Mexico City Ambles

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Centro's Four Indigenous Quarters: San Pablo Teopan-Zoquipan, Part I - Crossroads in Space and Time

San Pablo Teopan, also called San Pablo Zoquipan, is the second of the parcialidades, four quarters of the Indian Repubic of San Juan Tenochtitlan that we are exploring to try to find remants of its indigenous roots and its transformation into a neighborhood of Spanish Colonial Mexico City. Now the southern part of East Centro, the core of the area is called Barrio de la Merced, neighborhood of Mercy, by its residents and chilangos, residents of the city. Why it is so named is one of many questions we seek to answer; it certainly points to a Catholic origin.

On initial visits, La Merced conveys the overall impression of another Mexico City batiburrillo, a hodge-podge of buildings and open spaces of various epochs in various states of repair and disrepair, full of, if not overwhelmed by, merchants selling and customers buying, a kind of marketplace gone viral.

A working class neighborhood, there is no single, central plaza, but several smaller ones. There is no single, main original church, but a number of Colonial period churches, convents and chapels whose relationships are unclear, at least at this point in our explorations. Thus, it presents much more of a challenge than San Juan Moyotla to uncover any underlying indigenous framework or any coherence in its Spanish Colonial transformation.

A street in Merced taken over by puestos, temporary stalls

Crossroads, Aztec Temple, Huge Market, Tiny Plaza, Tiny Churches

We start our ambles of the area from the Metro's Pino Suárez station. We were drawn to explore the neighborhood early on because of the peculiar juxtaposition of several major landmarks.

The Pino Suárez station is where our Line 2, coming from Coyoacán in the south, crosses East-West Line 1. These Metro lines follow, in turn, two major, ancient roadways:

East-West José María Izazaga Avenue (named after a leader in the War for Independence, but a pre-Hispanic pathway of the Mexica [Me-SHE-ka] ), which runs West to San Juan and then Chapultepec Woods and
Pino Suárez Avenue, the main roadway south from the Zócalo, which changes its name to San Antonio Abad, then to Calzada de Tlapan. It is the original Mexica/Aztec cuepotli, causeway south across Lake Texcoco to the atepetls, city-states and now delegaciones, boroughs, of Iztapalapa, Coyoacán and Xochimilco.

Then there is the Aztec/Mexica (Me-SHE-kah) altar, discovered when the station was being excavated. The Nahua name for the area, Teopan, means place of the gods.

Altar to Ehécatl, God of Wind,
now inside the Pino Suárez Metro Station

Thirdly, there is the huge, modern Pino Suárez Market.

Plaza Comercial Pino Suárez,
Designed by Felix Sánchez in 1992

Returning now to this multi-layered intersection, we wonder, as we did the first time, about this combination of ancient crossroads and temple and the tiny, obviously old plaza that sits in the shadows to one side of the modern market, with two tiny Colonial buildings adjoining it.

San Lucas

Chapel of Santa Mariá Magdelena

The chapel of San Lucas, St. Luke's, was built near the end of the 17th century by the butcher's guild. The guild's patron saint is St. Luke, whose symbol is a bull. In colonial times, the city's slaughterhouse was located where the new Pino Suárez market is located.

The chapel of Santa María Magdelena is of an unknown date. Expropriated during the Reform period or after the Mexican Revolution, it became a government archive for agrarian records. St. Mary Magdelene is, among other functions, the saint of prostitutes.

Walking along the north side of Santa María Magdelena, through what is left of the plaza (now hemmed in by a modern office building), we come to a narrow back street where we encounter another piece to the historical puzzle:

Mercado San Lucas, St. Luke's Market,
one of many enclosed markets built in the 1950s
to replace open-air tianguis, street markets

So here is the combination: ancient crossroads, Aztec temple, plaza, Catholic chapels and two mercados.

San Pablo Plaza, Church and Hospital

From St. Luke's Market, we walk north a half-block to Izazaga and turn right, heading for Plaza San Pablo, St. Paul Plaza, and the Church of San Pablo, the original church built by the Franciscans in this indigenous quarter of the city.

We immediately encounter another form of mercado, street puestos, stalls. The sidewalk is walled in by them on both sides. We enter what feels like a labyrinth, but it's actually a linear market.

Emerging a block farther on, where Plaza San Pablo should be, we are faced by another wall of puestos.

A thick stand of trees behind the puestos tell us there may still be a plaza there, but it is walled in, not only by stalls, but also—behind them—by a tall barrier of thick concrete posts. Between their spaces, we glimpse a tree-filled space and some apparently old buildings. We ask a merchant if there is any entrance to the plaza. He tells us the plaza is now occupied by a hospital, and its entrance is down the next side street.

We enter the next passageway of puestos. Reaching the corner, we turn right into another narrow side street. Halfway down the block there is an opening in the barrier of posts. It is an entrance to a parking lot for Hospital Juárez. As soon as we step inside, a guard calls out "No fotos." Across the parking lot, we can see the white side walls of an old church. Our goal is in sight, but perhaps unattainable.

When the guard approaches, we tell him our mission, seeking out the vestiges of the transition of Mexico-Tenochtitlan to Spanish Mexico City. He responds, "Déjeme checar"—"Let me check." On hearing those words in Mexico, one learns to let go of hope. When the person returns, the answer is usually, "No," or "You need advanced written permission" or "Come back mañana, tomorrow, or some day next week, or ..."

The guard returns from the guard house and says someone is calling "el jefe", the boss. We nod and wait, trying not to have any expectation. A couple of minutes later, he returns again, and, ¡Que milagro!, what miracle, he says we can take photos so long as he accompanies us. ¡No problema!

