Original Villages | Pueblo Candelaria, Coyoacán: Fiesta of Candelaria, an Extra Special Occasion

The Two Roots of the Fiesta of Candelaria 

Candelaria, (in English, Candlemass) is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on February 2, forty days after the birth of Jesus the Christ, celebrated on December 25. It was Jewish custom that a first-born son be presented at the Temple in Jerusalem the fortieth day after his birth. According to the Gospels, Mary and Joseph followed this tradition. Candelaria is the feast day celebrating this early event in the life of el Niño Jesús, the Child, or Infant, Jesus.

Presentation of Christ at the Temple
by Hans Holbein the Elder, 1500–01 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg)
Wikipedia

MCA Note: In the early fourth century, church leaders fixed the date of Jesus's birth as December 25. This was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman (Julian) calendar. When our current Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582, all dates were moved ten days ahead to align with the sun's positions during the solar year. The misalignment had developed over time because the Julian calendar did not include a leap year every four years needed to keep the calendar aligned with the sun's cycle of positions in relation to the earth. However, Christmas was kept on December 25. The decision to place Jesus' birth on the winter solstice also implied that he was conceived on the spring equinox, nine months earlier. Wikipedia.

February 2 also happens to mark the mid-point of the season of winter in the northern hemisphere (summer in the southern). It is one of the so-called "cross-quarter days" of the solar calendar, falling halfway between the "quarter days" of the winter solstice and the subsequent spring equinox, therefore marking one-eighth of a solar year (6.5 weeks or 45.5 days).

Andrés Medina Hernández, a researcher at the IIAM (Institute of Anthropological Research) of the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), has noted that Candelaria is celebrated with particular fervor in Mexico City, especially in the southern, more traditionally indigenous delegaciones (now alcaldías) of Iztapalapa, Tláhuac, Xochimilco and Milpa Alta, where there is a special veneration for El Niño Jesús, the child or infant Jesus, centered on Candelaria.

Most notable of these is el Niño Pa (the Child of This Place) in Xochimilco. He is a small wooden statue of the infant Jesus created in the 16th century, in the early years of the so-called Spiritual Conquest, the lengthy process of conversion of the indigenous by Spanish and other European monks to Christianity. (See our post: Xochimilco | Candelaria and el Niño Pa: Caring for the Infant God.)

El Niño pa,
carried by his majordomo, 
finishing his charge on Feb. 2, 2017

MCA Note: With this post, we are adding Delegación Coyoacán to this list. It has both a Pueblo Candelaria, featured in this post, and a Barrio El Niño Jesús. 

In addition to el Niño Pa, Xochimilco has four other special Niños Jesús, each of whom is kept by householders of a particular pueblo or barrio, not in a church. The householder is the mayordomo (caretaker) who changes annually. These Niños, like el Niño Pa, spend the year visiting homes in the delegación and even travel to other delegaciones. We first encountered el Niño Pa in Pueblo Xoco (HO-ko) in Delegación Benito Juárez, some nine miles north of Xochimilco.

It is on February 2, Candelaria, that the new mayordomos take charge of the image of each of these Niño Dios for one year. This marks the end of the Christmas season. Dr. Medina believes this veneration of el Niño Jesús has a close link with the ancient Mesoamerican agricultural calendar and religion. The celebration of Candelaria coincides with a Mesoamerican tradition of venerating the annual rebirth of the god of corn.

The Mexica god of maize (corn), Centeotl, was born on February 2, which was also the beginning of the Mexica solar year. His birth initiated the annual agricultural cycle of soil preparation, planting, cultivation and harvesting of corn. At harvest time, five ripened maize cobs were picked by elder Aztec women. Each was carefully wrapped, like a mother would wrap up a newborn child and then carried, like a child, in a shawl on the women's backs to their homes. There, they were placed in a special basket and kept until the following year and the beginning of the next agricultural cycle.

Medina also points out that there is a link between the birth of the god of corn and the eating of tamales and atole (a drink made of corn masa [dough], thinned with water and with various flavors added) on February 2. The masa (dough) of cornmeal is the symbolic flesh of the corn god and the atole is his blood. The word tamal or tamalli is Nahuatl and means "carefully wrapped" (as a newborn is wrapped).

