(no subject)
"Maxicmatti, ma huel yuh ye in moyollo, noxocoyouh, canehuatl in nicenquizcacemicac Ichpochtli Santa María, in inantzin in huel nelli Teotl Dios, in ipalnemohuani, in teyocoyani, in tloque nahuaque, in ilhuicahua, in tlalticpaque. Huel nicnequi, cenca niquelehuiz inic nican nechquechilizque noteocaltzin, in oncan nicnextiz, nicpantlazaz nictemacaz in ixquich notetlazotlaliz, noteicnoittaliz, in notepalehuiliz, in notemanahuiliz, ca nel nehuatl in namoicnohuacanantzin, in tehuatl ihuan in ixquichtin in ic nican tlalpan ancepantlaca, ihuan in occequin nepapantlaca notetlazotlacahuan, in notech motzatzilia, in nechtemoa, in notech motechilia, ca oncan niquincaquiliz in inchoquiz, in itlaocol, inic nicyectiliz nicpatiz in ixquich nepapan innetoliniliz, intonehuiz, inchichinaquiliz."
"Know, be sure, my dearest-and-youngest son, that I am the Prefect Ever Virgin Holy Mary, mother of the one great God of truth who gives us life, the inventor and creator of people. the owner and lord of what is around us and what is touching us or very close to us, the owner and lord of the sky, the owner of the earth. I want very much that they build my sacred little house here, in which I will show him, I will exalt him on making him manifest; I will give him to the people in all my personal love, in my compassionate gaze, in my help, in my salvation, because I am truly your compassionate mother, yours and of all the people who live together in this land, and of all the other people of different ancestries, those who love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me, because there I will listen to their weeping, their sadness, to remedy, to cleanse and nurse all their different troubles, their miseries, their suffering."
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Nican Mopohua 1:26-32
I need to break out my Nahuatl textbook and look in more depth at the original. I'm not seeing a whole hell of a lot of specifically Christian imagery here. in fact, look at this:
"Canin ye nica? Canin ye ninotta? Cuix ye oncan in quitotehuaque huehuetque tachtohuan tococolhuan, in xochitlalpan in tonacatlalpan, cuix ye oncan ilhuicatlalpan?"
Where am I? Where do I find myself? Is it possible that I am in the place our ancient ancestors, our grandparents, told about, in the land of the flowers, in the land of corn, of our flesh, of our sustenance, possibly in the land of heaven?".
Nican Mopohua 1:10
the land of corn, which our grandparents told about? christianity has only existed in mexico for 10 years at this point. I'm sorry, "Santa Maria" has always been the most quickly syncretized bit of christianity in history, anywhere in the world, and throwing one "dios" after "teotl" (the word which indicated every aztec divinity) does not make me think this document is describing a particularly christian experience. She introduces herself as Holy Mary, Mother of a vague pantheistic truth-life-force.
I'd always said that building the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe directly on top of the temple pyramid of the Mother Goddess Tonatzin after a Nahuatl-language apparition of an Aztec woman dressed like Aztec royalty to an Aztec man was one of the most blatant examples of the Goddess protecting and perpetuating her own cult in the midst of christian imperialism, and after reading thechristian version of what happened, I'm more convinced than before.