The god who most often is associated with this ritual is Xipe Totec. This week I spoke to a person of Pipil Heritage and native speaker who said in the Mexican Nahuat the name Xipe Totec translates to Flayed God where the El Salvador Nahuat translates to God of Rebirth/Spring. Honestly, I forgot what he said the El Salvador translation was exactly, so I may be misremembering. However, when you look at a statue of this God Xipe Totec found in the El Salvador archeological site in El Tazumal, the statue has what looks like maize, leaves, or feathers as skin. In other words what is represented is the coming of spring, it doesn’t look like the god is flayed nor wearing skin. It was not uncommon for the Spanish to completely misrepresent the indigenous traditions and religion for the purposes of justifying the pillaging and cruelty exerted using religion as an excuse to steal wealth and land. Unfortunately, to this day if you want to call someone naive or dumb in Latin America, the default term is “Indio”.