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Gioconda Belli's narrative has been marked by a constant deconstruction of myths. In her first novel, La mujer habitada (1988), Belli takes us back to the time of the Spanish Conquest through the memories and beliefs of a Nahuatl Indian woman who, more than four centuries after her death, rises from her earthen deathbed as an old orange tree bears fruit for the first time. Belli tells us about Itzá's rebirth and this allows the ideas of the Indian woman to begin to echo in the present world, particularly in the transformation of the architect Lavinia, in whose garden the orange tree is found. The Indian woman acts independently, marking a difference with the other women of her tribe, since she has left her domestic duties to fight alongside the men. Itzá's rebirth should be considered according to the �philosophy of balance� supported by pre-Hispanic mythology: Coatlicue, the goddess of the earth and of death, represents the beginning and the end of all things - in Nahuatl, the meanings of death and of life are inseparable. The purpose of this article is to examine the implications that this rebirth of the old world has for modern society.
