15/01/2024
Have you ever heard about Nevado de Toluca and it's volcano? Located approximately 100 km from Mexico City it's often a one day expedition destination for many tourists like for many Mexicans. But have you heard local stories about it?
I was searching for it and found two of them. The common part is the legend about Xinantécatl which from nahuatl language means "Naked man". Do you wonder why is he naked? Well.. here is where the story begins..
Many years before the Spanish people arrived on the Mexican coast, there was a mexica's priest named Xinan. He really liked to hike through the mountains and one time he saw a goddess Tlanchana and he fell in love immediately. Not knowing what to do exactly to possess her, he undressed himself and proposed to live together in the lagoon nearby in the mountains. Unfortunately, the presence of a naked Xinan was irritating Tlanchana and finally, she decided to get rid of him by throwing him to the middle of the valley.
Xinan survived it but, driven by despair at being rejected, wanted to calm the Tlanchana by one of the curliest sacrifices. He tore his chest to remove what caused such a pain - his heart to not feel the grief anymore.
From this, the goddess Tlanchana thought that Xinan would no longer be a problem for her but as the days went by, she began to notice that right where Xinan had fallen, his body was beginning to adhere to the earth and grow again. Monumental form, in addition to emanating a lot of blood from his heart, which became lava that destroyed the surroundings of Metepec and Toluca.
To stop the destruction caused by the lava leaking from the dead body of Xinan, she tried to approach the dead body to apologize for the pain she had caused him, but it was already too late. Xinan had already transformed into a huge volcano destroying everything around.
To save people living in the villages, Tlanchana, as a goddess of the lagoon started to create snowflakes with the water of the lagoon, to throw one by one into the heart of Xinan, until it completely heart of the Xinan extinguishing the eruption of the now named Xinantecatl, or as we call it right now, Nevado de Toluca
Accompanied by a gusty wind that whistled like the lament of a rejected lover, while climbing the slopes of the volcano I heard a story about how it has been created
As previously, the priest called Xinan, wanted to marry a fiance of Popocatepetl - Iztaccihuatl. Full of hope, Xinan approached the father of Iztaccihuatl proposing that he will marry Izta, providing all she needs to live happily. Unfortunately for the priest, Popocatepetl heard about his proposition and, full of anger, decided to recruit him to the army, for an incoming war where he got captured by the enemy.
Returning from the war, Popocatepetl said that Xinan had fallen in the battle and then married his fiancee Iztaccihuatl. After years, Xinan escaped from captivity and as a totally naked man returned to the village discovering that since his beloved got married, he cannot count on living together with Izta.
Full of grief, he ran in the mountains and lived there until he passed away. The feelings he had converted his body into the volcano, erupting with lava and destroying all around. With time, his heart became cold as ice, lowering the temperature and turning raindrops into pieces of ice that cover the slopes of the volcano.
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