Concerned about their preservation, artist reproduces ancient codices

▲ Elizabeth Báez Domínguez, originally from Tlaxcala, doesn't consider herself an illustrator, but rather a copyist. Photo by Ricardo Montoya

Ricardo Montoya

Correspondent

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 4

Pachuca, Hgo., Of the Mexican codices exhibited in museums or kept in historical archives, not all are of pre-Hispanic origin: many were created by indigenous people at the request of the Spanish conquistadors for educational purposes, to facilitate the process of Catholic evangelization, explained Elizabeth Báez Domínguez, an artist and pictography expert originally from the city of Tlaxcala, who a few days ago participated in the Obsidian Festival of Epazoyucan, in Hidalgo.

This is the case of the Florentine Codex, which, he explained, is an ethnographic compendium produced in the 16th century by indigenous people under the orders and supervision of the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún.

That document, added Báez, preserves the pre-Hispanic style, but with some European aspects, including descriptions written in the Spanish alphabet .

Throughout the three days of the festival, Báez Domínguez exhibited beautiful reproductions of codices that he printed on amate paper, particularly the Tonalámatl, which is believed to have been produced in Tlaxcala before the arrival of the Spanish.

Regarding that document, he said that in 2014 he published a book based on his pictographic research, entitled Tonalámatl, the Book of Days and Destinies.

“It is a Tlaxcala codex, one of the few that remain on amate paper, since others, after the Conquest, are made on European paper.

“The word amatl means paper, and it was made from a tree known as amate, which was overexploited and is therefore in danger of extinction.

Currently, it is made from fibers from the bark of the jonote tree. It is produced in the town of San Pablito, in the municipality of Pahuatlán, Puebla, which borders Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo.

He commented that amate was not only used for the production of codices, but also as a ceremonial or funerary element, since it was used to wrap the corpses of high dignitaries .

He explained that each codex panel takes an average of two days to create, and uses acrylic paint on amate paper.

After pointing out that she is not an illustrator, but a copyist, Elizabeth Báez explained that I officially began my career in September 2001, when I had my first exhibition at the gallery of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) .

She was a student at the IMSS visual arts workshop and later became an art teacher.

Among his first works was the reproduction of pre-Hispanic paintings on clay comals.

In addition to the codices, Báez makes reproductions of pre-Hispanic mural paintings, such as those of the so-called Temple of Venus of Cacaxtla.

On February 9th, he exhibited some of his work in the Art Gallery of the Social Communication Coordination of the Tlaxcala government.

Báez Domínguez frequently visits other locations to give workshops and lectures on the reproduction of pre-Hispanic codices. He recently visited the indigenous municipality of Acaxochitlán.

Finally, he said that teaching young people how to reproduce ancient pre-Hispanic codices is an essential task for preserving our cultural wealth and keeping our indigenous past alive .

▲ For the Argentine author, every writer must emigrate, shake off the sense of homeland. Photo by Atonatiuh S. Bracho

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 5

The novel Instructions to Kill the Father (Alfaguara) has as its thematic triad migration, fatherhood and orphanhood, which summarize the interests of its author, Gastón García Marinozzi.

The narrator told La Jornada that traveling, moving from place to place, is the best part of literature. First, to compose it, to create it, to think about it, to write it, and, therefore, to read it. In all my books, the characters and stories are in constant transit, geographically, emotionally, and temporally .

The novel is marked by migration, noted García Marinozzi (Córdoba, Argentina, 1974). “The writers I'm talking about have some history, some relationship with that physical or temporal movement. I cite authors like Pitol and Piglia, who speak of the writer's mandate to leave, to shake off the sense of origin, of nationalism, and to seek out other stories, other worlds.”

The best of all, Jorge Luis Borges, never left his home library to write his best stories. This would be a paradox, but the rest of us are forced to move, let alone migrate to another language. Juan Rulfo writes locked behind a desk, like Borges. They both have something; there's a reason they're extraordinary.

The author mentioned that one doesn't write for the times one lives in, but rather writes in them. It has to do with the way one reads in the times one lives in. It's like working in a specific time where there are codes that define artistic production. One hopes to find a kind of accomplice in whoever is going to confront this book .

He believes in a literature of two people: the writer and the reader. Therefore, an unread book is meaningless, and a read one creates a new universe between the reader and the writer. I know many people of my generation who are deeply interested in the topic of parenthood, how we're approaching it, and what's happening these days with such issues .

He approaches orphanhood from the Freudian perspective in Totem and Taboo, which means killing one's father or mother, as almost an obligation for all people and a way to gain a foothold in maturity through a certain liberation. "Killing one's father is an act of love, of absolute independence, and of human creation ," the novelist said.

Freud, Gastón García said, wrote that once we achieve the sacrifice of killing our father, we can live, a decision in the interesting sense of living our own life, the responsibility, freedom, and pain that it entails.

He added that a leitmotif of his book is the moment when the legendary Aeneas has to flee with his father and son, Anchises and Ascanius, from defeated Troy. He's escaping from the fire, from the war, and he has to carry his elderly father on his shoulders and can't let go of his son's hand. That image is important for this book, given that we constantly go through life like this: whether those children are with us or not, whether that father is alive or not, we always carry them with us .

The author, who has been away from his country for 25 years and 17 of them in Mexico, called Aeneas the first migrant in history, the first who must flee, and inaugurates the figures of exile, refugee, and the one who must go out to save his life, that of his father and that of his son in order to live another existence in peace .

Conversely, killing your father also means being ready to be killed by your children. There are ages and times for everything, but that's what a child is trained to do: to kill his father when it's appropriate .

The journalist also added that the story not only explores instructions for killing the father, but also for doing so with the son, the homeland, and growing up leaving something behind, even though migration has seemed like a dirty word for several decades. We are now reaching new heights in the hate speech against it .

He concluded: "Let's not forget all of Europe expelling Africans and so many migrants trying to reach us across the Mediterranean. Now we're seeing it firsthand in Mexico, with people trying to cross into the United States, and in 2026 we'll see worse things, as we're reaching this madness of this hateful leader who is causing more and more pain ."

▲ Xinhua Photo

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 5

The iconic Chinese opera illuminated the Duyet Thi Duong Royal Theatre in the Imperial City of Hue, Vietnam, yesterday after a musical performance by the Guangxi Zhuang Orchestra. The venue is considered an intangible cultural heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. During the performance, the audience enjoyed the colorful traditional costumes worn by the group from a region where the cultures of China and Vietnam converge.