Eating tamales and drinking atole on Candelaria is a traditional symbolic act very similar to Communion in Christianity. By consuming these foods, Mexicans eat the body and drink the blood of the newborn god of corn. In the Maya sacred book, the Popol Vuh, human beings were created from corn masa. Human existence in Mesoamerica depended on corn. This has a parallel in Judaism and Christianity, where, in the Book of Genesis, God molds man from soil in his image and likeness.

Furthermore, in the same way that a tamal is carefully wrapped, on Candelaria many families dress a figure of the Child God, which is kept in their home all year, with special garments, most often baptismal gowns. He is then taken to the church to be blessed and to pray for his protection of the family for the coming year.

MCA Note: This analysis of Candelaria by Dr. Medina was provided by Abraham Garcia, a student in anthropology in the National Autonomous University of Mexico and administrator of the Facebook page Fiestas Mágicas de los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de Mexico, our indispensible guide.

Niño Jesús on Candelaria,
with ears of corn in a basket.

All of these primal, archetypal parallels between indigenous and Christian beliefs in the symbolism of Candelaria are among the many that helped make possible the syncretism of indigenous and Roman Catholic Christian religions that resulted in Mexican popular Catholicism. (For more on the elements and dynamics of this syncretism see our page, Mexico Traditional Popular Religious Culture.)

Candelaria in Pueblo Candelaria, Coyoacán

We have written about Pueblo Candelaria twice before, when, as part of the visits paid by el Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion, each summer from his home in Pueblo Tres Santos Reyes (Three Holy Kings) to other pueblos in Coyoacán. We were present when he arrived for the first of two visits to Candelaria, which is Tres Reyes' neighbor, and again, at the end of his summer tour, when he returns to Tres Reyes from his second visit in Candelaria. Candelaria is the only pueblo he visits twice each summer. The two pueblos are closely bonded. Both entregas (handovers, deliveries) are grand events.

But we had never gone to Candelaria for the fiesta of its patron saint. It is not el Niño Jesús. (The nearby Barrio el Niño Jesus has its fiesta on January 1, the eighth day of Jesus' life and, according to Jewish custom, the day of his circumcision. We attended it last year.) The patron saint of Pueblo Candelaria is the Virgin of Candelaria, that is, the Virgin Mary in her advocación (representation) at the moment of her purification at the Temple forty days after Jesus' birth and, also, as the Queen of Heaven, which she became upon her assumption into heaven at the moment of her earthly death.

So early on the morning of February 2, a Saturday this year, not able to find any schedule of fiesta events on the internet, we go to Candelaria, hoping to witness a procession we have heard happens around 9 AM. However, when we arrive at the atrio (atrium) of the modern church (the original 16th-century one was replaced in the mid-20th century), not much seems to be happening.

A large floral portada of fresh flowers—always amazing in their complex design, vibrant colors and workmanship—covers the arches of the church entrance.

Portada made with fresh mums.
"The Lord stands firm for his pueblo´s (village and its people)
defense and salvation,
for its faithful ones he saves us.

But even more spectacular, taking up most of the large atrio is a huge tapete de aserrín, sawdust carpet, a fiesta tradition. The pueblo is well-known for its tapetes, created for each fiesta by a group of mostly young people, the Alfombristas Pueblo de la Candelaria Coyoacán (link is to its Facebook page; alfombra is another word for carpet, likely from Arabic). 

Tapete or alfombra de aserrín
This one is unusual, not only for its size,
but also for its lack of any specific religious symbolism.

Coming and going from the sanctuary are parishioners carrying their Niños Jesús, to be blessed today.

                                

A large wind band is playing on a stage to one side.

Entering the sanctuary, we find a few people praying. The Virgin is missing from her baldachin, the canopied space reserved, since medieval times, for a royal, or here, sacred Presence.

We find the Virgin, or two of her, on a table in one side aisle.
Patron saints are often kept in duplicate, one always to remain in the sanctuary,
the other for being carried through the pueblo in processions.
Both wear the crown of the Queen of Heaven.

