Song of the Hummingbird

Song of the Hummingbird is a fast read that keeps you glued to the text from beginning to end. This is decolonizing literature that reclaims essential history.

Song of the Hummingbird | introchicanastudies

Apr 24, Mike Smith rated it it was amazing. Mar 04, Jeanette "Astute Crabbist" rated it liked it Shelves: Interesting to hear the story told from the perspective of the conquered rather than the conquerors. Yet another indigenous people destroyed by greedy white males claiming to bring salvation from the one and only "true" god. I'm curious about where the actual 16th century accounts from the Aztec people are recorded. Yet another piece of history for me to explore in the future.

The book very subtly shows the utter hypocrisy of the prevailing Christian religions. The Spaniard Good little book.

The Spaniards forbade the Aztecs from worshiping their ancient gods, saying it was idolatrous and required human sacrifices. And yet Catholicism is one of the most idolatrous religions in existence, with all the saints and statues and symbols. And what was Jesus, if not a human sacrifice, required to die a brutal, agonizing death to appease their god?

Somethin' to think about Feb 29, Jacob Gonzalez rated it it was amazing. Song of the Hummingbird is a great cultural book. I loved reading how the characters only saw black and white in their lives. The setting takes place during Spain has taken over the Mexica empire. You will really connect to some of the charters weather by their points that they make about civil rights or on religious points of view. The story will let you see the point of view of the Aztecs when they were being conquered by the spaniards.

It shows historical and cultural events of the Aztec peo Song of the Hummingbird is a great cultural book. It shows historical and cultural events of the Aztec people before they were forced to change religions and he whole story is told by a old native lady to a young priest in church.

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Mar 09, Deanna Shelor rated it really liked it. One falls in love with the goddess Hummingbird and it is impossible not to espouse her views and sensibilities. This haunting tale, spun in Huitzitzilin's old age, seeks to set the record straight for the indigenous people of Mexico. Her covnersations with a monk causes him to question his own faith and religion. Author Graciela Limon says that Huitzitzilin is her favorite character -- the one closest to he A wonderful book with a Feminist, New Historicist view of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Author Graciela Limon says that Huitzitzilin is her favorite character -- the one closest to her heart. Nov 26, Amanda Genge rated it really liked it. Such a beautiful and heartfelt story between two characters who can not be more different. The way the Spanish Conquest is told is mesmerizing and addictive.

Apr 05, Barbara rated it liked it. So this is one of those books in which I liked the story, but I really did not enjoy the writing, which I think was actually kind of tedious, clinical. I am giving this three stars because of the story, and because I can't give it 2. Central to this narrative is witness, the stories of participants, versus what is officially written, with what is officially written being done by the conquerors, and the conquered viewed through the conquerors' lenses.

Sep 03, Lauren rated it liked it Shelves: The writing is pretty heavy handed in parts, trying to elicit a specific reaction from the reader through the priest character. I don't know if this is really necessary, honestly. Huitzitzilin's story speaks for itself and makes this novel worth reading. I love this book! I can't emphasize how much I enjoyed reading this book! It's about an aztec women telling her sins to a catholic priest but as she does, she retells the story of the invasion of the spaniords!

I read it in spanish and it not only helped me in my spanish but it's better in spanish! Jan 03, Daisy Rivera rated it liked it. Feb 20, Amandamariacaldwell rated it it was amazing. The story is again about the Aztecs and the history of the fall of these people. Anyway, the narrator is an old woman who had converted to Ctholicism to appease the Spanish.

But, she says so much about the the rise and fall and culture of the art from Mexico City. Oct 13, Tracy Cakes rated it really liked it. Having studied the history of the Aztecs I found the book very interesting. However, there were various parts in which is seemed to get long winded. It came together in the end, however, and I appreciated the story. Mar 23, Soccerlover rated it it was amazing. You will love the main character the more you get to know her and detest the many villians she is plagued by.

Dec 08, Catherine rated it it was ok. Author's style is better suited to play writing. Jul 16, Terrence Velasquez rated it it was amazing.

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This was a very interesting story. It was sad though because it was about a culture that was disappearing. Imagine you would never be allowed to participate in Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah or whatever traditions you follow. For many Chicanos and Chicanas, you were raised in the Catholic faith that is rich in traditions and ceremonies. A friend who is a member of the Catholic faith once told me that he felt bad for Hispanics that did not believe or participate in the holy church.

He said this for two reasons, firstly because they had no faith, but secondly because he felt that they truly missed out on what it meant to Chicano, Hispanic or whatever you want to call it. When we think of religion is the sense of culture it is more easy for all of us to empathize with Huitzitzilin. For she did not give up just her faith, she gave up what it meant to be Huitzitzilin. Unable to set this book down I found that it captured me, held me hostage within its black and white pages.

