Cheryl hopes she’ll have a religious experience in front of the tilma…
Category: Modern Mexico (Page 2 of 2)
The word Zocalo means the base of a statue or column. In the main square in Mexico City, in Colonial times, they planned on erecting a column, but it was never completed. People would say: “meet you at the zocalo.” The name stuck and this square became known as the Zocalo. This has transferred to other Mexican cities where they refer to their main square as the Zocalo.
In her hotel room in Mexico City, Cheryl hears music and investigates. The music was coming from the other side of the window. But her room didn’t face outside.
When most people think of vacationing in Mexico, they see themselves lying on a beach with blue skies overhead, and a drink in their hand. Cheryl had other ideas.
Cheryl travels to Mexico a day before her tour so she can visit the Templo Mayor Museum. This museum was created to house this monolith and now is full of Aztec artifacts. The Coyolxauhqui is a stone sculpture three meters wide and would have originally been placed at the bottom of the Main Temple, or Templo Mayor, of the Aztec Empire. The Spanish built what is now Mexico City directly on top of this temple using destroyed remnants of the Temple and the city Tenochtitlan.
Coyolxauhqui means ‘bells in her cheeks” and after her dismemberment by her bother Huitzilopochtli, her head was thrown into the sky and turned into the moon.
When Cheryl stands in the Zocalo of Mexico City she is standing in the heart of the Aztec Empire.
I felt like I was living in a movie; the words of my professors came to life in front of my eyes.
In University I took a beginner Archaeology course and I was hooked. After more courses I found my true passion was the Mesoamerican area. I studied the Aztecs and the Maya.
Since University I’ve continued my studies to include the Natives of North America and specifically Canada. Indigenous peoples from the entire world are also an interest, but the truth is we all have traveled to get to where our people were born.
In 2010 I traveled to Vancouver to visit museums and study the Natives of the Pacific Northwest coast. These practice trips were to prepare me for the Big Trip: the one to Mexico in April of 2012.
I travelled alone. I flew to Mexico City and then joined a cultural tour that began in Mexico City, drove on through Puebla, and down to Oaxaca. Zigzagging through mountains in Chiapas, we visited San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapa de Corzo and came to a stop in Palenque. Finally, we drove up the coastline of the Yucatan from Campeche to Merida, and across to end in Cancun.
Connecting to modern Mexicans and seeing the archaeological sites of the past was like living in a movie to me. My life felt like a movie, with the words of my professors coming to life in front of my eyes.
I am a Mexican and Maya enthusiast to this day. I never get tired of learning and reading and studying about any aspect of this culture from food, to language, the syncretism of pagan ways to Catholicism and those ancient cities of stone. I’ve climbed a lot of pyramids and plan to climb many more.
Decipherment is particularly exciting as I identify with all scribes. There are many people alive now who can read the language written on these stone buildings. Too bad I’m not skilled at math, otherwise I’d learn their calendar and learn to decipher myself. I look forward to new discoveries.
In Entering the West, Cheryl travels this route and feels like her life is a movie.
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