In this piece by Sandra Rozental, collective memory and the many different ways of remembrance are discussed. In the village of Coatlinchan the natives worship a stone that represents the Aztec rain god Tlaloc. This stone is one of the ways in which the village of Coatlinchan actively works to remember their heritage and spread the message of their history. Since the time of the stone’s discovery it has come to carry a significant amount of weight within the community of Coatlinchan, one can even say that it represents Tlaloc himself in the present day. Rozental emphasizes the importance of a physical artifact within a community that is committed to reliving and remembering their past. Rozental then goes into detail about the issues and complications that arise when transporting an artifact of this size. She discusses how the material importance of an object can lead to complications of the rightful owner of an artifact that is important to a particular culture.
Rozental also comments on the properties of a physical artifact within a culture. Because this stone was so large and needed to be moved elsewhere, it made sense for a replica to be made. Rozental discusses the issues that can arise when a replica is created. There are many problems that arise from creating a replica of an artifact, “but the transformation does not only concern the object’s discursive cosubstantiality with its’ original.” (Rozental 350) The people of Coatlinchan are concerned with this issue as well. As we saw in the movie in class on Monday, the natives of Coatlinchan are heavily concerned with losing the original message and story of Tlaloc in translation when it is transported and converted into different languages to show tourists.
After reading this piece I thought of the many ways in which societies can remember. I first thought of the power of touch, and how an object itself can represent a diety to a community. This stone represents many things within the smaller Coatlinchan community. It represents the living and dead personality of Tlaloc, and it constantly helps these people work to remember their heritage.