al Mesoamerica and today in thousands of Indian communitiesbecame one of the several manifestations of the sun god (Carmack 304). The Virgin of Guadalupe, today the patron saint of Mexico, was and is embraced by Indians who interpreted her and the myth surrounding her 1531 appearance to Juan Diego in traditional spiritual custom: she is depicted as a dark-skinned Earth Mother; she spoke Nahuatl to Juan Diego; she appeared on a sacred mountain; and she appeared to an Indian, not a Spaniard. To the native people, "Christianity appeared to be primarily a set of practices, many of which resembled their traditional practices of prayer, offerings, processions, dramas, fasting, and the use of sacred images" (Carmack 166).In Mayan areas, cofradas became a central part of Christianity in the New World. Cofradasreligious societies instituted and overseen by the Catholic Church and dedicated to a particular saintwere "intended to facilitate the Indians integration into the Church and to serve as a mechanism for the collection of revenues from the indigenous population" (Carlsen 93). The spiritual leap to acceptance of saint societies was not a great one. Each Mesoamerican town or city already worshipped a patron god; with the introduction of Catholicism, the indigenous peoples merely traded one icon for another (Fash). As Church leaders became increasingly dependent on the funds generated by the cofradas as a major source of income, Mayan leaders recognized the bartering power they held and used it to gain a degree of autonomy in their worship practices (Carlsen 94). This tacit agreement allowed Mayans to include their own deities in their flourishing idol worship, and many of these practices remain in place today as such figures continue to line the walls and altars of many parishes. In Santiago Atitln, for example, a stone image of Aklax (or San Nicols), the patron deity of ajkuna and associated with bloodletting, was an integral part of the wor...