Here, parishioners present their Niños Jesús for her blessing.
The burning of candles is part of the ritual, a symbol that Jesus is the light of the  world;
hence the fiesta's name, Candelaria, Candlemass.

We ask various parishioners when the procession is to occur. None seem sure of the time. Finally, one woman tells us that a schedule of all the fiesta events is posted outside. Such posters are standard for fiestas, and they are essential for us to know when the main events are going to happen. We did not see any on our way into the pueblo or in the atrio, but go in search, hoping to find one. There are none in the atrio and we begin to despair, when, walking back out into the main street, we suddenly spot one on the garage door of a home.

It tells us that the procession isn't today, but tomorrow at noon. At that time, the Virgin will meet saints arriving from other pueblos. The encounter will take place at the intersection of two main avenues that form the northeast boundary of the pueblo, Avenida Candelaria and Avenida Pacífico. We know the intersection well. It is exactly where el Señor de la Misericordia and the Virgin come together and where, the first Sunday in September, they part ways. Many saints from other pueblos had been present both times we were there, so we anticipate that this encounter will be on a similarly grand scale. Clearly, the Virgin of Candelaria is highly venerated beyond her own parish. 

The Virgin of Candelaria Welcomes the Saints of Other Pueblos to Her Fiesta

So, shortly before noon on Sunday, we arrive by taxi at the corner of Candelaria and Pacífico Avenues. Pacífico, south of Candelaria, is blocked to traffic by a cadre of city police. A crowd is gathered in the closed street. Having seen this scenario before, we know what is happening and hurry to wend our way through the crowd.

A Gathering of the Saints of Coyoacán

A short distance down the block we see the Virgin (in her pink version) standing on a flower-covered anda (platform) for being carried in the procession to the church.  

The Virgin of Candelaria,
Hostess of Her Day

Standing in front of her, on both sides of the southbound lanes of Pacifíco, a large number of saints are lined up on their andas. Having been, by now, to many fiestas in Coyoacán, including two others at this same spot, we recognize quite a few and know which pueblos they represent.

 

El Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion
and los Tres Santos Reyes, Three Holy Kings
from Pueblo Tres Santos Reyes.

Niño Jesús, Child or Infant Jesus,
from Barrio Niño Jesús.

         

San Pablo, St. Paul,
from Pueblo San Pablo Tepetlapa;

San Sebastián
from Pueblo San Sebastián Xoco

Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles
from Barrio San Diego Churubusco;

San Domingo and San Francisco
from Colonia de Santo Domingo

San Luis Rey, Saint Louis, King of France
from the church dedicated to him
in Colonia Ajusco;

San Isidro, saint of farmer,
from Pueblo San Isidro, Michocán

Both saints were brought from the municipality of Nahuatzen, Michoacán
when large numbers of its Purépecha residents moved to Colonia Ajusco in the 1960s and 70s.

The Procession Gets Underway

There are several more saints waiting to join the procession, but we´ll have to wait to take their photos, as parishioners from Candelaria are picking up her anda and starting the procession into the pueblo. We have to hurry to get ahead of them before they enter the narrow barrio street, as we have learned that being at the front of a procession is the best position for finding good angles for shots.

The procession begins.

Three Virgins of Candelaria

Santiagueros,
Warriors for St. James who battle the "pagan" Moors.
We have seen them at several fiestas.

Chinelos, also frequent participants in processions of saints

Procession of the Saints of Coyoacán

The Virgin of Candelaria
then leads the procession of saints

Other saints that we weren't able to photograph while they were waiting, now pass by:

Virgin of Guadalupe

Santa Úrsula
of Barrio Santa Úrsula Coapa

El Señor de los Milagros
The Lord of Miracles,
from the church dedicated to Him
in Colonia Ajusco

San Lucas, St. Luke
of Barrio San Lucas

                             

San Domingo and San Francisco,
followed by San Luis Rey,
proceed through the callejas, narrow streets,
of Pueblo Candelaria.

The Virgen of Guadalupe,
Santa Úrsula and
San Sebastián

                                                                                                                                                          

The Virgin arrives in the atrio of her church.

