http://www.tonantzinguadalupe.org/catecismo-guadalupano/
Teocalli Guadalupe “Snail that Accounts the Truth”
Huitziltepec, Puebla, Mexihco | First Edition 2008
The reproduction in total or in partial of this work is permitted. Including the design typography and the cover, be it by electric media or mechanical, without consent of the editor. Comments, suggestions, clarifications and claims: caracol.que.canta.al.universo@gmail.com Rights NOT reserved. Copyleft Snail that sings to the universe. Huitziiltepec Puebla-Mexihco
A Teocalli is a temple in the ancient way of the Mexicah, in what other words what one would call a pyramid. Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, Cholula, and El Templo Mayor in Mexico City are some examples.
Since seven years ago, in the Mixteca community region a Teocalli was erected and dedicated to Guadalupe. This pyramid to Guadalupe is found in a space (a little less than a hectare) considered Rebel Territory that goes by the name of “Shell that Sings to the Universe.”
This Teocalli guards a profound significance, not only for the municipality of Huitziltepec or the state of Puebla, but for the whole nation. It’s the proof that Mexihco already had another form of Guadalupe; another Guadalupanismo that has nothing to do with the Catholic Church or the Virgin Mary. The other Guadalupanismo is founded on the ancient Nahuatl tradition. In this temple Guadalupe rituals are celebrated during the equinox and solstice
This past 15th of June, in this Teocalli, a planting of names took place: four children and a young woman were given their names in Nahuatl and with that the oath to love and **protect** Our True Mother, this Earth, but, above all the promise to care for her and defend her.
Not long ago, one of the children who often visit this space got an idea.
The following 12 of August (day of the festival of Santa Clara) this child would complete another one of the Catholic Church’s, to know, the first communion. This child does not like to go to the Catechism classes (he is always looking for a reason for not attending) he finds them boring and without meaning. But he does not have an option, he was born Catholic and his intention was to contribute to the customs which were established by his parents.
Thus, one day, this child asked me:
So here it is, Guadalupe Catechism. The information laid out here is what is known as ‘The Other Guadalupe.’ However, with this Catechism it is not necessary to memorize the questions, stop with understanding well with that which it shows us, and know how to respond well with the proper words.
It is not our intention to offend or make any one angry; we only share words that come from the depths of history. Neither do we expect you to agree or disagree with what we do. We are acting according to our own principles.
Finally, we say that the present day Guadalupe is dedicated to a child. Not the child we once were, but the one we one day will be.
Zitlalxochitzin (better known as ) Guardian of the Guadalupe Pyramid
Huitzlitepec, July of 2008
Yes, it is possible to be another Guadalupano and not have anything to do with the Catholic church or with the Virgin Mary.
For them the Guadalupe is merely another evocation of the Virgin Mary.
The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, alias the Christ, was a Jewish man that was crucified some two thousand years ago, accused of seduction, by occupying troops, in Palestine , of the Roman empire.
No. She only was a vehicle through which Jesus Christ was born.
As absurd as it seems, the Catholic Church affirms that Marry went up to heaven in body and soul.
Apparently in Catholicism (in meat and bone, and defeating the strength of gravity) she continues in the skies accompanied by angels.
Without a doubt, since she was a Jewish woman two thousand years ago, she was of short stature and dark skin.
This is due to the Catholic Church claiming, for political reasons, of a religion initiated in Palestine; representing Mary, and her son Jesus, at their view.
Supposedly under the catholic church there is only one virgin, the Virgin Mary, but is represented under different aspects and evocations.
Of course. By Christianity refuses to affirm that the birth of Jesus was a miraculous event.
Her husband was a poor man named Joseph.
Definitely. But Christianity obstinates that the birth of Jesus was a miraculous event.
According to Christianity the father of Jesus was Jehova, and impregnated her by means of the holy spirit.
Jehova is the tribal God of the Jewish people.
That depends. The first Christians believed that Jesus was simply a common man, he who was chosen by the god Jehova. Centuries later, in the council of Nicea, it was decided, by vote, that Jesus was the son of god.
Of course. In the first three centuries, Christianity converted into a new religion in comparison to the original religion. In the primitive Christianity the belief is that Jesus, the man, was elevated to dignity of a god. With the development of the church, the concept of the nature of Jesus changed: a god descended to become a man.
