Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Exploring Colonial Mexico©
"Portals to Paradise." Mexico's colonial doorways.
In 1651, the Mexican nun, poet and patriot Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz* was baptized here in the ancient Dominican church of San Vicente Chimalhuacán.
Known to locals simply as "Chimal" the town is located southeast of Mexico City in the Valley of Mexico beside the former Lake Texcoco*. At the time of the Spanish conquest Chimalhuacán was the stronghold of a powerful Lord whose troops gave support to Cortes in his defeat of the Aztecs, their ancient enemies.
The West Portal
The main focus of this page, however, is the church doorway, one of the earliest and most ornate portals in the area. Only the second Dominican mission to be founded in Mexico - in 1528, the main entry is distinguished by its unique amalgam of medieval Spanish, Hispano-moorish and indigenous decorative elements - an unusual mix for the Dominicans, who are best known for their embrace of classically inspired architecture and decoration, as seen in Oaxaca and Chiapas.
Although the paneled doorframe is typically Dominican, with its rosette studded jambs and baskethandle arch, the corn-like ornament inset in the outer pilasters has a pronounced pre-hispanic aspect. A bold, rectangular Moorish alfiz borders the area above the doorway, enclosing a tapestry of interlaced diaperwork in high relief, interposed with stars.
Echoing the ancient aristocratic place name of Chimal - "Place of the Shieldbearers", four relief escutcheons project from the latticework, all carved in sharply undercut tequitqui style relief. To either side of the foliated archway, which terminates in an ornamental monogram of Christ, project two stylized Dominican fleur-de-lis crosses. Above the monogram, a sculpture niche contains the winged statue of St. Vincent Ferrer, the fiery Dominican preacher and patron saint of Chimal.
On either side of the niche is emblazoned an heraldic shield: on the left, the attributes of the Dominican saint Peter of Verona: a martyr's palm with three crowns, quartered with hearts enclosed in thorns. To the right appear the Spanish royal arms, quartered with lions and castles. However, even these Imperial insignia have an indigenous cast: the castles are topped by stepped battlements in the Aztec manner, signifying an urban place name, while the lions have long spiky tails, like agave plants, and stand above mats or platforms that imply a royal lineage.
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* NEWS FLASH! Stolen Painting
Above the monolithic stone font - dated 1542 and inscribed with the name of Pope Paul lll - in which Sor Juana was christened, there hung until recently a 17th century painting of Las Animas (Souls in Purgatory.) In May 2006 this painting was stolen, along with other colonial religious art works from the church - one of a rash of similiar heists in this vulnerable area so close to the metropolis. As of this writing (2007) the art works were still missing.
* Long a provincial backwater, historic Chimalhuacán is today a sprawling slum of Mexico City, with the attendant problems of crime, pollution, and social and political strife.
