The water beings come to a place and cause an inundation that can be classified as a local catastrophe; it affects a village and, at times, some surrounding communities. In a lively conversation about the impact of a mermaid’s appearance which also provoked floods in the area, two villagers confirm this idea:
A: If at that time she would have made her house here we would not have lived here [...].
B: The mermaid was going to make a sea here. A: A sea, a sea.
B: A sea.
A: From here till over there near Jojokapa [neighboring community in the state of Veracruz]. The whole area, all you see over there was going to be the sea.
B: Now it’s a pool.
Whereas usually a narrator refers to the affected area with vague expressions such as “those who live here” or “here would be the sea”, which may be interpreted as a reference to the community where a water creature appeared, the comments in the citations above refer to a broader area involved in the events. The reference to a neighboring village implies the inundation of large extensions of cultivated land --if not villages-- belonging to several communities.
Yet, all tales are told from the viewpoint of only one community. The events affect first, the village and, consequently, the people living in it. The mention of other affected communities is not common, and the fact that the previous quotations refer to a broader nucleus may subscribe to the fact that the persons who made these comments live on a plateau that is not likely to be inundated, and only possess some plots of land below. The events’ course on a local scale is typical in Huastecan Nahua oral tradition. Almost every village
in the municipality has its own water creature which formerly caused harm through excessive rainfall; in each of them, narrations about the village’s survival can be heard. Protagonists in these true tales are xilis and snakes, or, more often, mermaids. The tales are familiar to people in more than one community, but the past events have a clearly delimited spatial setting and always deal with one particular village. Neighboring villages deal with these events as if they had nothing to do with it, even though they too might have been swept away by the floods elsewhere, at least according to the narrators. It can be affirmed that this kind of tales evolves around a local true tale. Don Gregorio does not mention explicitly the places of arrival, but says that here (nika) appeared the xili and that there (nepa) a fish appeared (lines 65- 66). The most probable location of “here” is a cave called Xilitetsintla (“the cave of the xili”). The cave is located off the road near Don Gregorio’s community and most people regard it as the home of the crustacean. The cave has an entrance leading inwards, but no one dares to set foot in it. For centuries, the moisture has created stalactites and stalagmites inside the limestone cave. People say these are effigies of persons standing upright. There is no apparent sacredness about the place, for no one leaves offerings or performs curative rites inside the cave. Yet, above its entrance a little waterfall springs forth from the earth, and the place is always surrounded by fresh water.
Don Pedro’s opinion about the xili’s former whereaboutsdiffers from Don Gregorio’s. He repetitiously states that the animal emerged in a well in Acanoa, and that the people in that village took care of it (lines 174-176; 229- 234; 247-250; 357-359). Acanoa is not a community near the Xilitetsintla cave. Don Pedro’s information constitutes a discrepancy, for he is the only person who mentions Acanoa as the xili’s residence. Still, it is known that Don Pedro’s informant is a man from Acanoa, so this irregularity can be easily explained. As most oral accounts situate the events in their own surroundings, it seems plausible that vesinos of Acanoa believe that is where the animal appeared. However, the presentation of this location in tales told by narrators who do not live in this particular village could be considered strange and not be quite accepted. Don Pedro is aware of this problem: he immediately denies the fact that the crustacean lived in the Xilico community near the cave of Xilitetsintla (although he refers once to Xilico as nika, here (line 249-250), while living in another village) and keeps insisting on this matter during his performance.
Concerning the snake, Don Gregorio said it had appeared “there” (line 66), indicating an undefined place away from his residence, meant to contrast with “here” (line 4; 6-7; 65) the place where the xili lived near his home. Further on, he makes a more specific declaration when he says the snake fell
beyond the neighboring village of Nanayatla (line 73), on the tlachikili (hill) (lines 156-157). Don Pedro does not mention any hill when referring to the second water creature and declares that a ravine came into being (lines 251- 152). He repeats that the second being was made “there where the earth is split open” (line 259-261). Nevertheless, both men mention the same place as they narrate about this creature, a snake or a fish, which supposedly split the hill to make a ravine. All other accounts given in the surrounding communities about the snake/fish indicate the same hill as its host --simply calling it “the hill”-- so there seems to be no discrepancy on this point. The hill is located in the community, but is hard to reach because of its distance and height. In the only personal report recorded on this event, the narrator remembered how he, as a young man, had to crawl quite a stretch on his hands and knees in order to climb the steep slope to the place where the water creature lived (van ‘t Hooft and Cerda 2003:164).
