Song of the women of Chalco: erotic siege, female sexuality and imperial politics in a Nahuatl poem of the fifteenth century

https://doi.org/10.25100/poligramas.v0i60.14675

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Published: Jan 1, 2025
Issue: No. 60 (2025): Poligramas - Issue 60 - January/June 2025
Section Dossier 60: Body, desire and writing

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Authors

  María de las Mercedes Ortiz Rodríguez Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
Abstract

This article analyzes in its erotic and political dimension the poem in Nahuatl of the fifteenth century, "Canto de las mujeres de Chalco", in which the voice of a Chalca woman given as a concubine to the Mexica tlatoani Axayácatl, is represented. The concubine expresses an active sexuality, challenges the tlatoani to an erotic combat and questions his virility, and reveals the pain and uncertainty of her new life. At the same time, she highlights her noble lineage and talks about Mexica imperial policy, which has determined his precarious life and his vulnerability.

Keywords
  • eroticism
  • Mexica empire
  • nahuatl poetry
  • politics
  • subaltern women
Author Biography

María de las Mercedes Ortiz Rodríguez, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

María Mercedes Ortiz Rodríguez is a tenured professor at the School of Literary Studies at the University of Valle, where she teaches Amerindian and contemporary Indigenous literatures, Latin American literature, and literary theory. She has also taught Afro-Latin American literature. She holds a degree in Anthropology from the National University of Colombia, a master's degree in Hispanic literatures from the University of Washington, and a doctorate in Hispanic and Lusophone literatures from the University of Iowa, USA. Her research has focused on the conflict between the Llaneros and Sikuani in the Eastern Plains, the material culture of Eastern Tucano groups in the Vaupés region, and the culture of peasants of Indigenous descent in the Tenza Valley (Boyacá), Colombia. She has translated pioneering works of early 20th-century German ethnography on Indigenous groups in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the northwestern Amazon. Her research interests include the representation of interethnic conflicts in internal border regions (the Llanos, the Amazon, and the Guajira Peninsula) in Latin American and Brazilian literature; Contemporary Indigenous literatures in line with the emergence and rise of Indigenous movements, and Afro-Latin American literatures from the perspective of the African diaspora, transculturation, and the intersection of “race,” class, and gender. She has published articles and book chapters in journals and books in Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. Her recent publications include the 2019 book *A Jungle of Words: Contemporary Indigenous Literatures in Brazil, Guatemala, and Colombia* (University of Valle Press). In 2021, she published “At the Edge of the Desert: Ethnicity, Gender, and Nation in Literary Representations of La Guajira and the Wayuu,” in G. Castellanos (ed.) *Gender Contests: Theological, Everyday, and Literary Discourses* (University of Valle Press). In 2025, she published the article “Song of the Women of Chalco: Erotic Siege, Female Sexuality, and Imperial Politics in a 15th-Century Nahuatl Poem.” Polygrams (60), 1-35. He belongs to the research groups Colombian and Latin American Authors and Gender, Literature and Discourse of the University of Valle.

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How to Cite
Ortiz Rodríguez, M. de las M. (2025). Song of the women of Chalco: erotic siege, female sexuality and imperial politics in a Nahuatl poem of the fifteenth century. Poligramas, (60), e20114675. https://doi.org/10.25100/poligramas.v0i60.14675
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