The Xoloizcuintle is an ancient dog breed belonging to the Aztec culture. The word Xoloizcuntle comes from the náhuatl Xólotl, which means Mexica god of death and Itzcuintli, which means dog. It is calculated that this breed could be 3.000 years old. The breed is associated with Xolotl, a hybrid between a dog and a god that is represented as a man with a dog head. Xolotl protects the underworld. He is also known as the twin of Quetzalcoatl – an Aztec god known as the feathered serpent – and he is the companion of the sun. During sunset Xolotl starts to fight a battle in the underworld against the darkness until the night. On the other hand, Quetzalcoatl is the light and the life of the planet and accompanies the sun until dawn.
Legend says that the god Xolotl made the Xoloizcuntle from a rib of the bone of the life to gave as a gift to man. The god explained to man that they should treat well Xoloizcuintle because the day the owner dies the dog will guide him in the Mictlán, or the underworld. Hence, the Aztecs sacrificed the dog and buried it next to its owner. However, the dog should only accompany the owner if it is black because the legend says that if it has spots on his body, it means it had previously guided another soul. Moreover, Aztec people believed Xoloizcuintle has the ability to protect homes from bad spirits, but, also, that he represents disease and physical deformities.
During European colonization, the breed was in risk of disappearing because the conquerors found it to be an important source of food. Nevertheless, the breed survived because it hid in the mountains of Oaxaca and Guerrero. Later, muralist painters of the Mexican Revolution recovered its image and made it a national symbol.
Today you can find some dogs in the garden of the Dolores Olmedo museum because Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter, gave a couple of Xoloizcuntles as a gift to Dolores Olmedo, who was a collector of dogs. In gratitude she decided to raise and preserve the breed. Since then this breed is in the museum.
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