The recent demise of one of my dearest friends has made me reflect on how my experiences in Mexico have not only enriched my life, but also taught me to better cope with death. I am deeply grateful to my Mexican friends for having given me a model for accepting human mortality and facing loss […]
Continue ReadingIn 1523, just two years after the Aztec capital of Tenochitlan fell to Hernán Cortés and his Conquistadors, the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived to begin the religious conquest of Mexico. Fray Bernadino de Sahagún and his fellow Franciscan brothers immediately immersed themselves in the intensive study of indigenous tongues along with the history, customs […]
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St. Lucia is the patron saint of eyes. The story is told that she was very beautiful, and had many suitors. One of them said that he had fallen uncontrollably in love with her eyes. She plucked out her eyes and sent them to him on a plate. He stopped pursuing her, and the virgin […]
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The pictures here were taken in the church in the old mining town of Real de Catorce, in San Luis Potosi. There is a side room of the church dedicated to exvotos. Photo Gallery of Exvotos Senor de Villaseca, Cata Saint Lucia, Guanajuato Exvoto Article Published or Updated on: December 7, 2007 by Richard Ferguson © 2008
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This is part of one wall of the church in Cata, near the town of Guanajuato. When I visited in 1996, the walls were completely covered with exvotos to a height of twenty feet. When I returned in 1999, the exvotos had been taken down for conservation. Published or Updated on: December 7, 2007 by Richard Ferguson © […]
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Exvoto is a Spanish word meaning votive offering. My English dictionary says that the word comes from the Latin, meaning “out of a promise or vow” and that these votive offerings are given or dedicated in fulfillment of a vow or pledge, or expressing a wish, desire, or vow. In Mexico, an exvoto is most commonly a personal […]
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We possess an extraordinary account of this beautiful story, dated in the 16th century: the Nican Mopohua, written by an Indian nobleman, Don Antonio Valeriano, who was baptized and converted to Catholicism. He was a very educated man. The language he used was Náhuatl, the one the Aztecs spoke. The story is called the Nican Mopohua […]
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It must have been an incredibly difficult and painful journey in its time, sailing from Sevilla on the very frontier of Europe to Nueva España, then traveling on foot within the limitless boundaries of that still empty land from one end of the new empire to the other. The 17th and 18th centuries in the […]
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We were snapping wedding photos in the atrium of the church – that’s the big square in front of old Mexican churches where the Indians gathered to hear Mass – when the “next” bride and her wedding party arrived and politely shooed our party away. We couldn’t complain. “Our” bride had shooed off a “previous” […]
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The majority of people who visit the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico will visit Cancún, Cozumel or Mérida. All these places have an established tourist infrastructure, are modern and contain every convenience necessary for tourism. However, in close proximity to these well known tourist destinations, exist the villages of Yucatán. In the villages there is almost […]
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