Last week archaeologist Francisco Sánchez showed me some ancient ruins at El Diente and casually mentioned yet more ruins at a place called San Agustín, just south of town.
At home, I looked up San Agustín, Jalisco online and was surprised to find descriptions of no fewer than 13 archaeological sites, such as:
- The Pyramid of La Loma
- The Hill of the Toad
- The Rosetta Petroglyphs
- The Acropolis or Lost City
- Obsidian Workshops
- The Cosmic Labyrinth
These imaginative names were so enticing that I jumped at the archaeologist’s offer to show me a few of them the following Sunday. “Vámonos,” I said, and had no trouble finding friends willing to tag along.
“On the way to San Agustín, we can visit the church at Santa Cruz de las Flores,” said our guide. “Its architecture can tell us a lot about the people who lived here before the Conquista.”
Santa Cruz lies right along the Circuito Metropolitano Sur highway and is easy to reach both from Guadalajara and Chapala. I must confess I have driven past the town a thousand times and never thought of stopping to visit the church. Along the way, the archaeologist explained that the churches built by the Franciscans in this area are very different from those in other parts of the country.
Near Mexico City, he said, priests were armed with detailed descriptions of everything the native people held sacred and they made efforts to prevent “pagan” symbolism or practices creeping into Catholic rites. Out in the “boonies” (read western Mexico) the Spaniards thought the Indians were disorganized and bereft of culture, so the Franciscans were allowed to develop their own style of evangelization. St. John, for example, was accepted by the Indians as a sort of new, improved Tlaloc and ancient rites related to rain were incorporated into Catholic ceremonies.“For example,” said Francisco Sánchez in front of the church at Santa Clara, “the silhouette of this building is in the shape of a hawk, a pre-Hispanic symbol of water, and among the decorations on the wall, you may find one that looks a lot like Tlaloc.”
Other decorations both outside and inside the old church are most interesting, for example, symbols of flowers because this town was originally called Xochitlán, the Place of the Flowers. On one of the oldest sections of the church’s often repaired facade, we could see three bules (gourds), traditional vessels for carrying water.
If you’re interested in visiting this church, you should also take a look at the one in San Juan Evangelista, located on the shore of Lake Cajititlán: the entire building is shaped like Tlaloc!
From Santa Cruz we drove to wide open spaces within sight of Guadalajara’s Corralón de San Agustín, where they lock up your car if you were unlucky enough to have been involved in an accident (even if the other guy was at fault). In the distance, we could see 14,000 cars spread over an enormous area.
Francisco led us to a big rock covered with fading petroglyphs. “No one has ever copied these for posterity,” he said, “and in another 25 years they’ll be invisible.”
To me, they were already pretty invisible, especially thanks to the graffiti covering them. I include the coordinates below in case you would like to be the first person to trace these spirals and other designs, which could be up to 2,000 years old. Francisco said this whole area is full of ruins, including the remains of an ancient cobblestone road.
Next we drove into the El Cortijo fraccionamiento in San Agustín to see a pyramid which, Francisco lamented, had been “restored” by people who meant well but hadn’t consulted an archaeologist. What I liked best about this pyramid was the fact that ancient people who had stood on this very spot 1,000 years ago were sharing with me their joy and appreciation of a magnificent sight. Amazingly, the top of this pyramid gives you a 360-degree view, allowing you to discover that you are standing smack in the middle of a great circle of mountains. “This is truly a special place,” you say to yourself, and, even if the pyramid was restored all wrong, that message from its original builders still comes through loud and strong. It’s well worth a trip to San Agustín just to stand on this spot.
How to get there
To visit the old church in Santa Cruz de las Flores, drive south from Guadalajara on Highway 54 (towards Colima) to the Circuito Metro Sur (3.6 kilometers south of Outlet). Then go southwest two kilometers and enter Santa Cruz on Calle Guadalupe Victoria. Go 440 meters south to González Ortega, where you’ll see the church (N20 28.876 W103 30.521). The Pyramid of San Agustín is at N20 32.193 W103 27.693. The petroglyph rock is at N20 30.963 W103 28.100 and the route to reach it is on Wikiloc.com under San Agustin Petroglyph Rock.