Jorge Luis leads the "muertera" leaning against the shoulder, with the same circumspection with which recalls that in his wild youth was nine times in prison. We went to the Church of Remedies, built on the ancient Great Pyramid of Cholula, the city with more churches per square meter of all Mexico.
From Puebla, approach road to the nearby Cholula is a walk of just twelve miles. The makings of endless Ford hearse even circulates 50 per hour while the driver opens the drawers of a spontaneous life, his, more curves circuit Montecarlo. At six he left home and the streets of Mexico City were your school, where begging and stealing to survive. Do not mind admitting that "kid" visited the prison nine times for minor offenses. In his eyes the gleam of the man shines proud to have been able to beat his demons. "Now I am the most honored of the world". With the same desire to excel, claims to have risen twice Popocatepetl. This volcano and the Iztaccíhuatl Cholula guard as the modern Ciáneas. He crossed the Pyrenees on a bike in years 50 and its passage through Spain sublimates his weekdays in Sherry. "I never drank so much wine…”, confesses with a grain of nostalgia. Now, and redeemed, has almost thirty years ferrying tourists around Puebla. Everyone knows him and he is adorned in greeting waving out the window and gustándose with the horn every time you hit an countryman.
Dipped in mustard walls seem a provocation, a challenge of faith in God the neighbor Popocatepetl
The Church of Remedies blinds from anywhere in the city, sustained on a litter by the tropical greenery of the sacred mountain of the Indians defeated by Hernán Cortés. Dipped in mustard walls seem a provocation, a challenge of faith in God the neighbor Popocatepetl (colloquially called "Popo"), their violent eruptions and unchanging majesty. A Leon, Diego de Ordaz, was the first European to ascend in 1519 to scan the best route to Tenochtitlan, the current federal capital, in the expedition of Cortez. That feat would be reflected in its coat of arms, which looked like a volcano proud crest.
The Spanish built the church in the same place where the temple of Cholula, Aztec traditional ally. With more than 60 meters in height surpassed even that of Tenochtitlan. Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent which was sacred, did not budge easily. The ancient chronicles say that lightning glared up to two times the cross replaced the temple atop the pyramid. A third, Franciscan missionaries dug deeper and surfaced "many idols and idolatries offered to the devil" who were buried in a desperate attempt by Cholula to implore forgiveness for their deities.
Cholula is full of temples, Catholics now. Here volcanoes spew lava instead churches
Cholula was a native sanctuary that amazed the soldiers of Cortez, who totaled over 400 the number of temples and erected arodatorios the Aztec gods. The city had one for each day of the year. A Bernal Diaz del Castillo, the soldier-chronicler of the conquest, reminded City Valladolid. Five centuries later, Cholula is full of temples, Catholics now. Here volcanoes spew lava instead churches. A few more notorious examples of religious mutation that occurred in Mexico with the arrival of the Spanish.
After the steep walk uphill, a handful of steps look out onto a fence where finally recover his breath. Strips of blue and white ribbons hanging over our heads. Aesthetics is more Tibetan than Catholic and even my head spin looking for a Buddhist chorten. Inside the temple, the pastor and a group of parishioners scrutinize the Sunday collection. Monitored by the ubiquitous Virgin of Guadalupe, managing vigorously defend this fistful of pesos.
Half hidden by the mist that mingles with the snow, the «Popo» seems ready to devour the intruders in one bite
On top of this ancient sacred pyramid, Now faith is renewed with the God of Christians. The "Popo" is without. Half hidden by the mist that mingles with the snow, seems ready to devour in one bite intruders. The view from here, very devoted to the churches scattered in Cholula, is great.
On top of this hill is the last refuge after the massacre of Cholula temple ordered by Cortes. Way of Tenochtitlan, the conquerors made a stopover in Cholula, where Moctezuma had prepared a trap to prevent their arrival at the heart of the Aztec Empire. Discovered in extremis the ambush by the Spanish, Cortes summoned the Indian chiefs in the temple. The chiefs admitted the scheme and, Moctezuma even blamed, the lesson was terrible. Two thousand Indians were killed in just hours, especially at the hands of their neighbors Tlaxcalans, accompanying the Spanish expedition, and took the opportunity to settle scores with a vengeance with their traditional enemies.
Travel to Tlaxcala, still refuses to take his complicity in the conquest, but I will tell you another time…
