Song of the Hummingbird

Content Warning: The source material and this section of the guide include discussions of sexual assault, domestic violence, suicidal ideation, self-harm, violence in battle, murder, and executions.

In 1583, a young Spanish priest named Father Benito Lara arrives at a convent in Coyoacán, which is on the outskirts of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. He takes on an assignment as a confessor. There, he meets Huitzitzilin, an elderly Mexica woman who has been asking to speak to a confessor. The nuns mock the woman because she keeps reminding them that she is nobility.

Since Huitzitzilin is aware of “the difficulty [her] language causes [his] tongue,” she gives Benito permission to call her “Hummingbird,” since that is what her name means in Nahuatl, her mother tongue (16). She says she is a descendant of Mexica kings and tells him how her life was deeply impacted by the Spanish conquest. She speaks of a pre-colonial past when her people’s worship of a war god angered neighboring communities and contributed to their ultimate downfall. Startled yet intrigued by her account, Benito feels uncomfortable when she describes her first sexual experience with her cousin, a boy named Zintle. Father Benito ends the session abruptly, promising to return the following day.