The young man turns out actually to be interested in our mission. We chat about how historically important this site is, and how unfortunate it is that virtually no one gets to see it. He waits patiently while we seek out the best angles for shots.

Church of San Pablo, St. Paul, constructed by the Franciscans
under the leadership of Fray Pedro de Gante

The church is now used by the hospital as an auditorium. It faces what was once the plaza, now a park-like space shaded by large Norfolk pines (from Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia—the Spanish were the first globalizers). On the plaza's south side stands a handsome, beautifully restored colonial-period building.

Dispute for Churches

Colegio San Pablo, St. Pauls' College,
now hospital offices

It is Colegio San Pablo, St. Paul's College, a school established in 1575 by the Augustinian order to instruct indigenous boys and adolescents in the Catholic faith and Spanish-Latin culture. The Augustinians, who had arrived in Nueva España in 1533, originally had no churches in Mexico City.

So how did the Augustinians get to replace the Franciscans at San Pablo?

Note: The following history is taken from "Síntesis Histórica de la Parroquia San Pablo Apóstol, Ciudad de México", Synthesis of the History of the Parish Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Mexico City," by Candy E. Ornelas.

In 1569, the Archbishop of Mexico removed the Franciscans from control of their chapels in the four parcialidades of los indios and the one in Santiago Tlateloloco and assigned "secular", i.e. diocesan, clergy under his direction. However, in 1571, the leader of the Domincan Order, Fray Fernando de Paz, complained about this to Pope Pius V, who responded by directing the Archbishop to distribute the five churches among the Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans. San Pablo was to be given to the Augustinians.

The Archbishop dragged his feet. The head of the Augustinians complained, in turn, to King Philip II of Spain. In 1574, the King issued an order to the Archbishop to comply with the Pope´s order (King Charles had earlier won from the Pope the right to select Spanish bishops). In 1575, the Augustinians took over San Pablo and immediately established the Colegio, which was to become the largest colegio for indigenous people in Nueva España. In 1581, they replaced the original Franciscan chapel with a new building.

Feeling that we have hit the jackpot, we energetically thank our doorkeeper and guide for helping us realize our goal and leave the hospital grounds, headed for our last objective of the day. We wonder how the site of a Franciscan mission turned into a major modern hospital. Later, back home, we research the question.

Hospital Juárez

In 1847, when the United States invaded Mexico and General Winfield Scott attacked Mexico City, there weren't enough hospitals to treat the wounded. The College of St. Paul was turned into a hospital. With the subsequent Wars of Reform (1858-61) and the French Intervention (1861-67), it continued to function as the Hospital San Pablo. When Benito Juárez, who had led the Reform movement and government, died in office in 1872, the City of Mexico changed the hospital's name to Hospital Juárez. It has been rebuilt and expanded several times. It now is the National Pediatric Institute.

New Church of San Pablo, Old Ecclesiastical Dispute

Returing to Izazaga Avenue, which becomes Calle San Pablo, St. Paul Street, at this point where it curves around the Plaza San Pablo, we turn east again and walk a few steps past more puestos.

Almost surprising us, another church emerges in an opening in the seemingly endless streetside market. It is San Pablo Nuevo, New St. Pauls. As with many Colonial Period buildings in the city, its entrance sits some steps below street level, because of the sinking of the former lake-bed.

San Pablo Nuevo, New St. Paul's

Why a New St. Paul's?, we wonder. The answer lies in yet another dispute inside the Catholic Church between the diocesan clergy and the religious orders, and a larger dispute between the nations of Western Europe.

In 1700, the Spanish Habsburg King Charles II died without a clear heir, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1714) between the Habsburg Austrian Empire and the French Bourbons. (The English got involved, too, because whoever won Spain and its territories would control the balance of power in Europe and the Americas.) In the finally negotiated treaty, the French Bourbon Prince Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, became King Philip V of Spain, ending the two-hundred year-long Habsburg reign begun by Emperor Charles V in 1516.

The Bourbons initiated a number of reforms in the Spanish government and church. One of them, in 1749, was to order the secularization of the churches controlled by religious orders, i.e., turn them into diocesan parish churches controlled by bishops. The Augustinians resisted giving up San Pablo with its colegio.

A new archbishop, appointed in 1767, turned up the heat. The Augustinans were told, by royal decree, that they could keep their colegio and the church, but had to pay half the assessed value of their properties toward construction of a new San Pablo, which would be the new parish church. The battle over this lasted nearly twenty more years, until 1785, when the Augustians finally ceded. The new church was begun in 1789, but because of more disputes over funding, it wasn't finished until 1799.

Pure Neo-classic
Designed by Spanish architect José Antonio González Velázquez

"Old" San Pablo with Colegio/Hospital to right
At Rear is "New" San Pablo.
19th century print

While the "Battle of San Pablo" was going on, the secular clergy appointed by the archbishop had nowhere to hold services. The Augustinians loaned them the use of a small chapel on their grounds, one sponsored by the tanner's guild associated with the slaughterhouse. We wonder whether it was San Lucas.

Pieces of the San Pablo Puzzle

So, in this amble we have gathered and found connections between some of the puzzle pieces of San Pablo Teopan-Zoquipan. The initial Franciscan mission of San Pablo, with its Augustinian expansion into a colegio for indigenous students, and its later diocesan replacement by Nuevo San Pablo, were located near what had been a Mexica religious site and, probably, a tianguis, open-air marketplace, all located at a major crossroads between Tenochtitlán and its outlying dependencies.