I found myself laughing at times out loud and streaming tears down my face unable to set the book down. Ultimately I was left chilled to the bone and filled with haunting images that ran rampant in my mind, unable to fall asleep that night I was taken prisoner by its passages. Not to long ago I found myself on an adventure that changed my life.

I traveled for two weeks along the historical route of Hernan Cortez and his men. Along the way I the visited the sites of the great pyramids leading to Tenochtitlan. What you should know about this adventure is it was not planned by me. It was set up by mi familia and I did not travel as a tourista. I traveled solo guided only by a young woman younger and smaller than me. I was unaware of what lay in front of me when my plane landed in Veracruz.

For two weeks I walked on foot with a small backpack and a pocket full of pesos. My own Motorcycle Diaries. You can see how this book affected me then. As I know la historia y la gente intimately. The places are burned into my memory. When reading this book I found myself sitting next to Huitzitzilin and Father Benito.

Oh we were not destroyed by floods, or eaten by tigers. I likened this passage to when I stood at the base of the great cathedral in Puebla frightened by its gothic towering appearance and learned for the first time where I stood was once a great pyramid. As I stood there gazing at its bell tower I remember crying for its people and having a sick feeling in my gut.

The sky opened up and it began to downpour I ran for cover. I had traveled through el mar de gente the sea of people to get there. As I stood at the base of yet another cathedral I peered down through small glass windows. Below me the pave stones had been removed to unveil a ghost of a pyramid below me. Water filled the spaces below. Again my stomach turned and I felt I was sinking back into the marsh along with the cathedral.

Indigenous peoples danced that day, feathers shining in the sun and I felt my green eyes burn. It was so hard to pick just one passage that I felt a complex interaction between forms of power. The passage that really caught my eye was, on page where father Benito and Huitzitzilin were speaking about when the plan went wrong for the Spaniards to sneak out of the city of Tenochtitlan. Father Benito had asked how it actually went wrong. It just surprises me that how the men saw women as so insignificant that a man would not even document exactly how his escape plan for him and the other Spaniards went wrong.

Captain Cortes felt embarrassed that a woman sabotaged his plan. It shows how not only slaves and peasants were affected by this change. At least not in the beginning. What happened is that we tried to live on as we had before the encounter. People went to the market place, they ate and dressed and complained and gossiped, trying to pretend nothing had happened. But it was all a lie, because we had reached our last day and we knew it. As you can see this passage from the book shows how the Mexica culture was being over-powered by the Spanish and how Aztec people instead of resisting, decided to adapt to their new surroundings and survive.

I want to point out that I underlined the word pretend in the passage as a mean to rationalize what it actually signifies beyond its literal meaning. The Mexica pretended that life continued as before, they pretended that their culture would continue untouched, and last but not least they pretended that the Spanish colonist where their salvation because if they would have rebelled their entire civilization would have been whipped-out.

I feel even more connected to the power structures exemplified in the book. Bringing up the feeling of uncomfortability, as if she had been stuck inside a mold that did not belong to her, nor anyone in her culture.

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This quote stood true to its meaning in that context as well as this one, I believe that while Huitzitzillin was weaving in and out of external power structures she was also attempting to breakdown her own power structures within and all while re-defining who she is. In her eyes and in mine, I do not believe she would. But there is a great difference between knowing and understanding. The gulf between the two can be immense. Surely all women know that one day they will be married. Here Huitzitzilin knows the parameters of her power, or lack thereof, within the Mexican culture but does not understand why it is so.

This idea parallels with the other power struggles described in the book but also many current power struggles still present in Chicana culture. Though Chicanas are not forced into marriages or subjected to be concubines, there are still roles that women are expected to play in marriages. Then man is still the head of the household. Because we are taught these rules of power at such a young age, it seems natural. To question it is disrespectful.

But this is simply a power struggle. Instead he battered her. His blows fell on her like rocks. His fists hammered at her head, face, body, anywhere they found a spot. He threw her off the bed, stomped his feet on her shoulders and buttocks. His fingers coiled themselves around her hair, and he dragged her around the room.

Then he picked her up like a sack of maize and threw her against the wall, bouncing her back and forth, smashing her face against any surface that he could find. Tetla did that and many other things over and again, and he did it silently, without uttering a word or sound. This is a passage from Song of the Hummingbird that portrays Huitzitzilin on the evening of her ceremony as the newest concubine of the all powerful Tetla. The calculation and precision with which he defiled and beat her, indicates a very complex power structure that did exist between both genders at that time.

