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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

newsflash, the Spanish left mexico centuries ago, why did their imagery stick around? Mexicans today LOVE their Azteca cultural symbols, dress, imagery, architecture, dances etc etc. Why did they still embrace the foreign religious art and imagery even after the conquerors left? Why did they not just rejuvenate fully the pre-Colombian culture, why a synchronous blend of both?

It is blatantly rude to assume that all those people are merely brainwashed across centuries, I would say FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ART, that the art itself carries some potency which the people made their own, long after the edge of sword was sheathed..

doh, "newsflash"? cmon dude. what the fuck. you wanna teach me latin american history now? the spanish didn't leave, they are still there, they are the criollos that constituted the elites-- look at the presidents of mexico, except for benito juarez-- where do you think they came from? they are the equivalent of the boston brahmins, only their presence is greater.

"why did their imagery stick around"? why do people speak english in the USA even after the english left some 230 years ago? do tell. is it because "english is a wonderful language" or is it because people keep using it and you learn it on your mother's knee & so on & so forth?

sometimes you twist things to absurd ends to prove your point. yes, the imagery stuck, so what? syncretism was in operation from the start. the jesuits and dominicans knew how to wrap christian messages into native religions-- go read some of the sor juana plays, read "el divino narciso" and see how theology operated back in those days. missionaries can infect a culture for generations. then again, the aztecs were not exactly the sweetest of people, so christianity might have been an improvement in that case, but not everyone was aztec in mexico (newsflash), go call a maya "aztec" when you wanna insult someone.

look, culture absorbs things like a sponge and perpetuates itself and mutates & carries on forever, catholicism was part of the colonizer culture and it's part of mexican culture today and it's going to stay for a very long time. even as masses of people are converted to protestant churches all over latin america-- pentecostals, jehovas witnesses, etc-- the catholic imprint will remain for a very very long time. guess what-- we still talk about greek myths 3,000 years after the illiad was composed.

i won't question that christianity has given birth to a very rich cultural output, it's evident it has, in art and philosophy and literature and music and so forth-- but it's humans that create that output with whatever they have at hand-- look at india's 4000 or so years of continuous civilization, or 4000 years of chinese culture-- frankly, if we're going to talk about potent symbols, hinduism is a lot more fun than christianity, i mean, their mythology is VAST and incredibly rich and deep and mind-boggling and very highly philosophical-- they have a goddess of books, for fucks sakes-- how beautiful is that?

what am i mumbling about here? i forgot. all i'm saying is, yes, you want to prove that christianity is so special, fine, go ahead, but don't stretch the truth to absurd points. "oh, look, la virgen de guadalupe". well, sure. it's the religious imagination and creativity of mexican people that has kept that alive, an yes, mothers are potent symbols, anybody knows taht. there's a psychological experiment where they had group therapy where they put a subliminal message that said "MOMMY AND I ARE ONE" and people started spilling the beans at a faster rate.

see here: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchVa lue_0=EJ266882&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno =EJ266882

so, religion makes use of the potent mother image. brilliant.