Prayer The Art That Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers


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Each year in December, millions of Catholics embark on a pilgrimage.

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They come from all over Mexico and beyond.

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Their final destination is a church in the Northern Quarter of the capital, Mexico City.

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In a very public display of painful self-sacrifice and atonement,

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the most devout of these pilgrims approach the last miles on their knees.

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Many of them cling to the image they carry on their back.

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It's one of the most famous works of devotional art in the world.

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The image is the Virgin of Guadalupe,

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and she's revered by Mexico's 100 million Catholics.

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She offers grace and protection to all who worship at her shrine,

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and the image has transcended religion to become one of the country's most unifying symbols.

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But this image was borne out of brutal conquest that changed the course of

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Mexican and world history.

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It symbolises the eradication of Mexico's ancient cultures by the might of

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the Spanish and the imposition of Catholicism.

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It was one more turn for a country whose history and people have been

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propelled by three main forces...

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..land and nature,

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which have been both the source of life and the cause of conflict and

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death since the earliest times...

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..the struggle for power,

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which has defined this nation's history over millennia,

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and faith, in Mesoamerican gods and Christian iconography,

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which has been ever-present throughout its existence.

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They are the beats,

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rhythms and currents of Mexico, and they run through my blood.

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As an artist born here and with roots stretching back generations...

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..I want to take you on a journey through these three great stories that have shaped

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not just Mexican art, but Mexico itself.

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And in this programme I explore how faith, ancient and modern,

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has been a constant driver of all Mexican civilisations.

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The power of art to provide a focus for belief in Mexico didn't begin

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with the Virgin of Guadalupe,

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but it is a vital image in understanding how art has provided

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an unbreakable link between religion and the Mexican people.

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As an artist,

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I was inspired and overwhelmed by the ritualised expression of devotion to

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the Virgin and the infinite reproductions of the sacred image the pilgrims carry.

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I decided to photograph individual pilgrims to explore the deeply personal

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relationship between image and belief.

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So this is the series I made over the course of two years at the

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Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City,

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specifically during the days of the Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

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And this is significant because there's eight million people that go there

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every year, and I was one of those eight million.

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Now, Mexican devotees have at least one image of the Virgin in their home -

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in their bedroom, in their living room, in their dining room -

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and they take their image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

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I could see the Virgins on people's backs turned back towards me and

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they looked like they were dancing,

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and I started photographing the backs of the pilgrims carrying their personal Virgin.

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Each one has a completely neutral white space around them, which

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echoes the Resplandor, which is the light around the Virgin.

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So this is the flower that we use in Mexico at Christmas, Noche Buena,

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and he's decorated it with Christmas flowers.

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Here are the roses from the Apparition, and he's done this graffiti himself.

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And I just think this one is full of energy and full of his personality,

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and he's wearing Nike red trainers to match.

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For me, this series is a deconstruction of the philosophical,

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psychological and sociocultural need for an image in order to believe.

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What is it as visual beings that makes us crave images, need images,

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in order to feel a connection to the divine?

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The original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs in this modern

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basilica, where it still draws millions of pious Catholics.

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It was painted in the 16th century,

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most likely by an indigenous painter who would have been retrained in a

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new European style by Franciscan monks.

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PRAYING

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When Spain conquered Mesoamerica,

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part of their mission was to convert the people to Christianity.

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Art was one of their most persuasive tools.

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To the Catholic Church, the Virgin of Guadalupe is more than art.

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They believe this image came about through miraculous contact with the

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Holy Mother herself.

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This miracle was aimed at convincing the indigenous people to embrace a new religion.

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According to Mexican Catholic tradition, one day in December 1531, Juan Diego,

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an indigenous farmer, was making his way to Mass through Tepeyac Hill,

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the sacred site of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin,

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when suddenly before him appeared a vision.

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It was the Virgin Mary.

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She appeared three more times over the course of four days.

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On the last apparition,

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the Virgin instructed Juan Diego to collect the roses from the top of the hill.

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He was very surprised by this instruction because actually it was December

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and the hill was usually barren.

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But when he arrived, it was plentiful with flowers.

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He collected and folded them into his tunic

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and took them to the Bishop.

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When he arrived,

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he unfolded his tunic to reveal not only the roses but also that the image

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of the Virgin had imprinted itself onto the tunic.

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This is a miracle of the Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

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When she appeared in the early 16th century,

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the indigenous people were incorporated into the Catholic religion through a miracle.

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From that moment, the Virgin became embedded in this new world.

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She was invoked in the rallying call that triggered Mexico's War of Independence in 1810.

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And 100 years later, in the Mexican Revolution,

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rebel forces also marched under her banner.

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She transcended religion and has become emblematic of Mexico itself.

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It's paintings and sculptures of the Virgin that Catholics worship.

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In return, the Holy Mother provides comfort and protection.

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This concept wasn't strange when she was introduced to the people of Mesoamerica.

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Their religions had developed over thousands of years and included the

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worship of male and female deities,

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who helped them overcome adversity and solve their problems.

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Many of their gods represented the vital forces of rain and wind,

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war and wisdom, death and fertility.

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And some deities, similar to the Virgin of Guadalupe, stood supreme.

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The Great Goddess, a mother goddess,

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was a principal deity of one of the great city states of the ancient world.

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Between 100 and 600 AD,

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Teotihuacan had an enormous religious influence across all of ancient Mexico.

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Nearly 700 years after it fell,

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the ruins were a place of pilgrimage for the all-conquering Aztecs.

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They believed the city had been built by gods.

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And you can see why.

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It's vast, designed to swamp the individual in an overarching cosmic

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vision expressed through some of the most remarkable art and architecture

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in the world. A three-mile long processional way is flanked by monumental

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pyramids dedicated to the sun and the moon

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as well as a huge walled square where the people would gather for

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religious rituals.

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The far end of the square is one of the most striking and ornately

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designed buildings in all of the Americas, el Templo de la Serpiente Emplumada -

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the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

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The Feathered Serpent was a formidable deity that had associations with

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power, war and nobility.

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The construction of this temple in the third century is thought to have

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signalled a shift in the power balance within Teotihuacan and the rise of the cult

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of the Feathered Serpent.

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And to demonstrate this cult's power, 200 people were sacrificed,

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including high-status warriors.

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Blood, the essence of life, was offered in return for this god's favour.

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The cult commanded their artisans to design a structure that placed their

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authority at the very heart of Teotihuacano belief.

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Artisans were kept close to power in Teotihuacan.

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Their ability to bring deities to life was considered a supernatural act in itself.

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Even after its fall,

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Teotihuacan continued to command spiritual influence over succeeding civilisations,

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particularly the Aztecs, who worshipped many of the same deities.

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At the beginning of the 16th century,

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this long religious and artistic tradition came to an abrupt halt.

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Spanish Conquistadors, under the command of the adventurer Hernan Cortes,

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landed on the shores of Mesoamerica in 1519.

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They were intent on plunder, but they did so under the banner of their religion, Catholicism.

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This work of art is called El Lienzo De Tlaxcala, The Linen Of Tlaxcala.

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It's an indigenous account of the darkest event in the history of the sacred city of Cholula.

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In the course of one day in 1519, the Spanish killed thousands here,

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looting treasure and burning temples.

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A final humiliation after this massacre was the construction of a

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Catholic church on top of the city's sacred pyramid.

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This marked the emphatic arrival of a new world view that would forever

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alter the nature of belief in this part of the world.

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From Cholula, Cortes

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and his men marched towards their ultimate goal -

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the capital of the all-powerful Aztec Empire.

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This is all that remains of a once great city.

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And it lies at the heart of Mexico City.

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THEY SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE

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They're opening a water duct

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so that the water streams down and doesn't erode the existing structure.

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Underneath Mexico's capital lies another capital called Tenochtitlan.

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It was the centre of the Aztec's spiritual world,

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the very axis between their heavens and their underworlds.

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At its height in the 16th century,

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it was said to have been home to as many as 200,000 people.

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When the Spanish first saw this city in November of 1519,

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its scale and beauty astonished them.

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It was likened to Venice because the city was crisscrossed by a series of canals.

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And its great temple, dedicated to the god of war and rain,

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rivalled the cathedrals of Sevilla and Cordoba.

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It's now only in art that we can see the full grandeur of this city

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because, admiration aside, the Spanish reduced Tenochtitlan to rubble.

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BELLS TOLL

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It's amazing to see the cathedral

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right over the walls of the Templo Mayor.

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There was a total destruction, a mission to destroy Aztec civilisation,

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and you can really see that here because the same stone that came from the

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Templo Mayor, the centre of the Aztec world, built the cathedral.

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The same materials, the same building techniques, the same families,

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the same people, built both.

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It's quite emotional, actually, because I don't think you feel anywhere in

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Mexico the clash of civilisations as much as you do here.

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And I think it's a reminder that spiritual conquest was an imperative

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of the Spanish colonial project.

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And that led to the destruction not only of the belief system but all

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the material culture that went along with that, and...

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..it fills me with sadness, actually, that all this was destroyed.

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These ruins may well have remained lodged in sediment forever had it

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not been for one night in the 1970s.

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Electrical workers were digging deep under the streets of Mexico City when

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suddenly they hit a massive stone block.

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This monolith, 11 feet across, is called the Coyolxauhqui Stone.

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It's a masterpiece of Aztec art, central to their belief in human sacrifice.

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Carved into the stone are the remains of the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui.

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She was a force of darkness that fought every day against her brother,

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the god of the sun. The Aztecs worshipped the sun and rejuvenated him with

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their own blood. Each day began with the sun killing the moon,

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dismembering her and throwing her body parts from the top of a high mountain.

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So the placing of this monolith at the foot of the stairs of the great

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temple was highly symbolic.

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The temple represented the mountain and, during some calendrical

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festivities, sacrifice was conducted on top of the temple and the victims

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were thrown to the platform,

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and they were, like, re-enacting the death of Coyolxauhqui.

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And who would have carved her?

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The sculptures were a very important part of the Aztec Empire because

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they were in charge of putting the gods in the stone.

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What is also important is that we are seeing this monolith, but we

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need to imagine her all painted.

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-Wow.

-She was colourful.

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You can see she's dismembered...

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..so she represents all these rituals, sacrificial rituals,

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and also you can see in her belly this folding,

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which means she was a mother.

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-Wow.

-So she is connected to fertility, to the moon, to the world.

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For the Aztecs, the art was, you know, commingled with the religion.

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They were not producing for the people, they were producing for the gods,

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to put the gods on the Earth, to re-enact the myths.

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So it's more complex than art.

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This is a wall of carvings of human skulls, and the archaeologist that

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found them found them scattered around the area of Templo Mayor, and put them back

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together to mirror a wall of real skulls.

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They were a reminder of the human sacrifices that had been made,

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the animal sacrifices as well.

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Jaguars, pumas and wolves were sacrificed along with humans.

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Catholic missionaries described the Aztecs as being skilled in the

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mechanical and liberal arts and as being perfect philosophers and

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astrologers, but their religion was said to be inspired by the Devil.

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It was ritual human and animal sacrifice that

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was diabolical in their eyes.

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And it served as a pretext for one of the most brutal campaigns of

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iconoclasm in world history.

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Catholic missionaries evangelised the vanquished indigenous people

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whilst burning their religious artefacts.

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The items that survive give us a picture of the colour,

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vibrancy and complexity of the indigenous religion.

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The Spanish knew that conversion of the indigenous people could not be

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achieved through coercion alone.

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They retrained the artisans of Mesoamerica to create art in a European style

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that would help spread a new message -

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art could only serve Catholicism in the land that was now called the

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Viceroyalty of New Spain.

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The Spanish claimed that it was religion and not plunder that was

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the driving principle of the conquest.

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The church immediately set about changing the skyline of their colony.

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Pyramids topped with temples were replaced with churches and steeples

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topped with a cross.

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The construction of Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral spanned three

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centuries and incorporated Renaissance, neoclassical and baroque styles.

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This opulence wasn't borne out of devotion alone.

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The high demand for lucrative exports of silver,

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indigo and chocolate quickly made this colony the jewel in the Spanish crown.

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The Catholic Church was given a considerable role in the new colonial state.

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It grew rich from collecting tithes on all agricultural production, and

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this gave it the political and financial clout to dominate the art of the colony.

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This is the Altar of the Kings. It's florid,

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fantastic and the design is overpowering.

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Standing over 80 feet tall and almost 50 feet across,

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it's the backdrop that projects the dominance of the Church in New Spain,

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where priests would celebrate the Eucharist -

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the symbolic but bloodless sacrifice of Catholicism.

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The altar is built in a style referred to as the Ultrabaroque -

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an even more exaggerated version of the overwrought and ornate style of

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the Baroque. A key motif of the Ultrabaroque is the estipite -

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inverted obelisks that are used in place of traditional weight-bearing columns.

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The effect is to give the impression that the entire altar floats.

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Like most architecture and art in New Spain,

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the Ultrabaroque was an imported style.

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The Church wanted artists to produce exact replicas of European works.

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But within the cathedral, there are extraordinary 17th-century paintings by

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an artist born and raised in the colony who managed to develop his own

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artistic language, even when working within the strict confines set down

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by the Church.

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His name was Cristobal de Villalpando.

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Cristobal de Villalpando was one of the best painters that Mexico,

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New Spain, produced.

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In my mind, probably the best painter...

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..that lived and worked in New Spain.

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He is the painter that best represents...

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..what would be Baroque in Mexico.

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I think the painter he's most akin to is probably Rubens.

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In terms of being a painter in a Catholic Spanish context,

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they would have been similar because Rubens, of course,

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was working in Catholic Flanders, which was governed by Spain.

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So they would have had some of the same sorts of subjects to deal with -

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the glory of the Church, the glory of the monarchy, this sort of thing.

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What would you say makes his work Mexican?

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He never left Mexico.

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What he knew about painting he learned here, and how he developed,

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he developed here. He starts out as a painter who is much more linear -

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that is, one can see outlines clearly of his figures.

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With time, outlines of the figures are not as important as the

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brushstrokes or as the play of colour.

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For centuries, in a room where the vestments and articles of worship

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are kept, priests have prepared for mass surrounded by some of the most

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glorious art of the Spanish world.

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It's amazing.

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We're in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Mexico City, and actually one of

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the oldest parts of the building, the vault, is a Gothic vault.

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So this was built in the late 16th century.

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And here, over the door...

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..is a glorious painting.

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It's a very famous painting by Cristobal de Villalpando.

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It's the Apotheosis of Saint Michael, the Archangel -

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of course the protector of the Church.

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The whole point of this space is to make one statement after another about the

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glory of the Church in general and the glory of the Mexican Church in particular.

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Is it a coincidence that Michael's wearing Mexico's national colours?

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They are also the colours that correspond to the three cardinal virtues.

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Red is for charity, white is for faith, and green,

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which of course refers to vegetation, the hope of new growth.

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It's not only a glorious painting and tells us that he's a very great artist,

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but he also puts himself in the painting.

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There's a figure who is not a cleric,

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he's dressed in black and has a smaller white collar,

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and that's a self-portrait of Villalpando.

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He's looking straight out at us,

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which is an identifying sign for self-portraits,

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and below in the bushes there there's a scroll, and it has on it a

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signature that Villalpando made this and Villalpando invented this.

0:28:470:28:53

Villalpando's assertion of originality in his work was

0:28:570:29:01

a sign that artists in New Spain wanted their artistry and individuality

0:29:010:29:06

to be reflected in their work.

0:29:060:29:09

It was the very beginning of a distinct national style.

0:29:090:29:12

Artists would still look to Europe for inspiration, and their commissions

0:29:150:29:18

would still be dominated by the Church,

0:29:180:29:21

but their work was inspired by their life in this colony.

0:29:210:29:25

Miguel Cabrera was a deeply religious man who was one of the leading

0:29:270:29:32

artists of 18th-century New Spain.

0:29:320:29:34

He was commissioned to paint a copy of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which was

0:29:340:29:38

presented to the Pope in 1754 -

0:29:380:29:42

an act which marked the increasing importance of New World Catholicism.

0:29:420:29:46

He also painted portraits that captured the secular luxury as well as the

0:29:490:29:54

blossoming intellectual life of New Spain.

0:29:540:29:56

His most famous portrait hangs today in the Natural History Museum and

0:29:580:30:03

features a remarkable woman.

0:30:030:30:05

This woman is a nun.

0:30:060:30:08

Her name is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

0:30:100:30:13

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a unique woman -

0:30:130:30:16

unique in intelligence, talent...

0:30:160:30:20

..and personality.

0:30:210:30:24

I think it's the most brilliant mind...

0:30:240:30:27

..extraordinary mind in all Mexican history.

0:30:280:30:32

Born into poverty in 1648 and raised by her grandfather,

0:30:330:30:38

she was a precociously intelligent child.

0:30:380:30:41

By the age of eight, she was writing poetry, and by 13 she had mastered

0:30:410:30:46

Latin and Greek.

0:30:460:30:47

Stating that she was averse to marriage, she became a nun,

0:30:490:30:53

where she could devote her life to God but also commune with ideas and knowledge.

0:30:530:30:58

She wrote poetry and plays,

0:31:010:31:03

one of which provocatively questioned the brutal treatment of the Aztecs

0:31:030:31:07

as well as showing sympathy for indigenous beliefs.

0:31:070:31:10

It strikes me that her nun's badge is very large.

0:31:120:31:17

Why do you think that is?

0:31:170:31:19

Maybe Miguel Cabrera wants to emphasise...

0:31:190:31:23

..the scene of the Annunciation.

0:31:240:31:26

The Virgin Maria...

0:31:260:31:28

..renounced the every day and common life to become the Mother of God and

0:31:290:31:36

is the parallel to Sor Juana when she renounced to be just a woman

0:31:360:31:43

and became a nun.

0:31:430:31:44

Cabrera captures the essence of a woman who devoted her life to spiritual reflection.

0:31:470:31:53

She's not impassive or meek but confident and fired by an

0:31:530:31:58

endless intellectual curiosity.

0:31:580:32:01

In this painting, she was looking to you.

0:32:010:32:05

-Mm-hm.

-But you don't know what she's telling you.

0:32:050:32:10

Mm.

0:32:100:32:12

Maybe she was asking you why you are looking at her.

0:32:120:32:16

At the time this painting was made,

0:32:160:32:19

what was the relationship between artist and commissioner?

0:32:190:32:23

The artists made that commissioners want.

0:32:230:32:28

The artist put the technique, the commissioner put the composition.

0:32:280:32:32

The commissioner made all the details because Sor Juana, in this case,

0:32:330:32:40

Sor Juana was the hero of the convent.

0:32:400:32:42

And the commissioner wanted to emphasise that Sor Juana was the

0:32:430:32:48

most important nun in that convent.

0:32:480:32:51

Sor Juana, Miguel Cabrera and Cristobal de Villalpando were notable individuals in the

0:32:520:32:58

development of a distinct artistic and intellectual tradition in New Spain.

0:32:580:33:04

They were Creoles - people of Spanish descent who were born in the colony.

0:33:040:33:09

By the 18th century, a separate Creole identity emerged...

0:33:110:33:15

..one more sympathetic to the indigenous population.

0:33:170:33:20

Here, an anonymous painting from the 17th century depicts the Aztec Emperor

0:33:250:33:30

Moctezuma as self-sacrificing.

0:33:300:33:33

He holds his hand to his chest like Christ showing his wounds to his

0:33:330:33:37

disciples as he relinquishes his crown and sceptre to an unseen but

0:33:370:33:42

higher Christian authority.

0:33:420:33:44

This free interpretation

0:33:510:33:52

of New Spain's history was not exclusive to an intellectual elite.

0:33:520:33:57

Indigenous people had never relinquished certain aspects of their beliefs,

0:33:570:34:02

and they were weaving them into the cultural foundations of the colony.

0:34:020:34:05

Wherever you go in Mexico, such as here in the city of Goma,

0:34:080:34:12

there's always reminders of how this country's precolonial past endured

0:34:120:34:18

and transformed.

0:34:180:34:19

Muchas gracias.

0:34:190:34:22

So this is a pre-Hispanic drink made out of cocoa, amaranth, maize,

0:34:220:34:30

cinnamon and water.

0:34:300:34:32

And she uses this mixer.

0:34:330:34:38

Mm. It's absolutely delicious.

0:34:400:34:44

It's like really good hot chocolate, but it's cold.

0:34:440:34:49

It's really fresh.

0:34:490:34:50

The Europeans added sugar cane to chocolate,

0:34:510:34:54

a small example of how two cultures clashed but also mixed.

0:34:540:34:58

This blend played out all across new Spain,

0:34:590:35:03

most explicitly in the mestizos,

0:35:030:35:06

the mixed raced children of Spanish men and indigenous women.

0:35:060:35:09

But it was also evident here in the Church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla,

0:35:110:35:16

an extravagant articulation of faith drawn from Mexico's distinctive

0:35:160:35:21

wellspring.

0:35:210:35:22

The church is dedicated not just to the Virgin Mary,

0:35:220:35:26

but also to the Aztec mother goddess, Tonantzin.

0:35:260:35:30

It was built in the 17th century and from the outside, it appears modest.

0:35:300:35:35

But what makes this church so remarkable is the interior.

0:35:350:35:39

It's a design that defies description.

0:35:460:35:49

The walls and the ceilings are completely covered in painted and

0:35:490:35:54

gold coated plaster work.

0:35:540:35:56

It's an almost overwhelming avalanche of detail.

0:35:560:35:59

Indigenous artisans were needed to build the many churches throughout new Spain.

0:36:530:36:59

These craftsmen worked to European designs but they interpreted them

0:36:590:37:03

and fused with pre-Hispanic aesthetics.

0:37:030:37:06

Aztec religion was almost eradicated by the Europeans.

0:37:470:37:51

The last Aztec ruler, Cuauhtemoc, was tortured by the Spanish,

0:37:510:37:56

not because of his beliefs, but because they were convinced he was

0:37:560:38:00

holding vast amounts of gold.

0:38:000:38:02

He beseeched his people to surrender their material wealth

0:38:020:38:06

but never their core beliefs.

0:38:060:38:08

The unforeseen consequence of a relentless campaign to eradicate

0:38:410:38:45

indigenous belief was the fusing of two competing religions.

0:38:450:38:49

The indigenous people incorporated their religion into Christian ritual

0:38:500:38:55

and ceremony.

0:38:550:38:56

It was often camouflaged and unnoticed.

0:38:560:39:00

The church of Santa Maria Tonantzintla is a remarkable example

0:39:000:39:04

of how architecture allowed the teachings of a forbidden doctrine

0:39:040:39:09

to hide in plain sight.

0:39:090:39:10

It wasn't until the 20th century that these pre-Hispanic belief

0:39:130:39:18

systems would be officially embraced and reinterpreted by the Mexican people.

0:39:180:39:21

Modern Mexico evolved over 200 years,

0:39:220:39:25

beginning with the War of Independence from Spain in 1810,

0:39:250:39:29

and then the long and bloody revolution in 1910.

0:39:290:39:33

What finally emerged from these conflicts was the establishment of a

0:39:340:39:38

cohesive national identity.

0:39:380:39:40

Not one dictated by the church, but by a group of intellectuals and

0:39:400:39:45

artists determined to celebrate and not deny Mexico's ancient cultures.

0:39:450:39:50

From this generation, an artist of global significance emerged.

0:39:540:39:58

Diego Rivera.

0:39:580:39:59

Diego Rivera was a giant of 20th-century art.

0:40:020:40:06

Most famous for his monumental murals that captured the spirit and

0:40:060:40:10

imagination of post-revolutionary Mexico.

0:40:100:40:13

His work is densely packed with a formidable grasp of his country's history.

0:40:130:40:18

His ambition went much further than murals.

0:40:180:40:21

When Mexico City was overhauling its water system in the 1950s,

0:40:310:40:35

it felt it needed the touch of an artist to cap the project.

0:40:350:40:39

The commission fell to Rivera, who drew from Mexican history, the

0:40:390:40:43

most appropriate figure to anchor this municipal work - an ancient rain god.

0:40:430:40:49

The result was La Fuente de Tlaloc, the fountain of Tlaloc.

0:40:530:40:57

Tlaloc was known in central Mexico and all the pre-Hispanic societies

0:40:570:41:03

as the God of water, the creator of all life, of course,

0:41:030:41:08

and one of the deities most important god in those cultures.

0:41:080:41:13

Do you think Diego Rivera was trying to be provocative to the Catholic

0:41:130:41:18

Church by invoking a pre-Hispanic god in this fountain?

0:41:180:41:23

Well, he was provocative in all his career, of course.

0:41:230:41:26

Pre-Hispanic figures and pre-Hispanic gods were something

0:41:270:41:31

all Mexicans can relate to, and as the pre-Hispanic societies

0:41:310:41:35

were the best of these new nationalism, I think Diego Rivera

0:41:350:41:40

was thinking about Tlaloc as someone who all Mexicans can relate to.

0:41:400:41:45

And, of course, he was very close to archaeologists

0:41:450:41:47

and anthropologists at the time who were studying pre-Hispanic cultures.

0:41:470:41:53

At that time, the studies, the archaeological studies,

0:41:530:41:56

were quite avant-garde by the time,

0:41:560:41:58

so that's very interesting to see how that became a national symbol.

0:41:580:42:05

Water is symbolic everywhere but can you explain why, in particular, in

0:42:060:42:11

Mexico it's such a strong symbol?

0:42:110:42:15

Well, you have to remember we are in Mexico City and Mexico City is built

0:42:150:42:20

over a lake, so, always it is part of our identity as a city

0:42:200:42:26

and as a country.

0:42:260:42:27

Diego Rivera thought about this fountain to be seen from above.

0:42:330:42:38

Actually, he was thinking about people passing on aeroplanes and

0:42:380:42:43

seeing this fountain, so the figure is very dynamic

0:42:430:42:46

if you see it from above.

0:42:460:42:47

But this fountain marks only one half of this artistic project.

0:42:530:42:57

There's another aspect to this work.

0:42:570:42:59

A vast water tank where the water flowed to the city.

0:43:040:43:07

And even though they would be submerged underwater,

0:43:150:43:18

Rivera was asked to bring his genius to bear on these walls.

0:43:180:43:21

Rivera always surprises me with how he brings together apparently...

0:43:230:43:31

..unlinked things and people and objects.

0:43:330:43:36

Here, we see sea life and just above that, an engineers' table,

0:43:360:43:43

scientists working out how they're going to provide water for the

0:43:430:43:48

millions of people in Mexico City.

0:43:480:43:51

We see the deity, the pre-Hispanic deity of water.

0:44:010:44:06

We also see the workers.

0:44:060:44:07

The men and women who helped build these amazing structures.

0:44:090:44:13

Rivera's water tank is a secular hymn to the glory of human endeavour.

0:44:160:44:21

He's asking us to celebrate the labour of these workers

0:44:210:44:25

whose hard graft and knowledge brought water to the capital.

0:44:250:44:28

He draws on the iconography of religion to add history and scale to

0:44:290:44:34

his work. But for him, it's the people and not gods that realise the

0:44:340:44:39

wonders of modern Mexico.

0:44:390:44:41

The once immense power of the Catholic Church diminished

0:44:440:44:47

throughout the 20th century.

0:44:470:44:50

However, Mexico is still deeply devout and religious imagery remains

0:44:500:44:54

ever present.

0:44:540:44:55

There's one popular art form in Mexico that allows an individual

0:44:570:45:01

to combine devotion, gratitude and narrative into a

0:45:010:45:04

deeply personal expression of faith.

0:45:040:45:07

An art form that begins with a desire to give thanks.

0:45:070:45:10

This place is called The Corner Of Miracles because a man

0:45:140:45:18

witnessed a car crash near his house and wanted to offer thanks for the lives saved.

0:45:180:45:23

The thanks he offered was in the form of a painting that has long

0:45:270:45:30

been the preserve of the poor, often rural population.

0:45:300:45:33

What he painted is called an ex-voto, a traditional offering of

0:45:350:45:39

gratitude dedicated to one of the many Catholic saints venerated in Mexico.

0:45:390:45:44

The painter is Alfredo Vilchis and still every day, he paints for

0:45:460:45:50

those wanting to give thanks.

0:45:500:45:52

Sure.

0:48:210:48:22

At the heart of ex-voto painting is a combination of a shared ritual

0:48:510:48:55

tradition alongside intimate struggles.

0:48:550:48:58

The sincerity, vibrancy and freedom of this art spoke

0:49:000:49:04

to a generation of modern artists.

0:49:040:49:06

They also saw an opportunity to reject the rigid formality of

0:49:080:49:12

religious painting by embracing the naive style of ex-voto's.

0:49:120:49:18

One artist whose work incorporated the confessional and symbolic nature

0:49:180:49:22

of ex-voto was one of the most celebrated in the world - Frida Kahlo.

0:49:220:49:27

Much of Frida Kahlo's life was spent suffering from the complications of

0:49:420:49:46

a near fatal and crippling pelvic injury,

0:49:460:49:49

as well as the after effects of childhood polio.

0:49:490:49:52

Through sublimation,

0:49:550:49:57

her suffering became art with a deeply spiritual dimension.

0:49:570:50:02

Her house is now a museum to her life and work,

0:50:020:50:05

including some of her 2,000 strong collection of ex-voto paintings.

0:50:050:50:10

At the time, the church didn't value these objects as sacred art

0:50:110:50:18

or even as art at all, and she imbued them with value because she

0:50:180:50:24

saw the human story behind the image and she not only empathised

0:50:240:50:29

with them, but she really related to them.

0:50:290:50:32

It's really important to remember that she was surrounded by these

0:50:320:50:37

works when she was making her own.

0:50:370:50:39

And she also had a need to express.

0:50:390:50:42

The ex-voto is really born out of a need for someone to express

0:50:420:50:48

their gratitude.

0:50:480:50:49

So it's no wonder, really, that she had such a strong relation to them.

0:50:490:50:55

It takes a lot of courage to remember and commission...

0:50:550:51:00

..a traumatic incident such as an accident or an illness and have the

0:51:020:51:07

humility to thank the saint or the virgin.

0:51:070:51:11

There's a huge sense of not forgetting within an ex-voto,

0:51:110:51:17

of having that constant reminder that you went through this crisis.

0:51:170:51:23

Frida was in that situation.

0:51:230:51:25

She was physically very, very hurt after her accident and this was a

0:51:270:51:32

constant source of physical pain.

0:51:320:51:35

Her relationship with Diego Rivera is famously a painful one,

0:51:350:51:42

so all of these emotional and physical traumas were expressed in a

0:51:420:51:48

very courageous way, I believe, for I feel a great courage behind them.

0:51:480:51:53

At the Delores Olmeda Museum in Mexico City, there are two works of

0:52:010:52:06

Frida's in particular, that show how the motifs of

0:52:060:52:09

ex-voto paintings enabled her to portray her suffering at a time of

0:52:090:52:14

inconsolable loss and pain.

0:52:140:52:16

Monica, can you tell me about her painting the Henry Ford Hospital?

0:52:170:52:22

It was a painting made in 1932.

0:52:220:52:25

It was made while Frida Kahlo was joining Diego Rivera

0:52:250:52:30

in Detroit while he was painting some murals.

0:52:300:52:33

And she had a miscarriage, so that was really,

0:52:330:52:37

really a strong experience for her.

0:52:370:52:39

She drew herself in the painting sort of right in the moment

0:52:390:52:44

where she was having the miscarriage.

0:52:440:52:46

So she also drew six little umbilical cords coming out of her

0:52:460:52:51

that depicted some elements that talk about the strong experience

0:52:510:52:56

that she was going through.

0:52:560:52:57

Following the ex-voto tradition,

0:53:010:53:03

Henry Ford Hospital was painted on tin.

0:53:030:53:06

Frida fills the frame with religious references.

0:53:060:53:10

She suffers like the holy mother from the death of her son.

0:53:100:53:14

On the floor beside her bed is an orchid, an ancient symbol of fertility.

0:53:140:53:20

Above, a snail, an Aztec symbol of birth and rebirth.

0:53:200:53:25

But she breaks with ex-voto tradition in offering

0:53:260:53:29

no thanks to the divine.

0:53:290:53:31

For me, the most interesting thing about the painting is what is not

0:53:310:53:36

there, actually.

0:53:360:53:38

One would expect a virgin or a saint to be in a place

0:53:380:53:41

where it is actually blank, so I think it's really a moment

0:53:410:53:46

where she takes a position that she was going to use the ex-votos as an

0:53:460:53:51

inspiration but put a lot of herself in there.

0:53:510:53:56

As well as a physical torment in her life, Frida also suffered

0:54:000:54:04

emotionally throughout her marriage to Diego Rivera.

0:54:040:54:08

When his philandering was at its worst, she expressed her anguish

0:54:080:54:12

with bitter irony in the form of ex-votos.

0:54:120:54:15

She's talking about a man that stabbed her wife because she was being unfaithful.

0:54:190:54:24

She read about this crime that this man committed and she sort

0:54:240:54:29

of related to it because Diego Rivera was cheating

0:54:290:54:33

on her with her sister.

0:54:330:54:35

You can see the blood also coming out in the frame.

0:54:350:54:40

So I think that was also what fascinated Frida Kahlo

0:54:400:54:45

about the religious painting, that reality and non-reality

0:54:450:54:49

was always really just getting along in the same space.

0:54:490:54:53

Frida was a Communist, suspicious of the church.

0:54:580:55:02

But her work was deeply spiritual.

0:55:020:55:04

The iconography of both Christianity and indigenous belief took root in

0:55:060:55:11

Frida's secular world.

0:55:110:55:13

But where others looked without, towards a divine, she looked within,

0:55:140:55:19

finding solace in her art.

0:55:190:55:21

This spiritual dimension still permeates Mexican art.

0:55:230:55:27

Today, the power of Mexico's unique religious iconography remains a rich

0:55:270:55:32

source of metaphor.

0:55:320:55:34

It can now be used to ask challenging questions about the

0:55:340:55:37

nature of worship, how we value belief in a global consumer culture

0:55:370:55:42

and how we place the frivolous on equal footing with the divine.

0:55:420:55:46

Religious kitsch and pop icons have been fused together by one of the

0:55:490:55:54

most distinctive voices in Mexican contemporary art, Dr Lacra.

0:55:540:55:59

My intention was to create, like, a religious object that you can

0:56:020:56:07

worship and I also think that many of the toys or pop iconography

0:56:070:56:13

I'm using, in a way is also full with ideology and with religious.

0:56:130:56:18

I think pop is a religion, in a way.

0:56:180:56:21

-Yeah.

-I think the mythology is always, in a way, connected to religion.

0:56:210:56:27

The way they are assembled together, they

0:56:280:56:32

refer a little bit of totem poles...

0:56:320:56:35

-Yeah.

-..and the tree of life or amulets.

0:56:350:56:41

I'm not religious, I...

0:56:500:56:52

I think that's one of the reasons that I can make these

0:56:530:56:58

and make fun of many, like, figures and play freely with these.

0:56:580:57:03

Not so long ago, this man from Thailand came and he was shocked to see,

0:57:070:57:12

like, the Buddha with the ET head or some people make really weird

0:57:120:57:19

questions about, why did you use the image of Jesus Christ in that way?

0:57:190:57:24

In a way, some people think it's disrespectful.

0:57:240:57:27

But I think to get the things of each religion that you like and then

0:57:280:57:32

make a new philosophy or new religion or...

0:57:320:57:36

Just play with that iconography.

0:57:360:57:39

Dr Lacra's playful take on worship harks back to Mexico's unique

0:57:430:57:49

mixture of Christian and indigenous belief.

0:57:490:57:51

There always has been and always will be a deep communion between art

0:57:520:57:57

and religion in Mexico.

0:57:570:57:58

Throughout its history, artists have brought Gods to life

0:58:000:58:03

and connected us personally with the divine because, for me,

0:58:030:58:09

it's art that satisfies our need for images to make faith tangible.

0:58:090:58:14

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