WATER TATTOOS A catalog of river palimpsests

Transmutation

In the arcana of the Tarot, an angel pours a liquid substance between two amphorae; presumably it transforms the water into a distillate, the base of the alchemical obtaining of the medicine of the plants. Mississippi is the Ojibwe word that denotes the Father of the waters. The knowledge that the First Nations have of natural phenomena and the observance of their most subtle expressions have allowed them to understand the healing principles that exist in water, in stones, in plants and animals thanks to the fact that their relationship with them is of pairs.

The Labyrinth of Harosl Fisk The Geological Investigation of the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley includes a prodigious map: a projection of the world that shows that the cartographer Harold Fisk recognized the entirety of the river throughout time and space, in the face of the paradox of the absurd effort of men to contain it.

If the lines of Fisk's maps painstakingly record the courses of the Mississippi for millennia, it means that they also contain the memory of the humans who inhabited its banks, and invariably that of the other species that got to run, swim or swim. fly there before the arrival of our first grandparents.

Similarly, the peoples who settled throughout the continent during secular migrations were preceded by transhumant fish, birds and insects.

Robert Morris Quoting Marguerite Yourcenar «time sculpts more and better than the artist's hand, since it does not work on the surface, but in depth.» This is how the rivers have engraved the face of the earth. Geological action tattoos are immeasurable. Maps can be its representation, and perhaps in the vocation of Landart that telluric force can be decanted in a symbolic way, in constructions as daring as the Nazca lines or in the humble gesture of a labyrinth erected a few centimeters from the ground such as Robert Morris´, completely away from the objective of the US Army, who, through its Corporation of Engineers, assumed that it could contain a river like the Mississippi.

Lineage of Hiawatha The trigger to develop a series of graphic works based on a cartography of the Mississippi River was imminently aesthetic. In the same way, the interest in the figure of Hiawatha is due to the purest lyricism. In no way do I mean to insinuate that the lineage of this pacifying tribal chief of the XIV century is scattered throughout the continent. I am alluding, indeed, to the migratory movements inspired by the search for promised lands referred to in mythical tales, and on the other, to the secular migrations of fish, birds, insects, as well as the millions of tons of stone sediments moved by the mightiest river in North America , with ecological repercussions along its route and at its mouth. Those grandparents who someday crossed the Bering, or others who had sailed from more southern lands, shared with «Hiawathas» from different times and latitudes, the vision of holistically encompassing and preserving the animal, mineral and floral world.

Turtle Island Among the traditions of many First Nations – the inhabitants of the northern fringe of our continent, who settled there before European migrations – what is known as North America should really be called Turtle

Island. There are several communicating vessels that link these traditions with the thoughts and feelings of the Mesoamerican peoples and those of the southernmost lands: «In their words and actions, they are advancing a powerful vision for indigenous governance and stewardship of the planet’s lands, waters and resources as a viable alternative to the truncated vision and broken systems that threaten our collective future.» * * Julian Brave NoiseCat: Indigenous Canadian writer and activist.

Glyph of water Attributed to the hands of indigenous scribes, versed in Mexica iconography prior to the Conquest, the Mendoza Codex, from the s. XVI, gives an account like no other, of the history of the people who settled in the lacustrine basins of the Valley of Mexico to found the ancient Aztec capital. In this Codex appears the glyph of Atenco: «at the edge of the water». If a translation were sought into the language of sciences such as ecology, the glyph could refer to the concept of «wetland».

Wetlands represent strategic ecosystems of great importance for the conservation of biodiversity and the well-being of human communities, so actions that ensure the maintenance of their ecological characteristics are essential.

The success of the rescue and restoration programs that ensure their health depends largely on the original peoples or local communities.

White Lotus In the Mayan world, the flower of this aquatic plant represented the underworld as the universal womb that incubates all creation. It was a flower associated with female fertility that highlighted creative energy: that of telluric forces and that of magic.

The white lotus, Naab -in Peninsular Maya- Nymphaea ampla, appears repeatedly in Codex, vessels, stucco reliefs and Mayan stelae.

The flower, fruit and roots of different species of water lily have psychoactive properties, which is why it was used by Mayan priests to establish contact with their ancestors through oracular visions. .

