Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain

Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico’s Huasteca Veracruzana

by Alan R. Sandstrom & Pamela Effrein Sandstrom

Monday, February 26, 2024
at 4 p.m. ET

Hybrid: In-person at Berkshire Community College and also via Zoom

Free & open to all

Pittsfield residents Alan Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom will talk about their long-term anthropological research and new book, Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain: Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico’s Huasteca Veracruzana. This hybrid in-person/Zoom book talk focuses on the religious beliefs of the Nahua people, contemporary descendants of the Aztecs, who undertake arduous pilgrimage treks in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Gulf Coast Mexico. The authors will share their understanding of the unity of divine substance that underlies Indigenous ritual practices aimed at reestablishing equilibrium between the human community and the forces of nature. Attendees can pick up a copy of Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain at The Bookstore in Lenox or order online from the University Press of Colorado.

Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain contains richly detailed descriptions and analyses of ritual procedures as well as translations from the Nahuatl of core myths, chants performed before decorated altars, and statements from participants. Particular emphasis is placed on analyzing the role of the sacred paper figures that are produced by the thousands for each pilgrimage. A magnum opus with respect to Nahua religion and religious practice, Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain is a significant contribution to several fields, including but not limited to anthropology, Indigenous literatures of Mesoamerica, Nahuatl studies, Latinx and Chicanx studies, and religious studies.

Alan R. Sandstrom is professor emeritus of anthropology at Purdue University Fort Wayne (formerly Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne). Alan and Pamela have conducted long-term ethnographic field research among the Nahua people of northern Veracruz, Mexico, and together they coauthored Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico (1986).

Pamela Effrein Sandstrom is associate librarian emerita and former head of reference and information services at Purdue University Fort Wayne. She has worked as reference book review editor for the American Library Association’s Choice magazine and serves as archivist for the Central States Anthropological Society.