Xoloitzcuintle. Beyond being a difficult word for the uninitiated to pronounce, it is a dog at the heart of Mexican traditions. Thin, hairless and dark in color, it accompanies the deceased in their journey until death. This canine is very present in ancestral stories and myths, as well as in certain traditional festivals.
But this endemic race is threatened with extinction during colonization. The Europeans imposed their own breeds of dogs and banned xoloitzcuintle because of their connection to the rites of the Aborigines. Historian David Castillo Vallarta looks back on the past of this particular dog in our partner Brut’s video.