Tonantzintla

After Leaving Mexico City, We spent a lot of time on the road. Three of the remarkable things we saw are in the next two picture.

This mountain is called Mujere Blanco (White Woman).

The mountain is Popacatepetl. It is an active volcano.
The very large church in the foreground is built on top of a pyramid

In Tonantzintla, the point was to visit this church to see how
catholicism has blended with the native culture.

Look closely and you will see that the "Saints"
dress and look like natives.

It was not allowed to take pictures inside the church, so I bought a few postcards to show how crazy it was. Our guide called this style Nuevo Baroque, which means "No Space Left".

Not only do the saints look like natives, but we were told that this was the only place where the catholic church allowed the locals to incorporate some elements of their own religion. Thus it is possible for the locals to worship the Virgin Mary, but call her Tonan, the Goddess of the Earth. For them, Saint Michael, standing over the virgin with a sword, is seen as a god of war. Thus they could still venerate the old gods, but still call themselves catholic.