I am not considering changing my own name, but I am considering changing this blog title to Flor y Canto or to the Nahuatl original of that phrase, in xóchitl in cuicatl. That is because the Sixth Sun is growing, and we are moving on to a new phase. In xóchitl in cuicatl indicates that we will be using art and poetry to train the mind, and to find and speak true words.
Aztec literary theorist Nezahualcóyotl was an expert on this matter. And in the dialogue La flor y el canto (ca. 1490), part of the Cantares mexicanos, Ayocuan of Tecamachalco affirms that the divine origin of poetry is our only opportunity to speak the truth, and leave something behind on earth when we die: “From the heart of the sky come the beautiful flowers, the beautiful words . . . must I leave, like the flowers that have faded? Will there be no trace of my name? Nothing left of my fame here on earth? At least flowers, at least songs!”
Aquiauhtzin of Ayapanco sustains that flowers and songs are the path to God, an invocation to the Giver of life, who makes himself present in art and poetry: “I heard a song over there, I am listening to it . . . now it is answering you from inside the flowers . . . Where do you live, God, Giver of life? I am looking for you . . . Now only the god listens here, he has come down from the heart of the sky, he comes down singing.”
What do you think – is this title too opaque? Does it complicate the PZ identity too much? Or, on the other hand, is it good to add to one’s multiplicities? If so, do you vote for the Spanish or the Nahuatl? My own vote – it is too complicated, and while it sounds nice to the foreign ear, it is also a little hackneyed in Mexican and even Xicano contexts. But I would like to add a flor y canto layer to this blog, and I have not figured out exactly how.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I vote for Flor y Canto.
i don’t know: in mexico city flor y canto has a somewhat san-ángel-inn ring to it; there’s even a flor y canto restaurant.
maybe just a flor y canto layer…
then again, soy chilango. and you know how we are with these things.
cheers.
It is so restrictive to be mono-lingual! I don’t know how to answer this. It’s a question over my head. Maybe in a longer dialogue, I could participate, but maybe not. Ignorance is definitely NOT bliss.
Geoffrey – I know it sounds good but the Sonetero is right about the San-Angel-Inn ring. The problem is that I am far from the first to have come up with this, and then it is just SO elite to refer to elite indigenous cultures of the past to construct one´s own identity. Still, I really like the Cantares Mexicanos and … I´d like to have the layer. Still I have not figured out how – ah well!
okay, canto y flores!
There’s an idea! 🙂
I don’t know anything about it, but I like the Nahuatl better.
Because of how overused the Spanish is, using the Nahuatl is one way to escape some of the hackneyed – ness. And that is the culture that produced the concepts, after all.
I would perhaps have to rethink gravatars too, though – PZ is Mayan.