Fig. 5

Restored plaster, Baroque facade of the late eighteenth century Tancoyol mission church, Jalpan, Querétaro, likely fashioned originally by Xi’iuy artisans. The numerous apparent cones and leaves of dameu (Dioon edule), a staple Xi’iuy food and sacred plant, have been misinterpreted as maize, or as Acrocomia palms due to a mistranslation of “Tancoyol” (“coyol” is the Acrocomia palm in Nahua); the toponym combines two Teenek words: tan, place of, and coyol, either “guan,” a Galliform bird, or a variation of coxol, “mosquito”