Chapter four

The Holy War against the Chichimecas: The Ixmiquilpan Church Mural Series

The Augustinian missionary Andrés de Mata, O.S.A., also established the doctrina San Miguel Arcángel at Ixmiquilpan, an Hñahñu/Otomí-Náhuatl community in the Mezquital Valley northwest of Actopan. The enigmatic battle murals on the north and south walls of the church have been the subject of speculation and scholarly analysis, most recently by art histo- rian Eleanor Wake.1 Wake argued that an otoncuicatl or Hñahñu/Otomí warrior song performed in flowery mode inspired the mural series on the church walls, and noted the fusion of native and European design ele- ments in the murals. Moreover, in her interpretation Wake further noted that certain figures such as centaurs and scaly dragon-horses were humans in costume, and that the mural series represented Hñahñu/Otomí sun warriors routing evil from a mutated Christian heaven.2 The question addressed in this analysis is not related to the origins of the mixed elements in the murals or whether or not they represented the theatrical staging of an Hñahñu/Otomí warrior song, but rather their function within the context of Spanish policy objectives in the second half of the sixteenth-century, and also of the Augustinian war on the Chi- chimeca frontier. The interpretation here views the murals as a form of propaganda used to mobilize support from the predominately Hñahñu/ Otomí population of Ixmiquilpan for the conflict with the nomadic Chi- chimecas to the north.3 This interpretation does not conflict with Wake’s analysis of the mural program. At the point in time of their execution the

1 On Wake´s interpretation see “Sacred Books and Sacred Songs From Former Days: Sourcing the Mural Paintings at San Miguel Arcángel Ixmiquilpan,” Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 31 (2000), 106–140, and Wake, Framing the Sacred, 254. Art historian Donna Pierce analyzed the Ixmiquilpan battle murals, and linked their execution to the Chichimeca conflict. See “The Sixteenth Century Nave Frescoes in the Augustinian Mission Church of Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1987. 2 Wake, Framing the Sacred, 254. 3 In a recently published study Arturo Vergara Hernández offers a similar interpreta- tion. See Las pinturas del templo de Ixmiquilpan: ¿Evangelización, reivindicación indígena o propaganda dee guerra? (Pachuca: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 2010). 146 chapter four

Fig. 105: San Miguel Arcángel Ixmiquilpan. evil ­represented in the murals was a group of Chichimeca warriors, the same enemy the Spaniards recruited the Hñahñu/Otomí to fight after 1550. The identification of the Chichimecas as evil was also consistent with the Augustinian belief that since the Chichimecas had not embraced Christi- anity; they were still subject to satanic influence and were employed by Satan to challenge the Augustinian’s evangelization campaign. While the Spanish and their native allies fought to subjugate the Chichimecas, the Augustinians initiated their own war to convert the Hñahñu/Otomí living along the Chichimeca frontier, and to prevent the spread of satanic influence which they also associated with the Chi- chimecas. As noted above, the Augustinians believed that since they had not embraced the true faith the pagan and barbaric Chichimecas were subject to satanic influence, and could make common cause with apostates and idolaters. Moreover, Augustinian missions were subject to Chichimeca raids, and the Chichimecas killed a number of Augustinian missionaries. The Chichimeca conflict had both political and religious aspects, and the Ixmiquilpan murals were used to elevate the participa- tion of the Hñahñu/Otomí in the conflict to the status of a holy war and to gain their support.