Valientes: A Meditation on Courage

In 1909-20, José Guadalupe Posada reimagined the lottery card of El Valiente as a young man in the midst of a fight, his sombrero knocked to the ground and the knife in his hand already bloodied. Contemporary broadsides Posada illustrated feature corridos describing fearless valientes facing tragic consequences. To what extent can this particular view of courage be attributed to Indigenous social values in Mexico? Recent Nahuatl-language literature is replete with admonitions against foolhardiness that mirror this theme in the past. Sixteenth-century sources such as the Florentine Codex are littered with descriptions of figures considered “courageous.” Besides Xicontecatl or Tzilacatzin, the great tiyahcauhuan (valiant warriors) of Mexica history, many others are described as brave-hearted. Yolchicahualiztli (literally, “strength of heart”) also applies to the “departed women” (mocihuaquetzqueh) who perished in childbirth as well as to everyday people, both men and women, such as long-lived elders and respected nobles. But being a valiente –a brave person– was not always a compliment. Nahuatl texts reveal a deep ambivalence about the social role of brave persons, who can be hot-headed, rash and dangerous. The undercurrent of disdain for those who lack consideration for the consequences of their actions opens up a vein of recrimination in texts that might otherwise read as laudatory chronicles.