Nahua

He apparently was not local; his name, Papmalil, is derived from either Nahua, spoken in central Mexico, or Chontal Maya, spoken more than 500 kilometers northwest of Ucanal along the Gulf Coast.

Though variations of the story exist along the Nahua region of Mexico, Tlahuelpuchi typically turns into a Mexican turkey vulture.

Stare into the vanity’s mirror and it won’t be your own face that confronts you; Mesa-Bains has scraped off the mirror’s backing and inserted an image of Coatlicue, a Nahua female deity that is both creator and destroyer.

With shared ancestry in the Nahua Indigenous group, which has ties to the Aztec civilization in central Mexico, the couple pledged to merge their identities and scientific studies as part of their future together.

She was born in Mexico into a Nahua and Maya family of healers who work with traditional plant medicine.