Our Lady of Guadalupe
“Empress of the Americas”
by
Louis Even
It is the year 1521, Tenochtitlan (which is now
Mexico City), the capital city of the Aztec empire, falls
to Spanish forces. Ten years later 9 million inhabitants
of this land, who had for centuries professed a poly-
theistic and human-sacrificing religion, were suddenly
converted to Christianity. What was it that happened
in those times that produced such an incredible and
historically unprecedented conversion?
The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a poor and
humble Indian at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico
City. She identified Herself as the Mother of the True
God, Santa Maria of Guadalupe or Te-coa-tla-xope”,
(pronounced phonetically “te-quat-la-shupe) which
in the Aztec tongue means “the one who crushes the
head of the serpent”. Undoubtedly she came to crush
the serpent, as it is written in the Book of Genesis,
3:15 “...
she shall crush thy head...”,
by putting an end
to these barbaric human sacrifices, and literally con-
verting millions of natives to Christianity.
Background and setting of these events
The Aztecs ruled most of Central America.
T
he two
chief gods of the Aztec pantheon were Huitzilopochtli,
the Hummingbird Wizard or “god of thirst”, called the
Lover of Hearts and Drinker of Blood; and Tezcatlipoca,
the Smoking Mirror Lord of the Dark, called “He Who
is at the Shoulder as the Tempter”. The Aztecs be-
lieved that the gods required human blood in order to
subsist and in order to appease these frightful deities,
their priests sacrificed at least 50,000 men, women,
and children annually by cutting out their beating
hearts. Years of practice had given them a skill and
speed that enabled them to perform this gruesome
task on each victim in less than 15 seconds ! The early
Mexican historian, Ixtlilxochitl, estimated that one out
of every five children in Mexico was sacrificed. (Note:
In the United States today it is even more; one out of
every four children is killed by abortion.)
The climax of these ritual killings came in 1487
for the dedication of the new, and richly decorated
temple of Huitzilopochtli in the center of Tenochtitlan
(now Mexico City), and enclosed by the richly decor-
ated Coatepantli, the Serpant Wall. In a single cere-
mony that lasted for four days and four nights, with
the constant beating of giant drums made of snake-
skin, the Aztec ruler and demon worshiper, Tlacael-
lel, presided over the sacrifice of more than 80,000
men. (For more information on the Aztec worship,
please see
Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest
of Darkness
, by Dr. Warren Carroll.)
Montezuma, or Moctezuma, as some called him,
was ruler of the Aztec Nation, chief priest and head of
their army. His sister, Princess Papantzin, had a dream
that deeply troubled the King. In her dream she saw
a luminous being with a black cross on his forehead
who led her to a shore with large ships. These ships
would soon come to their own shores and conquer
the Aztecs, bringing with them the Faith in the One
True God. Ten years later, on Good Friday, April 22,
1519, the Spanish Conquistadors arrived on the Gulf
shore of Mexico led by Hernando Cortez. They named
the landing place Veracruz or “The True Cross”. Their
Chaplain, Father Bartolome de Olmedo, celebrated
the first Mass there on Easter Sunday.
Within two years, with a small army of a few
hundred soldiers, under the twofold protection of
the Cross of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary,
whose image Cortez had carried over with him on his
voyage from Spain, and through a series of miracu-
lous victories, the Aztecs were defeated and the prac-
tice of human sacrifice was finally brought to an end.
Cortez’s first action as commander was to place the
region under the Spanish crown and to demolish the
temples of sacrifice, building in their place Catholic
churches, such as the Church Santiago (or St. James)
de Tlatelolco on the site of the Temple of the sun god
in present-day Mexico City.
Unfortunately, some of the
Conquistadors were
not “saints”. Much like many of the Crusaders, they
were in search of God, fortune, and personal glory,
but oftentimes it was more the fortune and personal
glory that became their goal. The Native Americans
were treated very unjustly and suffered much abuse
at the hands of their Spanish conquerors. With the
hostility that was shown to these people by the new
colonial government, they distrusted the Spanish.
This caused them to be wary of converting to Chris-
tianity, impelling the newly appointed bishop-elect,
A temple in Mexico that was used to worship the “sun-god”
28
MICHAEL October/November/December 2013
www.michaeljournal.org