Once we arrived to Tzintzuntzan, we were greeted by a number of people dressed up in traditional indigenous attire there to serenade us and lead us to the luncheon.
It was odd to have discussed “ethnic” performances to the foreign world by indigenous groups in Mexico all week at the conference and then go to a luncheon where precisely that takes place as soon as we got off the bus. All the same, everyone was very welcoming and treated us with kindness during our visit.
Tzintzuntzan is a little town that lies just 15km north of Pátzcuaro whose name means "Place of Hummingbirds" in Purépecha. Historically, Tzintzuntzan was the Tarascan capital when copper blades aided the Tarascans to defeat the Aztecs that invaded them during the 15th century.
When the Spanish later arrived with a religious mission backed by the Bible, a drive for riches, and a violent fury against the indigenous, the Purépecha chief made peace with Cristóbal de Olid, the leader of the first Spanish expedition in 1522. However, when Nuño de Guzmán arrived 7 years later with an insatiable desire for gold, he had the same chief burned alive.
The Ex-Convento de San Francisco is a religious compound built partly with stones from the Tarascan site located just up the hill which the Spanish demolished. Of significance during the colonial period in Mexico, this site is where Franciscan monks began the Spanish missionary effort in Michoacán during the sixteenth century.
