The Resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday Night in Mexico (includes Video)

Processional figure of the tortured Christ,  Merida, MX

The following video shows a very dramatic Good Friday night service that I filmed in Merida, Mexico.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMzCIxbLHWA  (this is a clickable link).  It is best to watch it after reading the information in this post.                                                       ------------------------------------
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day, according to the New Testament, that Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem.  It is the beginning of Holy Week, a time that is celebrated with much ritual and many processions throughout the Latin American world.
Holy Week, there, is very different from the observance in mainstream U.S. religion, in which Easter Day itself is the main event.  In Mexico, Easter Day is just another Sunday, with church services; the drama is what comes before.

Although the parades and processions that are at the heart of Holy Week in Mexico are fascinating to view, a unique celebration is the one held on the night of Good Friday which symbolizes the Resurrection of Jesus.  During this celebration the crucified Jesus is transformed into the resurrected, victorious Christ.  There is a special figure of this Christ,  Cristo Resucitado,  that appears in all churches after Good Friday and remains during the church season of Easter. 

Cristo Resucitado, Merida, MX

Cristo Resucitado

The religious service in which Jesus is symbolically resurrected occurs on the night of Good Friday, about 9:30 pm.  Different churches perform this service differently, but the resurrection of Jesus is always accompanied by light of some sort, as can be seen in the video. 

Hallucinogenic plants in Colonial Religious Art

Datura Stramonium

Hallucinogens derived from numerous plants native to Mesoamerica, such as the Datura plant above, were and still are a component of the religious lives of the peoples there. In their understanding, it is through the mental changes induced by these plants that the divine is experienced.This was true in pre-Columbian times and is still up to the present day in groups as diverse as the Zapotecs of Oaxaca to the Huichols of north-west Mexico with their annual Peyote quest.

The early friars who led the evangelization of Mexico were familiar with these plants and flowers.  In the Florentine Codex, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, a Franciscan friar, included an extensive catalogue of the hallucinogenic plants used in indigenous rituals. Sahagun's immediate motivation for paying such close attention to these may have been  providing evidence of the evils they produced in Indian behavior, but he left an interesting and informative record for posterity.  An excellent online article documents this history. http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/history/history_article3_psychoactives_in_precolumbian_mexico.pdf

It is interesting that hallucinogenic plants were, in places, depicted on the walls of monasteries and other colonial religious buildings.  The most notable example is the 16th century Augustinian monastery of the Divine Savior in Malinalco, Mexico, located 115 km southwest of Mexico City.  The murals on its cloister walls were painted to represent Paradise, which in the Aztec understanding, the understanding of the artists who executed the murals, was a garden filled with plants and flowers.   These artists painted the plants they knew, and it just so happened that these included hallucinogenic plants.  

Clositer mural, Malinalco, MX

Cloister mural, Malinalco, MX

Another prominent structure in which there is documented evidence of depicted hallucinogens is in the Casa de Dean, Puebla MX which was the residence of a clergyman, the Dean of the Puebla Cathedral.  This structure was discussed in the recent post of this blog (March 2, 2014).  

Mural, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

The main question is why representations of hallucinogenic plants were permitted in Church-related buildings.   Did the friars supervising the work of the Indian artists not recognize these plants? Maybe yes and maybe not.   Although catalogues of psychoactive plants existed at that time, likely not all the clergy were aware of or had access to them.  Or, perhaps the friars knew, but had decided it was not worth fighting about.  There are many instances in the colonial period of the friars giving leeway to their indigenous converts just so they would remain within the church.  This could be one of them. No one can know for sure and there does not seem to be anything concrete written about it. 

There were groups of trained indigenous painters who traveled around painting murals in colonial era sites. If such a group were instructed to paint a mural of Paradise they would, of course, depict plants familiar to them which would include psychoactive ones.  These were the local plants they knew and a lot of them just happened to be hallucinogens. 

