Ochwiay Biano Explained

Antonio Mirabal (Mountain Lake or Ochwiay Biano) was an elder and political leader of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.

Background

Mirabal was described as the "leading intellectual" of the Taos Pueblo by anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons following her visits to the pueblo in the 1920s and 1930s. Parsons identified Maribal's Tiwa Language name as Paw'iapianu.

Notable Relationships

Mirabal was friends with Taos artist and activist Mabel Dodge Luhan, writer D. H. Lawrence, and Professor Jaime de Angulo. In 1931 his portrait was painted by Maynard Dixon.

Meeting with Carl Jung

In December 1925, Mirabal was introduced to C. G. Jung by de Angulo. In writings describing their meetings, Jung referred to Maribal using what he believed to be his Tiwa Language name (Ochwiay Biano) and its approximate English translation (Mountain Lake), though some scholarship has cast doubt on the accuracy of both names.

In his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung recalls a conversation he had with Mirabal, which Jung reported as follows:

Later in Jung's visit, Mirabal taught Jung that his people, like the Elongyi tribe of Kenya, rose in the morning and spit in their palms, thereby presenting their soul-stuff to the sun to welcome it in an expression of sympathetic magic.

Political Leadership and Activism

Mirabal became a prominent political leader and activist in the Taos Pueblo in the 1920s and 1930s. Mirabal rejected a proposed meeting with President Herbert Hoover, choosing instead to travel to New York in January 1933 to meet with then president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mirabal advocated to Roosevelt for the welfare of the pueblos and for the passage of the subsequent Pueblo Relief Bill. In the 1940s Mirabal served as Governor of the Taos Pueblo.

Later life

Mirabal continued to live in the Taos pueblo until his death in February 1976.

Works Cited

Further reading

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