Definitely not. For there to be an embryo it is absolutely necessary the union of a sperm and ovary.
No, this belief is present in many oriental religions. But, note, in the same bible appear other miraculous pregnancies: for example, the one of Sanson.
It is the sacred book of the Christians. It is divided into the old and new testament.
It is a compilation of texts of different authors and times, in this one the history of the Jewish people is narrated.
This is about the life of Jesus and the subsequent one spread of Christianity in different provinces in the Roman empire.
Not by any means. The four gospels were scripts from more than a century later after the death of Jesus, which means that none of the authors knew him in person; in the best of cases they only wrote what they had heard of him. The discrepancy amongst them is solely that, for example, they give different dates to which the day on which Jesus was born.
They are the texts of the new testament that are about the life and works of Jesus. These four gospels were chosen from a much larger group; but only the ones that were convenient for Rome were chosen.
‘Yes, others were rejected by the church for not serving the propositions and interests; these are known as the Apocrypha.
No. In the New Testament the principle character is Jesus. Mary is no way elevated beyond the realm of ordinary (wo)man. The significance that the maternal divinity had for Christian Catholicism, since the fourth century, a manifest was set, first, that the church as such begin to redeem and, second, to the cult to Mary. The more the figure of Jesus historical and human stepped back in favor of the preexisting ‘son of god’ both more to defy Mary. In controversy in 431, a decision was made that Mary was not only the mother of Christ but also the ‘Mother of God’, and at the turn of the century emerged the cult of Mary, and man raised prayers.
According to Catholicism it is. To them Guadalupe is just another representation of Mary.
First in Spain. As well as in some of the countries that were conquered by the Spanish.
This appeared in Spain, in a region known as Extremadura. Extremadura is an autonomous community formed by the two major Spanish providence extensions, Caceres and Badajoz. It is located to the west of Spain and limits to the north with Castilla and Leon, to the east with Castilla-La Mancha, to the south with Andalucia and to the west with Portugal. It has a land mass of 41.634 km2. Its name gives reference to to the situation of extreme conditions.
This appeared in the fourteenth century, some seven hundred years ago.
Legend says that a shepherd, Gil Cordero, accidently found it buried in a cave near a river; he took it to his people and there an altar was constructed which in time turned into the actual monastery Our Lady of Guadalupe.
This Monastery is found in the region of Extremadura. It was raised during the fourteenth and fifteenth century.
Investigations have revealed that an anonymous person sculpted it out of wood in the twelfth century.
In the altar of this monastery her image shines, a sculpture, one which is covered in rich clothes and is holding the child god and a golden scepter. It’s a black virgin of Romanesque style.
It is said that it had to be buried during the Muslim conquest. It was done like this so as to prevent its desecration.
The Muslims are the members of a religion called Islam. Their prophet is Mohammad, their sacred book is the Koran and their god is name called Allah. Their principle sacred cities are Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
After the death of their prophet of Islam, Mohammad, this religion started a movement of expansion reaching the furthest parts of the world. What motivated them was the holy war, the obligation to spread their religion to the whole world; at the beginning of the seventh century the conquered the north of Africa and crossed the stretch of Gibraltar. This is how the Muslims got to the Iberian Peninsula and occupied different regions during seven centuries.
During the time that the Muslims occupied Spain they named many places in the Arabic tongue; between these were many rivers. The river where the sculpture was found they called Wad-al luben. With time the Muslims were expelled but much of their names remained. The name of this river was then called Guadalupe; and there is where the sculpture was found and its name given.
Some people who are familiar with the Arabic language the original word Wad-al Luben as river of the wolves.
It arrived with Christopher Columbus, who, by the way, he met in the monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the Catholic kings, Isabel and Fernando, in 1486 and 1489, to discuss the finances of his expedition.
Of course he did. In fact on the twenty fourth of February in 1493 a strong storm almost sank the boat La Niña which was returning to Spain after first arriving on this continent. Christopher Columbus invoked the Virgin of Guadalupe so that he may be saved from the difficult situation with the promise to make a pilgrimage to the monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe to give their thanks, which he did that same year.
Without a doubt. During his second voyage Christopher Columbus discovered in the Antilles the Turuqueira Island which he imposed the name Guadalupe. Christopher Columbus’ fervor of the Guadalupe was so great that he took two indigenous adults to Spain so they be Christianly baptized in the monastery of our lady of Guadalupe.
