One of the best graduate courses I ever took was Dr. De La Teja’s History of Colonial Mexico (New Spain). The mythos is that the Mexica (Aztecs) believed that Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl returning. This belief gave Cortes the kind of berth he needed to topple an empire. In the wake of death, disease, insanity and medieval Christianity a new and highly syncretic culture was born.
For those of you who have the new CHASCA CD, these are the lyrics to Black Corn:
The feathered serpent gorges on the sacred feast
He’s blowing kisses to the psychedelic priest
Freaking out upon the blood of Nazareth
A hummingbird in the caravan of death
He says Christ gave hell to the fruitless fig tree
I wonder what it is he plans to give
To a fruit like me
Quetzalcoatl-Welcome that sum’bitch back
Cross eyed prophets bark their warnings to the wise
Gabriel grabs his horn and starts to improvise
As the jazz goes down the virgins turn to whores
The psychedelic priest anneals their psychic sores
The shapeless meadow
Inside my mind
The hummingbird drinks himself blind
The shapeless altar
Inside my thoughts
Death is busy casting lots
Quetzalcoatl-Welcome that sum’bitch back