The people who have inhabited this region of the world have always had religion as a central part of there lives. This is evident in ruins such as Xochicalco (~600AD to 1,200AD) where we visited during the week. The finest buildings at Xochicalco were the temples (one of the feathered-serpent god that still had a lot of bas reliefs on it). The other buildings that were prominent were the residences of the priests and lord as many of the pre-Colombian culture were theocracies. The Aztec's, who were effectively the last major pre-Colombian civilization, were perpetually at war and had a huge military structure was to capture enough prisoners to sacrifice to their gods. If you were being sacrificed it may have been some small consolation to know that that being sacrificed was considered an honor!

In Tepoztlan one of the first things that I was struck by was the number of colonial style churches that dot the town. Tepoztlan has almost as many churches as an Irish town has pubs! Some are fairly small serving only the local congregation from the surrounding houses where as at the center of the town is the Church of the Nativity and adjoining monastery (also part of a world heritage listing as initial 16th century monasteries in the 'new world'). Murals depicting Mexican history both in Tepoztlan (see seed mural photos) and in Cuernavaca (Diego Reviera) also features religious images both pre and post-Colombian. It is also very apparent that the people are very religious with many having straw crucifies on their front doors and just about every taxi driver making the sign-of-the-cross as they drive past a church.

What I find really interesting in Mexico is not the pre-Columbian religious beliefs or the conversion to Catholicism but the melding of the two that is apparent in today's Catholic church in Mexico. This was mentioned to me by a fellow student who had watched play in Tepoztlan a few days before I arrived where the priests (Dominicans, Augustans and Franciscans) arrived with the new god who proceeded to crush the old gods and take over. Although deeply religious the people here were (and still are) pragmatic. The Spanish God was obliviously more powerful as a relatively small group of Spaniards (with help from local allies) defeated the entire Aztec Empire! Not wanting to waste time worshiping a weak god the people promptly converted and focusing their religious zeal on the new god! The cool thing is that this changing of gods is still commemorated in the church today. When I entered the Church of the Nativity for the first time besides the usual symbolism there was a contemporary poster depicting a man in Aztec dress but wearing a crucifix defeating the winged serpent god. It did remind me of St George and the Dragon and I wondered was this how the conversion of the British from paganism to Christianity also came about?

Old belief's do die hard and many Mexican's (who are Catholic) still travel to the ruins of the pyramid above Tepoztlan to make offerings and be 'healed' at this pre-Columbian religious site. Offerings were evident on top of the pyramid the day I climbed up, fortunately with the advent of the new god the practice of human sacrifice has been discontinued.

Getting off religion to a lighter topic it's worth noting that a number of words in the english language come from the Aztecs, some examples are chocolate, vanilla, maize and tomatoes not to mention tortilla, taco etc. However my personal favorite is avocado which is derived from the Aztec word agucate meaning 'tree of testicles'. Consider this next time you order guacamole.........