It arrived with the conquistador Hernan Cortes and his henchmen.
Yes. He was a native of a village close to the monastery of Guadalupe; thus since his infancy had direct contact with the cult of the virgin of Guadalupe. In fact, Hernan Cortes utilized the image of the virgin of Guadalupe in the banner which he entered with his army to conquer and destroy the capital of the Mexicah nation.
This is found in the national museum of history, in the castle of Chapultepec, in the city of Mexihco.
They never achieved it. In Mexihco the Spanish cult of the virgin of Guadalupe never gave.
This was born ten years after the Spaniards conquered the Mexihcah capital. After ten years of uprisings and guerillas, the Spaniards managed to appease, by bloody and brutal manner, the Nahua peoples of the region. It is in this moment that the Mexicah made a painting appear that looked suspiciously like the Virgin de Guadalupe of the Spaniards.
Definitely. Completely different. The Mexican Guadalupe is not a copy of the Spanish one, it is an original painted with a different sense. Each one pertains to a different world view. Each one has a different history and each one has a different symbolism.
The one of Mexihco is a painting, the one of Spain is a sculpture. The colors, the iconography, the symbols, everything is different; each one represents a different world view. The Spanish one is an expression of Christianity; the one of Mexihco is the expression is more latent of the Nahuatl religion.
Because the Mexicans took the Spanish virgin of Guadalupe as a model, but only to be able to fool the Spaniards. When the Spaniards saw it, they thought it was only an extravagant representation of their virgin of Guadalupe, thus they accepted it as such and left the same name.
The Mexican Catholic Church has very particular motives and reasons to occult the truth of the people of Mexihco; everything with the final intention to continue maintaining control, and the business, of the Mexican Guadalupe.
It’s cause and motive is the resistance of the Mexican people so they may save their religion. In the face of reality of the destruction and the death carried by the Christians; they started their own Guadalupe cult, and they based it in two works of art. Namely the painting that is in the possession of the Catholic Church in the Hill of Tepeyac in the city of Mexico and the literary work which narrate the history of the appearances to the indigenous Juan Diego, commonly known as Nikan Mopohua.
No. The appearance never happened. Juan Diego and the Guadalupe never existed in the real world. Both are literary personalities from a text in Nahuatl commonly known as Nikan Mophua.
This beautiful painting was realized by Zipaktli, a Mexicahn artist who when obligated to be baptized in Christianity took the name Marcos.
His only intention was to hide the symbols of the Mexican religion in this painting; in a form that when the Spaniards saw it they thought it was of the virgin of Guadalupe; but when the indigenous Nahuas of Anahuak contemplated, immediately they see and recognized the symbols of their own religion. This artist achieved his intention that is why the Spanish authorities allowed the indigenous people to continue going to the Hill of Tepeyac for pilgrimage.
Some of the symbols that the indigenous artist translated are those that correspond to the myth of Tonantzin Coatlicue.
This myth say that the penitent Coatlicue (the earth) found itself sweeping a temple and found a bundle of feathers; she located them under her skirt, over her belly. After the passing of days she noticed she was pregnant. When her daughter Koyolxuaki (the moon) and her four hundred sons the zenzohuiznahua (the infinite stars of firmament) they noticed that they took the pregnancy of their mother as an offense, thus they planned to bring her death. Coatlicue became sad before her sad destiny. But then the baby she had in her belly spoke to her and told her not to worry, that the moment arrived when he would defend her. Just as her children and daughter where going to attack her, Coatlicue gave light to Huitzilopochtli (the sun) who was born armed with the solar ray. Immediately Huitzilipochtli dismembered his sister and put his four hundred brothers in flight.
This cosmic myth, is a metaphor of what occurs in the solar system. Every day when the sun comes out, with its potent light, makes the stars disappear; and the moon, after appearing completely full, it appears every time more mutilated.
In the painting the sun appears behind the Guadalupe, she has in her hands the stars of fermentation and is standing a top of the moon, across her tunic appear various geometric drawings of the Hill of Tepeyac adorned with flowers, which symbolize the earth as generator of life.
