More from the "Magical Path"

My walk through the neighborhood of San Juan Tlihuaca led me down a narrow street with this pretty building on a corner.

The tile plaque on the building showed the pre-Hispanic glyph for Tlihuaca, which was originally called Tlilhuacan.  The name, as I mentioned in the previous post, the black place or the place of sorcerers.  The community is much older than the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan; it was established in the year 750.

Notice the medallion of an ant below the plaque.  I had noticed a lot of imagery of ants in the artwork here.  San Juan Tlihuaca is a part of the borough of Azcapotzalco, which in the Aztec language means "the place of the anthills".

Just around the corner is the gate leading into the atrium of the parish church of St. John the Baptist.  

Unfortunately, the church was closed at the time.  The original parish church was built in the 1500s, but the existing structure dates from the 1600s.

The tiled dome of the church

The carved wooden doors 

As I left the church atrium through another gate onto another street, there was a large mural painting of pre-Hispanic inspiration on a wall.  (Notice how the utility poles have been painted to blend into the picture.)

The painting shows Aztecs worshiping the image of the mother goddess Coatlicue (the blue statue at the far end of the mural).  In the background are the two snow-covered volcanoes, Iztaccíhuatl and Popocátepetl.

It looks as if a human sacrifice is being absorbed into the stone idol.

As I looked down the street with its painted decorations and murals, I could tell that there was still more to see in this magical neighborhood...