Snakes in Mexico by Sheila Mayne (original) (raw)

"This snake oil will cure those spots you have on your face, and if you have cancer it will help that, too," asserts the old woman with her gapping smile. She thrusts the glass jar in your car window, "Fifty pesos."

Highway 57, just outside of Matehuala, is dotted with clusters of snake oil vendors hawking assorted serpentine and wildlife products. But the car-halting attraction is the lurid display of rattlesnake corpses dangling by the dozens off of wooden railings. "One hundred and twenty pesos," states the vendor noting your glance at a five-foot dried and complete rattlesnake carcass. She brings it to you, making sure you note its tail which bears six rings of rattle.

These vendors are a modern day incarnation of a thousand-year-old relationship that has existed between Mexicans and snakes. As medicine for physical afflictions, snakes have been greatly recognized and utilized. But their potency in the spiritual world of Mexico is even more renown. From the Toltec serpent-god, Kukulcan, which creeps down the side of the Kukulcan Pyramid in Chichen-Itza, to the Aztec god of wisdom, Quetzalc�atl, manifested as a feathered serpent, the snake appears repeatedly in Mexican mythology. Some anthropologists have suggested that the patroness of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is an incarnation of the snake goddess, Cihuacoatl (Snake Woman), upon whose sacred ground the Virgin was seen.

Aside from their cultural aspects, the snakes in Mexico are noteworthy from a zoological perspective, especially the rattlesnakes-viperidae. "Mexico is habitat for the largest variety of rattlesnakes in the world: thirty-one different species," claims herpetologist David Lazcano Villarrea, at the University of Nuevo Leon. "And while different species of rattlesnakes can be found in all parts of Mexico, one of the rarest-crotalus tranversus-is found in the nearby environs of Mexico City," Professor Lazcano proudly declares. When asked how dangerous are rattlesnakes in Mexico, the professor immediately becomes defensive on the behalf of his fanged friends. "Snakes haven't done anything to harm nature the way humans have. If people leave rattlesnakes alone, they won't get bit." However, he does estimate that between 500-600 deaths a year in Mexico are from snakebites. But these are not all from rattlesnakes.

One of the most dangerous genus of snake in Mexico is micrurus fulvius tenere-the coral snake, of which there are fourteen species in Mexico. Coral snakes, as the name suggests are colorful and mostly found in the tropics of Oaxaca, though not entirely, as one species is found as far north as the state of Nuevo Leon. Additionally, various species of boas are found throughout Mexico; for example, one commonly known boa constrictor is the "bull snake, which is only feeds on rodents," points out Professor Lazcano. Other non-venonmous snakes are king snakes, glossy snakes, patch-nose snakes, and garter snakes to name just a few. All together, herpetologists have identified an impressive sum of almost 500 snake varieties in Mexico.

One of the most fascinating snakes, according to the professor, is a little blind snake--lepthlops dulcis. This tiny serpent--the smallest in the world--surfaces after heavy rains and would easily be mistaken for a ordinary worm lying on the pavement next to puddles, but when inspected carefully by a herpetologist, it clearly shows tiny vertebrae at the end of its tail. These small snakes live in and survive off of ant and termite nests.

Snake meat, reputedly a tasty dish, is not a regular part of Mexican cuisine. Nonetheless, the snake vendor, at your car window, determined to make a sale, persists with "Ok. I'll add these packets of dried snake meat to the snake oil-all for 50 pesos." You wonder about the karma of eating snake, but then you consider the medicinal merits that the old woman attributes now to the snake meat as well as the snake oil. You hand over the fifty pesos, receive the snake oil and meat, and turn to say "Thank you" to the weathered old woman. Is it just your imagination? She is smiling, looking strangely god-like: Is it Cihuacoatl, you wonder, or is it the sunlight playing tricks on you? You drive on.

June, 2000
Copyright Sheila Maynes

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