The document discusses the feminine serpent in Aztec culture. Snakes were viewed as powerful creatures representing wisdom and strength. Goddesses were often depicted wrapped in snakes. The male-dominated Aztec culture subjugated powerful female deities, giving them monstrous attributes and replacing them with male deities. This split the female self and deities. Anzaldúa went against Aztec cultural norms as a queer Latina woman, appreciating the complex mother figures in Mexican culture like La Llorona, La Malinche, and La Virgen de Guadalupe.

1. Entering the Serpent
By: Adriana Orozco

2. The Feminine Serpent
 The female was viewed as a praised goddess. The gods that they worshipped were usually made
up of a female wrapped with snakes. The snakes were usually representation of wisdom,
knowledge, and strength.

3. Snakes
 Coatl- snake
 Snakes were viewed as powerful creatures by the aztecs
 Coatlique is referred as the female version

4. Quotes
 “The male-dominated Azteca- Mexica culture drove the powerful female deities
underground by giving them monstrous attributes and by substituting male deities in
their place, thus splitting the female Self and the female deities. The divided her who
had been complete, who possessed both upper (light) and underworld (dark) aspects.
Coatlicue, the Serpent goddess, and her more sinister aspects, Tlazolteotl and
Cihuacoatl, were “darkened” and disempowered much in the same manner as the
Indian Kali” (27).

5. Continued..
 “La gente Chicana tiene tres madres. All three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin
mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), he raped mother whom
we have abandoned, and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a
combination of the other two…In part, the true identity of all three has been subverted
–Guadalupe to make us docile and enduring, La Chingada to make us ashamed of our
Indian side, and La Llorona to make us long-suffering people. This obscuring has
encouraged the virgin/puta (whore) dichotomy” (30-31).

6. Anzaldúa’s thoughts:
 Anzaldúa went against culture norms as a queer Latina women. Where she went against the
odds of the aztec culture.
 She was happy over the mothers they had explained such as the llorona, la chigada, and la
virgen.