All this leads us to more questions about how this crossroads and the structures around it came to be. We know that there are more early Catholic chapels just down Pino Suárez, which becomes San Antonio Abad, St. Anthony the Abbot. We wonder how they might relate to the chuches of San Pablo and the parcialiadad of San Pablo Teopan-Zoquipán. And there we have the focus of our next post.

Series on Mexico City's Original Indigenous Villages:

See also:

Pino Suárez Market, A Living Heart of Mexico

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Centro's Four Indigenous Quarters: San Juan Moyotla

As we described in our Introduction to the original indigenous quarters of what was the Mexica (Meh-SHE-kah) city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and is now el Centro of the modern city, the Spanish conquerers simply added Catholic saints' names to the original Nahuatl names of the campan, or quarters, and grouped them together administratively as the Indian Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan.

Outline of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Drawn by Alonso García Bravo, 1521-22

The four Mexica campan, here called barrios:
Santa María Cuepopan (northwest), San Sebastian Atzacoalco (northeast),

San Juan Moyotla (southwest) and San Pablo Teopan Zoquipan (southeast).

San Juan Moyotla was made the ayuntamiento, adminstrative seat, of the Republic. So we begin our search for the remnants of indigenous San Juan Tenochtitlan by returning to that quarter of Centro Historico that is now officially West Centro.

What the Spanish conquistadores named San Juan Moyotla is only a short walk from the Temple of San Francisco in Centro Histórico, the Franciscans' home base from which they went forth to evangelize, i.e., convert, los indios. We only have to cross the wide, busy and noisy Eje Central, the Central Axis, aka Lázaro Cárdenas, formerly San Juan Letrán, then amble along a couple of narrow, shop-lined side streets to arrive at the center of what today is commonly called el Barrio de San Juan, that is, San Juan Plaza.

San Juan Moyotla

We visited West Centro early in our ambles. In fact, it was while sitting in San Juan Plaza that we had our insight into Mexico City as a vertical archeological site, with the artifacts of different eras sitting side by side. Little did we know at that time about where it was we were sitting, historically.

What is now officially West Centro contains most of what was the parcialidad or quarter of San Juan Moyotla. In Nahuatl, moyotla apparently means "place of the mosquitos" because it was swampy.

San Juan Plaza

In 1524, with the establishment of San Juan Tenochtitlan and its four parcialidades, the Franciscans, who had been given the charge by Emperor Charles V and Pope Adrain VI to evangelize los indios, began their work in Mexico City and elsewhere across the center of Nueva España.

The Three Powers of Mexico: Church, Government, Marketplace

In San Juan Moyotla, the Franciscans built a church at the north end of the already existing central plaza, which was the space for the quarter's tianguis, open-air market. It is likely that the tianguis had been there for many years.

It is known from codices, books written on parchment by indigenous scribes under the supervision of Franciscans who had learned Nahuatl just after the conquest, that there was a major temple in the center of Moyotla. Called Yopic, it was dedicated to the god, Xipe Totec, ([Shepeh Toetek] "Our Lord the Flayed One"), who represented the archetypical cycle of life, death, and rebirth, especially as manifested in the Mesoamerican cycle of corn agriculture. It is virtually certain that the Franciscans had this temple torn down and built their church atop its site, as that was their practice in every settlement. Buildings for the ayuntamiento, government center, were erected nearby.

Thus was established the triumvirate of powers that are present, in varying forms and combinations, at the center of every Mexican pueblo, be it city or village: an iglesia (Catholic Church), an ayuntamiento (government headquarters or local extensions of one), and a tianguis or mercado, i.e. a market composed of multiple individual vendors (the first is the original, outdoor form, the second the "modern" indoor market.)

San Juan Plaza in 19th century

To the right, north, with twin towers: Parroquia de San José (Parish Church of St. Joseph)
To left, west, with dome: Iglesia de San Juan de la Penitencia (Church of St. John of Penance, i.e., St. John the Baptist)

In the central plaza stands the Iturbide Mercado,
one of the city's first covered market buildings, built in 1850.

Note the remnants of the open-air tianguis,
manifested by the vendors sitting on the ground around the plaza,
selling whatever they have to sell.

The Churches

Two churches still bound the northern and western sides of the plaza. The mercado, market, was moved into three other buildings in the 1950's. The ayuntamiento offices have disappeared. However, the churches standing today are not the originals built in the early 16th century. Each church has its own interesting story.

From San Juan Bautista to San José

The church built by the Franciscans was dedicated to San Juan Bautista, St. John the Baptist, likely to focus on the crucial act of baptizing the "pagan" naturales (innocents, uncivilized), thus converting them into Catholic Christians.

The original church was demolished in 1769 and the present church was built in the 1770s. At that point, the Archbishop of Mexico City took control of all the parish churches run by orders such as the Franciscans and placed them under diocesan, so-called "secular", i.e. "working in the common world", clergy.

Parish Church of St. Joseph and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
It is neo-classic in style, typical of late 18th century, post-Baroque tastes.

The new church was named Parroquia of San José, St. Joseph. The building was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1858 and was rebuilt in 1861. In 1867, with the implementation of the Laws of Reform, which expropriated church property, the convent was taken by the State. The church remains a parish church to this day. At some point in its history, it also became dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. In 1993, Pope John Paul II designated it a Minor Basilica, i.e. a church of special historical importance, because of its history in the evangelization of Mexico.

From San Juan de la Penitencia to The Good Tone

Originally, a small chapel was built by the Franciscans on the west side of the plaza. In 1591, a convent and church for nuns from the Order of St. Clare, the female counterpart of the Franciscans, were built on the site and named San Juan de la Penitencia. A hospital for los naturales was built beside the convent. In the first decade of the 18th century, the church and hospital were rebuilt.

