Birthplace of the gods

MANILA, Philippines - This Holy Week, among the most popular destinations for the Visita Iglesia is the Antipolo Cathedral, home of the Virgin of Antipolo, also known as Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage.

According to folklore, the cathedral is built on the site where the icon was found on top of a breadfruit tree, after disappearing mysteriously several times in the 1630s from the church where it was originally housed. People believed the site of the tree was where the Virgin wanted its home to be built.

The 17th century wooden statue is one of the Philippines’ most enduring ties to Mexico, whose governor Juan Niño de Tabora brought the icon from his country on the galleon El Almirante. The icon accompanied six more trips in the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. All of the journeys were safe, and the image became the patroness of good voyage.

Flying to Mexico City can be grueling: more than 12 hours to Los Angeles from Manila, a layover of three up to eight hours and then a hop of over an hour to the Mexican capital. You can imagine how punishing the Manila-Acapulco voyage across the Pacific must have been.

Catholic Filipinos will feel at home in Mexico, a country dotted with churches and where people also believe in miracles.

In the capital Mexico City, the shrine devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe is a top tourist destination. No doubt Latin America’s holiest and most popular Catholic shrine will teem even more with visitors this Holy Week.

Villa Guadalupe was built around the spot where the Aztec peasant Juan Diego said he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1531. A bishop skeptical of the story became a believer when Diego, saying he was acting on instructions of the Virgin, gathered roses that bloomed in winter and kept them wrapped in his cloak. When Diego opened the cloak to show the roses to the bishop, the fabric bore the image of the Virgin.

Behind the main altar of the old cathedral, visitors can stand on a short moving walkway to gaze up at the original cloak, the Virgin’s imprint still vivid, mounted high on the wall. Diego’s vision was a watershed in the conversion of Aztecs to the Roman Catholic faith by Spanish colonizers.

That sounds very much like the Philippines’ own colonial history. Our two countries both fought a war of independence from Spain, and ended up as democratic republics.

Filipinos have many other things in common with Mexico, from Spanish words to cuisine and agricultural products. The Mexicans gave us, among other things, avocados and tomatoes. A large mango, whose rind does not turn yellow when fully ripe, is sold in Mexico as “mango Manila,” transported from the Philippines.

What we don’t share is Mexico’s compelling prehistoric roots, which gave the country its mysterious pyramids.

Around 40 kilometers northeast of Mexico City is the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Experts place the construction of Teotihuacan at 100 BC. By AD 650, the site had become the cultural and commercial hub of Mesoamerica.

If you plan to explore Teotihuacan, be prepared for scorching heat at high altitude – Mexico City is 2,421 meters (7,942 feet) above sea level. The thin air is compounded by slow air circulation, reportedly because of the mountains that surround the valley on three sides. And wear comfortable shoes. From the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, the walk along the unpaved Avenue of the Dead, which runs north and south in a straight line, is broken by climbs up and down narrow stone steps. This is not for those with weak knees or respiratory ailments.

But the magnificent scenery is worth all the walking and climbing. The Pyramid of the Sun, with a base measuring 738 feet on each side, is the third largest in the world.

Along the Avenue of the Dead you can buy souvenirs made of obsidian, the hard volcanic rock or glass formed from cooled lava, used in the ancient city to make tools.

No one knows who built the pyramids, or why Teotihuacan was abandoned. Visitors will ponder what ancient genius built such edifices and created a city that even had drainage and sewerage systems.

The Aztecs who found the ancient site gave the city its name, roughly translated as “birthplace of the gods.” If archeologists are correct, the Aztecs used the pyramids and temples for religious worship and human sacrifice.

In 1987, UNESCO designated Teotihuacan as a World Heritage Site.

As in the Philippines, Mexican lore is replete with people talking to the gods. It is said that in 1325, the Aztecs were instructed by the god Huitzilopochtli to build their settlement around the spot where they would find an eagle eating a snake while perched on a cactus. The Aztecs saw this in the city of Tenochtitlan, which they invaded.

