After La Iglesia de San Francisco, the next stop was the simpler, but also beautiful, Iglesia de Santa Maria. Our guide described how the Catholic Church co-opted the indigienous peoples' gods and goddesses. In the Cholula area, the most important deity was female, so it was only logical to focus on Mary when converting the locals.
Like San Francisco, Santa Maria is ornate, but has much less gilding, because the area wasn't as rich. But the decorations inside are interesting because, when local artisans were working on it, they managed to sneak in symbols of their deities. A person or animal that symbolized a Christian concept might also double as the symbol of the goddess of water, for instance. Also, the angels and saints of Santa Maria are darker-skinned and have features more like the indigenous artisans' families than like their conquerors. And like their brothers down through the ages, the carpenters left items concealed inside their work -- objects and symbols of their religion inside the altar, for example.
Photography is forbidden inside or outside Santa Maria "for reasons of security," but in reality, reasons of securing income from visitors. As in the States, a good job is hard to find these days, and often a lousy one isn't easy to get either.
(As Antonio Prado, the school's director, explained on Monday, anyone who can afford to come to the institute for even one month is "upper class" in comparison to almost everyone here. Many Poblanos y Cholulanos are surprised when a visitor attempts to speak Spanish with them, and often they feel a bit flattered. On the other hand, I feel flattered when a local person responds patiently and politely to my mangled Spanish. I seem to be trying to express ideas far too complex for my vocabulary most of the time.)
Cholula is the scene of an archaeological/architectural wonder, an immense pyramid, much of which remains unexcavated, with guess what on top of it? Right! A Catholic Church. It's a long, strenuous climb to the top, the only way to get there, and I decided "no vale la pena" -- not worth the effort (and risk of injury) for me.
So instead of climbing, I visited a cafe with a 20-something insitute student who is Japanese but has a Mexican esposo and an adorable niña named Yodi, who is 2.5 years old. (I really miss the 1/2-1/4 keys on old typewriters sometimes.) Yodi and her mamacita y papi live in Puebla because it's halfway between Mexico City and another city where papi's job takes him part of the time.
If you want to see the wonders of the Cholula pyramid, check it out online. If I ever have a chance to post photos here, all I have are pix of a large model of the area and a replica of a mural painted primarily with crushed insects (cochineal) mixed with oil, plus a couple of shots from a great distance.
Today, my guia for the week, Lenny, and I must have walked 2 or 3 miles, exploring a museum of artifacts, paintings and more, from pre-contact and colonial eras to the years from independence in 1810 to about 1910, and then checking out an open-air market full of items mostly appealing to children and tourists. I saw quite a few things I liked, but almost nothing has a price tag, and the scarf I liked best was labeled "hecho en India." Somehow, buying a scarf (bufanda) made in India doesn't seem like the best way to spend money in Mexico. I'd rather aid the local artisans.
Uh-oh! Time to either brave rush hour on a bus or call a cab . . .
¡Hasta luego!
Elena
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