Space and Place in the Mexican Landscape: The Evolution of a Colonial City

Chapter 1. The Interaction of Space and Place: The Mexican Mixture

The Interaction of Space and Place The Mexican Mixture FERNANDo NúñEz Historically, Mexico is the result of a combination of and symbiosis between two major cultures: the pre-Hispanic and the Spanish. The old cultures that flourished in ancient Mexico—Toltec, olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and others—occupied Mesoamerica as far back as several centuries b.c., and many were still very active in the sixteenth century when the Spaniards arrived and subdued them all. From then on, the Spanish Crown established a kingdom called theViceregency of New Spain,which endured for three centuries. Also through the Spaniards, Mexico was influenced by the classical world (represented by Greece and Rome), the Judeo-Christian tradition and religious faith,and the world of Islam (due to almost seven centuries of Arab occupation of Spanish territory).During the three hundred years of the viceregency,all these cultures melded together and produced a new one,eventually shaping a national identity as a result of the MexicanWar of Independence in 1810. In every sector of today’s Mexican landscape—geographic, cultural, political, social, religious, architectural, and urban—all these cultures are manifested. For example, the pre-Hispanic world is present in many words,in still-active traditions,and in numerous indigenous groups who continue to live according to pre-Hispanic organization, customs, and myths told in song,dance,chant,and rituals of blood and fire.The GrecoRoman classical world is here, as almost everywhere, in the language derived from Latin,in philosophical and legal principles of organization, in the way most of the colonial cities were planned, and in the general way of thinking.The Christian world is omnipresent throughout Mexico where each city and town has a church and most of the population is Roman Catholic. The Arab legacy is seen mainly through the liberal use of patios, fountains, and other architectural elements taken from the Islamic world. Yet today’s Mexican culture is the result not only of these separate influences but also of beliefs and ideas that have been shared by more than one of the cultures mentioned,producing wonderful commonalities ChaPter 1  Fernando Núñez that suggest the possibility of a universal base for all human cultures.An example is the most important religious theme in both the pre-Hispanic and the Spanish-Christian worlds: human sacrifice as a means of salvation . In Christian belief it is the sacrifice of a single man, the son of God, that reestablishes communion with God; in the pre-Hispanic world, the sacrifice of many is needed to obtain the friendship of the supernatural through human blood that is supposed to feed the gods. Each faith also includes a figure who became central to the formation of Mexican culture: Christ and Quetzalcoatl. Both men were considered to have ascended into heaven upon their deaths: Christ to sit at the right hand of God, Quetzalcoatl to become the morning star for the Toltecs and Aztecs. Both were tempted by evil powers: Christ by Satan, Quetzalcoatl by the wizard-god Tezcatlipoca. And both were prophesied to one day return to Earth: Christ as the prince of the kingdom of heaven, Quetzalcoatl as a god-king, returning to claim his kingdom in Mexico. Figure 1.1. Quetzalcoatl, god of the Toltecs and Aztecs. Courtesy Miriam Martinez. Even the resurrection of Christ is paralleled in the Mayan world, in the southeast of the country, through the myth of Hun Ahpu, who defeated and sacrificed the Lords of Death, giving himself the chance to escape from the underworld with the bones of their murdered fathers, a metaphor for resurrection of the human soul after death.1 The final destiny of humankind is also similar in both beliefs, with an ascent to heaven in one case and, in the other, an ascent into the sky to become the sun and the moon. So, too, could the souls of humans survive the trials of the underworld and join their ancestors among the stars of the Milky Way. All these parallels may be the reason why the two major root cultures of Mexico, the pre-Hispanic and the Spanish-Christian, have blended so powerfully, and why these beliefs remained so precious to Mexican culture following the encounter between the two worlds. Phases of the Mexican Landscape The first blending phase for the Mexican landscape was the pre-Hispanic age, which took place throughout Mesoamerica and lasted from several centuries b.c...