Mexico -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
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!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account