On the tunic appear various hieroglyphs from the word tepetl, which means hill, and in the center of these appears a nose stylized , in Nahuatl nose is said yakatl. Since the nose is in the hill, in completion a /k/ is used which means “in”. When uniting the roots of these words Tepetl and Yakatl, give as a result the word Tepe-yaca-k, which is the correct name of the hill of Tepeyac.
This is due to the Spaniards couldn’t pronounce correctly the Nahuatl language, which in turn caused a deformation of various words. For example they said huichilobos in place of Huitzilopochtli; Cuernavaca instead of Kuauhnahuak and Tepeyac instead of Tepeyakak. Tepeyakak means “in the nose (or point) of the hills”.
The eagle child, below the moon, symbolizes the sun just born; the day dedicated to the celebration is the winter solstice. The fact that he is holding with his hands the colors red (of the tunic) and the aqua green (of the mantle) this can only mean that the metaphor of the Atl-Tlachinolli is being carried out, that by which red symbolizes the strength from the heat of the sun and the aqua green is the strength of the water from rain. Another very important symbol is the glyph of the Nahui Ollin that appears over her belly. This is the most common Nahuatl culture, it appears in infinite forms but always with four points united by a center. Symbolizes the fifth sun, the planet Venus and also represents Quetzalcoatl. In the painting of the Guadalupe it appears as flower with four pedals united by a center.
Besides, the Mexican artist chose the proper colors to make the painting of the Guadalupana a reality, the ones that guard a deep sense and meaning in the Nahuatl culture: white symbolizes dawn and the east; black is the middle of the night and north; red is sunset and west; aqua green symbolizes the middle of the day and the south, finally gold symbolizes the sacred and center.
Its author was a wise Mexicahno, who when baptized in Christianity adopted the name Antonio Valeriano.
This beautiful Nahuatl work of literature does not have a title. It begins by saying: nikan mopohua motekpana, in kenin yankuikak, huey tlamahuizoltica in monexiti… and it continues. The title is given by the first two words by which the story begins: Nikan Mopohua.
Those who are familiar with Nahuatl have translated it to “Aqui se cuenta”; here it’s told.
This text narrated four apparitions of Guadalupe to the indigenous man Juan Diego in the center of Tepeyak.
He goes to his pueblo towards Tlatelolko, as he passed by Tepeyak he is suprised to hear songs sung by beautiful birds to which the Hill of Tepeyak responds. Then he hears that someone is calling him. Soon he realizes that a Celestial Nobel Woman is calling him. She tells him that she is Mother of Ipalnemohuani. Right away she tells Juan Diego to seek authorization from the bishop of Mexico to construct a Teocalli in the Hill of Tepeyak.
Juan Diego is overwhelmingly surprised. He thinks that maybe he can find the bishop in Xochitlalpan, Tonakatlalpan, the place of which the elders talk about. In two occasions he is not able to persuade the bishop with the mission given to him. The most he receives from the bishop is a petition for the Woman to give him a sign for him to convince him. The sign were precious flowers that the Guadalupe ordered to be cut in the highest peak of Tepeyak, where only nopales, mesquites and thorn bushes grew. Juan Diego picks the flowers and places them in his, tilma, a cloak fastened at the shoulder by a knot. He takes these to the bishop. He extends his tilma and the flowers fall. The story concludes stating that at that moment, his cloak is painted by the image of the Guadalupe. The people there including the bishop were appalled by this.
What the wise Aztec did was save sacred words of the Nahuatl religion in this literary work with the intention of leaving it for the future generations of Mexicahnos.
It says many things, among other things the date of the apparition, the place of the apparition, the true identity of the Guadalupe, the motive for the apparition, the identity of the painter that painted the precious image; a whole message that should be understood under the context of Nahuatl culture.
He was able to do so by the sacred language, el de la Flor y el Canto, “In Xochitl, In Kuikatl”
In Xochitl, in Kuikatl is a grammatical expression of the Nahuatl. As a literal translation it means Flor y Canto, Flower and Song. Yet in a more profound and metaphorical sense it means “La sabiduria expresada como poesia” or “The wisdom expresses as Poetry”. Flor y Canto is a language utilized by Nahuatl wise people and poets to express the more elevated concepts of their philosophy and of their religion.