In 1867, with the implementation of the Laws of Reform, the church and convent were abandoned. In 1890, the French immigrant and tobacco entrepreneur, Ernesto Pugibet, bought the property of San Juan de la Penitencia, tore down the convent and built a cigarette factory, El Buen Tono, the Good Tone. In 1912, he had the church torn down and built the existing neo-gothic structure, named for the Lady of Guadalupe, in honor of his wife, Guadalupe Portilla. Everyone calls the church la Iglesia del Buen Tono.

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
aka Church of the Good Tone

The Markets

The evolution of the San Juan mercado, market, is also a story of the evolution of the City from its indigenous origins to its present-day forms. In the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan, as in every indigenous city and village in what is now Mexico, in the central plaza there was a tianguis, Nahuatl for open-air market, where goods were exchanged by barter. The Spanish were accustomed to similar markets in their home cities and towns, so they just continued the indigenous ones. San Juan Plaza was a tianguis, a marketplace.

As the lithograph above shows, the open-air market was replaced by a building in the 1850's. After the Mexican Revolution, beginning in the 1920s, the Mexico City government (then the Federal District, a dependency of the federal government) undertook a major endeavor to eliminate the open-air markets, replacing them with indoor ones. In San Juan, they eventually built four:

San Juan de Curiosidades (Tidiness), initially for household cleaning tools and products, and other non-perishable items, but now selling artesanias, folkloric-style arts and crafts, located on the east side of the plaza;
San Juan Ernesto Pugibet, for food items, located in a warehouse of the former El Buen Tono cigarette factory, just behind the church, on Ernesto Pugibet Street; this market is the best-known outside the barrio for its unique imported food items;
San Juan Palacio de las Flores (Palace of Flowers), a block further west on Ernesto Pugibet; and
San Juan Arcos de Belén (Arches of Bethlehem) for former street merchants, now the biggest market, a few blocks south on the wide Arcos de Belén Boulevard.

San Juan de Curiosidades: From Household Supplies to Arts and Crafts

The 1950s market building for curiosidades, household supplies, was rebuilt in the 1970s. At some point thereafter, it was turned into a market for artesanías, Mexican folkloric-style arts and crafts. The building takes up the entire east side of San Juan Plaza.

Stepping inside, we meet one of our personal favorites of artesanía:

An "alebrije", fantastic creature, made of papier mache

The market is three floors of locales (lo-CAHL-ehs), small shops, offering a variety of artesanía.

Most of the pottery offered by this local is "azulejos",
the "blue", highly colorful, glazed pottery of Puebla.

On the weekday when we visit, there are few customers in the mercado. It is definitely worth a visit, and, as we suggest to some of the merchants, the mercado could use some publicity.

On the way out, posted to the side of the entrance, we notice a sign that celebrates the market's long history:

Above, it says: "Ancient pre-Hispanic market of Moyotla, 1562
(was) sited in this area."
Below: A Portrayal of the original Tianguis of San Juan Moyotlan

Leaving the artisans' market, we walk through the Plaza, passing several clearly long-time cuates, buddies, engaged in that eternal pastime of darle la lengua, chewing the fat, while resting in the shade.

San Juan Ernesto Pugibet: Exotic Imports

We turn the corner by "El Buen Tono", onto Ernesto Pugibet Street. There we encounter the second San Juan market.

Mercado San Juan Ernesto Pugibet

Flavored olive oils, dried mushrooms and other imported condiments.

It may seem like nothing to an urban dweller from the U.S.,

but it is very difficult to find imported cheese or sausage in Mexico.

The Ernesto Pugibet Market offers specialty foods such as imported cheese and condiments. It also offers special meats and poultry such as suckling pig, baby goat, rabbit, whole goose and a wide variety of sea food. We spare you the photos. We are told you can ask for exotic items such as rattlesnake and alligator, but they aren't on view.

San Juan Palacio de las Flores: Palace of Flowers

Leaving temptation behind, we walk further west along Ernesto Pugibet to a building that seems to have no sign. but its fuchsia pink facade gives a good idea of what's inside.

San Juan Palacio de las Flores (Palace of Flowers)

From the flower market, we turn south to walk a couple of blocks to find the fourth San Juan market. On the way, we notice another one of those coincidental records of the barrio's history.

Cava Fray Pablo,
Wine Shop Friar/Brother Paul
(curiously, not Fray Pedro)

San Juan Arcos de Belén: Everything and Anything You Could Want

Arcos de Belén, Arches of Bethlehem, like Eje Central, is another one of those wide, traffic-filled, noisy avenues that criss-cross the city. It marks the southern boundary of San Juan and present-day West Centro. Here, near the corner with Eje Central, stands the last, and biggest, of the San Juan markets. It has the most colorful facade of them all.

San Juan Arcos de Belén Mercado (Arches of Bethlehem Market)

Taking up most of a city block, San Juan Arcos de Belén is a typical Mexican mercado, filled with puestos, stalls or locales, "shops" without walls, selling fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, poultry and fish, but also clothing, household supplies, stationery, plumbing and electrical supplies and numerous other products.

You want it, they have it. It's a kind of Walmart long before globalization but run by innumerable individual entrepreneurs rather than by an anonymous conglomerate.

This mercado even offers a dentist.
Just climb the narrow spiral stairs
to the cubicle above.

But before and after everything else, like all typical Mexican mercados, it offers food to eat.

Tortillas in every form: Jaraches (haraches) are long, oval, thick tortillas served with toppings of your choice.
Chilaquiles are fried tortilla chips served in a sauce with various ingredients,
such as eggs or chicken. They are great for desayuno, breakfast, which is served until 1:00 p.m.