Bee and snake

In some Mesoamerican traditions, particularly among the Mexica, the snake is associated with fertility. Bees are also linked to it, thanks to their pollinating activity. Today the preservation of native bees includes practices used several centuries before the arrival of Europeans to our continent. The Trocortesiano Codex, a document of the ancient Mayans, includes the oldest animal husbandry treatise in the world dedicated to stingless bees.

Night bee

The pollinating activity of bees takes place, fundamentally, during the day, under the sun's rays. But while some rest, others work in different corners of the world. With the exception of the seas and ice caps, bees inhabit all landscapes. There are more than 20,000 species. Two thousand are Mexican. Only 5% live in a gregarious way. .

Agave 14 There are not as many species of the genus to which agaves belong in another corner of the world as in Mesoamerica. In the current Mexican territory, specifically in the Sierra Mixteca – between the States of Puebla and Oaxaca – the abundance of various succulent plants is particular.

Paradoxically, the places where they grow – now arid lands – were carved in previous geological eras by mighty rivers. Agaves, columnar cacti, nopales (Opuntia ficus) ... it seems that desert plants were conferred to communicate the message for later generations about the presence of abundant water in other times. There are some theories from anthropologists who suppose that our nomadic grandparents based the supply of water on plants like them.

Maguey In the regions farthest from the river basins of Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica, there are abundant species of cacti and agaves that account for the presence of water: that accumulated in their tissues. The Jesuit José de Acosta, in his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, wrote at the end of the XVI century that «the tree of wonders is the maguey (agave), about which the settlers recently arrived from Spain usually write miracles, about which it gives water and wine, oil and vinegar, honey, syrup and thread, needle and a hundred other things».

Six grasshoppers «The grasshopper had a high sacred value and represented supernatural power for the Mexicas. In the codices, such as the Boturini or Mendoza, the grasshopper was used on top of a hill to indicate the place name of Chapultepec. A 100-gram serving of these insects can contain up to 80 grams of protein and only four grams of unsaturated fat, in addition to various minerals. There are 54 species of edible grasshoppers recorded in Mexico.» * * Los insectos en la cultura mexica | Lucrecia Arellano | INECOL

Chapultepec

The Cerro del Chapulín in Spanish (Grasshopper Hill) refers to a point on the map or a geographical demarcation. For languages such as Nahuatl, it perhaps implies all the moments of life and death of the grasshopper: the spirits that inhabit them, their sedimented residues and death bodies for generations, and even the plasters that result from mixing them with the mud of the their land to heal the soul and the body. In the thought of the ancient inhabitants of the continent, in their sayings and songs, the conceptions of the whole and the parts are integral and complementary. .

Crab

The minerals resulting from the decomposition of the bones of invertebrates such as crabs are added to the stone sediments moved by river currents. In this way, the waters of a river help the movement of migratory species in their different states; even that of the mythical essence that makes animate and inanimate beings coexist in its songs and myths.

Qayaq of Lake Moon The most agreed meaning for Qayaq (an Inuit word, one of the largest indigenous groups in the Arctic) is reduced to that of a hunter's boat. Although before its production with synthetic materials there were two or three seats, the thousand-year-old Qayaq belonged to a single hunter, built in a timely and specific way for that single user. It was said that if a man went hunting and did not return, it was because he had used a borrowed boat. The mastery of the use of the Qayaq equated the personal development of the hunter with the strength of his community bond, as well as the degree of relationship with his geography and natural environment, from which he took what was strictly necessary. I find in the conception of this boat, a technological expression that expands the tool to the symbolic notion of greater respect for ecology: nothing is further from anthropocentric extractive practices.

Ollin Yoliztli

Words in Nahuatl -or Mexica- that mean «permanent movement and life».

The ancient Mexicans were transmitters of the greatest cultural and technological work of Mesoamerica: the domestication of corn. One of the most impressive expressions of citizen power in Mexico is found in the collective lawsuit that defends the most cultivated plant on the continent over 8,000 years from industrialized genetic manipulation. The trial has been in court for nine years and advocates the right to healthy food and the preservation of biodiversity.

The series Water Tattoos was exhibited at Factoría Habana, within the show

La poética del vacío, curated by Concha Fontenla. The exhibition was part of the 14th Havana Biennial 2021 – 2022.