El Ombligo De La Luna
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Spain had its Siglo de Oro (Golden Century) which began around the expulsion of the Moors and with Columbus in 1492) and though scholars like to make it a neat century, there were two. It ended with the death of Pedro Calderón de la Barca in 1681.
Poetry was alive and well in the New World, before Hernán
Cortés landed near Veracruz in 1519. This was particularly so with the Náhuatl speaking Aztecs in Central
Mexico.
The word Mexico, in Náhuatl represents a poetic ombligo de la luna “belly button of the
moon”. Mexico derives from Mexitli of
which metzli is moon, xictli belly button and co place.
Some contest this and simply say that when the precursors of
Aztecs, the wandering Mexicas saw the eagle land on a cactus to devour a snake
on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco they knew they were home. That
island was the belly button.
The above is simply my justification (a slim one) for
placing here a picture I took in 1999 that I never bothered to enlarge. I saw
it today and I was charmed.
I took the picture of Helen using Kodak b+w Infrared
Film. I placed in front of my lens a number 25 deep red filter and processed
the film in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B. The film has long been discontinued but I
have 30 rolls in my freezer. As soon as I find my right subject I will take out
a couple of rolls but this time I will try Kodak’s T-Max Developer.
