Ixmiquilpan [in Mexico] … didn’t always ingratiate itself with...

Ixmiquilpan [in Mexico] … didn’t always ingratiate itself with outsiders. Its name means “place where the pigweed cuts like knives.” In 1548, when Augustinian friars arrived to convert the local Otomi, they used forced labor to build [the Church of San Miguel Arcangel]. The results may not have been what they expected. All around us in the sanctuary, crumbling frescoes reached up into the nave: centaurs and griffins, eagle knights and coyote warriors. 

The Otomi hadn’t just repurposed Christian imagery; they’d replaced it with their own. Instead of angels and saints, there were soldiers beheading one another. Instead of Madonnas and Christs, there were pregnant women sprouting from acanthus buds.

“Bean Freaks: On the hunt for an elusive legume.”