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Of Nahuals and Angels: Neoliberal Reinterpretations and Transnational Mythology in Édgar Clément’s Operación Bolívar
Alejandro RamÍrez-MÉndez
After the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the Americas, the spiritual beliefs of pre-Columbian civilizations and European communities blended together in a melting pot of new practices that still form part of Latin American culture today. This process of syncretism or cultural fusion led to the formation of a unique pantheon of supernatural entities from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, which enchanted the imagination of the populations of colonial America. Although “the Spanish policy of conversion to Christianity,” as Pedro Carrasco states, attempted to “extirpate the pre-Hispanic religion” from the minds of the original populations through the systematic destruction of temples and statues, or the persecution of cults and practitioners who continued to venerate and perform ancestral rituals contrary to Catholic precepts, many of these ceremonies and practices survived clandestinely, in the shadow of the Catholic Church and its inquisitorial process (1975: 198). Thus, a complex symbiosis of pre-Columbian and European rituals arose, “a double religious system” where familial and intimate rites of Indigenous communities dialogued with the public ceremonies of Catholicism, where ancient goddesses and gods representing elemental forces of nature had to be disguised under the image of Catholic saints on occasion (199–200).
It was during this process of colonization that Mesoamerican entities, such as nahuals and other tonal animals, were displaced from the cultural imaginary. Nahuals are witches or supernatural beings from Mesoamerican folklore whose main attribute is the ability to transform into an animal or change form at will. The etymology of this Nahuatl word – as scholars of pre-Columbian Mexico, such as Alfredo López Austin or Alfonso Villa Rojas, claim – attests to this unique quality: the one who hides, the one who disguises himself. After the conquest of the Americas, colonial institutions tried to eradicate all traces of their presence, at the same time that they exalted the virtues of celestial beings that better encapsulated the spiritual vision of the conquerors: angels. However, today, both entities, angels and nahuals, seem increasingly to coexist within the popular beliefs of contemporary Mexico.
The vast literature that studies the existence of these beings, from colonial times through to the New Age practices of the late twentieth century, gives us an idea of the important changes in ideology and perspective that they have undergone in Mexico’s historical development. However, interest surrounding these entities of the popular imaginary in the era of neoliberalism is scarce in Latin America. In light of the current neoliberal system and the transnational interconnections between Mexico and the United States, the ambiguous relationship between angels and nahuals has changed drastically. Following the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the early 1990s, the cultural weight and symbolism of these peculiar entities has been altered, allowing a renewed understanding of Judeo-Christian practices and a revival of folkloric beliefs in order to cope with the scenario of hyperviolence, mass migration, drug trafficking, and cultural anxiety that Mexican populations experience south of the US-Mexico border.
Perhaps there is no better way to understand this sociocultural condition than with Édgar Clément’s graphic novel, Operación Bolívar (1999), originally published in instalments in the independent Mexican magazine Gallito Comix between 1993 and 1994. By the time Clément published his graphic novel, the consequences of the signing of NAFTA were already evident with the devaluation of the Mexican peso at the beginning of Ernesto Zedillo’s presidency (1994–2000), the Tequila Effect, and the mass migration of Mexicans as a consequence of the economic crisis in 1994. Using visual and narrative elements taken from crime novels and detective fiction, the graphic novel follows the adventures of Leonel Arcángel, a descendant of the ancient nahuals who dedicates himself to hunting angels. In this dark, dystopian world created by Clément, angels are slaughtered so that their bodies can be sold on the black market to be turned into drugs, and the only ones who can hunt them are the descendants of the nahuals, since their hands can touch the ethereal matter of which angels are composed. This is how Mexico becomes the focal point of a massive operation of trafficking in angel parts, distributing its precious cargo around the world. However, Leonel and his collaborator, Román, a judicial police officer estranged from the angels, discover that the US Army and the Archangel Michael are beginning a covert campaign to take control of the market by cutting off the hands of the nahuals. The plan aims to unify and control the American continent through free trade and neoliberal policies, destabilizing local businesses throughout Latin America. Operación Bolívar turns the way nahuals and angels are represented on its head, exploring a neoliberal mythology in which transnational politics, corruption, and drug trafficking are part of violent daily life in contemporary Mexico.
Reflecting on the complex representation of angels and nahuals against a neoliberal backdrop, and using a decolonial and transnational methodology, this chapter re-evaluates the cultural weight and mystification of these supernatural entities in contemporary Mexico. To do so, the work Operación Bolívar by Mexican cartoonist Édgar Clément will be analyzed, examining how contemporary representations of angels and nahuals redefine and reinterpret Mexican folklore, which has been undergoing changes since the colonial era. Key texts by important scholars of Mexican culture, such as Francisco Rojas González, will be examined to understand the perspective of the nahual within the pre-Columbian worldview and colonial thought. Through a thorough analysis of Clément’s text, we will be able to grasp how these representations are readjusted and transformed to adapt to a sociocultural context where violence, drug trafficking, migration, and transnational policies shaped the lives and existence of millions of Mexicans at the end of the twentieth century.