Quiabelagayo

Quiabelagayo (alternatively written Guiebelagayo or Quiepelagayo) is a Zapotec name associated particularly with the Oaxacan Valley pre-Columbian site of Dainzu (known also as Macuilxochitl or Macuilsuchil). In Zapotec mythology and religion, Quiabelagayo has been interpreted by some researchers such as Alfonso Caso and Ignacio Bernal as a local Oaxacan equivalent of the central Mexican deity Macuilxochitl, or "Five Flower".

In post-conquest censuses and maps of the region, particularly the Relacion geografica de Macuilxochitl , Quiabelagayo is marked as the indigenous Zapotec toponym for the town San Mateo Macuilxochitl, the settlement adjoining the site of Dainzu.[1]

The derivation of the name is uncertain. John Paddock deconstructs the name Quiabelagayo as composed of the Zapotec word-stems for "rock", "serpent", and "five".[2] Pictographically the Relacion geografica de Macuilxochitl translates or associates the name as "five flower". Joseph Whitecotton suggests that quia- should be read as "rock" or "hill" instead of "flower", and proposes that bela or pela means "reed"; therefore quiabelagayo can with justification be interpreted as "Hill of 5-Reed".[3]