Ritual, Religious and Civic in Mexico Colonial

Ritual, religious or civic, and particularly large-scale public spectacle, dominated life in colonial Mexico. The sixteenthcentury Spaniard faced a newly conquered territory composed of ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples. The primary goal of this initial period was to maintain and consolidate European control and recreate or perfect Europe in the Americas. From a purely political perspective, the pivotal issue of control brought about such institutions as the labor draft, the local militia, slavery, the reduction of Indian villages, the caste system, and the integration of indigenous nobility into the Spanish governing system. A cultural policy in the form of elaborate ritual sought to showcase and emphasize Spanish superiority. Europeans imported their own ritual forms and imposed them upon the general population; ritual became the last act of taking possession of the New World. Festivals, certainly civic ones, became tools of hegemonic control. No small wonder that one of the first festivals celebrated in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, namely the Conquest festival or the feast of San Hipolito, commemorated the fall of the Mexica (Aztec) capital to the Spanish.

Sponsored by the municipal government of Mexico City, the Fiesta de la Conquista consisted of displays of prowess, horsemanship, jousting, mock battles, and dramatic performances honoring the feats of Fernando (Hernán) Cortés and associates. The event paid tribute to the fallen Spanish conquistadors who died during the Noche Triste (Sad Night) when the Europeans were driven from the Indian capital; the festival exalted the European skills and technology that theoretically brought victory against the Mexica empire. However, this fiesta never recognized the contribution of the many Indian allies of Cortés who actually ensured that Spanish victory. Although mock battles between men (both Indians and Spaniard) dressed as either Christians or Muslims (Moors or Turks) were staged frequently in Tenochtitlan and in smaller towns, the battle for the capital never was reenacted. Officials certainly must have thought better than of reminding Indians of their defeat on an annual basis. The festival presented the Conquest in an almost mythical manner, as though the Spaniards did not wish to overemphasize an event that could prove divisive, especially considering that Indians always outnumbered Spaniards in the viceroyalty. A reenactment also would have necessitated the cooperation of thousands of Indians who would have played both the vanquished Mexica and the victorious Tlaxcalans.