Welcoming the Saints to the Church of Our Lady of Candelaria

Awaiting the Virgin, in her honor, is a tapete or alfombra de aserrín of Saint Teresa of Jesus
that, overnight, has replaced the circular one of the day before.
We thank an anonymous reader for telling us the correct name of the saint and 
that it was created by the group Arte y Diseño Villagrán Hermanos. (Villagrán Brothers Art and Design).

                      

The church bells, in the belfry,
which is the only remaining part of the original 16th-century church,
begin to be rung by an athletic joven (youth).

The Virgin
is carefully carried around the tapete,
towards the church.

She is placed to receive all of the visiting saints.

One by one, the saints are carried into the sanctuary.
The Virgin enters last.

The congregation waits while the visiting saints are placed near the altar.

Some carry their Ninos Jesús

In the choir loft, a group, mostly young people,
sing folk-style songs
with much ánimo, spirit.

All is ready for the Mass in veneration of the Virgin of Candelaria.

The Virgin (the one in pink) has been returned to the table in the side aisle,
where yesterday she was accompanied by one in blue.

The small version in blue, next to her, is known as a "demandita", "little petition",
a very portable form of a saint, used by individuals and families 
to represent some particular advocación, manifestation of the Virgin as an advocate
on behalf of the faithful to Her Son, Jesus the Christ, and God the Father.

Three Eminent Saints of Coyoacán

The Virgin, in blue, has been returned to her baldachín
behind the altar.

Placed in positions of special honor in front of her are
El Señor de la Misericordia
and
El Niño Jesús,

The Tres Santos Reyes stand below them.

They are the saints of Candelaria's neighboring pueblos.

The placement of El Señor de la Misericordia and El Niño Jesús immediately in front of la Virgen de Candelaria is, we think, a symbolic expression of their special importance for all the original pueblos of Coyoacán. El Señor de la Misericordia, the Lord of Compassion, holds a special status in all the pueblos, demonstrated by his elaborately enacted series of visits to them each summer. The feast day of Candelaria is a celebration both of the Virgin Mother and her holy child, el Niño Jesus. Here, today, in the Church of Our Lady of Candelaria, they are brought together.

The importance of the Virgin of Candelaria among the original pueblos of Coyoacán is also demonstrated by the participation of virtually all those pueblos' saints in the procession and the culminating Mass. This extensive participation does not occur at the patron saint fiestas of the other pueblos. Here, in Coyoacán, as throughout all of Mexico, the Virgin holds a place of unique eminence. She is the Mother of the Son of God incarnate, as manifested in the feast of Candelaria. She is the mother of the Son who is crucified to save from their sins and death all who accept him as Savior, as embodied here by the Lord of Compassion. And in her advocación as the Virgin of Guadalupe, also present today, she is the Mother of Mexico. 

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Coyoacán is the purple delegación in the center.

Pueblos, barrios and colonias of Delegción Coyoacán

Pueblo Candelaria is the starred, yellow pueblo.
Pueblo los Tres Santos Reyes, home of el Señor de la Misericordia,
is green pueblo just west of Candelaria.
Barrio El Niño Jesús is blue area just west of Tres Reyes.

Original Villages | Coyoacán's Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, Part I: Small Church with a Big History

Indigenous Coyoacán 

Es fácil traducir esta página en español: vaya a la columna a la derecha. En la parte más alta hay una ventana etiquetada "Translate". Desplace la flecha abajo hasta encuentra "Spanish". Click en ese y inmediatamente todo el texto estará traducido en español por Google. Con certeza, habrá errores, pero creemos qué el sentido se quede bastante claro.

When we wrote our initial post about Delegacion/Alcaldía Coyoacán, we began with a tour of its well-known, tourist-popular Center, officially la Villa Coyoacán and neighboring barrios. Originally, this was an indigenous urban center that had been in existence for at nearly two hundred years when Hernán Cortés, his Spanish troops and indigenous allies arrived in 1519 in the Valley called Anahuac. At that time, it was controlled by the Mexica (aka Azteca) of the island city of Tenochtitlán.

