This morning we went to see the Cathedral. It sounds banal enough but
one must see cathedrals! Outside it is very beautiful and imposing, and
forms a whole side of the square.
It was completed in 1525 and represented the Mother Church of
Spain. Almost on the same site stood the ancient Aztec Teocali of
Tlaloc-huitzilopochtli, the great pagan sanctuary, in fact, the
Cathedral was built to a great extent out of the same stones. Effacing
the Cathedral from my mind, I visualize the great pyramidal Teocali
with its five stories each receding above the other, and its flights
of steps leading from terrace to terrace, on the summit was the great
jasper sacrificial stone. Before the altar stood a colossal figure of
Huitzilopochtli, the war god and the deity. Here burned the undying
fires, which meant as much to the Aztecs as did the Vestal flame to
ancient Rome.
It is amazing to recall that as late as 1486 the dedication of the
Great Teocali was celebrated by human sacrifices to the extent of
20,000. One of the most dramatic episodes in the World’s History must
have been the battle between the soldiers led by Cortez and those of
Montezuma, a thousand combatants fought on this aerial summit in full
view of the whole city. The battle raged for three hours and many
of the combatants here were hurled from the height, Cortez himself
narrowly escaping this fate. The victorious Spaniards rushed at the
God Huitzil, and with shouts of triumph dragged him from his niche and
tumbled him over the edge to the horror of the onlooking Aztecs. Thus
ended Paganism and Christianity was established. In the place of the
great Teocali, the Spaniards built a Cathedral. As a substitute for
human sacrifices, they introduced the Inquisition. Instead of Huitzil,
Christ in crude plaster, gaudily painted, with imitation blood, and
a bevy of life-sized Saints and Angels, some of them kneeling on
billows of plaster clouds, surrounded by bleeding hearts (imitation)
and sham flowers, now reign supreme. This is the setting in which we
found ourselves on entering and by chance we happened upon a wedding
ceremony! The organ was abominable and the singing. All the poor women
with their babies had followed in after the bride to witness this ever
appealing ceremony! Most of the babies were dressed in a rather bright
crude pink, the worst possible color for a dark yellow baby! Dick,
who had never seen a wedding before, asked me in an awestruck whisper
as the bridal party stood in a row at the top of the aisle: “Is she
marrying the woman next to her?”
“No, the man....”
“Did you marry Daddy like that?”
“Yes--”
and then incredulously: “Dressed like that--?”
“Yes....”
He sidled up to me, and then asked shyly:
“Think you’ll ever marry again?”
“No--”
“I’d like to see you like that,--wish I’d seen you marry Daddy.”
If I’d told him a second marriage isn’t privileged to wear white, he
probably would realize it wasn’t worth doing!
At midday I received the visit of the sister and niece of Mr. N. to
whom I had delivered a letter of introduction. It is rather fun knowing
real Mexicans and getting their point of view. I didn’t tell them and
they didn’t seem to know that I had only met their kinsman once and I
wondered what they did think. In the afternoon they fetched me for
a drive, the car was owned and driven by the fiancé of the girl. We
drove out into the country and were caught in the fiercest rain-storm.
The car had only a hood and I had only a cape. One was frozen to the
marrow. They took me to tea at the Reforma Club at Chapultepec, a
tennis club organized chiefly by the English Colony. It looked truly
English, and the cold and the damp made one feel as though in England.
The English women whom I did not meet but looked at, seemed to be of
that type that is neither interesting nor decorative.--One or two
Mexican girls I was introduced to, as “my uncle’s friend....” It seems
to me I might be explained to strangers in various ways, but “my
uncle’s friend” is a fame that is new to me.