly maintained its distinctive appreciation as such. Besides, the hare’s silhouette “stuck to” the moon is seen every night to remind people of the cataclysmic deluge and the commencement of the existing order in which we live today.
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