choca (FCbk12f2v)

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of woman who went about crying (involving the verb, choca), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a woman standing in a ¾ view looking toward the viewer’s right. She has her hands clasped over her chest as though she is moved emotionally. Tears run down her visible right cheek. Her hair seems to be long, probably hanging down her back–not twisted up into the usual adult woman’s hairstyle called the neaxtlahualli or axtlacuilli. The woman wears a huipilli blouse and a long loose skirt or culottes (cueitl in Nahuatl, or naguas, in Spanish). She stands on undulating earth and below a gray sky band. The landscape setting and the shading added to the land and her clothing show European artistic influences. This scene is also boxed in, which is so typical of the Florentine Codex. The text on the same page explains how this woman went about weeping and crying out to “my children,” about how uncertain the future was. This was the sixth omen (tezahuitl) in the period prior to the Spanish invasion.