The Other Conquest: Duality, Parallelism, and Symmetry

By Catherine Willard, with comment by Kim Weber

[1] The Other Conquest, a film by Salvador Carrasco, tells the story of oppression of the Aztecs by the Spanish conquistadors, which ultimately leads to an unlikely cultural and religious understanding by its two main characters by the end of the movie. Topiltzin, a native Aztec, is captured and becomes Catholic as a result of forced conversion. He is juxtaposed against Fray Diego, an optimistic friar on a mission to convert natives to Catholicism and a man hopeful for Topiltzin’s faith. Together, both characters form a bond that allows for two completely different cultures to align and for the viewers to understand that perhaps these cultures are more similar than they seem. Carrasco divides his movie into two distinct parts, setting the tone for the mirroring of scenes, duality, and parallelism that takes place during the course of the movie. The director intends for his viewers to draw important connections from these elements that bring them to a greater understanding of culture, religion, and faith.

[2] The opening scene shows Topiltzin moving out from beneath a dead body. He has survived the massacre at the temple by hiding under a dead native. Rain pours down as he staggers around, looking for any sign of life. After several failed attempts, he climbs to the top of a landing to find his mother lying lifeless in the mud. This scene sets the tone for the entire movie. The introduction of Topiltzin to the viewer as he moves out from under a dead body indicates a sort or rebirth or renewal, as he is the only source of life in this dark, dreary, morbid setting. The idea of his rebirth is constant throughout The Other Conquest and completely apparent by the end of the film. Looking around him, Topiltzin’s entire culture has been destroyed by the Spanish conquerors who brutally murdered his people mercilessly. His resolution to attempt to preserve his culture, as seen by the codices that he draws in the following scene, is a source of motivation for his renewal; he understands that his survival is the key to the preservation of a dying society.

[3] When he finds his mother dead, Topiltzin can immediately be identified as an orphan. The concept of the orphan in The Other Conquest can be taken in many different directions. The Mexican people have been looked at by scholars as orphans because of the illegitimacy of their bloodlines as a result of mixed breeding between the Spanish and native Mexican cultures. Additionally, the genocide of the native population by the Spanish during the years of conquest has also given the Mexican people an uncertainty about their lineage. Topiltzin’s need for a mother figure is echoed throughout the course of the entire movie, as he is constantly losing any sort of feminine figure that is a prominent part of his life.

[4] In the following scene, flashbacks from Fray Diego on his deathbed to the conversion of Topiltzin to Catholicism are used as a way to directly parallel two cultures. The director uses these frames to set up the comparison between the Spanish and native Mexican cultures that is present throughout the film. As Fray Diego lies in bed dying, the director gives his viewers a glimpse into his last thoughts, two of which are images of the Virgin Mary and a fiery sun. Unbeknownst to the viewer, Carrasco is revealing the Sun Goddess that is the basis for the Aztec’s religion. This image of the sun is repeated several times during scene transitions.

[5] The concept of symmetry and duality within The Other Conquest arises again, and quite literally, in the human sacrifice scene. The man who is to perform the ritual has half of his face painted. One half with no paint, symbolizing life, and the other half with blue paint and old rotted teeth painted on his lips, representing death. To numb the pain, the virgin eats a hallucinogenic mushroom that is placed in her mouth by Topiltzin’s grandmother. The duality in this sequence suggests the action in Catholicism in which followers receive the Host in their mouths during communion. Religious allusions like this are shown frequently by Carrasco to show similarities. As Topiltzin lies on the ground, he watches as the stone statue of the Mother Goddess comes crashing to the floor. The statue of the Virgin Mary is then resurrected in an attempt by the Spanish to create a religious shrine and prove their physical, religious and cultural dominance over the Aztecs. The eye contact that Topiltzin makes with the Virgin Mary is seen again in part two. It is conveying a message of bewilderment and lack of understanding. (see comment by Kim Weber)

[6] After being captured, Topiltzin escapes, leaving behind his brother and a few of the remaining Aztecs. He lives in the forest for some time, until he hears his brother calling on a conch shell. He immediately goes to find him but, in turn, is betrayed as he is captured by the Spanish and taken to Cortez. At this moment of betrayal, the image of the sun appears again, but this time with music that is foreboding. It is as if the director is trying to communicate the Mother Goddess’s disapproval of Topiltzin’s brother’s actions. The betrayal here is reminiscent of the story of Judas betraying Jesus in the Bible -- another connection that Carrasco draws between the native culture and the Catholic religion.

[7] The gaze that Topiltzin has in the direction of the Virgin Mary is repeated in the scene in which he is flogged by Captain Cristobal. His pain is clear, as is his lack of understanding for the Catholic religion, as the statue is positioned to be looking down, both literally and figuratively, upon his public beating. Carrasco adds a realistic element in an unlikely place when he shows tears running down the artificial face of the Virgin Mary. Mary’s tears are used to represent his disproval of his flogging that was being done in her name. According to the Catholic faith, all people are children of God, thus making Topiltzin her son. She is crying as she watches him suffer from the brutal beating that he is taking.

