“ Chac Mool ”

Carlos Fuentes
 Carlos Fuentes Mexico,
1928-
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City, but his
parents were Mexican, and he later became a Mexican
citizen.
Fuentes's father, Rafael Fuentes Boettiger, loved books and
movies. He was a career diplomat and travelled all over the
world.
Fuentes's upbringing was privileged. He received a cosmopolitan
education in private schools. At the age of 16 Fuentes returned
to Mexico, where he attended the prestigious Colegio de México.

Fuentes entered the School of Law at the National University of

Mexico, receiving his LL.B. in 1948. He also studied economics at
Institut des Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva.

Fuentes's first collection of short stories, Los días emmascarados, was

published in 1954. La región más transparente (1958, Where the Air Is Clear)
was Fuentes's first novel.
Fuentes maintains a realistic stance of power and politics in Latin
America – magical elements, myths of the past and wide range of cultural
references are combined with social critique. Fuentes also uses
experimental techniques familiar from the nouveau roman and postmodern
fiction. In later novels Fuentes has dealt the question of Mexican
identity and its relationship to other cultures.
 He’s novelist, short story writer,
playwright, screenwriter, critic, and
essayist.

And a very snappy

dresser.
chac mool
The chacmool is a sculptural figure
seated on the ground with its upper
back raised, the head is turned to a
near right angle, the legs are drawn
up to the buttocks, elbows rest on the
ground, and its hands hold a vessel,
disk or plate on the stomach where
offerings may have been placed or
human sacrifices carried out.

Chacmools are found in Central Mexico

and Yucatán with the greatest number
concentrated at the archaeological
sites of Tula, Hidalgo, and Chichén
Itzá. A chacmool excavated from the
Aztec Templo Mayor in Mexico City in
the early 1980s was found fully
polychromed. At Tula and Chichén Itzá,
the chacmool was usually placed in the
antechamber of a temple presumably to
receive offerings or for sacrifice.
 Chac vs. Chac Mool
The Mayan god of fertility and agriculture, the one who sends
thunder and rain. Later he appears as one of the Bacabs, a group of
four protective deities, where Chac is the personification of the
east. The center of his cult was in Chichen Itzan (Yucatan). He is
the Tlaloc of the Aztec and the rain god Cocijo of the Zapotec. Chac
is portrayed with two curling fangs, a long turned-up nose and tears
streaming from his wide eyes. His hair was made up of a tangle of
knots.

Chac was beneficent and a friend of man. He taught them how to grow
vegetables and was the protector of their cornfields. The Maya
appealed to him for rain by means of particular ceremonies by which
the men would settle outside the village and adhere to strict
observance of fasting and sexual abstinence. The animal associated
with Chac is the frog, because it signals the coming of rain by its
croaking.

He is also known as Ah Hoya ("he who urinates"), Ah Tzenul ("he who

gives food to others"), and Hopop Caan ("he who lights up the sky").
http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/cuentos/esp/fuentes/chac.htm
En español

Chac Mool by
Carlos Fuentes
Translated by Jonah Katz Not too

English
version, PDF
file
To be discussed:
Filiberto and his psychological state
the fantastic/magic realism
the relation between ancient and contemporary
Mexico
the end