However, Coyoacán had been established by the Tepaneca. Like the Mexica, the Tepaneca were a Nahuatl-speaking people who had entered the north of the Valley around the year 1000 CE,  some three hundred years before the Mexica. By 1350, they had taken over the territory down the west side of Lake Texcoco as far as its southwest corner, where they built a village they likely named Coyoacán, Place of the Coyotes. The Tepaneca altepetl (city-state) was centered in Azcapotzalco, farther north along the southwest bay of Lake Texcoco.

Then, in 1428, the Mexica defeated Azcapotzalco and took control of its territories, including Coyoacán. As a major center in the southwest of the Valley, Coyoacán was crucial to the Mexica's political and economic control of that area and of the trade routes going south over the mountains, which they then also used for the military expansion of their empire.

Southwest Bay of Lake Texcoco.

Coyoacán

(spelled here Coyohuacan)
lay near the west shore at 

the south end of the bay of Lake Texcoco,

near the channel from Lake Xochimilco

(bottom center of map).

In the early 1400s, when the Mexica of Tenochtitlán
won control of the Valley from the Tepaneca, 

they built a causeway to Coyoacán,

via the island village of Huitzilopochco. 

Hernán Cortés Transforms Coyoacán from an Indigenous Altepetl to a Spanish Village

In August 1521, Hernán Cortés and his forces defeated the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, bringing the so-called Aztec Empire to a sudden end. While Cortés awaited the razing of Tenochtitlán and the building of the Spanish Ciudad de México atop its ruins, he took over this center of Coyoacán as his temporary headquarters. 

He chose Coyoacán as his base because its leaders and residents, being Tepaneca, had allied with him in his attack on Tenochtitlán, giving him free access to the entrance to the causeway that ran from there to the capital city, hence providing him with a strategic pathway for his assault of the island city.

Cortés named the town la Villa Coyoacán. Declaring it a Villa had specific political purposes under Spanish law. When Cortés landed on the mainland in February 1519, he immediately had his soldiers declare the establishment of la Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, intending thereby to officially create a Spanish village according to Spanish law, with rights to elect its own leaders and to make direct appeals to the king. The "residents" of this Villa then elected Cortés the equivalent of mayor.

This was Cortés's way of claiming independence from the Governor of Cuba, who had charged him with an exploration of the mainland coast, not to land and attempt to conquer it. Thereafter, he bypassed the governor of Cuba and communicated directly with King Charles, reporting his victories and seeking the king's official approval and support. Declaring Coyoacán a Villa was a reinforcement of his claim to independence from the governor of Cuba and his right to act on behalf of the king in governing the newly conquered people and their territory.

During the three years that Cortés was based in Coyoacán, awaiting the construction of Spanish government buildings in the former Tenochtitlán, he had constructed an ayuntamiento (city hall) and residences for himself and his soldiers in la Villa. Thus he began the transformation of Coyoacán from an indigenous village into a Spanish villa whose colonial architecture and ambiance make it so picturesque and popular today.

History of La Capilla de la Concepción de Nuestra Señora, the Chapel of the Conception of Our Lady

The Construction of the First Christian Church in Nueva España, 

Being a devout Catholic and seeking to transform the defeated indigenous into believers in the True Catholic (Universal) Faith, Cortés also had a chapel built dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Concepción. It was located just east of the center of the Villa. As such, it was the first Catholic Christian Church built in Mexico and evidently is the oldest continually existing church in the continental Americas.

Panama, called Darien by the Spanish, had been explored by them beginning in 1510, but Panama City was not founded until 1519. Apparently, a chapel was built sometime in the following decade, but later abandoned. The oldest existing church in Panama City is its cathedral, begun in the late17th century and completed over a hundred years later. The original chapel of la Concepción was remodeled in the late 17th or early 18th century and given a Baroque facade and gold retablo (reredos) behind the altar. It is familiarly referred to as La Conchita, "the Little Shell"

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, 
"La Conchita", "The Little Shell".

The facade is in Baroque style, from the late 17th century.
Both the shape of the top of the doorway
  (archo mixtilíneo, arch of mixed lines),
and the diamond-patterned wall are mudéjar,
i.e., Muslim, designs adopted by the Spanish.
The chapel was completely restored between 2011 and 2015.

