The Origin of the Sun and Moon

Copala Triqui is an indigenous language of Oaxaca, Mexico. It belongs to the Mixtecan branch of the Otomanguean family. This work gives an analysis of a long Copala Triqui legend which explains the origin of the sun and the moon as twin brothers who are raised by Ca'aj, the grandmother of the the Triqui people. After a number of trickster-like episodes, the twin rise into the sky and become the sun and the moon.

Versions of this story are found among many indigenous groups in Oaxaca. This version of The Origin of the Sun and the Moon was narrated in 2003 by Román Vidal López, originally from San Miguel Copala, Oaxaca, Mexico. This text is the longest version of the Sun and Moon legend so far recorded and it is notable for its use of traditional Triqui ethnopoetic style and for episodes not found in other stories. This work is also the longest analyzed text in the Copala Triqui language