Mass at the Church of Jesus the Nazarene rarely lures enough congregants to fill more than a few pews. Trash piles up outside under broken stained-glass windows. The unhoused of Mexico City’s old center perform their bodily functions in its shadows.
It could be any run-down church in this vast metropolis, except for a small sign on the front wall declaring: “In this temple rest the remains of the conquistador, Hernán Cortés, who died in 1547.”
Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire five centuries ago, setting a pattern for European conquests and changing the course of history. But unlike Mexico’s grand pantheons and mausoleums guarding the remains of other major personages, his tomb is marked by neglect and indifference.
Pro-cannabis activists congregate daily in the plaza directly in front of the church. The decaying facade of a cash-strapped hospital founded by the conquistador is connected to the church. An eerie, unfinished mural depicting the Apocalypse looms over the tomb itself.
Few passers-by show any interest in the conquistador’s resting place. Fewer still bother to visit the Roman Catholic church Cortés himself ordered built in the 1520s, the emptiness reflecting the disdain many Mexicans still hold for Cortés over atrocities such as starving, massacring and enslaving Native peoples during the conquest.
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