Xiu (facebook)
And for those who did not understand the memazo: Before the arrival of the Spanish the goddess #Cihuacoatl had a temple in the #Tepeyac to which many pilgrimage villages went to give thanks for the favors received. When Catholics witnessed that faith, they tore down the temple and placed the one of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which Mexicans currently call "Our Mother" Do you know how to say "Our Mother" in Nahuatl? It's called #Tonantzin.
Peoples pilgrimage to visit Cihuacoatl said "Let's see Tonantzin-Cihuacoatl" that is "Let's go see Our mother the female snake."
The Spanish were quite bothered that they will call Tonantzin the Virgin of Guadalupe, because they clearly did not refer to her but to her old mother Cihuacóatl, and no, I'm not making it up, here goes the fragment of an old book written by one of the first frails to arrive to Mexico after the fall of Tenochtitlan:
“... and they came from very far away lands, from more than twenty leguas, from all the regions of Mexico, and brought many offerings, men and women, and boys and girls came to these parties, the contest of people was great these days, and everyone said they were going to the party of Tonantzin... ”.
This devotion surprised the Spaniards a lot, in part because for them this goddess was a demon and, on the other, because of the large number of people who participated. Therefore, they decided to demolish this temple and place there the one of the Virgin of Guadalupe. However, devotion to Tonantzin continued and those who went to the hill continued to worship her, despite the fact that the Spanish had demolished the ancient temple. It's more, much to the displeasure of the Spanish, the natives called Tonantzin Guadalupe:
“... and now that the church of Guadalupe is built there also they call it Tonantzin (... ) from where this foundation of this Tonantzin was born it is not known for sure that the vocabulary comes from its first imposition to that ancient Tonantzin, and it is something that should be remedied because the very name of the Mother of God Our Lady is not Tonantzin... ”.
The friar is called Bernardino de Sahagún and you can read this fragment in his work "General History"
