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| Quetzalcoatl's Non-Native Clothing |
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 Spanish Pro-Indian
sources display a fascination with Quetzalcoatl's manner of dress. They specifically remark on his modesty, which
contrasted with the comparative nudity of the common native. Cervantes de Sálazar is one of the authors
who emphasizes the unique nature of Quetzalcoatl's attire: "He was never dressed but in a robe of white cotton,
well girded to the body and so large that it covered the feet, for greater modesty". (Francisco Cervantes
de Sálazar, Crónica de Nueva España. 3 volumes. Madrid: Hauser y Menet, 1914, 1:36.)It is difficult to trace the native origins of this statement. Native texts do not mention Quetzalcoatl's attire unless they are specifically describing the regalia of the idol, and the Spanish sources are clearly referring to something other than the idol's ritual paraphernalia. While there may have been some native tradition which stressed Quetzalcoatl's mode of dress, there is no available evidence for it. It appears more likely that the Spanish were basing their information on pictorial rather than verbal information, similar to the lady with the cross in her hair, and the shell 'hats' noted earlier. In addition to the common loincloth, male dress allowed a sort of cape called a tlilmatli, which was a piece of cloth worn across the shoulders and tied in a knot over the left shoulder. The most common style reached to just below the shins, but social status dictated longer lengths for those of higher social rank. Only the most important men could wear a tlilmatli which reached the ankles. It is therefore highly probable that when the Spaniards were shown representations of Quetzalcoatl or any other important figure in the codices, he would be wearing a tlilmatli which indicated his high rank by reaching the ankles. Indeed, Durán's seated Quetzalcoatl is wears just such a garment. (The description of the tlilmatli is found in Patricia Rieff Anawalt, Pan-Mesoamerican Costume Repertory at the Time of the Spanish Contact. Dissertation, UCLA, 1975, 77-78. The reproduction of the picture is found in Durán 1971, p.323.) Not only did the Spanish emphasize this long tlilmatli, they transformed it. The Spanish word used for Quetzalcoatl's garment is ropa 'clothing, garment, or robe'. Once the garment was called ropa instead of tlilmatli, the concept was free to alter its basic shape and take on the characteristics of Spanish ropa. Very soon, it was no longer a cape tied over one shoulder, but a garment with sleeves. In the labeling process the original tlilmatli lost its capacity to distinguish rank and became a sign, not of power, but of humility and modesty. So completely did Quetzalcoatl's apparel lose its original significance that the Relación de genealogía actually states that the clothing of those who accompanied Quetzalcoatl was "like the dress of Spain." ("Relación de la Geneaolgía y linaje de los Señores..." In Nueva Colección de Documentos para la Historia de México, edited by García Icazbalceta, (Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1971, reprint 1891), 3:263-280.) The more the Pro-Indian authors examined Quetzalcoatl the more Catholic he became. The royal tlilmatli-become robe eventually became a friar's habit in Torquemada. (Torquemada, 1954, 1:254-5.) The lack of concern for Quetzalcoatl's dress in native texts immediately marks this element of the Quetzalcoatl cycle as suspicious. The addition of moralistic meaning to the garment rather than native social status again indicates the nature of the Spanish alteration. The culmination in a friar's habit can only be seen as the logical end of the way in which the Spanish influence pulled this element of the Quetzalcoatl cycle into something it was never meant to be. The best reconstruction of Quetzalcoatl's attire prior to the Conquest reveals nothing that would lead one to suspect that Quetzalcoatl was other than a purely native person or deity. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
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