page_title: Tlāloc
section_title: Representations
hierarchical_section_title: Tlāloc / Representations
caption_attribution_description: Page 27 of the Codex Borgia.
context_page_description: Tlaloc is a member of the pantheon of gods in Aztec religion. As supreme god of the rain, Tlaloc is also a god of earthly fertility and of water. He was widely worshipped as a beneficent giver of life and sustenance. However, he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder, and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. Tlaloc is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain in which he was believed to reside. His animal forms include herons and water-dwelling creatures such as amphibians, snails, and possibly sea creatures, particularly shellfish. The Mexican marigold, Tagetes lucida, known to the Aztecs as yauhtli, was another important symbol of the god, and was burned as a ritual incense in native religious ceremonies.
  The cult of Tlaloc is one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico.
context_section_description: In Aztec iconography, Tlaloc is usually depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. He is most often coupled with lightning, maize, and water in visual representations and artwork. Offerings dedicated to Tlaloc in Tenochtitlan were known to include several jaguar skulls and even a complete jaguar skeleton. Jaguars were considered the ultimate sacrificial animal due to their value.
  Tlaloc's impersonators often wore the distinctive mask and heron-feather headdress, usually carrying a cornstalk or a symbolic lightning bolt wand; another symbol was a ritual water jar.  Along with this, Tlaloc is manifested in the form of boulders at shrine-sites, and in the Valley of Mexico the primary shrine of this deity was located atop Mount Tlaloc.
  In Coatlinchan, a colossal statue weighing 168 tons was found that was thought to represent Tlaloc. However, one scholar believes that the statue may not have been Tlaloc at all but his sister or some other female deity. This statue was relocated to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in 1964.
  While pre-Hispanic cultures are thought to have become extinct once the Spanish had completed the colonization of Mexico, aspects of pre-Hispanic cultures continue to influence Mexican culture. Accordingly, Tlaloc has continued to be represented in Mexican culture even after the Spanish were thought to have completed evangelizing in Mexico. In fact, even as the Spanish were beginning to proselytize in Mexico, religious syncretism was occurring. Analyses of evangelization plays put on by the Spanish, in order to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity, suggests that the Spanish might have unknowingly created connections between Christianity and indigenous religious figures, such as Tlaloc. Indigenous Mexicans viewing these plays might have made connections between the sacrifice Abraham was willing to make of Isaac, to the sacrifices that were made to Tlaloc and other deities. These connections may have allowed indigenous peoples to retain ideas about sacrifice even as they were being forcibly converted to Christianity. Early syncretism between indigenous religions and Christianity, also included more direct connections to Tlaloc. Some churches built during the sixteenth century, such as the Santiago Tlatelolco church had stones depicting Tlaloc within the interior of the church. Even as the Roman Catholic Church sought to eradicate indigenous religious traditions, depiction of Tlaloc still remained within worship spaces, suggesting that Tlaloc would still have been worshipped after Spanish colonization. It is clear that Tlaloc would have continued to have played a role in Mexican cultures immediately after colonization.
  Despite the fact that it has been nearly half a millennium since the conquest of Mexico, Tlaloc still plays a role in shaping Mexican culture. At Coatlinchan, a giant statue of Tlaloc continues to play a key role in shaping local culture, even after the statue was relocated to Mexico City. In Coatlinchan, people still celebrate the statue of Tlaloc, so much so that some local residents still seek to worship him, while the local municipality has also erected a reproduction of the original statue. Many residents of Coatlinchan, relate to the statue of Tlaloc in the way that they might associate themselves with a patron saint, linking their identity as a resident of the town with the image of Tlaloc. While Tlaloc plays an especially important role in the lives of the people of Coatlinchan, the god also plays an important role in shaping the Mexican identity. Images of Tlaloc are found throughout Mexico from Tijuana to the Yucatán, and images of the statue of Tlaloc found at Coatlinchan are deployed as a symbol of the Mexican nation. Tlaloc and other pre-Hispanic features are critical to creating a common Mexican identity that unites people throughout Mexico. Accordingly, people throughout Mexico, and especially in Coatlinchan, refer to Tlaloc in very anthropomorphized ways, referring to Tlaloc as a person. Furthermore, people continue to observe superstitions about Tlaloc. Des
caption: Five Tlaloquê depicted in the Codex Borgia.
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