And, perhaps, the most central communal act of Mexico,
comida, served from 1 to .... the end of the workday.

Heart of Mexico

So it is that in Barrio San Juan, aka West Centro, once upon a time San Juan Moyotla and, before that, Moyotla of Tenochtitlan, we encounter three central components of the transition of the city from México-Tenochtitlan to Mexico City via the Spanish adaptation called a Republic of the Indians.

And there are los mercado, the three markets, rooted—as the sign in the Mercado de Artesanías reminds us—in the tianguis of the Nahua and every ancient civilization. And there is la plaza around which they centered.

Barrio San Juan,
Plaza is green space, upper middle,
surrounded by its churches and markets.

These three key landmarks will help to orient us, serving as reference points, as we go on to explore the other parcialidades of San Juan Tenochtitlan and the numerous pueblos originarios, original indigenous villages scattered throughout the modern metropolis. Seeking out churches, markets and plazas will, ojalá, hopefully, give us wider, better educated eyes to recognize and understand what we see.

Series on Mexico City's Original Indigenous Villages:

Sunday, May 8, 2016

The Spiritual Conquest: The Franciscans - Where It All Began

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.

The objective of our current series of Ambles is to locate the vestiges of the original indigenous villages that still exist within Mexico City. We realized that the most obvious landmarks of these original communities are the churches established in these villages by various orders of Catholic monks to effect the evangelización and conversion of los indios, also called los naturales, the indigenous, into Spanish Catholics, the so-called Spiritual Conquest.

We then realized that, in addition to the many altepetls, city-states, around the lakes of the Valley of Anahuac, now the Valley of Mexico, and on a number of its islands, there were also the original indigenous residential quarters of the main city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, now El Centro. These quarters were not eliminated by the Spanish; instead, they adapted them to organize and govern the indigenous residents of the city through a system of limited self-rule they called Indian Republics. The four campan (quarters) of Tenochtitlan became the Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan. Catholic monks went into each quarter to build churches and convert the residents.

As we began exploring these four indigenous quarters, seeking out the churches that remain from this process, we became aware that we needed to trace the path of their construction from the Spanish side as well; that is, the path of the Franciscan monks who were the vanguard of the Spiritual Conquest.

How the Franciscans Came to Nueva España

In 1522, Hernán Cortes asked the young Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain, born 1500, died 1558) to send monks to Nueva España to evangelize and convert the natives. In his fourth letter to the king, Cortés pleaded for friars rather than diocesan or secular priests because those clerics were in his view a serious danger to the Indians' conversion.

"If these people [Indians] were now to see the affairs of the Church and the service of God in the hands of canons or other dignitaries, and saw them indulge in the vices and profanities now common in Spain, knowing that such men were the ministers of God, it would bring our Faith into much harm that I believe any further preaching would be of no avail." (Wikipedia)

As it happened, the Emperor, whose father was an Austrian Habsburg and mother the daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of the emerging nation of Spain, was born in 1500, in Ghent, Flanders, part of the Habsburg Netherlands, and had grown up there.

The Protagonists: Conquistador, Emperor and Pope

Hernán Cortés

Charles I of Spain,
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
age 19
by Bernard van Orley

From 1505 to 1515, Charles's teacher, was one Adrian Florisz Boeyens, a Dutch professor of theology. He had been selected for this responsiblity by Charles' paternal grandfather, the Habsburg Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I.

When, after the death of his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand in 1516, Charles inherited the throne of Spain, he saw that Boeyens was made a bishop in Spain. In 1519, upon the death of Maximilian, Charles became Holy Roman Emperor. In February 1522, Charles saw to it that Boeyens was elected Pope. He took the name Adrian VI and was the last non-Italian pope until John Paul II.

Pope Adrian VI

In response to Cortés's request, Charles consulted his old mentor, now the Pope, who selected/recommended the Franciscan order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi as the Order of Minor Friars, to undertake the mission. The two then chose Charles's recently appointed Confessor, Jean Glapion, a French Franciscan stationed in Flanders, to lead a group to the New World. He, in turn, selected three Flemish brothers of the order to go with him: Pieter van der Moere, who became, in Spanish, Fray Pedro de Gante, (Friar/Brother Peter of Ghent); Johann Dekkers, who became Juan de Tecto, and Johan van der Auwera, who became Juan de Ayora.

In the summer of 1522, the four traveled to Spain. However, Glapion died there in September, at the age of sixty-two. The other three left for Nueva España on May 31, 1523, and arrived in Veracruz on August 13. Pope Adrian VI died of the plague in September of that same year.

Brother Pieter van der Moere,
aka Fray Pedro de Gante
Brother Peter of Ghent

Brother Pieter, Fray Pedro, born in 1479 or 80, is thought to have been a bastard son of Emperor Maximilian I, Charles's grandfather and, thus, a quasi uncle of Charles.

Arriving in Veracruz in August 1523, the three Franciscans were sent by Cortés to Texcoco, on the east side of the Lake, because there was a plague in Mexico City (brought by Spanish soldiers). There they began to study Nahuatl in order to preach to the indigenous and to learn native culture. They came to Mexico City the following year. That same year, Cortés decided on an expedition to what is now Honduras. He took Juan de Tecto and Juan de Ayora with him. Both died, likely of starvation, on the ill-fated adventure.

