huaxin (Mdz24v)

huaxin (Mdz24v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Huaxtepec.

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Plants, Flora
Wood, wooden things
Shapes and Perspectives: 
tripartite
Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

This painting of a huaxin tree (guaje in contemporary Mexican Spanish) is part of a mural by Humberto Guillermo Ibarra at the Casa de Cultura in downtown Jocotepec, Jalisco. The blood-like stains on the plaza floor seem to tie in with his painting of a bloody Christ figure in the same mural, known as the “Señor del Huaje.” Photo by S. Wood, 30 January 2025.

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

huaxin, large tropical tree that produces edible pods, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huaxin

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

tropical tree

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Huaxtepec (Mdz24v)