The water creatures come to dwell in rather inappropriate living spaces, as these seem to contain little or no liquid. The ravine or hill is not an agreeable place for a fish or a water snake to be, there is no pool there. The xili’s cave is not described, so it is not certain whether it was filled with water when the animal is said to have arrived. The well Don Pedro talks about looks like an adequate home for a water being, were it not for the xili’s extraordinary size; because of it, the dam had to be relocated several times. The inappropriate living space is crucial for the tale’s development, as they involve places on the boundaries between the Nahua sphere and the outer world. The hill is a non-cultivated area within the limits of the community, and the xili’s cave is not only in the woods between two villages but also represents one of the openings in earth, leading to the water’s outer worlds (Apan) and the dead (Miktlan). The well that currently exists inside the cave connects with Apan; the split in the hill establishes the same connection. Only when the water beings position themselves on the limits between the spaces do they become harmful to humans. Their arrival at these places triggers the tale, for it gives way to remarkable incidents that have such a great impact on society that they become worthy of telling over and over again.
An outsider can be found in the figure of the priest, whose residence is in the town of Tulancingo or Tamazunchale. The reference to these two places is quite rare in Huastecan Nahua oral tradition and also in every day speech. The symbolic relevance of these towns involvement is, therefore, not certain[190]. Perhaps their most salient trait is their remoteness from the place of action, which heightens the great efforts required to find a solution to the problem. Don Gregorio says the bishop came to the church in Xochiatipan after the people asked for his help (lines 124-125). Nowadays every village has its own church, but all are contemporary constructions and were built during the last six decades, when both ancient and new
communities started to construct their own local churches. Don Gregorio might have taken this detail into account when situating the monthly masses in the church of the municipality head (line 123). At one point, the bishop blessed the earth so the animals would leave. Although Don Gregorio does not say where or how the bishop gave the blessing, people know that this was performed at the ravine where the water snake lived. The priest had to go to the site so that his consecration could become effective. Don Pedro confirms that a blessing was given during a mass celebrated at the ravine, in which the people made a plea to God (lines 284-286; 293-304; 342-345). After holding the preparatory masses in the church of the municipality, the final piece in removing the water creatures was the celebration at the ravine in which –-people say-- holy water was sprinkled on the earth. Finally, and with the priest’s help, the villagers managed to avert the threat.
Only when the xili and the fish/snake go back to their natural habitat, do the rains stop and the pools dry up. The population is saved when the spatial order is restored. Don Gregorio says the water snake went to the sea (line 148), but he does not tell us how. Don Pedro fills in this information; he says the thunder, lightning and rains took the fish and the xili to the sea (lines 321-324). Don Pedro remarks that the animals wanted to gather the water that was to come from Tuxpan (lines 330-335) and that the two animals disappeared and went to the same place (lines 410-411). Naturally, the Veracruzan port of Tuxpan is connected to the sea, but there are many ports on the Gulf Coast --like the town of Tampico that Don Pedro also mentions once. I do not know why the people of Xochiatipan specifically have this one as their reference. In distance, Tuxpan is the port nearest to municipality; it lies exactly to the east of it. Though nowadays, because of the highway connecting Huejutla to Tampico, the latter town is easier to reach than Tuxpan, in the past circumstances were the other way round. The reference to these ports is a general indication of the direction in which the sea is to be found, which is to the east.
Don Pedro discloses significant details about how the xili left the region. He said the animal used its pincers to cut through the rock of its dam, shaping a piece in the form of a canoe (lines 363-368; 371-383). Thereafter it walked from the communities of Acanoa and Zapote to Xilico (lines 405-406) and then disappeared. The traces left are still visible: if one goes from Acanoa to Xilico, the stony ground has marks in the form of a canoe. Don Pedro pays a lot of attention to this part of his tale, and his repetitions indicate he considers it to be a most substantial one. According to this argumentation, the tale explains the names of the villages of Acanoa (“water canoe”) and Xilico (“place of the xili”). The toponym of Acanoa recalls the xili’s tracks; they have the form of a canoe and were filled with water as the animal made them[191]. Xilico refers to the village located near where most people believe
the xili had its former residence. In fact, a majority agrees that the animal walked from the cave near Xilico to Acanoa and not in the opposite direction, as in Don Pedro’s version. Whatever its route was, the incident of the crustacean is represented and remembered through the current denomination of the two villages, and the existence of some visible traces on the road between these two places. The mention of these events is another reminder of the tale’s true character.