Meanwhile, in May of 1524, another group of Franciscans arrived in Nueva España, the famous "Twelve Apostles of Nueva España." They were led by Fray Martín de Valenciaf; all were Spanish. Together with Fray Pedro, they undertook the conversion of los indios. Some went out to other parts of Nueva España. Fray Pedro remained in Mexico City and began building churches in the indigenous quarters of San Juan Tenochtitlan.

Franciscans Establish the Foundations for the Spiritual Conquest

The Franciscans built a church and headquarters for themselves within the Traza español, the Spanish district, in the heart of the city, west of what is now the Zócalo, on the site where Moctezuma II’s zoo once stood. They named it San José de los Naturales (St. Joseph of the Natives). Next to it, they built a school for indigenous children, especially the sons of the noble class. It was an interno, a residential school, as the friars wanted to completely separate their students from their previous, "pagan" culture.

Critical to their goal of evangelization, the conversion of the indigenous, the Franciscans, and other religious orders that followed them in coming to Nueva España, rather than trying to completely suppress old beliefs and practices, deliberately adopted a strategy of seeking out elements in indigenous religious practice that had similarities to Catholic Christianity and building on them in order to create "bridges" between the indigenous beliefs and Catholicism, so that the new faith would be seen by the people as an evolution from their old faith rather than its elimination. The indigenous were seen as children who needed to be "brought up" to the religious maturity of the friars' version of Catholicism.

In the view of the friars, the European Roman Catholic Church had been corrupted by its hierarchy and wealth. The true church was that which was founded by Jesus' apostles, one characterized by simplicity of organization and style, poverty and humility. It was to be what Jesus had preached, the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Franciscans saw the indigenous as providing a unique and wonderful opportunity to re-establish the Church on that original model. It was to be an Indian Church, still obedient to the Pope, but otherwise distinct from the European one.

They accomplished their strategy via three main tactics:

They learned the native languages (Nahuatl being the first) not only so they could preach the Christian message but also so they could dialogue with the priests and sages of the people to learn about their religious beliefs and practices. Thus, they could find in those beliefs and practices ones that could be interpreted in Christian forms and incorporated into Catholic religious belief and practice.
They used Christian fiestas as concrete, paticipatory vehicles to incorporate acceptable indigenous religious practices, such as dancing and singing, and to instruct in the faith using Christian songs translated into the indigenous language and set to indigenous musical form.
They created schools for educating the young, both from the upper class and the lower class, in Christian beliefs and rituals, and in Latin, the language of the Catholic Bible and Church writings so that these could subsequently be translated into the native tongue.
They developed a catechism of basic beliefs, written first in Nahuatl. In it, they explicitly used indigenous terminology for the Divine, particularly as the creator and lord of all things and as close by. So, when they spoke of their Christian God and His Son, Jesus the Incarnated Christ, these deeply rooted religious meanings would make them sound familiar to the people. Thus, their Christian God and especially Jesus the Christ could be understood as the ultimate embodiment of these very familiar characteristics of divinity.

They minimized the concept of the Trinitarian God, likely to avoid polytheistic interpretations, and emphasized the closeness of God to humanity via the incarnate Jesus the Christ. He had shared the very flesh of common people. He had come among them and been one of them. God could be no closer than that. This human, but at the same time divine, Jesus had performed the ultimate sacrifice of himself to redeem mankind from their sins which had separated them from God. Hence, human sacrifice was no longer necessary. This sacrificed, human Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary, were the primary focus of the teaching.

Note: A much more detailed explanation of how the Franciscans undertook this "evolution" of the indigenous from their faith to Catholic Christianity is presented in the essay, The Native Encounter With Christianity: Franciscans And Nahuas In Sixteenth-Century Mexico, by Friar Francisco Morales, OFM, Historian of the Order of the Minor Friars, i.e., Franciscans, in Mexico. Click here to read our abridged version of the article.

(As it happened, the Protestant Reformation had only just begun in Germany (1517), led by Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk. The Counter-Reformation began with the convening of the Council of Trent, with its first session in 1545. Emperor Charles sat with the Pope in the early sessions. The Spanish Habsburg monarchy, and their 18th-century successors, the French Bourbons, using the Spanish Inquisition, never allowed Reformation thinking to gain a foothold in Spain or Nueva España)

Temple of San Francisco,
Baroque facade built in 1766
Entrance on Madero Street

Two hundred years later, at its peak in the 18th century, the church, monastery, school and a hospital for los indios covered the blocks now bordered by Bolivar, Madero, Eje Central (Central Axis) and Venustiano Carranza Streets—a total area of 8 acres.

Convent (monastery) and Temple of San Francisco at its height in 18th century.
Current Madero Street is upper left
Still existing church is to left of center,
Immediately to its right is the cloister, with fountain, now a Methodist church.
Lower, right corner, with small dome, is Calvario and San Antonio chapel, now a book store
Photo is of a tapestry currently hanging in the church entrance.

What Remains of San Francisco

After the Reform War (1857-61), the monastery of San Francisco, like many others, was disbanded and most of the property seized by the government. Much of the old monastery was demolished for the construction of new streets.

Temple of San Francisco

The church standing today is the third to be built on the site. The first two sank into the soft soil underneath Mexico City and were torn down. The current church was built between 1710 and 1716. Although the entire building is known as the San Francisco Church, the entrance on Madero Street is actually the entrance to the Balvanera Chapel. The church’s main facade, dating from 1710, is walled in and not visible.

The facade of the chapel was constructed in 1766. It is not certain who designed it, but most think it was the work of Lorenzo Rodríguez, best known for his Churrigueresque Baroque facade on the Metropolitan Tabernacle, adjacent to the Metropolitan Cathedral (Wikipedia).