Song of the Hummingbird

What a shame that a woman, the mother of all beings, was being treated in such a fashion! How disgusting, how cruel and absolutely pathetic! I almost wished for a more measurable reaction from such a beast, but the author does indicate his silence and indifference to Huitzitzilin. She describes slipping down further and further, beyond the land of the dead, beyond the kingdom where Lucifer lurks, until she landed in the pit of all pits, and there was total darkness. What an accurate depiction of the way a woman feels when a man forcibly attacks her in such a barbaric, animalistic frenzy!

Was the damage to her soul absolutely irreparable? The confessions along the topic that was most commanding to me began at the beginning of this book pg. She had not even started having her period yet! This jolts the heck out of me. Graciela Limon shocked me with this confession at the start and continued to shock me throughout the book. They continued this behavior when she was 15 and preparing for marriage. I was as overwhelmed as Father Benito. She is admitting to repeatedly having sex with her brother, getting pregnant, and then aborting the child.

He was obligated to absolve her and was having difficulty with this. He then begins to see her circumstance regarding her life, her culture. What bothered me here was that she could highly likely lose her life based on the fact that she was no longer a virgin. Why did she not worry so much about that as to QUIT having sex, and most of all, not with her brother?

I was concerned that Father was considering the customs of her people as an excuse, or reason, to be absolved? On her wedding day, at supper, she remarks that she is thinking of her brother and of her love for him. I was impressed with Father as he tells her that this was not her sin, and yet I worry that it is she who brought it upon herself.

I found Graciela Limon to be extremely powerful with her words when she describes Huitzitzilin as Father asks her to forgive Tetla. It is she who must forgive Tetla for what he did. I question where the struggle for power in this relationship is. Does Huitzitzilin hold the power over Zintle or vice versa? The Song of the Hummingbird has been one of my favorite books. The main character of the story is a Mexica womyn. Who has fought against the colonization of the Spaniards.

This book also demonstrates the struggle of being a womyn before and after the colonization. One of the ways in which Huitzitzilin fought against the norms of her culture of what a womyn is supposed to be and act is by having sexual interaction with her cousin Zintle. In the Mexica culture women were supposed to be virgins until they were given off to either be a wife or a concubine. The womyn from the Mexica culture were not given the right to choose whom they would want to give their bodies too. The men where the ones to decide whom they wanted to marry and whom will be part of their concubines collection.

Huitzitzilin chose to give herself to whom she wanted and loved which was her cousin. The Mexica men considered themselves quite pure. Is that so among your brothers? Tetla, with she was given too, he had beaten her so badly until she went unconscious. The men acts were seen as justified there was no questioning a men actions for they were pure. The mexica culture did victimize the mexica womyn in this sense that the men where in a higher position then the women.

This story is still told by tias, moms, grandmothers, friends, and has been for many generations now. One example of that story is my mothers. When she was little she would get hit by my grandfather and she would get hit so hard that like Huitzitzilin she will remain unconscious on the floor.

My grandmother would not tell him anything to protect her because then it was her word against his and she will get the punishment. This is seen in this book as well no other concubine or even his wife said anything to him or tried to protect her. Although there were more women and it was only him they were afraid of his power of being men. The victimization of the Mexica women still occurs today. A tiny fire, a speck in the beginning, was born in the center of my brain, drawing life, growing until it became a powerful flame. I was alive and never again would this happen to me. When I opened my eyes, I realized that I would be free because pain had liberated me.

While reading this book I was filled with so many different emotions, as if I was in the seat of Father Benito. This perspective produces anger, rage, passion, sadness, and fear throughout the novel. I found myself wondering why Huitztitzilin had so much peace within while I felt so much rage. This passage truly exemplifies the result of her pain. It caused me to pause, and wonder if there was a point when her life reached the point of no return. After experiencing that amount of immense pain, is it possible that there was nothing left to do but allow it to liberate you. This deep life lesson should not be seen as defeat.

In no means did she give up, she rose above. She harnessed the oppression, the violence, and the humiliation in order to build her strength. As a Chicana, I found this passage to be invigorating and inspirational. As a reader, I was able to experience the life of an amazing strong woman. Although she had virtually no institutional or organizational power, she held a different power which transcends the struggle. I believe this I truly enjoyed every page of this novel. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account.

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Notify me of new posts via email. Home About Books Syllabus. For example, this is a passage from Song of the Hummingbird that really struck me: This entry was posted in Uncategorized. August 30, at 3: August 30, at 4: August 31, at 1: The passage goes as follows: September 2, at August 31, at 4: September 1, at 1: September 2, at 3: September 2, at 4: September 2, at 7: September 3, at 2: September 3, at 4: September 3, at 5: Song of the Hummingbird The passages from Song of the Hummingbird that I keep thinking back on are when Huitzitzilin was justifying her abortion: September 4, at 2: One passage that was the most interesting to me was the following one: