Travel log
Oaxaca alternative
Day 1
STA. MARIA TILTEPEC
SANTA MARIA TILTEPEC, San Pedro Topiltepec, Oaxaca.- The 16th century Dominican temple built in this community is a clear example of the religious syncretism of the Mixtec people. On the facade of the building, along with the gods brought by the Spaniards, pagan deities were also sculpted, such as the god-king 8 Venado Garra de Jaguar, who dominated the entire Mixtec and coastal region of the present state of Oaxaca at the beginning of the century XII.
According to the interpretation of the Codex Nutall by Manuel A. Hermano Lejarazu, 8 Venado was a conqueror who reached the very confines of the earth, where the sky and the sea meet, but his journey does not end there and continues as far as it is born The sun itself.
"It even reaches the tree from which the first beings who help to order the world according to the Mixtec worldview are born. It submits to the deities and beings of the underworld, finally arriving with the God of the Sun and realizes the ceremony of the sacred fire, thus obtaining its recognition “.
The construction
The certified guide of the community informs that the Dominican temple has three stages of construction: the first is from the sixteenth century that corresponds to the open chapel, then in the seventeenth century the nave was built and in the nineteenth century the parish was annexed.
It explains that with the arrival of the Spaniards to the Mixteca region the construction of this temple began, nevertheless it encloses diverse symbolisms; "The first is that as our ancestors worshiped the sun and the moon, then an open chapel was erected like that of Teposcolula. temple"
The temple even contrasts with other constructions of the region, by its prolixity of symbols embedded in its facade and lateral doors. In the access on the left side, syncretism is also evident, since together with the representation of the Christian worldview, from the creation to the omnipresence of the Lord, the two main Mixtec deities were sculpted: the sun and the moon.
The GOD -KING
On the left side of the main facade, which seems to have been carved piece by piece and then placed in the whole building, can be clearly seen the stylized figure of a jaguar and on them the deer. This, among figures of blackberries that was a crop introduced by the Dominicans for the breeding of silkworms. You can also see flowers, ears and stylized ears.
"I let you teach me another religion, that you raise temples to your gods, but my gods will also be represented."
He affirms that there is no other temple in the Mixtec region that has such a clear combination of gods and symbols. "The other buildings have more saints and lily flowers, but here our idiosyncrasy is represented, because there are many symbols related to the earth.”
It indicates that of the left side of the facade there is a representation that speaks of the terrestrial world, with blackberries, flowers, milpas, animals; And the other is much more spiritual, with a pegasus, symbols of the Dominicans, flowers.
The Christian Vision
On the left side of the building, perfectly sculpted figures, you can observe the history of humanity from the Christian view. On top of two columns is a man and a woman, who represent Adam and Eve.
Above, one can see the baby Jesus with a cross in his hand; The Calvary with the cross, the nails, the holy shroud, the crown of thorns and the ladder of the crucifixion; and in the upper part the Eternal Father, who rules over all mankind.
The strange thing is that on the right side of the representation of the Eternal Father can be seen a sun and, at the other end, the moon, as well as stars, main gods of the Mixtec culture.
"Here is the representation of the two religions, both that which already existed and that which the Spaniards came to impose; Our ancestors adopted Christianity but did not forget their gods, represented it throughout the Dominican temple; In fact there is a greater number of symbols of the old Mixtecs than of Christianity in this building. “
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STO.DOMINGO YANHUITLAN
The town of Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan in the Mixteca Alta, is located exactly in the valley that holds the same name and there is one more of the many convents of the Dominican route.
Yanhuitlán was in the pre-hispanic time one of the main mixtecos accents and was a place of worship to pagan gods or Teocalli, on which the Dominican friars came to build the magnificent convent that we admire today.
Like other contemporary convents, it consists of a main temple and an open chapel. Although the canons established by the Superiors of the Order were followed, there were some differences in the distribution of spaces between convents and others.
In Yanhuitlan, for example, the open chapel is attached to the convent and the main temple. In fact the chapel, under its large arched vault, gives access to the porter and the cloister.
The main temple is a single nave and its facade facing west is extremely simple, a fact that contrasts with the elegance of the cloister and the decorative richness of the interior of the church. The lateral altar pieces, niches, statues, cornices and coffered ceilings of exquisite carving.
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SN. JUAN BAUTISTA COIXTLAHUACA
In the population of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca the Dominican Fathers built this convent from which they extended their mission of evangelization to peoples of different ethnicities.
At the time of the Spanish conquest, groups of speakers of the Mixtec, Chocho, Popoloca, Ixcateco and Nahuatl languages converged in the region, so that by gathering all these nationalities here, the friars had to preach the gospel in different languages and surely For that reason they enriched with all sorts of liturgical symbols the facade of the conventual temple, as well as the open chapel. The observer will note that this chapel is here exempt or isolated from the rest of the complex formed by the temple and the convent.
Unfortunately the chapel has lost most of the vault that covered it, and yet what remains of it gives a good idea of the richness of its complicated design. Note also the very unique design of the main facade of the temple, solved with 32 niches (16 on each side of the gate and the rosette of the choir).
In better times, these niches housed statues of saints and objects related to the Order of Santo Domingo but none of them remain. In any case, this facade, together with the other facing north, established a balance between the exterior and interior of the temple, as had not been seen in the Mixtec convents.
Inside, the vast open spaces allow you to admire the main altar with all its gold filigree and its famous paintings, highlighting by its height and strength the ribs that support the roof and the collateral chapels of the nave are unique among the conventual temples Of the Mixteca Alta.
The convent has suffered through the centuries the destruction of most of its rooms, floors and roofs due to the violent earthquakes that hit the Mixteca, the stormy drizzles that year after year filter their waters in the walls and especially to the abandonment of men.
However, the language of architecture in ruins is more than eloquent and the interested visitor will be able to listen when walking through the immense and lonely rooms, sunny patios, the corridors that sometimes lead nowhere and the impressive stairways, and interpret to his taste that history that only the old stones know how to count. Of course, you should not miss the monumental San Cristobal with the child on his shoulders, which is in the nave of the staircase leading to the upper cloister.
Judge the visitor the quality of the pictorial work that has the great merit of having been preserved despite its antiquity and of being one of the very rare representations of this saint in the Oaxacan iconography.
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SAN PABLO TEPOSCOLULA
After the Fathers of Santo Domingo de Guzman established their great convent in Mexico City, they began the founding of new missions to the south of the country and came to evangelize Mixtec and Zapotec territories. In their missionary journey they found the Mixteca Alta and there, in the placid valleys that interrupt the mountainous arrests, they built most of a series of convents that today we know as "the Dominica Route."
One of these is found in the population of San Pedro and San Pablo Teposcolula. It consists of three buildings with their facades facing the atrium: the convent, the main temple and the open chapel.
Teposcolula was, in the pre-Hispanic world, a settlement of one of the main Mixtec lords, a circumstance that took advantage of the colonizers and religious entrusted to convert the population to new ideas and new faith.
To accomplish this, the friars took advantage of how many procedures and strategies they had at their disposal and within their reach the Chapel was open as as possible, from the inside of which the priest preached and officiated to the natives who, in the open court, watched and learned the Eucharist as their new religion.
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Glory and pride of this noble convent was and is the open chapel, unique not only in Oaxaca or in Mexico but throughout America, for its original architectural design, for the audacity of its proportions and for the quality of the elements that decorate it .
In no other open chapel so many good sculptors dared so much. Although the façade of the main temple has undergone modifications throughout the centuries, it preserves the sculptures of saints who adorn it so much and who are the best examples of Indian Christian sculptural art that took place in the 16th century.
First, the Laws of Reforma and then the time and the abandonment, led to the gradual deterioration of this convent and its annexed spaces and only the great efforts that are being made today are succeeding in recovering the greatness - never completely lost - of the convent, the temple main and the chapel open.
La casa de la Cacica
The so-called Casa de la Cacica de Teposcolula forms part of a mixteco-European necklace of architectural jewels from the 16th century.
Teposcolula, Oaxaca, was the head of the province of Mixteca during the colonial period. There are monuments of great historical and architectural value.
Built around 1560, the Casa de la Cacica was the main component of the residence of the natural lords of Teposcolula and is undoubtedly a unique example, not only in the Mixteca and Oaxaca, but throughout America.
