Teotihuacan and La Virgen de Guadalupe

On Monday, I booked a tour to see the pyrimids at Teotihuacan, a site about 30 minutes from Mexico City. The tour seemed like a good deal since it included a visit to the shrine of La Virgen de Guadalupe, a visit to an artesan shop where they make obsidian handicrafts, and a tour of Tlateloco which was part of the original Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

Our first stop of the day was to the Plaza of The Three Cultures, which is situated on the ruins of the Aztec city of Tlateloco. It is also the site of one of the first churches built in Mexico City, Santiago de Tlateloco. It´s called the Three Cultures plaza because it incorporates a ruin of an Aztec temple, a church of the Spanish colonional conquest, and the headquarters of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs which represents modern Mexico, a mix of the two previous cultures. It´s easy to notice that the colonial church looks to be built of the same exact material as the Aztec temple, which is in fact true. What better way to conquer and oppress a people than to tear down their temples and use the raw materials to build your own? Imperialism at its finest (that one´s for you Annie!). We were given a sobering history lesson about what happened on October 2, 1968. This day was 10 days before the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics games in Mexico City. Students and many others numbering nearly 15,000 marched peacefully from Mexico City´s center to the plaza at Tlateloco to protest government corruption, lack of free speech and other social problems. While the protesters were gathered in the square, plain-clothes military personnel took up positions within the crowd and other military personnel took up positions around the perimeter of the square. Sometime during the night, near dawn the order was given to open fire on the crowd. Until this day, the exactly number of dead is not known but estimated to be from the hundreds to the thousands. Immediately following the massacre, the event was covered up, the plaza was cleaned of blood and the media and the rest of the world never knew anything had happened. Ten days later, the opening ceremonies were held in the exact same place where the stone-paved plaza is still pockmarked with bullet holes to this day. Allegedly the VP of Mexico, Luis Echeverria wanted the protesters dealt with swiftly in order to prevent embarassment the protesters might cause to the country in that time of international scrutiny. Indeed. It took almost 30 years for much of the truth to come to light and a formal investigation to be held. I got the chills standing in that plaza, looking at the plaque that memorializes the dead and the arrangement of empty flagpoles that were used during the Olympic ceremonies. Scary stuff.

After that we visited what is undoubtedly the holiest place in the Western Hemisphere, the shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is impossible to understand Mexico without understanding the role the Virgin of Guadalupe plays in peoples´ lives. The story of the Virgin is this (from Wikipedia):

"According to the first accounts of the Guadalupan apparition, during a walk from his village to the city on December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw a vision of the Virgin Mary at the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Guadalupe said to build an abbey on the site, but when Juan Diego spoke to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the prelate asked for a miraculous sign. So the Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the hill, even though it was winter, when normally nothing bloomed. He found Spanish roses, gathered them on his tilma, and presented these to the bishop. When the roses fell from it an icon of the Guadalupe remained imprinted on the cloth."

So we were able to walk right beneath the image of La Virgen and snap photos from a moving walkway. This is one of the first places here I´ve taken pictures where there weren´t "No Flash" signs everywhere. Our guide informed us that the Catholic Church´s stance is that the image is the result of a miracle, and so ordinary light does not have the power to cause the colors in the image to fade. Indeed, the colors in the image are incredibly vivid for a "painting" (or whatever it is) that is almost 500 years old and been subject to the cameras of nearly 20 million visitors a year. The two basilicas on site are accompanied by a beautiful park situated on the hill of Tepeyac where Juan Diego had his vision. When hearing the story of Juan Diego and the Virgin, regardless whether the story is true or not, I can´t help but think of what an incredibly ingenious way to bring the Catholic religion to the indigenous people of Mexico, by having an indigenous Aztec man bear witness to a miracle which eventually would solidify the Catholic church´s influence in the country (at nearly 90%, Mexico is one of the most Catholic countries in the world). It should also be noted that the indigenous people didn´t completely give up their own religion. There are aspects of Mexican Catholicism that are very different from Roman Catholicism and are the result of the Aztecs incorporating certain beliefs and iconography into creating their own brand of the Catholic faith.

Our next stop in the tour takes us even futher back in time, even before the Aztecs, to the ancient city of Teotihuacan. We first stopped at an artesan shop run by the Martinez family, right outside the ruins. We got cultural lessons in how various things can be made from the Maguey (Agave) plant. Paper, thread, dye, and three types of fermented drinks (Tequila, Mezcal, and Pulque). Our tour included free samples of each, and yes, someone did take the sample of Mezcal with the worm in it. Apparently in Mezcal, the worm is not just a gimmick, but actually imparts something to the flavor of the drink. The artesan shop had some beautiful obsidian handicrafts that they make onsite, and also some tacky Mexican trinkets as well (see the picture of Roan).

The city of Teotihuacan itself was actually not as impressive as I had imagined it would be. I guess it´s not fair of me to always be comparing ancient ruins to the Tikal ruins in Guatemala, one of the most expansive and best preserved ruins in the whole world. However, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon were quite awe inspiring, espeically considering that the inhabitants of Teotihuacan had only themselves to move the stones (no beasts of burden to help). The tops of the pyramids offer some beautiful views.