Cuecuechcuicatl, "canto travieso": un antecedente ritual prehispánico del albur mexicano

Abstract

Nahuatl texts compiled by the Spanish friars in the 16th century for the purpose of knowing the Indian other whom they were seeking to evangelize, had in their pre-Hispanic context a functional character which is not always perceived in the alphabetic transcriptions we have.This article analyzes, contextualizes, translates and interprets the verbal scheme of a cuecuechcuicatl or brazen song, whose specific function appears to have been for enhancing the fertility of the earth and stimulate the growth of the corn through an obscene dance and through the figurative verbal construction with double-meaning of a text which probably constitutes an early ritual manifestation of what would one day become, in a secular environment, the famous Mexican albur or doublemeaning joke.