La Conchita Located Atop the Earliest Settlement in Coyoacán

As it happened, during the recent renovation of la Capilla de la Concepción Inmaculada (2011-2015), archeologists discovered that it had been constructed atop the site of the earliest settlement that was to become Coyoacán. Under and around the current plaza in front of La Conchita, they found remains of an initial settlement dating from around the year 200 CE. It was likely built by the first people to establish agriculturally-supported settlements in the Valley, the Otomí, who had domesticated the cultivation of corn in the Balsas River Valley, just over the mountains to the east (now in the State of Puebla). Hunter-gatherer tribes had been in the Valley since at least 9,000 years ago.

Some four hundred and fifty years later, in the 7th century CE, this settlement was considerably enlarged. Archaeologists have found evidence that it was taken over by the Tolteca, who had, earlier in the same century, taken over the village they called Culhuacán, The Place of the Old Ones, on the peninsula separating Lake Xochimilco, to the south, from Lake Texcoco to the north. At the same time, the Tolteca were developing the city of Tula, north of the Valley (now in the State of Hidalgo), which became the dominant power center in the area for five hundred years, until the middle of the 12th century. Within a few years, the Tolteca of Culhuacán crossed the narrow channel connecting the two lakes and took over the settlement in Concepcion, giving them control of the strategic waterway. They built a temple on the site that is now that of La Conchita.

Subsequently, in the 12th century CE, the site was abandoned for reasons the archaeologists haven't deciphered. This abandonment seems curious, as the Tolteca of Culhuacán remained a dominant power until near the end of the 14th century. It is even more intriguing that the major Tolteca city of Tula was also abandoned around the middle of the 12th century.

In any case, apparently not until two hundred years later, in the 14th century, was the area taken over by the Tepaneca. They built a new urban center just to the west of the first settlement, where the present Villa Coyoacán stands. They likely gave it the name Coyoacán. When the Mexica defeated the Tepanecas in 1428, they took control of this relatively new Coyoacán and expanded it even further.

Based on an article, Evidencias arqueologícas en el Centro de Coyoacán, Archeological Evidence in the Center of Coyoacán, by Juan Cervantes Rodado, María de la Luz Cabrera and Alejandro Meraz Moreno, in the magazine Arqueología mexicana, issue of Sept-Oct 2014, pp. 43-48.

So La Conchita is doubly important, as the 1,800-year-old site of the first settlement that was to become Coyoacán and as the earliest Christian church in Mexico, if not in all of the Americas.

Early Years of "La Conchita"

In 1519, Cortés had brought with him from Cuba a Dominican friar, Bartolomé de Olmedo, whom he placed in charge of the chapel. In 1524, a group of twelve Franciscan friars or monks arrived in Nueva España to evangelize, i.e., convert the indigenous to Catholicism, the so-called Spiritual Conquest. (Of an earlier group of three who arrived in 1523, only one survived, Fray Pedro de Gante Peter of Ghent, Flanders.) These friars were given charge of la Capilla. In 1529, Dominican friars arrived in Coyoacán and established the convent and church of San Juan Bautista, St. John the Baptist, in the center of la Villa. (See our initial Coyoacán post).

Coyoacán after the Spanish Conquest
(here spelled Coyohuacán)
and surrounding settlements with original indigenous names,
with convents and churches established by Franciscans and Dominicans.

El Convento de la Concepción de Nuestra Señora
is marked, with its plaza, just to the right of center.
San Juan Bautista is just to its west (left).

The dashed blue line to the east shows the location of the shore of Lake Texcoco in the 16th century.
Original indigenous settlements and roadways (in red) are overlaid on streets of modern Coyoacán, (in white).
From La evangelización del área coyoacanense en el siglo XVI,
The Evangelization of the Area of Coyoacán in the 16th Century, by Jaime Abundis
from Arqueología mexicana, Sept-Oct 2014 issue.

The Franciscans and Dominicans worked in concord in the center of Coyoacán until the Franciscans left in 1534 or 1535. They did so because indigenous leaders of Coyoacán demanded from the Audiencia — a royal commission established by King Charles to rule Nueva España in order to remove control from Cortés — that some of the land that had been taken by Cortés from them be returned.