The Nikan Mopohua demonstrates this. At the beginning of the narration, Juan Diego hears the singing of the precious birds and when the singing ended, he went up the Tepeyak to pick up the precious flowers. In this sense, its not mere coincidence that the narration begins with songs and ends with flowers.
Clearly it states that this occurred 10 years after the Christian invaders conquered Mexico City. Commonly it is accepted as December 12 of 1531, yet by doing leaves out important things. In 1582 the pope Gregorio The Great sent out to make a correction to the calendar in use (the Juliann), which was off by 10 days.
What the Pope did was add 10 days to that year; afterwards the calendar in use in the catholic world came to know as the Gregorian and is the official calendar use in Mexico. This notes that all the dated prior to 1582 have an error of 10 days.
As a result, the date of the Guadalupe apparition in the Gregorian calendar is December 22 of 1531. This means that the Aztecs made the Guadalupe cult appear in the winter solstice of the year 13-Akatl, one of the most important dates of their religious celebrations.
This is due to an important fact of Nahuatl culture in its ways of counting time. The import important cycle was of 52 years. This was divided in 4 groups of 13 years each. Each group began at a different hour of the day. At sunrise, at midnight, at dusk and at midday. The 4 Guadalupe apparitions corresponded to these hours of the day. Lets not forget that the Mexican calendars were more exact and precise than those used in other parts of the world, including Europe.
In the first apparition, at sunrise, the Guadalupe tells Juan Diego: ke nehuatl in inantzin in huel nelli Teotl, in ipalnemohuani, in Teyokoyani, in Tloke nahuake, in Ihuikahua, in Tlaltikpake. This means that the Guadalupe does not say she is the mother of Jesus Christ but the supreme Mexican Divinity.
Because it results that Ipalnemohuani, Teyokoyani and Tlokenahuake are different advocations of the same cosmic beginning; Ometeotl.
Ometeotl signifies: The Sacred Duality.
In the philosophical conceptions of the ancient Nahuatl wise it was considered that for the universe to exist it was necessary to have a masculine persona to act and a feminine persona to conceive: generation-conception. In this manner, in Ometeotl, opposite concepts are found; light and dark, life and death, beginning and end.
She asks expressively the construction of a Teocalli; huel nikneki, zenka nikelehui, inik nikan in nechkechilizke in teokaltzin. She does not ask for the construction of a chapel, a church, a basilica, or a cathedral. On the contrary, she expressively states for the construction of a Temple of the Nahuatl religion; a Teocalli.
Towards the end of the narration of Nikan Mopohua it states that after having it for a couple of days under his custody, the governing bishop permitted the indigenous community to admire it. By doing so, there was a grand consolation of all the habitants of Mexico City and the pueblos of the region who went to meet her. Immediately they recognized her sacred character. Before hand many knew that it was not just a common man who had painted the painting; inik niman ma aka tlatikpak tlakatl. In the Nahuatl culture, the authentic artist Yolteotl meaning “Corazon endiosado”. A Yolteotl is considered a man who has surpassed the condition of a simple mortal.
Because centuries before the brutal and violent coming of Christianity to Mexico, the Hill of Tepeyac was a sacred place were Nahua indigenous would come for Tonantzin Coatlicue; and the only thing that the Aztecs were looking for was a place for their own religious purposes.
Tonantzin means “ Nuestra Venerada Madre” or “Our Revere Mother”. Coatlicue “ La de la Falda de Serpiented” or “The One with the Serpened Skirt”. A difference from the Judeo-Christian that related the serpent with demonic notions and the sea is that in Nahuatl this animal is a symbol of the Earth, Tierra. In reality, the ancient Nahuatl revered nature, as to say that the Earth and all life on it exist, not a goddess in a human form. They represented the feminine aspect of nature with the skirt of serpents, the terrestrial surface. Tonantzin Coatlicue is a symbol of the Earth as a generator of life, the one that generously feeds all animals including the humans, who live on her and to the one everyone, will return.
This canonization was intent of the Catholic Church to stop the exodus of the indigenous and other Christian sects. But also, with this act the Catholic Church and the Mexican government gave a clear message to the indigenous communities; He is your saint. Forget your humble situation of injustice, misery and the inactive lay of the COCOPA; look to Saint Juan Diego and forget of the deals of San Adres.
