Legends of the Plumed Serpent: Biography of a Mexican God

Baldwin, acclaimed biographer of Edison, Man Ray and William Carlos Williams, jettisoned his ""resolutely Eurocentric"" outlook 10 years ago, when he first visited Mexico. Mingling travelogue, history and a profound meditation on the clash between Mesoamerican and European settler civilizations, his magnificently illustrated new book is a stunning feat of cross-cultural understanding. At its heart lies the myth of the Plumed Serpent, or Quetzalcoatl--central to the Maya, Aztec, Toltec, Zapotec, Mixtec and nearly every other formative Mexican culture--whose temples, sculptures, sacred hymns, poems, rituals and legends celebrated this feathered god as a redemptive hero, bestower of civilization. Criss-crossing cultures and landscapes, Baldwin charts the Plumed Serpent's metamorphosis as a unifying symbol for the ancient Mexican diaspora, as a rallying point for militant resistance to Spanish colonizers and as touchstone in the struggle to construct a creole identity under Spanish rule. Symbol of hope and renewal, Quetzalcoatl was reimagined by 1920s humanist essayists and philosophers like Alfonso Reyes and Martin Luis Guzman, by followers of revolutionary martyr Emiliano Zapata, by obsessed novelist D.H. Lawrence, muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, modernist painter Rufino Tamayo and by a new generation of contemporary Mexican artists. Besides exploring all these developments with empathy and insight, Baldwin includes a riveting, dramatic account of Hernan Cortes's conquest of Aztec ruler Moctezuma and its devastating aftermath. He also devotes a jolting chapter to ""the Indian problem,"" which is how Mexico's federalist rulers looked upon the native peoples who throughout the 19th century made up more than 60% of the population, a harshly exploited, silent majority. Breathtakingly illustrated with 100 color photographs, engravings, codices and paintings, Baldwin's narrative is both an engaging personal odyssey and a bold reclamation of a cultural landscape. (Nov.)