 There might have been something else going on in the psychology of these colonial era indigenous artists; a recent experience of mine in Xochimilco suggests a possibility.   Xochimilco, which is right outside of Mexico City, is known for its "floating gardens" and  numerous small barges decorated with flowers that take people along the picturesque canals.   I ran into a man there who was painting a panel for one of these boats.  Laughing, he pointed out the center flower in this panel and told me it was an opium flower.  Painting it there was his private joke, his way of "pulling one over" on unsuspecting viewers.

Barges in Xochimilco

The Artist with facial features distorted to protect privacy, Xochimilco, MX

Opium Poppy Flower,  Xochimilco, MX

Maybe something like this was going on with the native painters of colonial era murals.  Remember that they were painting for Spanish overlords who had imposed their religious system, Christianity, on them. What better way to reclaim a sense of self and pride than to paint plants connected to their old religion on the walls of unsuspecting friars?  Of course, this may not have been their motivation, at all.  Perhaps they were just routinely representing the plants that grew around them, but it is an interesting possibility to consider.

Italian Renaissance in Colonial Mexico: Casa de Dean, Puebla

Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

This house, the oldest in the city of Puebla, from 1564-1589 was the residence of the third Dean of its Cathedral, Tomás de Plaza .  Both of its official reception rooms are covered with paintings taken straight out of the Italian Renaissance.  Since the Middle Ages,  Sibyls, ancient pagan prophetesses. had been popular in art being re-interpreted from  a Christian point of view as foretelling the coming of Christ.  Michelangelo's painted eleven of them on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Here is one.

Sibyl from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling

The sibyls in Casa de Dean are portrayed differently, as European ladies on horseback, but their significance is the same.   In the religious thinking of the time, which was narrow according to modern understandings,  all history was seen only as leading to the coming of Christ.  Everything before, the "pagan" beliefs of Greece and Rome and the Old Testament was seen as inferior to the truth of Christ. This way of thinking is reflected below in the picture of the sibyl who represents the Old Testament who carries a stone tablet with Hebrew letters and is blindfolded.  This was a visual way of stating their perception that the Hebrew people were blind to the truth of Christ. In modern theology this way of thinking is no longer the norm, although Christian fundamentalists, as well as the fundamentalists of all faiths are, unfortunately, narrow in their outlook.

Sibyl, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

The next Sibyl foretells the Annunciation, the event in which the angel tells Mary that she is to bear a son (Jesus).

Sibyl, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

 The following sibyl foretells the birth of Jesus, as can be seen in the small oval to the left above the figure on horseback.                                       

Sibyl, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

The next sibyl, seated in a chariot,  holds the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is very central in Roman Catholic theology. Devotion to the Sacred Heart (also known as the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus) is one of the most widely practiced and well-known devotions, taking Jesus Christ's physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity.

Sibyl, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

The Renaissance-style floral border around the sibyls is interesting and contains both European and pre-hispanic Mexican elements. (You can enlarge both photos by clicking on them to see more detail). In the border can be seen bare-breasted female centaurs and monkeys. Monkeys were often portrayed in European art of the time, but here they are wearing earrings, which is a unique Mexican touch.  Monkeys were important in pre-hispanic mythology and in this mythology, at one point in history, humans were changed into monkeys as a kind of punishment for transgressions. The monkey was also one of the figures in the ancient pre-hispanic ritual calendar.  The centaurs come from classical mythology by way of European art.  Scholar Serge Gruzinski believes that the flowers are local plants that are hallucinogenic. 

Foliate border, Casas de  Dean, Puebla, MX

Foliate border, Casa de Dean, Puebla, MX

Hallucinogens were used in pre-hispanic rituals and reflect the input of the indigenous painters who executed these works, overseen by Europeans.   These painters apparently had some freedom in interpretation or adding touches of their own. The Casa de Dean is not the only place that hallucinogenic flowers are present in foliate borders.  

