Recasting a Sacred Landscape: Franciscan-Indigenous Refashioning of Cholollan's Holy Legacy, 1529–1640

Boasting a 3,000 year history and a status as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas, present-day San Pedro Cholula has always been imbued with the sacred. As early as 500 BC, its inhabitants began laying the foundations of what would become the Great Pyramid of Cholollan. By 700 AD, the structure's size surpassed the Pyramid of the Sun in the nearby religious center of Teotihuacan. Following a period of rapid decline, Olmeca-Xicalanca invaders gained political dominance in the region. Vanquished in 1168 AD by Tolteca-Chichimeca from the north, the conquerors quickly established Quetzalcoatl as the new titular deity of Cholollan. Erecting a magnificent sanctuary to the Plumed Serpent, the newcomers effectively re-centered the spiritual and political focus of the altepetl from the Great Pyramid to their newly-constructed Quetzalcoatl Temple. By the sixteenth century, the pyramid was little more than a hillside haven for rabbits and deer, whereas the sanctuary had become the focus of ritual and pilgrimage in the region, with numerous teocalli, or indigenous temples, dotting the landscape. In addition to being renowned for its local ceramics, Cholollan had developed into a nucleus of culture and learning as well as a center of trade with a vibrant marketplace specializing in exotic goods. The friars who arrived in 1529 capitalized on Cholollan's sacred identity to establish what would become the most important Franciscan establishment in central New Spain. This paper examines that decision, which resulted in the most radical sacred transformation of Cholollan's history: from Mesoamerican to Catholic. Using archival materials from Mexico and Spain, the essay examines how native peoples worked to retain Cholollan's sacred identity while simultaneously capitalizing on Franciscan presence for social, political, and spiritual gain. Ultimately, I argue that Cholollan's shifting spiritual landscape is as much due to indigenous agency as to Franciscan pragmatism