ESSAY
text by HOMERO ARIDJIS
artwork by PEDRO REYES
all artwork copyright pedro reyes, courtesy of lisson gallery
we are children of cruel gods
We are children of cruel gods.
No point looking at their ruined pyramids.
The blood still hasn’t washed from the steps.
Their hands still strangle our dreams.
Their likeness is graven on those stones.
Their ghosts stalk our cities.
Deep in the nightmare their hitmen
lie in wait for us with black daggers.
Should they leave this earth for elsewhere
we shall beget them again, again they will issue
from within us, bearing our features,
appalling, merciless. We are parents of cruel gods.
— Homero Aridjis
In the Aztec myth of the birth of the god Huitzilopochtli, he emerges armed from the womb of his mother, Coatlicue, to kill his 400 celestial brothers and his sister the moon, Coyolxauhqui, on the hill of Coatepec (the…