Los muertos cantan: cantos y difuntos entre los antiguos nahuas

Abstract

The chants, englobed in the nahuatl concept of cuicatl, had a fundamental importance among the ancient nahuas in Central México, both on a daily and cosmogonic level. It was conceived that the gods wished to be honored with songs, music and dances, so the gods gave these elements to the humankind. After death, the songs would still be created and chanted so the death ones would transmit them to the living ones, stablishing a kind of dialogue to maintain the defuncts memories alive.