Coyoacán (11)


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Source: Photographs by WTL© (2016) on site in Coyoacán, México.
Image: This photo shows the corner of the former, sixteenth-century (1590 - 1678) Franciscan convent of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Churubusco. (Churubusco was the name of the original Aztec village, and it is now the name of a neighborhood in Coyoacán.) It was converted in 1981 into the superb Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones. For a sequence of scenes and exhibits in this museum, follow this thread: => Intervenciones. For a photograph of the professor-photographer with the museum direction, see: => Museum Director.
Comments: Before the arrival of Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors in 1521, this was the site with a pyramid dedicated to the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli and occupied by an Aztec lord. As a result of the conquest, the pyramic was razed and Franciscan monks re-sanctified the site and built a Christian shrine and small church with the stones of the former pyramid. At the end of the 20th century, the Mexican government found the pyramid's foundation, just as they did in Mexico City / Tenochtitlán. Of some interest is the fact that the monks at this site belonged to the Dieguina Franciscan Order (for San Diego de Alcalá--also the name of the Spanish mission that founded San Diego, California). This order of monks were dedicated to missionary work in Asia, most notably the Spanish colony of the Philippines (spelled Filipinas in the Philippines for Spanish king Felipe II). For a tour of this museum, see: => Intervenciones #1.
Humanities Topic: Describe the effect of housing an important historical museum in such a building and compound.


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