Classical Greek/Roman mythology did have a significant influence in Colonial Mexico, as can be seen in the centaurs in the borders in the Casa de Dean and in murals in other locales. In fact, books by the Roman poet Ovid who is  perhaps best known for his "Metamorphoses", were widely read in early colonial Mexico, both by the Spanish as well as by the educated indigenous elite, many of whom had been taught to read and speak Latin in the schools the Spanish had set up for them. The training of indigenous painters, as well,  made them familiar with images from classical pagan mythology. 

Pre-hispanic Warriors Come to Life on Church Walls: Ixmiquilpan, MX- Video available

San Miguel Arcangel, Ixmiquilpan, MX

Ixmiquilpan is the only place where you will see pre-hispanic Jaguar knights doing battle on Mexican church walls.  In this video you will see these murals as they are within the church as well as learn more about the reason these pagan figures are on church walls. Click the link below to view the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LwPGQyWqp0 

Video: Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City

"New" Basilica building,  Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City

Millions of pilgrims each year visit the home of the famous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Patron Saint of Mexico. The basilica complex has several buildings and grounds, including Tepeyac Hill where Guadalupe is said to have first appeared to Juan Diego.  Here is a link to a video that gives a look inside the complex:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urYLyT2TsMQ

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Miracle or Colonial Marketing Strategy?

Guadalupe of Extremadura

This is the Virgin of Guadalupe, but not the Guadalupe that most people have in mind.   It is a  representation of the Virgin Mary, popular in the Spanish region of Extremadura at the time of the Spanish Conquest, and called Guadalupe. This Guadalupe  accompanied the conquistadors to the New World and was the image on their battle standards, the flags that they carried into battle.   

There is a another  Guadalupe, the one who has become world famous and whose image can be seen everywhere- on t-shirts, even beer cans. She has become the symbol of Mexico, and is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the Patroness of the Americas.

Figures of Guadalupe from Mexico City shop

Plaques of Guadalupe from Mexico City shop

The existence of this Guadalupe, known as the Guadalupe of Tepeyac because of the place she originated, is based on one image, the one that now hangs in her basilica in Mexico City.  All the millions of representations of Guadalupe that you encounter in Mexico and elsewhere come from this single original. This Guadalupe burst on the Mexican religious scene in Mexico in the mid-17th century  being promoted in the preaching and writing of that time.  

Guadalupe of Tepeyac in the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City

Yet, this very famous image isn't as simple as it seems and comes with a very interesting history and back-story of which most people are not aware.  There is debate over the authenticity of the image, whether or not it is really miraculous or simply part of a colonial church ploy with a political agenda.

Some Background:

 She is called Guadalupe of Tepeyac because her image is closely associated with an area that is now known as Tepeyac Hill. In pre-hispanic times on Tepeyac Hill, which is in the outskirts of what is now Mexico City, there was a sanctuary to a goddess that was called Toci/Tonantzin.  This sanctuary was torn down by the Franciscan friars who evangelized the people of the area and they built a small shrine there that contained some sort of religious image.  Tepeyac  Hill is located on the grounds of what is now the Basilica of Guadalupe.

Church on top of Tepeyac Hill, Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City

View from Tepeyac Hill, Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico City

History of the Painting's Appearance: 

The history of the image of Guadalupe of Tepeyac is anything but crystal clear.   Reports from 1555  tell us that some new image (presumably that of Guadalupe)  "appeared" in the shrine on Tepeyac hill.  Some modern scholars of Guadalupe contend that the new archbishop had it painted and put there while believers say it was of miraculous origins.  The Franciscans complained about the worship of this image in the shrine and were relieved of their duties by the archbishop.  The first historical record of the Guadalupe image's  existence (we can not be 100% sure it was the same image) was in 1556 when Mexican Archbishop Montufar preached a sermon promoting the growing devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  

Nican Mopohua- the story of a miraculous image:

