a representative or a representation (but one that takes on the spirit of what is represented, virtually becoming that entity, especially if a divine force); an image (as in saint's image, but this can get conflated with the divine force itself); a substitute; a stand-in; a deputy (see Lockhart, Molina, and attestations); and see teixiptla
# nimo. Una persona hace una cruz en su rostro cuando va a la iglesia. “ Todas las personas enseñan a sus hijos a persinarse cuando pasan cerca de la iglesia”.
(central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 112.