Isaac Hernández is in a new ad in Mexico, for beer company, Cerveza Victoria. This brand make their most important campaign for Dia de Muertos, and this year we follow Isaac, representing a soul, to his journey to the Mictlán, the land of the dead in Aztec culture.
According to the Mexica (pronounced meh-shi-ka) cosmovision, the underworld has 9 levels and a soul would travel through it for 4 years. At the end of the travel, the soul will meet Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlancihuatl, become one with the whole and achieve the eternal rest. The souls would have to travel the whole path and survive all challenges to get an entry to the afterlife.
In the add they chose 5 levels to show for this journey, and if you can read Spanish, the video explains, but if you do not, here they are:
Tepeme Monamictlan (teh-peh-meh mo-na-meek-tlan), “where the mountains crash”. Here the mountains get together to crush the dead souls that cannot cross in time.
Iztepetl (is-teh-petl), “obsidian mountain”. A mountain covered in sharp obsidian pieces nailed on the earth.
Temiminaloyan (teh-mee-mee-na-lo-yan), “the place of arrows”. A long and narrow path where the soul meet invisible hands that shoot arrows to kill them before the end of the path.
Teyollocualoyan (teh-yo-llo-cua-lo-yan), “the place where you heart gets eaten”. One of the deadly levels, here jaguars and other animals would open the chest of the dead to eat their hart.
Chiconahualoyan (chee-co-na-ua-lo-yan), “where you become one with the whole”. The end of the road, here the soul gets free to achieve the eternal rest and get the life after death.
I am just in love with the ad, the idea behind it and Isaac always getting so proud of his Mexican culture. I mean, the dude is just charming and I go see him dance or talk everytime he comes home :)