Absolutely nothing. The only significant note was the presence of the political class to magnify the event. The Church and the government utilized the mass modes of communication to exploit the sentiment of Mexican pueblos and to further obtain economic and political gains.
A lot. The authority of the pope validated the conquest of Mexico. From the Vatican the Pope granted Spain what was not theirs: land, minerals and people. The Catholic Church supported and approved the removal and exploitation of the lands. In an epoch where the fundamentals of the right were religious, the only title that the Spaniards had for ownership in Mexico were 4 papal bulls, the papers sealed by Pope Alejandro VIen 1493.
For the simple fact that by destroying the culture of the conquered it is the easiest way to eliminate it. The destruction and the removal of the cultural riches of Mexico were not a product the inattentiveness or lack of interest of the Spanish Troops; it a military action more than the plan of war. In the great wars the grand tyrants and genocides they dedicate special efforts to destroy the culture. In the Conquest of Mexico there was no exception either.
The propagation of Christianity was an integral part of the Spanish colonial system. Those who belonged in clergy were virtually members of the bureaucracy. The Spanish king was the head of the Church. In the occupied lands, they had acquired rights from the Pope to name all clerical positions, collect thy, reserve a fraction for governmental expenses, and at as an intermediate between Nuevo Espuma (Mexico) and Rome. Since then till now, the church has instilled to the indigenous populations that to aspire for political liberty is not only a decision but also heretic.
It is in fact, the last of the absolute monarchies in Europe. It is onto everything, a political, economic and religious institution. The most disastrous organization in the History of Humanity. Guilty and responsible of genocides, exterminations, assassinations, wars, frauds for almost 2000 years of its existence.
It is centralized in the Vatican, in the city of Rome, Capital of Italy, in the European continent. The Vatican is a nation state from which the Pope is the head of state and is the supreme leader of the Catholic religion.
It came to be from the conversion of Christianity as a religion state and the grand transformation of a free confraternity to an organized hierarchy. The idea of a Church was farfetched for primitive Christianity. With the fall of the Roman Empire, it became the only structure of power under the new barbaric reigns. This permitted a monopolization of culture during the middle Ages. A theocratic conception of society that did not start to be contested until the Reformation and the Illustration. The institutionalization of the evangelical life began in the Middle Ages. The unity of the Church has been divided in various occasions; XI Century with the Orthodox Church and the Reformation; XVI Century, with the protestant and evangelical sects.
Effectively, in Mexico there was a religion more ancient then Judeo-Christian. Ancient Mexicans revered the Forces of the Universe and Nature. But in no form did they consider them like super men or woman. But the Christian invaders systematically attacked this, the Mexican religions.
Right now the Catholic Church does not group all Mexicans. Today the reality is decreased membership. Many of its believers convert to other Christian sects. This situation is due to the sexual allegations of rape and molestation of minors and its links to drug trafficking. Yet the church has made many efforts to change this situation. Through the media they try not to lose control and power and demands from the Mexican government to grant it more rights to be more involved in the political sphere, in education, in mass communication. Their latest strategy was the construction of the marine Plaza in the Cerro del Tepeyak.
The Catholic Church is aware of their loss of power and control in Europe and America. Despite all, their grand battalion of dominance and influence is in this continent. The plaza Marianna is part of a strategy the Vatican is using to install roman power in a formal, symbolic and permanent way in Latino America from Mexico.
This Plaza Marianna signifies that the hill of Tepeyac, with its basilica of Guadalupe, will become the global capital of the Mariano Cult, a species of the Vatican in America.
No. The church took ownership of this with the sole purpose of gaining riches. Lets not forget that only a few years ago the Mexican Catholic Church represented by Norberto Rivera, was willing to sell the rights for the amount of 35 million dollars to a U.S.A corporation.
This belongs to the Mexican people. It’s a national patrimony. Its greater value is historical. As a work of art it’s simply invaluable, it should be considered a side of the Aztec Calendar and the sculptures of Coatlicue and the Koyolxuaki.
It was been for Mexico and for Mexicanos the most powerful pole of attraction and fountain of inspiration and identity. Symbol of Dignity and rebellion. Of the life of a country that fought for independence and made it the flag of their cause. Just like for Jose Maria Morelos it attributed many of his victories. Almost a century later she accompanied Emiliano Zapata when his troops entered Mexico City. And recently, during la Marcha de Dignidad Indigena, la Marcha del Color de la Tierra, one of the commandants of EZLN held a banner with her image.
