Serpent's Plumes

The Serpent's Plumes analyzes contemporary Nahua cultural production, principally bilingual Nahuatl-Spanish xochitlajtoli, or &quote;poetry,&quote; written from the 1980s to the present. Adam W. Coon draws on Nahua perspectives as a decolonizing theoretical framework to argue that Nahua writers deploy unique worldviews-namely, ixtlamatilistli (&quote;knowledge with the face,&quote; which highlights the value of personal experiences); yoltlajlamikilistli (&quote;knowledge with the heart,&quote; which underscores the importance of affective intelligence); and tlaixpan (&quote;that which is in front,&quote; which presents the past as lying ahead of a subject rather than behind). The views of ixtlamatilistli, yoltlajlamikilistli, and tlaixpan are key in Nahua struggles and effectively challenge those who attempt to marginalize Native knowledge production.