Cholula, Puebla

Well I had to come back here. The last time I was here, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time, our schedule didn't allow us much time to tour the town. For a social studies teacher not to be able to explore the town wit the largest pyramid in the world is tough to take. So on my free day, I'm back.

First, the night's sleep in the Holiday Inn was a long overdue good night's sleep wth the things you often take for granted in the States; AC, dependable electricity and plumbing, and a sealed environment with no outside critters. I slept like a champ. I had to make myself get out of bed by opening the curtains that kept my room dark as night until 9:30am. But I opened my curtains to the view you can see, of "Popo" and the "Sleeping Woman", the two most famous volcanoes in Mexico.

The tour of Cholula, a neighboring town just outside of Puebla, the 4th largest city in all of Mexico, is a much smaller town with humble dwellings and 365 churches hundreds of years old, apparently one for every day of the year. The most famous may be the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios built atop a pyramid in the late 1500s. Few realize that underneath the beautiful church is the largest pyramid in the world (by volume), built in the 2nd century BCE consisting of 6-7 pyramids/layers built on top of each pyramid of hundreds of years. If you look closely at the pictures of the church, you will see the pyramid still covered in vegetation, yet obvious to the eye. With the view of the two famous volcanoes Popocatépetl and his lover Iztaccíhuatl in the background, the view of the Church of Our Lady of the Rememdies atop the pyramid is simply without words to describe. I called my wife on our first anniversary from the pyramid.

The Aztec legend of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl says that Popocatépetl was a great warrior, and when Iztaccíhuatl, the daughter of Popocatépetl's leader, fell in love with him, her father promised Popocatépetl his daughter's hand in marriage when he returned from battle in Oaxaca, something Iztaccíhuatl's father assumed he would not be able to do. When Iztaccíhuatl was falsely told of her lover's death in battle, she died of grief. Upon Popocatépetl's return and his learning of her death, he took her body outside the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (today's Mexico City) and stayed by her grave. The gods took pity on them both, covering them with snow, and immortalizing them as mountains. Iztaccíhuatl is a combination of the Nahuatl (Aztec language) words "iztac" which means white, and "cihuatl" meaning woman. Often, her mountain is referred to as "La Mujer Dormida", The Sleeping Woman, which she very much resembles from almost any vantage point. Popocatépetl still shows his grief and anger today as an active volcano whose ashes and smoke can be seen in almost all of his photos.

Finally, the most special part of my weekend in Cholula was the Ramirez family I met while visiting the Iglesia de San Andres. As I was taking photos of the church, Armando Ramirez, walked over to me and introduced himself, and then his family. I asked why the youngest girl was all dressed in white, and he told me their had been a baptism in his family a few moments before. We spent the next hour or more talking about his time in the United States and my time in Mexico in each others languages. He told me a little about the church as a group walked around it singing, playing guitar, and blessing some sort of change in leadership at the church (video). All the while, fireworks were going off, as they had been all day around Cholula at all of the churches and it was easy to see the smoke from the "fuegos artificios" from atop the pyramid earlier in the day. Apparently this was not a saint's day or festival, but happens every Sunday.

After I had met the family and asked if I could take pictures of his grandchildren Daira and Frida (see photo), we must have spent ten minutes taking pictures one at a time with me and each of the 20 or so members of his family. Everyone wanted a photo with the "teacher from the United States". Armando then invited me to his home the weekend of July 31st when I am returning with the group. I exchanged email addresses with one of his daughters and am sending the photos we took with my camera. His mother, who had to have been in her late 80s at least, then held my hand for about a full minute, looked me in the eye, and said even though she didn't know my family, she wished them and myself the best of health and gave me her blessings. I told her what an honor it was to have met her, her son Armando, and his family on this special day, and how I almost didn't walk to the old church that I had seen from both my hotel room and atop the pyramid. I'm so blesed and happy I did. I hope I can meet up with the Ramirez Silva family next weekend. The kindness and hospitality of the Mexican people I have met cannot be overstated. What a beautiful day in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. I'll never forget the hour I spent this day with the Ramirez family.