He was born under the name Xóchitl-Miguel, a forced amalgamation his Spanish father, Don Álvaro de la Cruz, and his Nahua mother, Citlali, negotiated in an act of cultural survival. They would call him Miguel at church, Xóchitl at the hearth. He, in the privacy of his adult mind, clung to Alejandro as the last bastion of his former identity.They lived in Tlatelolco, but not the Tlatelolco of the vibrant pre-Hispanic market he remembered from books. This was a wounded Tlatelolco in transition: a neighborhood on the outskirts of the nascent Mexico City, where stones from the ancient main temple had been reused to build the church of Santiago, and where the scent of copal mixed uneasily with Catholic incense, like two perfumes that repelled each other.From his father's rickety carriage (a down-on-his-luck hidalgo who traded in fabrics), Alejandro, now nearly a year old with enough control to sit and observe, saw the world with eyes that shouldn't understand what they were seeing.To th

Winter gave way to an early spring, but in the De la Cruz home, the chill of the "Echo of Order" still clung to the rafters. Alejandro, now nearing eleven months, wrestled with the strange duality within himself: the glacial gleam of the friar's blessing, like a crystal embedded in his spirit, and the torrid heat of Earth Magic flowing in his mother's blood. Between both, his newly unlocked Eyes of the Fifth Sun flickered like a poorly extinguished ember.The first signs were subtle. Unconscious.Alejandro, frustrated by his inability to move or communicate, often activated his new vision unintentionally. One afternoon, as Citlali ground corn on the metate, Alejandro watched her, longing to tell her something, anything, to thank her for her care. He concentrated his frustration, and for an instant, his Eyes of the Fifth Sun fully activated.He didn't see just his mother. He saw an aura of silent resistance. Golden and green lines, like roots of an ancient tree, stretched from her hear

The grey magical pulse didn't attract inquisitors, but it did alter the balance of the house. Dad lived with his gaze fixed on the window, expecting to see the grey shadow of a friar. Mom, in contrast, more practical, watched her son with a mix of fear and pride. She had seen what I did, or at least, she had felt the echo. The magic of "her Xóchitl" wasn't just a passive gift; it was a force that responded to the world's pain, and that made it as beautiful as it was terrifying.For my part, I dealt with a more mundane but equally overwhelming frustration: I wanted to speak. It was annoying not being able to communicate. Every time I tried to say something, it translated into babbles and crying—not practical for an adult in a child's body.It was a month after the incident, during the spring. I spent the whole time, concentrating all my trapped adult will into the vocal cords of a nearly one-year-old baby, finally taming his babble. Mommy was feeding me hot atole, blowing softly on the

The days following their first encounter were ones of quiet tension for Alejandro. The echo of "Itztli" resonated in his mind, a name that was a knife, a mirror, an oath. His adult mind strategized: he needed to deepen that contact. But how to justify to his parents insisting on approaching the marked family?He decided the best cover was the simplest: the innocence of a child looking for a friend.Now past two years old and with a carefully expanding vocabulary, he began to ask."Mom, play sun girl again?" he asked Citlali one day as she wove.Citlali set down her needle. "Xóchitl, I told you... it's dangerous. Her family doesn't want visitors.""But alone," insisted Alejandro, putting on a genuinely sad face. "Me alone. Her alone. We play here." He pointed to the inner courtyard, a relatively private space.Citlali looked at him, searching his eyes for that flash of ancient wisdom that sometimes surfaced. "Why her, my flower? There are other children."Alejandro couldn't say: Becaus