It signifies the largest annexation of the aboriginal pueblos. The conquest of Mexico carried out by Spain and the Catholic Church signified an authentic clash of civilizations. The Christian-occidental civilization against indigenous civilization.
From 5 centuries back to now, the History of Mexico has been the history of a permanent struggle against those who pretend to frame the country in a project of the Christian-occidental civilization and those who resist the forms o life of the indigenous civilizations. During the last decades, these two civilizations have confronted each other, sometimes in violent forms.
Not at all. In length of the history of Mexico (Century XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX and XX) there have been many small and large rebellions of the indigenous peoples. The last started the first of January 1994 and is still on going. Today, there is an indigenous movement at a national level represented by the National Indigenous Congress.
To the day those who represent the civilization Christian-occidental (the economic power, political parties, different churches) continue to carry out multiple campaigns military, political, religious and cultural in attempt to exterminate indigenous communities. But the resistance and activism help in aiding triumphs for indigenous communities.
The cruel reality is that in Mexico there is a result of a colonial history that came about dominance and affirms its superiority in all orders of life (socially, culturally, economic, political and religiously) in consequence in negates and excludes the culture of the colonized. The imposition of the civilization Christian-occidental has excluded and negated the civilization of the indigenous. It has not permitted the fusion of both civilization or has given a new project to the Nation.
Religious wars in the name of Christianity have dominated the political scene worldwide. From Emperor Constantine, passing by the concentration camp ovens of the Nazis, to the devastation in Iraq. If stories of wars are analyzed, institutions created in the name of Christianity, starting with the Catholic Church and finished by born again Christians like Gorge Bush, have been factors of war. In this form it’s impossible to negate the crusades, European religious wars, nor Popes warriors, nor the inquisition, persecution of woman and Jews, or the war of invasion in this continent, or the actual war in the Muslim world.
In the case of the “humanitarian” frails, they only learned more of it to destroy in best. Despite this, the spirituality of the indigenous communities had to be put away and hidden and disguised under Christian clothing. Yet its essence has survived and its roots continue giving strength to the Mexican Nation. Two examples include in the celebration of Day of the Dead and the Guadalupe Cult.
Not at all. This war continues to the date. Only that it is not presented in an open form but hidden. 5 decades ago it was Roman Christianity that was imposed with blood and fire in these lands and skies. Today Anglo-Saxon Christianity is what is expanding with its Bible through the national territory.
In political order, economics and military, the United States has managed to have Mexico under its power. Yet, the United States Anglo power is conformed to the territory, its people and resources. They want everything including the souls of Mexicanos. That is why they have designed a good strategy to implant their own version of Christianity, the protestant and the evangelic. Its exponents in Mexico are all the sects that are walking in the streets of cities and small towns in Mexico; Protestants, Evangelicals, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and all types of these so-called Christian sects.
The other Guadalupe do not conform and have decided to at. They have said !Ya Basta! to religious dominance.
The other Guadalupanismo is not only a religious vindication but also a political and historical one.
The other Guadalupe define themselves as indigenous, then are in the bottom to the left and above all are anti-capitalist.
The Aztecs lived and died in the beginning and the end of this extermination war. They were defeated and exterminated culturally. But the Aztecs left to the Mexican people of today an important heritage. Something that did not even belong to them but to older more ancient peoples; and this treasure is the conjunction of symbols with how the Nahuatl peoples and communities comprehended the Universe, the ones that are represented in a marvelous manner in the painting of the Guadalupe and the narration of the apparitions.
The other Guadalupe do not intend to go back, it is impossible. They don’t also believe that the Aztec society was such a utopia. On the contrary they are aware and conscious of the defects and errors of the Aztec peoples. They know that the struggle for the rights and the indigenous culture is not something just for the past. Its struggle its view; its horizon is the future. It is to say to struggle and fight to construct a world more just and humane in the present.
No. The Mexican Guadalupe believers do not revere any image. For them the image of Guadalupe is a beautiful metaphor that represents harmony of the Universe; by which they try to comprehend in an objective, rational and scientific way.
They revere and love Tonantzin, this Earth; it is to say this patrimony. And for taking care of and defending it, are willing to die if it s necessary..
