The Historic Organs of Oaxaca with Video of Organ Concert Rehearsal

Organ, Baslilica de La Soledad, Oaxaca 

The Mexican state of Oaxaca has numerous historic pipe organs and a rich musical tradition of organ music.  There are 65 known organs with some dating back to the late 17th century or possibly earlier. They range from those built on a grand scale,  such as the organ above in the Basilical of La Soledad in Oaxaca City to the charming smaller one in the church of San Jeronimo in the town of Tlacochahuaya, located about  thirty minutes outside of Oaxaca City.  

San Jeronimo, Tlacochahuaya

Watch video at:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaQvhFy4-2k 
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To see more of  the beautiful "Folk Baroque" church of San Jeronimo, Tlacochahuaya, please go to this link:  http://colonialmexicoinsideandout.blogspot.mx/2013/05/folk-baroque-san-geronimo-tlacochahuaya.html 

For more information about the Historic Organs of Oaxaca here is a link to the website of the organization that is dedicated to the preservation of them: 
http://www.iohio.org/eng/home.htm 

Fortress Monasteries: San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan MX

Along with the physical conquest of the New World came the "spiritual conquest".  The Spanish king had been given permission by the Pope in 1492 to carry-out the conversion of  the newly-conquered peoples to Catholicism and gave this task to friars, Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and, later, other orders.  The early monasteries built by these friars resembled fortresses, such as the ex-convento of San Nicolas de Tolentino located in Hidalgo state in the town of Actopan and completed in 1560.  Actopan is approximately 60 miles/ 95 km north of Mexico City. 

                                                       

                                                           

                                                                             Actopan, Hidalgo,MX

                                        

                                                          Actopan, Hidalgo, MX

Were these building meant to be fortresses?  The scholarly consensus is no, that there was no on-going warfare in the area these monasteries were built and there would have been no need for fortification.  These buildings were meant to impress the Indian converts, to be a symbol of the might of Christianity, the new religion. These buildings had to compete for grandeur with the temples and pyramids that had for centuries been a part of the meso-american landscape. In short, the friars needed to demonstrate the power of the new Christian God and these fortress-churches were a part of that. 

Atrium:
All of the new world monasteries had a similar structure that was dictated by the needs of converting a huge indigenous population not used to indoor worship.  All had an atrium, an outdoor space surrounded by walls, in which religious services were held in the initial stages of the conversion. The atrium at Actopan is now bricked-in and landscaped as can be seen in the photos below. A cross always stood in the middle of the atrium, the atrial cross, 

Front façade and atrium, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Atrial Cross, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Indian Chapel:
Another feature of early monasteries was the open chapel, or Indian Chapel as it was called.  This chapel was the focus of religious activities and friars preached and celebrated the Mass from it.

Indian Chapel, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

The walls of Actopan's open chapel taught, in images, the basic lessons the friars were trying to convey to their Indian converts.  As they and the Catholic Church saw it, the Indians needed to become Christians to save their souls from the horrors of Hell, which were clearly spelled out on the chapel's walls. The walls of this chapel are a visual Bible including images of the Flood, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, with the focus is on the idea of Hell and damnation for souls that are not saved by the Church.

Expulsion from Garden of Eden, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

The Flood and Noah's Ark with sinners drowning, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

"Hellmouth": the Jaws of Hell awaiting sinners, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Devils and torments awaiting the damned, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Devils and torments of damned, San Nicolas de Tolention, Actopan, MX

Convent:
The convent, convento in Spanish, was the part of the monastery where the friars lived.
In colonial times these were not totally private spaces, but were also used in instructing the Indian converts.  These basic design of the convent with its central courtyard and colonnades, was based upon Roman architecture.  

View of convent courtyard against side of church, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Central courtyard of Convento, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

                                           

Corridor, Convento of San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

In the monastery's dining room, there was a pulpit which can be seen on the right side of the room;  there were scriptural readings and sermons during mealtimes. 

Friars' dining room, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

The stairway murals in the Actopan convento are phenomenal and, simply as an art, the black and white murals are striking.  They commemorate the friars of the Augustinian order from the most prominent such as St. Augustine and St. Jerome down to the most humble  and were, in part, meant to establish the authority and power of the Augustinian order in the eyes of the prospective Indian converts.  

Stairway murals, Actopan, MX

Stairway murals, Actopan, MX

Stairway murals, Actopan, MX

Bishop of Augustinian Order, Actopan, MX

The Church:

In earliest colonial times, the church would have been used primarily for the worship of the friars and Spanish settlers in the area, as the outdoor spaces were the ones used with the Indian converts.  Later on and to the present day, the church itself became the primary worship space and San Nicolas de Tolentino is still an active Catholic parish.  

