Becoming an Ancestor: The Isthmus Zapotec Way of Death

Glossary of Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish Terms

207 BECOMING AN ANCESTOR cultural systems bent on eliminating, incorporating, assimilating, and otherwise changing who they are. In the first chapter, I offered the analogy of a great river as a way of understanding the genius of Zapotec persistence. The banks, where the river encounters obstacles, require nerve and the ability to transform oneself to take advantage of new opportunities or to avoid unexpected dangers. The banks are the site of innovation and transformation both for individuals and for the community. The current at the center of the river runs smooth and deep, unaffected by the swirls and eddies at the banks. This is where one finds community and relationship, the second fundamental Zapotec value. It offers the safety net of the known and the reliable so that people are willing to risk change. Balance between extremes of transformation or change and the conservative force of community is what allows the Zapotec to live lives of integrity, accommodating and initiating change that benefits them while resting assured in the continuity of community. Individual deaths are unanticipated—they are the river encountering the unexpected. Yes, we know that death comes to everyone but the manner and the time always catch us by surprise. The rituals of death envelop the departed and all the mourners in the comfort of community and relationship. The beauty of those rituals gives them power to transform and to bind. We can give ourselves into the keeping of that calm, deep current, trusting in the wisdom of the ancestors whose voices are reborn on our lips with the flowering of each dawn. Epilogue Many family, friends, and acquaintances have made the journey from the community of the living to the community of the dead since I first visited Juchitán in 1968. Some are still very present when I visit them in their cemetery homes or when I attend one of the Masses honoring them. They remain present because their lives touched mine just as my life touched theirs. Like stones tossed into a pond, the ripples of our encounters have spread across the many years of my work here: Na Berta Pineda de Fuentes, Na Rosa Pineda de Ruiz, Ta Rufino Pineda, Na Bernarda Gurrión de Pineda, Na Paula Villalobos de Pineda, Na Arnulfa Pineda vda de Pascal, Na Orfia Carrasco Pineda, Na Corina Carrasco de Blas, Na Berta Pineda de Orozco, Na Rita Paz de Pineda, Ta Luis Pineda Cruz, Na Margarita Carrasco, Ta Conrado DeGyves Pineda, Na Ofelia Pineda, Pilarica Orozco Pineda, Ta Jesús Ramírez Escudero, Na Elodia Escudero de Ramírez, Salma Davar Gonzalez “Na Chema,” Doctora Velma Pickett, Ta Silain Azcona, Na Eutiquia Castillejos de Deheza, Ta Victor Ramírez Escudero, Na Paula Hernandez, Doña Joaquina Peral, Ta Felix López Jiménez, Na María Cruz López, Na Adolfina Manuel Santiago, Ta Saureano López, Na Alicia DeGyves, José Fuentes Pineda, Gudelia Pineda, Tomasa Ramírez Escudero, Na Urania Dordelly de Nolasco, Julio Bustillo, Ta Manuel Pineda, Na Consuelo Valdivieso, Na Cirila Guerra Chiñas, Na Amparo Sol, Isabel Meneses, Ta Cecilio Z. Jiménez, Ta Enedino Jiménez Jiménez, Maestro Hebert Rasgado, Ta Macario Matus, Ta Adelfo Valdivieso, Na Soledad Santiago, Rogelio Santiago Cruz, Taurino López Cruz, Dr. Amador Zarate, Na Amelia González de Zarate, Teodoro Altamirano Robles, Ta Manuel Ferra, Na Juanita Ruiz de Ferra, José González Nazarala, Na Esperanza López Lena, Don Oscar Shibayama, Doña Matilde M. Hernandez, Paricutín Oshino, Doña María Luisa Musalem, Don Salvador Musalem, Julio César Musalem, and Gutu Wada. When I speak their names, I remember stories told by them and about them. On the framework of the stories, I can layer the virtues of relationship, of community, of individual daring and confrontation. I see people who graced my life with remarkable gifts—some were poets, some healers, some musicians , many who were referred to collectively simply as “las tías,” others were 209 210 EPILOGUE teachers, scholars, craftsmen, market women, entrepreneurs. Through the daily work of maintaining family and the work of celebration and commemoration, they crafted lives of grace and bountiful offering. They were my teachers, my friends, and my family, and they opened my eyes to a way of living based on community and transformation, on the fundamental importance of relationships, and of being present for one another. They have...