Inside, the Balvanera Chapel is dominated by an 18th-century Baroque altarpiece dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Baroque reredos of Balvanera Chapel,
with image of Virgin of Guadalupe

In the main sanctuary, the large, gilded altar is a reconstruction of the original Baroque one.

Main altar

All that remains of Franciscan simplicity is a statue at one side of the sanctuary.

St. Francis

Hidden Treasures

A couple of other components of the 18th century complex remain, but we have to go looking for them by leaving the church, returning to Madero Street and going around the corner onto Pedro de Gante Street, named after the founding friar.

Street sign at the corner of Madero and
Fray Pedro de Gante Streets

Fray Pedro de Gante Plaza

Part way down the block, now a tree-shaded pedestrian plaza lined with sidewalk cafes and restaurants, we come to the rather non-descript, neo-gothic facade of a Methodist church. A sign says it was founded in the 1873. Luckily, the front door is open, so we enter. A way inside, a glass and wooden wall closes off the space. Further inside, we can see the columns of what appears to be an interior patio.

At the side of the door is a bell, so we ring it. Within a minute, a middle-aged workman comes from the patio area and opens the door a crack. We tell him our mission of exploring the original churches of the city and our desire to see another part of San Francisco. He nods assent and lets us in.

Thanking him profusely that we didn't need the usual Mexican "permission in advance", we walk the rest of the hallway ... and enter another piece of history.

The cloister is now the sanctuary of a Methodist church established in the 1930s

The church sanctuary is the original Franciscan two-story cloister or residence, surrounding an inner patio that is a quintessential example of such Spanish colonial spaces: rows of arches whose even rhythm creates a space of complete balance and, thus, total tranquility. The Methodists were lucky to get it and wise not to modify it.

Thanking our lucky stars, and the workman who let us in, we return to Pedro de Gante Street. Walking two short blocks to Venustiano Carranza, we turn right towards the Eje Central (Main Axis, aka Lázaro Cárdenas). At the corner, we come to another remnant of Franciscan glory days.

Calvario and San Antonio chapels, now a bookstore

It is a modest looking edifice. We wonder what Baroque elegance it might once have contained. Looking up, we get a glimpse of past glory.

Glimpse of former glory, the tiled dome.

Most pleased with the success of our exploration, we return to the shade of Ghante Street to rest from our exertion in the Mexican sun. Sitting in the welcome shadow, we see two images that sum up the history of the monastery of San Francisco, and of Mexico City: modernity face to face with memory.

Modernity

Memorial
to Fray Pedro de Gante

Plaque reads:
Friar Peter of Ghent
(1480 - 1572)
First of the Great Educators of America,
The plaza and monument were inaugurated
January 16, 1976.
Constructed by the Federal District

Donated by the Eastern Province of Flanders
to Mexico City
in testimony to Belgium's friendship
toward Mexico.

What might he think of all that has transpired
from what he began?

Series on Mexico City's Original Indigenous Villages:

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Mexico City's Original Villages: Centro's Four Indigenous Quarters | Introduction

As we began our explorations of the original indigenous villages of Mexico City, we realized that we needed to return to where our ambles began more than a year ago, to El Centro, for that is not only where the Spanish Mexico City began, but also where the Mexica [me-SHE-kah] had developed their island city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Thus, what is now El Centro was where the two cultures most dramatically confronted each other, and where, after the Spanish defeat of the Mexica, the winners—few in numbers as they were—had to figure out how they were going to live among and maintain control over the people they had defeated. The indigenous survivors, for their part, had to come to terms with how they would live with their new rulers and their foreign culture.

What to do with los indios?

Initially, Cortés removed all the city's indigenous inhabitants and razed it in order to build a Spanish city on the island. But then he was faced with a question that has echoed ever since throughout Mexican history, "What do we do with los indios, the Indians?" If the Spanish were going to thrive, let alone survive, they needed not only the submission of los indios, but their help—most of all, first their labor in building the city, then supplying its many needs.

Cortés's answer was, perhaps, an obvious one. He took the Mexica organization of the city and adapted it to Spanish purposes. In traditional Mesoamerican manner, the Mexica had organized their city by dividing it into four campan, quadrants or quarters, associated with the four cardinal directions. Each campan was originally divided into five calpultin (singular: calpulli), or "big houses", for a total of twenty—one for each of the recognized calpulli, kin group or clans of the Mexica. By the time of the Conquest, the city had grown considerably and there were eighty calpultin, barrios in Spanish.

Outline of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Drawn by Alonso García Bravo, 1521-22

The small square at right-center is the Templo Mayor complex.
Below it is the area of palaces of Mexica rulers,
surrounding what is now the Zócalo.

The four campan are, clockwise from upper left/northwest:
Cuepopan
Atzacoalco
Teopan Zoquipan
Moyotla

Three main streets, cuepotli, lead to causeways:

North to Tlatelolco and Tepeyac
(now Republic of Argentina St., which becomes Calzada de Guadalupe)
West to Tacuba (now Tacuba St. and then other names)
South to Iztapalapa and Coyoacán, (now Pino Suárez and Calzada de Tlalpan).

Reproduced in "Cosmopolitan Indians and Mesoamerican Barrios in Bourbon Mexico City"
Doctoral dissertation by Luis Fernando Granados
Gerogetown University, 2008.

Statue of Alonso García Bravo carrying out his survey of the island of Tenochtitlan,
He rides in a canoe propelled by Mexicas.

Statue located in the Plaza of Merced,
East Centro

Separate Quarters for "the Indians"

Cortés had a city plan, traza (literally, outline), drawn up. The Spanish conquistadores, of course, took the Center for themselves. There they built the government palace, churches and residences of Nueva España, replacing those of the Mexica. Indigenous, los indios, also called naturales, were excluded from this Traza española.