Church Façade of San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

San Nicolas de Tolentino Church and Convent, Actopan, MX

Interior, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Woman praying before statue of Jesus, San Nicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Adoration of Holy Sacrament, SanNicolas de Tolentino, Actopan, MX

Holy Week Processions (with video)

It is one thing to read about Antigua Guatemala's incredible Holy Week processions and another to actually see one.  Here is a link to a recent video of mine, which shows a Holy Week procession in a Guatemalan village just outside of Antigua. Being there was a unique experience and because the village procession was less crowded than those in the city, it was easier to get a closer look.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIT5Wg5JNZE   (It's better to read the information in this post before viewing the video).

 In Mexico, Holy Week Processions are, for the most part, found largely on Good Friday.  In Spain, in many locales, there are processions every day of Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday and even before.  Guatemala, Mexico'a neighbor to the south,  has followed this path and expanded upon it with processions every day during Holy Week and before, throughout the period of Lent.  In fact, this year Antigua Guatemala surpassed Seville, known for having the most elaborate Holy Week processions in Spain, in terms of overall number of processions.

Virgen de Dolores,  start of procession in San Felipe Church, Antigua, Guatemala

Jesus Nazareno, San Francisco Church, Antigua, Guatemala

Virgen de Delores, La Merced procession, Antigua Guatemala

The history of these processions is complex, having both to do with the Catholic Counter-reformation and the Reconquista in Spain, the defeat of the Muslim rulers by the Catholic monarchs in the 15th century.  These public religious processions, in part, were proclamations that the country was once again in the hands of Christian rulers and not the Muslims who had ruled the area for centuries.  The Catholic Counter-reformation, which stemmed from the Council of Trent (1545-63), was motivated by the church's desire to combat the growing power of the Protestant movements.  The Catholic Church needed to keep people interested so that they would not be attracted to the new movements.  The heightened elaboration and emotionalism of the Baroque in the Church- in its art, music and ritual- was motivated by this. The veneration of sacred images was also encouraged and elaborate religious processions were a place where all of this came together.  Initially, these processions and the floats in them were simpler and on a small-scale, but in the 20th century the processions grew into the spectacle that they are now.

Antigua is a very Spanish city with less of the indigenous religious/cultural admixture seen in places like Chiapas and elsewhere in Mexico.   In colonial times, its rulers were very conservative and strove to keep the city's religious proceedings free of local influences. The processions in Antigua are large and elaborate and hugely popular and crowds of people from all over the world come to view these very Spanish-style processions.  

The structure of all processions is the same: incense bearers censing before the floats 
(called andas in Spanish), banner-carriers, a float with Jesus carried by men in purple known as cucuruchos, followed by a funeral band, a second float with a statue of the grieving Mary (Virgen de Dolores) carried by female carriers known as cargadoras followed by another funeral band and then the faithful followers who will walk behind the procession for its hours-long route.  I hope you enjoy the video. 

(An excellent book on Holy Week celebrations in Antigua is "Lent and Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala" by Elizabeth Bell)

                                         

Jesus in Jail: Holy Thursday in Antigua, Guatemala

Guatemala is Mexico's neighbor to the south.  In colonial times, when boundaries were not so clearly outlined, large parts of present-day Mexico were governed from Antigua which was then Guatemala's capital.   Holy Week in Antigua is a huge event and rivals that  of the Seville, Spain which has the world's largest Holy Week Celebration.  

In Spain and Latin America, Holy Week, the time during which the Passion of Christ unfolds, is observed with the kind of detail that is foreign and exotic to visitors from the U.S. and much of Europe.  Holy Week in Antigua is fascinating and tremendous religious imagination and creativity are at work in its famous Holy Week events.   You can see it in the incredible colored-sawdust carpets  that line its streets before processions and in the incredible processions themselves. The huge floats (andas), the biggest of which are carried by over 100 people, bear holy images from the churches through the streets of the city. There will be much more about all this in future posts.

Yet, there is one very simple tradition I have not seen anywhere but Antigua-  the jailing of Jesus.  On Holy Thursday afternoon, you will find Jesus behind bars on the side of the Cathedral of San Jose.  In terms of the Bible this is inaccurate, since the gospels say that Jesus was arrested by Roman authorities in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Thursday Last Supper which would have been later in the day.  But no one in Antigua is arguing about scriptural accuracy.  

Cathedral of San Jose, Antigua, Guatemala, Jesus Jailed

The Cathedral of San Jose has more than one statue of Jesus and the one that you see in the jail is the figure in the photo below.  Members of one of the Cathedral's hermandades, the specific brotherhood designated to care for this statue, take the statue down from the Cathedral interior, change the clothing, bring him outside and put him in the jail.

Jesus Nazareno, Cathedral of San Jose, Antigua, Guatemala

Cathedral of San Jose, Antigua Guatemala,  Jesus in Jail Cell

Cathedral of San Jose, Antigua Guatemala, Jesus in Jail Cell

You can see the people in the photos reaching through the bars towards Jesus. This image and other religious statues, in the eyes of believers, are more like revered, beloved and spiritually powerful people than statues. The relationships they have with these images are very important and very real and they dedicate much time, energy and money to their upkeep and celebrations that involve them. 

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.