A Nahuatl-language document about Guadalupe, called the Nican Mopohua, was written in the 1560's by an educated Indian named Antonio Valero and tells the story of Guadalupe. To summarize it: a humble peasant, Juan Diego encountered  an apparition (presumably of the Virgin Mary) who asked him to build a shrine to her on top of the hill.  The document goes on to detail Juan Diego's meetings with the skeptical archbishop until he, Juan Diego,  at the apparition's instructions, collected roses (not normally found in that area or in the winter) that he was told by her he would find on the hill's summit and put them in a cloth to bring to the archbishop as proof of the Virgin's request.  When the cloth was opened, it revealed the image of Guadalupe that now hangs in the basilica.  The naming of this figure "Guadalupe" was because the Nahuatl name that the apparition told to Juan Diego sounded to the Spanish like the name Guadalupe, a name with which the Spanish were already familiar.

Skeptics Point of View:

Luis Las de Vega, the vicar of the Tepeyac chapel, in 1649 wrote a document, which included the Nican Mopohua and supported the cult of Guadalupe.  This document appeared over 100 years after the reported events of the Guadalupe apparition.  When historical investigations were conducted, it turned out that very little appeared to be known or written about Juan Diego or Guadalupe in the years between her described 1531 appearance and the 17th century document that promotes this story. 

Skeptics go on to propose that the image of Guadalupe might have been put in the Tepeyac chapel by Archbishop Montufar in 1555 when he preached a favorable sermon about the growing devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 1555 a new image suddenly appeared in the chapel; these same skeptics say that Montufar had a new image painted and put there because he sensed Guadalupe would unify the various elements of the population, and she did just this.

Significance of Guadalupe:

Despite where she came from, this Guadalupe of Tepeyac had meaning for all levels of Mexican Colonial society.   For the Indians, she was the miraculous incarnation of a Mexica (Aztec) earth and fertility goddess (Tonantzin).  The Spanish identified her with Guadalupe of Extremadura.  The most significant thing was that this new Guadalupe was something that everyone in the diverse population agreed upon and some say that it was because she unified the population that the Church promoted her cult. 

Believers contend that her image is miraculous and there have been several studies  conducted upon the image of Guadalupe.  Their conclusions are that there are unusual qualities to the fabric and pigment as well as the image itself, but there has been no consensus.  The Church and its people consider the image miraculous and despite what skeptics say, in the end this is probably what is most important ant.  As one of my professors once told me, the real miracle is what Guadalupe has done and continues to do for those who believe in her.

Sign from church in Quintana Roo, MX

Guadalupe is very important in the religious identity of many Mexicans, as this sign from  a small church the Mexican state of Quintana Roo illustrates.    It proclaims the congregation's religious identity:  that they are christians, catholics and guadalupanos, those who are dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  This is very much the religious outlook throughout Mexico where in the hearts of many, Guadalupe is their primary religious connection. 

Guadalupe Church, San Cristóbal de las Casas: Video available

Guadalupe Church, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

This church, located in San Cristóbal's Barrio de Guadalupe, was built in 1854.  In 1931 following the crowning of its statue of Guadalupe and the initiation of its dome, it became a

major pilgrimage site in Chiapas, with many coming to the church to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12, which is her feast. The site of hundreds of pilgrims mounting the steep steps to the church is a dramatic one. 

The Virgin of Guadalupe is a devotion that originated in Central Mexico in conjunction with the Aztec/Nahua-speaking culture.  She is a very complex figure and historically there has been much controversy over the reputedly miraculous image of her which resides in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.  Despite this, she remains universally popular in Mexico, beloved by all levels of the population and is the patron saint of Mexico.  

Churches dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe are found in cities throughout Mexico.  The following video shows the beautiful Guadalupe church in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.  As is the case in most Chiapas churches, Mayan shaman (healers) can sometimes be found performing their healing rituals and a few are shown at work in this video.   Please click the following link to view the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60gE2ahW84c