Juan Diego Spills The Roses: Fall of the Aztec Empire, Death, Revelation and Transformation Center Panel, Fabric Collage, 48” x 24" x 2”
Cuauhtlatoatzin, the “talking eagle” in Nahuatl, was a teenage Chichimeca Indian peasant in 1487. Tlacaellel, the Aztec ruler at the time, dedicated a new Temple of the Sun in the center of Tenochitlan to the chief god of the Aztec pantheon — Huitzilopochtli, “lover of hearts and drinker of blood”. The temple pyramid was 100 feet high with 114 steps to reach the top. Over a period of four days and four nights, the ritual celebration included the sacrifice of eighty thousand men. While this number of sacrifices seems incredible, evidence indicates it took only 15 seconds to cut the heart out of each victim.