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Papers by Felicia Rhapsody Lopez
Native American Rhetoric, 2021
The Nahuatl language as spoken in Mesoamerican at the time of content is often described as poeti... more The Nahuatl language as spoken in Mesoamerican at the time of content is often described as poetic and metaphorical. This paper examines the rhetorical nature of Nahuatl language use and proposes that much of the so-called metaphorical language works to describe relationships precisely as understood within an Indigenous ontological framework. Through an examination of Nahuatl glyphic and alphabetic texts, this paper charts the connections between the ventral cavity of the human body and the cooking pot that corresponds to Indigenous understandings of the relatedness between corn and the materiality of human bodies.
Mayahuel’s Mysterious Maguey: The Divine Mesoamerican Mother’s Sacred Story of Transformation exp... more Mayahuel’s Mysterious Maguey: The Divine Mesoamerican Mother’s Sacred Story of Transformation explores the narrative of Mayahuel as told in the Histoyre du Mechique, the extant French translation (via a lost Spanish translation) of the lost or destroyed original Nahua sacred narrative. This visual text adapts glyphs and iconography from the Indigenous-authored Codex Yohualli Ehecatl (Borgia), Codex Mictlan (Laud), Codex Tonalpohualli (Vaticanus B), and Codex Mendoza (as well as including Jordan Collver’s original artwork) to bring the story of Mayahuel’s transformation into maguey to contemporary readers. Embedded within this visual narrative are Indigenous, specifically Nahua, Aztec, and Mexica, ideologies related to motherhood, death, interconnectedness, nature, and teotl, a Nahuatl term not easily defined. Inspired by Felicia Rhapsody Lopez’s article, "Case Study for the Development of a Visual Grammar: Mayahuel and Maguey as Teotl in the Directional Tree Pages of the Codex Borgia," published in rEvista: A Multi-media, Multi-genre e-Journal for Social Justice, vol. 5, no. 2, 2017.
The Routledge Companion to Decolonizing Art History, , 2023
Prior to colonization, the area now known as Mesoamerica had rigorous writing systems that encomp... more Prior to colonization, the area now known as Mesoamerica had rigorous writing systems that encompassed diverse media, including ink on paper, embroidery, and naturally occurring patterns. This paper calls for the reexamination of visual texts, specifically Mexican or Nahuatl precontact codices, using analytical methods that focus on local Indigenous languages and epistemologies. Using the Nahuatl language, the most widely spoken Indigenous language of the region, I examine the concept of ihcuiloa, writing/painting, the role of tlahcuilohqueh, writer/painters, and the difficulties inherent in identifying writing within visual patterns that differ greatly from Western notions of writing. Beginning with a close look at embedded words within the image of a tlacuilo woman and the variability of a hill glyph in the location names for Tlatelolco and Tepeyacac in Colonial-era documents, this chapter advances the understanding of Mexican glyphic conventions and recovers the phonographic writing of the name Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, Lord of the Dawn, within the precontact Codex Borgia (Yohualli Ehecatl). The identification of words within precontact art and iconography indicates that scholars have a responsibility to reconsider the art of Mexico as Indigenous forms of written language.
The Latin Americanist, 2022
eScholarship Center for the Humanities Bobcat Comics, 2022
This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Stic... more This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Sticky Tamales: Nahua Rhetoric and Worldview in the Glyphic Codex Borgia, by Felicia Lopez (which can be found in the collection, Native American Rhetoric, published by University of New Mexico Press in 2021). Through the use of comic book conventions, readers are guided through the decipherment of logographic writing from Central Mexico and, in the process, are shown how colonization has limited our contemporary understanding of ancient Indigenous people. By offering reinterpretations of glyphs that reveal the cultural knowledge of women, this guided reading of a codex image paints a picture of Aztecs and other Indigenous people as intelligent, complex, and inventors of their own unique writing systems.
Author(s): Lopez, Felicia Rhapsody | Advisor(s): Aldana, Gerardo | Abstract: ABSTRACTMayahuel and... more Author(s): Lopez, Felicia Rhapsody | Advisor(s): Aldana, Gerardo | Abstract: ABSTRACTMayahuel and Tlahuizcalpanteuctli in the Nahua Codices: Indigenous Readings of Nahuatl Pictorial and Alphabetic Texts byFelicia Rhapsody LopezPrior to colonization, diverse Indigenous populations across the area now known as Mesoamerica developed complex writing systems. In this dissertation, I examine Postclassic Mesoamerica as a time and place with shared knowledge that spanned across regions inhabited by diverse linguistic groups. During this time, the Nahuatl language served as a spoken lingua franca, and the Mixteca-Puebla writing style (used by Nahuatl speaking people) served as a written lingua franca. As such, my approach makes these glyphic texts (such as the Codex Borgia and other Borgia Group codices) and alphabetic Nahuatl texts (such as the Florentine Codex and the Codex Chimalpopoca) central to the understanding of indigenous culture. Using this approach, I begin by reexamining the way...
Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Dec 31, 2017
Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the... more Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of students who later pursue careers in computer science. While these programs have been shown to increase interest in computer science, there has been less work on showing whether participants learn computer science content. We address two questions, one specific, and the other more general: (1) " What computer science did our middle school students learn in our interdisciplinary two-week summer camp? " (2) " How can computer science concepts be assessed in the context of Scratch-based outreach programs " ? We address both questions by presenting the design of our summer camp, an overview of our curriculum, our assessment methodology, and our assessment results. Though the sample size is not statistically significant, the results show that a two-week, interdisciplinary, non-academic summer camp can be effective not only for engaging students, but also for imparting CS content. In just two weeks, with a curriculum not entirely focused on computer science, students displayed competence with event-driven programming, initialization of state, message passing, and say/sound synchronization 1. We have employed assessment methodologies that avoid written exams, an approach both outreach and classroom-based programs may find useful.
Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education - SIGCSE '13, 2013
ABSTRACT Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students... more ABSTRACT Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of students who later pursue careers in computer science. While these programs have been shown to increase interest in computer science, there has been less work on showing whether participants learn computer science content. We address two questions, one specific, and the other more general: (1) "What computer science did our middle school students learn in our interdisciplinary two-week summer camp?" (2) "How can computer science concepts be assessed in the context of Scratch-based outreach programs"? We address both questions by presenting the design of our summer camp, an overview of our curriculum, our assessment methodology, and our assessment results. Though the sample size is not statistically significant, the results show that a two-week, interdisciplinary, non-academic summer camp can be effective not only for engaging students, but also for imparting CS content. In just two weeks, with a curriculum not entirely focused on computer science, students displayed competence with event-driven programming, initialization of state, message passing, and say/sound synchronization. We have employed assessment methodologies that avoid written exams, an approach both outreach and classroom-based programs may find useful.
Native American Rhetoric, 2021
The Nahuatl language as spoken in Mesoamerican at the time of content is often described as poeti... more The Nahuatl language as spoken in Mesoamerican at the time of content is often described as poetic and metaphorical. This paper examines the rhetorical nature of Nahuatl language use and proposes that much of the so-called metaphorical language works to describe relationships precisely as understood within an Indigenous ontological framework. Through an examination of Nahuatl glyphic and alphabetic texts, this paper charts the connections between the ventral cavity of the human body and the cooking pot that corresponds to Indigenous understandings of the relatedness between corn and the materiality of human bodies.
Mayahuel’s Mysterious Maguey: The Divine Mesoamerican Mother’s Sacred Story of Transformation exp... more Mayahuel’s Mysterious Maguey: The Divine Mesoamerican Mother’s Sacred Story of Transformation explores the narrative of Mayahuel as told in the Histoyre du Mechique, the extant French translation (via a lost Spanish translation) of the lost or destroyed original Nahua sacred narrative. This visual text adapts glyphs and iconography from the Indigenous-authored Codex Yohualli Ehecatl (Borgia), Codex Mictlan (Laud), Codex Tonalpohualli (Vaticanus B), and Codex Mendoza (as well as including Jordan Collver’s original artwork) to bring the story of Mayahuel’s transformation into maguey to contemporary readers. Embedded within this visual narrative are Indigenous, specifically Nahua, Aztec, and Mexica, ideologies related to motherhood, death, interconnectedness, nature, and teotl, a Nahuatl term not easily defined. Inspired by Felicia Rhapsody Lopez’s article, "Case Study for the Development of a Visual Grammar: Mayahuel and Maguey as Teotl in the Directional Tree Pages of the Codex Borgia," published in rEvista: A Multi-media, Multi-genre e-Journal for Social Justice, vol. 5, no. 2, 2017.
The Routledge Companion to Decolonizing Art History, , 2023
Prior to colonization, the area now known as Mesoamerica had rigorous writing systems that encomp... more Prior to colonization, the area now known as Mesoamerica had rigorous writing systems that encompassed diverse media, including ink on paper, embroidery, and naturally occurring patterns. This paper calls for the reexamination of visual texts, specifically Mexican or Nahuatl precontact codices, using analytical methods that focus on local Indigenous languages and epistemologies. Using the Nahuatl language, the most widely spoken Indigenous language of the region, I examine the concept of ihcuiloa, writing/painting, the role of tlahcuilohqueh, writer/painters, and the difficulties inherent in identifying writing within visual patterns that differ greatly from Western notions of writing. Beginning with a close look at embedded words within the image of a tlacuilo woman and the variability of a hill glyph in the location names for Tlatelolco and Tepeyacac in Colonial-era documents, this chapter advances the understanding of Mexican glyphic conventions and recovers the phonographic writing of the name Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, Lord of the Dawn, within the precontact Codex Borgia (Yohualli Ehecatl). The identification of words within precontact art and iconography indicates that scholars have a responsibility to reconsider the art of Mexico as Indigenous forms of written language.
The Latin Americanist, 2022
eScholarship Center for the Humanities Bobcat Comics, 2022
This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Stic... more This visual text represents some of the content from the article, Women, Childbirth, and the Sticky Tamales: Nahua Rhetoric and Worldview in the Glyphic Codex Borgia, by Felicia Lopez (which can be found in the collection, Native American Rhetoric, published by University of New Mexico Press in 2021). Through the use of comic book conventions, readers are guided through the decipherment of logographic writing from Central Mexico and, in the process, are shown how colonization has limited our contemporary understanding of ancient Indigenous people. By offering reinterpretations of glyphs that reveal the cultural knowledge of women, this guided reading of a codex image paints a picture of Aztecs and other Indigenous people as intelligent, complex, and inventors of their own unique writing systems.
Author(s): Lopez, Felicia Rhapsody | Advisor(s): Aldana, Gerardo | Abstract: ABSTRACTMayahuel and... more Author(s): Lopez, Felicia Rhapsody | Advisor(s): Aldana, Gerardo | Abstract: ABSTRACTMayahuel and Tlahuizcalpanteuctli in the Nahua Codices: Indigenous Readings of Nahuatl Pictorial and Alphabetic Texts byFelicia Rhapsody LopezPrior to colonization, diverse Indigenous populations across the area now known as Mesoamerica developed complex writing systems. In this dissertation, I examine Postclassic Mesoamerica as a time and place with shared knowledge that spanned across regions inhabited by diverse linguistic groups. During this time, the Nahuatl language served as a spoken lingua franca, and the Mixteca-Puebla writing style (used by Nahuatl speaking people) served as a written lingua franca. As such, my approach makes these glyphic texts (such as the Codex Borgia and other Borgia Group codices) and alphabetic Nahuatl texts (such as the Florentine Codex and the Codex Chimalpopoca) central to the understanding of indigenous culture. Using this approach, I begin by reexamining the way...
Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Dec 31, 2017
Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the... more Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of students who later pursue careers in computer science. While these programs have been shown to increase interest in computer science, there has been less work on showing whether participants learn computer science content. We address two questions, one specific, and the other more general: (1) " What computer science did our middle school students learn in our interdisciplinary two-week summer camp? " (2) " How can computer science concepts be assessed in the context of Scratch-based outreach programs " ? We address both questions by presenting the design of our summer camp, an overview of our curriculum, our assessment methodology, and our assessment results. Though the sample size is not statistically significant, the results show that a two-week, interdisciplinary, non-academic summer camp can be effective not only for engaging students, but also for imparting CS content. In just two weeks, with a curriculum not entirely focused on computer science, students displayed competence with event-driven programming, initialization of state, message passing, and say/sound synchronization 1. We have employed assessment methodologies that avoid written exams, an approach both outreach and classroom-based programs may find useful.
Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education - SIGCSE '13, 2013
ABSTRACT Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students... more ABSTRACT Many institutions have created and deployed outreach programs for middle school students with the goal of increasing the number and diversity of students who later pursue careers in computer science. While these programs have been shown to increase interest in computer science, there has been less work on showing whether participants learn computer science content. We address two questions, one specific, and the other more general: (1) "What computer science did our middle school students learn in our interdisciplinary two-week summer camp?" (2) "How can computer science concepts be assessed in the context of Scratch-based outreach programs"? We address both questions by presenting the design of our summer camp, an overview of our curriculum, our assessment methodology, and our assessment results. Though the sample size is not statistically significant, the results show that a two-week, interdisciplinary, non-academic summer camp can be effective not only for engaging students, but also for imparting CS content. In just two weeks, with a curriculum not entirely focused on computer science, students displayed competence with event-driven programming, initialization of state, message passing, and say/sound synchronization. We have employed assessment methodologies that avoid written exams, an approach both outreach and classroom-based programs may find useful.