Abstract

RUBIAL GARCIA, Antonio. Holy Warrior, Martyrs, and Conquering Virgins. Temples, Dedications, and Festivals as Spaces of Memory and Subjection Around the Conquest of Mexico. Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2022, n.67, pp.69-111.  Epub Jan 20, 2023. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24486922e.2022.67.77715.

Temples and festivals constituted spaces in the Western world that kept maintained the memory alive and served as instruments of control and subjection. In Mexico City, first the conquerors and later the friars, built chapels dedicated to three holy warriors and the Vera Cruz [True Cross] whose help was considered essential in the victory against the devil and his worshipers. Through these chapels, the most significant events of the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, appraised as a crusade to eradicate idolatries, were evoked. Over time these places and the festivals celebrated in them changed their meaning hand in hand with the transformation of the city and the emergency of new social actors. The first holy warriors were joined by the martyrs and the relatives of the Virgin Mary, saints more in line with the new times, while the images of Remedios and Guadalupe began to take on warrior characteristics, becoming the true extirpators of idolatries.

Keywords : Holy Warrior Martyrs; Tenochtitlan Conquest; Shrines of los Remedios y Guadalupe; Santiago Tlatelolco; Temple of San Hipólito; San Miguel Chapultepec; The Vera Cruz.