Moctezuma II was the emperor of Tenochtitlan when Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes landed in Veracruz in 1519. Joining forces with Aztec enemies, Cortes laid siege to Tenochtitlan and drove out the Aztecs in 1521 – the same year that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed in Mactan to “discover” our islands in the name of Spain.

Today you can still see the massive Aztec calendar made of stone (the Sun Stone) at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. The museum also houses the remains of a mammoth plus a reproduction of Moctezuma II’s headdress, a spectacular crown of quetzal feathers mounted on a base of gold inlaid with precious stones. The original is in Vienna’s Museum of Ethnology.

Out of the ruins of Tenochtitlan, Cortes and the conquistadors built what is now Mexico City. Silver found in the mines of Mexico financed the city’s development.

Today silver products are among the souvenirs you can buy in La Ciudadela, the shopping center for those who want Mexican products at the best prices. Exquisite Mexican ceramics and pottery are sold alongside bags, hats, guayabera – those linen shirts that look a lot like our barong Tagalog – and clothing made of woven maguey fiber.

Maguey is a member of the agave or aloe family, which is used in Mexico not just for fabrics but also for making the distilled alcoholic drinks called mescal and pulque.

It’s considered good luck if you are served mescale worm (actually a larva) in your shot of mescal. The worm is supposed to enhance the taste of the distilled agave and give it a special kick.

What the world knows better than these two Mexican products, however, is tequila, made from blue agave. And no, the worm is not found in tequila.

Many restaurants serve the three-shot cocktail called “tequila bandera.” This is served in three glasses filled with liquid representing the colors of the Mexican flag: the tequila is white, the yellow is lime juice, and the red is sangrita, made of orange and tomato juice with lime juice, jalapeno chili and a pinch of salt.

To cure a tequila hangover, Mexicans recommend another drink. Called horchata, the iced beverage is blended from almonds, powdered rice, cane sugar, lime and cinnamon. There is also hot chocolate; the Aztecs are believed to have taken their chocolate dark and laced with that other popular Mexican product, hot, hot chili.

Those with no appetite for spicy chocolate or alcoholic beverages, laced or not with mescal worm, can take in the sights while sipping that other drink that is enormously popular in Mexico City, Coca-Cola.

The city has the world’s highest per capita consumption of Coke, with each resident drinking an average of three eight-ounce bottles a day. This is according to Juan Carlos Dominguez, corporate affairs director for Asia of Coca-Cola FEMSA, the Mexican company that started in Monterrey as a brewery and has now become one of the world’s largest franchise-bottlers of Coca-Cola.

Those who are watching their sugar levels can enjoy the no-sugar alternative, the company’s bottled water, marketed as Ciel, Spanish for sky. There are also Coca-Cola’s bottled fruit juices and Blak coffee.

All the products are available in Mexico’s version of 7 Eleven 24-hour convenience stores: FEMSA’s OXXO chain. With 12,000 outlets and about three being opened every day in the country, OXXO has become ubiquitous in the Mexican landscape.

The chain is still developing its image. Carolina Alvear, the company’s communications director, says OXXO may soon offer tacos and tamales alongside American hotdogs.

Sampling Mexican cuisine is an adventure that must not be missed. Filipinos may be familiar with tacos, empanadas, tortillas and guacamole, but local food served in Mexican dining places are unlike any in Manila. And don’t make the mistake of asking for Tex-Mex in Mexico; you’re in the wrong country.

Try the chorizos swimming in a pool of delectable Oaxaca cheese. Another must-try is the nopal or prickly pear cactus, cooked in various ways mostly as a vegetable, sometimes served with mole or spiced chocolate sauce. Mexico has its own chicharon, also made of pork rind, but served in massive slabs.

You can enjoy these gustatory delights at La Gruta, a restaurant built in a cave a short distance from the Pyramid of the Sun.

Though pricey, the selection is good enough for you to imagine that the same items must have been enjoyed in Teotihuacan, the land where gods once walked.