The island's remaining land was divided into two areas for the Indians. The surviving Mexica, under the leadership of the their last huey tlatoani, chief speaker, Cuauhtémoc, were restricted to Tlatelolco to the north. Once a separate atepetl, Tlatelolco was a city-state that the Mexicas had subjugated in the fifteenth century and annexed to Tenochtitlan. The Spanish named it Santiago Tlatelolco.

In the four original Mexica campan around the Traza española, Cortés settled the indigenous tribes who had been his allies in defeating the Mexica. Adapting the Mexica name for the city, this entire area was named San Juan Tenochtitlan. Each of the four original campan, called parcialidades in Spanish (sections, sectors) was likewise assigned a Catholic saint's name appended to its Nahuatl name.

They were:

Santa María Cuepopan (northwest);
San Sebastian Atzacoalco (northeast);
San Pablo Teopan Zoquipan (southeast);
San Juan Moyotla (southwest).

In 1530 King Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) directed the Audiencia of Mexico (governing council of Spanish nobles appointed by the king) to organize the Indians into governments similar to the Spanish, with a governor and a constable, as in Spain.

A tlatoani ("speaker") became governor in each of the two areas. Caciques, lower chiefs, became alcaldes, "mayors," in each of the four quarters. They could govern the internal affairs of their area according to their traditional uses and customs, so long as their people worshipped within the Roman Catholic faith and obeyed Spanish laws, including those that restricted their rights in comparison to Spanish residents of Nueva España.

Republics of the Indians

In 1549, by decree of King Charles I, these separate indigenous areas in Nueva España were declared Republics of the Indians. Santiago Tlatelolco and San Juan Tenochtitlan were two such Republics. By that time, several others had been created in the atepetls, city-states, around the lakes. Among these were Iztapalapa, Tlalpan and Coyoacán to the south, Azcapotzalco to the west and Texcoco to the east.

The Indian Republics were divided into parishes, each with a central church managed by one of the orders of Spanish Catholic friars. Each parish was divided into barrios.

The Ayuntamiento, the Council of the City of Mexico, had veto powers over the indigenous governors of Santiago Tlatelolco and San Juan Tenochtitlan. The Spanish Viceroy had final say over all the Republics.

Mexico City, 1550

This map shows the basic four-part division,
but here the Traza español is not clearly defined.
It is evidently represented by the large buildings around the north-south eje, axis.
Smaller structures on the periphery indicate the Indian quarters,
the Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan.

Two hundred years later, in the 1760s, the French Bourbons, who had replaced the Austrian Habsburg dynasty in ruling Spain, implemented reforms in Spanish government structure that left the indigenous republics with no real powers—merely formal appendages of the central government.

Bourbon Reforms: Coming Up Against Customs

In 1765, the royal visitor, Jose de Gálvez, arrived in New Spain, with the intention of implementing the economic and tax reforms of the new French Bourbon kings of Spain. One of them was a reform of the finances of Spanish and indigenous cities and towns. For both sets of towns or cities, a reduction of expenditures and an increase of income was demanded, as well as the sending of financial surpluses to the royal treasury.

The most important regulation reduced the spending for fiestas, as well as the number of them. Among other things, it was forbidden to use money from community treasuries for flowers, cohetes (rocket-style fire crackers) and kermeses, communal meals, all key elements of fiestas. In the long run, even after similar restrictions were imposed by the post Mexican Revolution government in the 1920s, the indigenous culture won out. As we constantly see, and hear, in the fiestas we are visiting in these original villages, "Echamos la casa por the ventana", "We throw the house out the window", i.e. spend without limit, for patron saint and other religious fiestas.

"Liberal Reforms"

Some fifty years later, in 1820, the last Spanish Viceroy implemented the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, which officially abolished the legal distinction between Spaniards and naturales. The Republics and their councils were eliminated. Santiago Tlateloloco and San Juan Tenochtitlan were integrated into the Ayuntamiento of Mexico City, ending their nearly three hundred-year long history. (Based on material translated from Wikipedia en español)

Vestiges of the Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan and Its Four Quarters

In Mexico, history may fade into the background, but it doesn't go away. Vestiges of the four original campan of Tenochtitlan, the parishes of the Indian Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan, still exist, some more obvious than others.

Roughly speaking, the contemporary Colonia Centro, with its five subdivisions: Centro Histórico and Centro North, East, South and West (shades of yellow in the map below), continue the five-part Mexica and Spanish city layout, with a religious and governmental Center surrounded by four quadrants or quarters. The lower half of the current colonia of Guerrero (red, to northwest) was also within the original Mexica campan and, later, Spanish parcialidades and parishes.

Colonia Centro, with its five zones (shades of yellow):
Histórico (Zócalo and Cathedral in its upper right corner),
North, East, South (narrow strip) and West.
The lower half of Colonia Guerrero (red, to northwest)
was part of the original four Mexica campan and parishes
of the Indian Republic of San Juan Tenochtitlan.
Tlatelolco is the blue to the north of Guerrero.

With this awareness of the seven-hundred-year-old history of the indigenous quarters within Mexico City's Centro, we will visit each one seeking their still-existing physical remnants. As we described in our introductory post to this series on Mexico City's Original Villages—Landmarks of the Spiritual Conquest—the key will be finding the churches built by the Catholic friars, brothers, to begin the religious conversion and "hispanización," the cultural transfomation of los indios, los naturales, into faithful, obedient Spanish Catholics.

Series on Mexico City's Original Indigenous Villages: