Issue no. 18
February - May 2026
Amoxtli
ah - MOSHT - lee
1 story every 3 weeks from end-February until late May
In this issue, we encounter the Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca – the Book of the Smoking Mirror – a Mesoamerican sacred manuscript, through the stories and poems of its cultural inheritors: as a living being, one that is carried between worlds of language, memory and community. Erika Rionda tells the story of Grandmother Spider, who weaves knowledge through heart and community, reminding us that what is protected must never be locked away. Guillermo López Varela follows his reflection in a pot of mole into the everyday rituals of speaking with the dead. Through the ways of ixtle and milpa, Na'o nchrii kuxranunthe, the five women of San Marcos Tlacoyalco, insist against inherited silences. Yazmin Carrasco writes of a girlhood where language itself is punished, and returns memory to earth and body. Finally, Bianca Xanat Strobeck Rionda speaks from the museum in Liverpool where the Amoxtli is housed, and where anger meets ritual, ancestors and fierce pride.
editor’s note by José Sherwood González
when memories are beginning to awaken and the seeds have begun to sprout, we must learn once again to weave like Grandmother Spider
published on 25 February
We continue and will continue to be present, until the last voice is no longer heard
published on 8 April
That day I was so frightened, I made myself learn the multiplication tables
published on 29 April
Ancestral threads
At that moment I was certain our ancestors’ spirits were looking down at us. And I know they were proud
Bianca Xanat Strobeck Rionda
to appear on 20 May
Amoxtli was curated by José Sherwood González.
The cover is a photograph of Ajk’ij Anita González, Mayan timekeeper, almost touching the Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca during her visit to the World Museum, Liverpool in November 2025. Photograph by José Sherwood González.
The story images are based on images from the Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca and were drawn by José Sherwood González on amate, a bark paper commonly used to make codices. Pieces were edited by Letizia Bonanno, Olivia Casagrande, Emily Kennedy, Laura Moran, Fatima Raja and José Sherwood González.