The Franciscans chose not to oppose this demand and moved to nearby Huichilopochco (now called Churubusco) where they established a new church and convent dedicated to la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, the Assumption of Our Lady (upon her earthly death, that of the Virgin Mary directly into Heaven, where she was crowned Queen of Heaven). (On the map above, Huichilopochco is outlined in blue dashes, indicating it was an island. La Asunción is marked near its northwest shore.)

We have not yet been able to find out what happened to la Capilla de la Concepción after the Franciscans left. We know it was rebuilt in its present form during the Baroque period in the late 17th century. In any case, it is now a chapel under the direction of the Church of San Juan Bautista, itself a parish church.

La Conchita Rescued From the Edge of Collapse and Restored to Its Full, Original Beauty

When we arrived in Coyoacán in 2011 and began exploring the historic area, we found La Conchita in a state of great disrepair. A large fissure ran down the middle of its elaborate Baroque facade as if the building were about to split in two. Wooden braces supported the doorway. It seemed to be abandoned.

 La Conchita's facade in fall of 2011.
Note the fissure above the door and those running up each side,
through the floral-shaped windows.

Large fissure runs up the middle of the facade.

Archetypical symbols of the Sun and Moon,
shared by both indigenous religions and Christian Catholicism.
They represent complementary active, "masculine" powers
and receptive, nurturing "female" powers of creation
and the eternal cycle between light and dark
in all their forms.

In Catholicism, the sun is the prime symbol for the Divine Power,
God, the Father and Creator.
The Moon is a symbol for the Virgin Mary, "Our Lady",
Mother of Jesus, the Christ (Anointed Savior of humankind) and Son of God.

The wall pattern of diamonds is mudéjar, i.e., of Muslim origins.
The pillar is a specifically Baroque style.
(See our post: Mexican Baroque Art:
Representing Divine Ecstasy, Evoking Awe

However, most fortunately, later that year a major renovation of the chapel was undertaken by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) — the government institution responsible for the preservation and maintenance of Mexico's thousands of indigenous and Spanish colonial sites. For four years, La Conchita was hidden behind a wall of plywood.

During the restoration work, in May 2013, about 150 skeletons were found below the floor of the sanctuary. Many were of Spaniards given Christian burials, but at lower levels, skeletons of indigenous were found, along with a Toltec altar, documenting that the Toltecas had, indeed, lived there for five centuries. As is often the case with the original Catholic churches built in Nueva Espana, La Conchita had been built atop an indigenous temple site.

Burials discovered below the floor of La Conchita.
From. El Barrio de La Conchita
post on blog of Sergio Rojas
July 24, 2013

Restored Jewel

Finally, in 2015, the plywood walls were removed to reveal the chapel now standing in beautifully restored condition. However, when we paid a visit, it was closed. There was a guard, but he had no information when or if it was ever open.

Restored facade of
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, 
"La Conchita", "The Little Shell".

So this fall of 2018, we were excited to see on Facebook an announcement of a celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on her feast day, December 8, at La Conchita, la Capilla de la Concepción. No schedule of events was posted on the announcement, so we just decided to show up as early as we could that Saturday morning and see what would come to pass.

Few people are around the plaza in front of the chapel when we arrive, but we are delighted to see that the front door is open. Going in, we find a baptism in progress, in front of a gleamingly restored golden Baroque retablo (reredos), in an otherwise unadorned sanctuary.

Our Lady
of the Immaculate Conception

Franciscan friars,
one of a group of small paintings that fill the retablo.

Leaving the sanctuary and wondering what might happen next, we notice an announcement of fiesta events conveniently posted on the door of the chapel. It is now past 10 AM. Dances by two groups, one by "Moors", the other by "Concheros" are listed as having taken place at 9 AM. Apparently, we missed them.

While we are most happy to finally have had the opportunity to see the restored sanctuary, there are no more events listed until a 1:00 Mass. We are wondering whether to leave and return in the afternoon when, suddenly, a small procession appears, walking toward the chapel up one of the sidewalks that cross the arboleada (tree-filled) plaza.

This tells us that there is definitely going to be a fiesta of some form. It turns out to be quite unusual and well worth our staying. To experience the fiesta, see Part II of our posts on La Conchita.