Tinta Roja, Tinta Negra

When I read the words “Tinta Roja, Tinta Negra,” I immediately relate them to the rhetorical figure that the ancient Aztecs are thought to have used to refer to their codexes, and therefore, to wisdom. “Red Ink, Black Ink,” the same words but in another language, resonate in my head as rhetorical figures for loss and profit within a capitalist economic context.

Even if these voices succeeded in formulating a word, we would never know exactly what they meant, what those words meant to them, from which dismissed epistemologies they come from, what their real message was. The only thing we can do is resonate with them, beautifully or horribly, and listen.