[8] Part two of the film takes the viewer into the monastery in which Topiltzin now lives and practices the Catholicism with Fray Diego. The Sun God image appears again as if to establish a presence and oversee all that is going on within the walls of the monastery. Topiltzin is now taking Spanish lessons once a week in the courtyard from Tecuichpo, who has been given the new name Dona Isabel. The lessons draw suspicion after Fray Diego overhears the two conversing in their native language. When Fray Diego confronts Dona Isabel, the camera shot brings the two to eye level. Frequently, confrontations between an Aztec and a Spaniard are depicted in a manner that shows the characters as equals. The eye-line matches and face-to-face interaction promote the idea of equality that the director wants his viewers to see. After the confrontation, the friar and Topiltzin, now called Tomás, go on a walk through the courtyard. In the background, the architecture of the stone monastery shows many different levels; it is similar to that of the distinct, flat levels of the Great Temple in the beginning of the movie.

[9] In a scene that closely follows the conversation in the courtyard between Topiltzin and Fray Diego, the viewer sees Fray Diego sitting on his bed in complete solitude. He begins whipping his back as a form of self-flagellation. This practice, although uncommon in the Catholic religion, can be paralleled to the human sacrifice scene in the beginning of the movie. Although they are understandably different, the purpose of self-mutilation is to sacrifice one’s body for repentance, which is a similar idea in the sacrifice scene; the young virgin was willing to sacrifice her life to please the gods and atone for the wrongdoings of her fellow tribe members. They both sacrificed their bodies in the name of their own religion.

[10] Upon hearing a noise coming from the halls of the monastery, Fray Diego leaves his cell and walks through the maze-like halls of the monastery. This scene can be paralleled with the Spanish explorers walking through the labyrinthine halls of the underground temple in which the virgin sacrifice was taking place. A few scenes later, Topiltzin’s mental and physical state are in rapid decline as he gazes out of his cell window at roses growing in a garden. These roses not only symbolize a passage of time but also the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The story parallels very well with The Other Conquest. Juan Diego, a poor native, claimed to have the Virgin appear to him while he was walking down a path during the 1500s in Mexico. He told Fray Juan de Zumárraga of the apparition, who discredited the story and asked for proof. Fray Zumárraga instructed Juan Diego to go up to the mountaintop and pick flowers. Because it was winter and the harsh cold made it difficult for flowers to grow, this feat seemed impossible. Nevertheless, Juan Diego returned with roses bundled up in his cloak, and as he revealed them to the friar, the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe was visible on the cloth.

[11] As Tecuichpo lies in her cell, she appears hopeless and depressed. Hernando Cortez visits her, and as they engage in conversation, she remarks, “This is my body. This is my blood.” The reference to Jesus’s speech at the Last Supper is clear here. Again, Carrasco is drawing connections between the Aztecs and Spanish through religion. A few scenes pass and Topiltzin’s mental state has completely deteriorated. He has a vision that reiterates the sacrifice scene from part one. Topiltzin is standing over the statue of the Virgin Mary, ready to drive a knife into her heart. The comparison here between the Aztec’s virgin sacrifice and the idea of sacrificing the Virgin Mary is again drawing a connection between the two religions and drawing parallels between two separate parts of the movie. More importantly, however, Topiltzin is putting the Virgin Mary in a coveted position. The virgin who is sacrificed in the beginning of the movie is at peace with the decision and understands that this will please her gods and lead her people to eternal glory. It is interesting to note that in this scene, Topiltzin is surrounded by all of the women who have had some sort of affect on him throughout the movie. These women include his grandmother, the sacrificial virgin from part one, and Tecuichpo, amongst others. The femininity that surrounds him represents the idea that Topiltzin is no longer an orphan. He has become a son of the Virgin Mary and thus forms an obsession that becomes apparent by the end of the movie. He has now come to associate the Virgin Mary with the rest of the women that have died in his life: his mother, grandmother, the dead woman on the altar with a flag through her heart, the sacrificial virgin, and Tecuichpo, as is evident through the flashbacks that he has.

[12] In one of the final scenes leading up the dramatic finale, Fray Diego confronts Topiltzin by the sacristy of the church. It is at this point that the viewer sees a change in Fray Diego’s perspective. Fray Diego actually acknowledges Topiltzin’s feelings toward religion, indicating the large strides that he has made over the years in cultural understanding. Eye-line matches suggest equality and an understanding that was not there before. Recall that in the initial sacrifice scene, Fray Diego calls the statue of Mother Goddess “a hand full of stones,” but at this point in the film, he is now acknowledging her as an even greater presence. Carrasco wants his viewers to understand the connection between the Mother Goddess and the Virgin Mary; both are powerful feminine religious figures that are the basis of all belief and focus of worship. The specific god that one worships is not what is important here; it is the act of believing and putting faith into a higher being that connects these two religious icons, as well as Fray Diego and Topiltzin.

[13] The final scene mirrors the opening scene in several ways. It, too, is a scene that represents rebirth and renewal, as Topiltzin is finally at peace after years of struggling. He climbs out of the cell by placing his bed against the wall and ascends just as he did on the Great Temple in the opening scene. Once on the roof, he looks up to the heavens and smiles; Topiltzin is acknowledging the Virgin Mary’s presence and knows that he will be seeing her soon. The frame immediately following this clip is that of the statue, eyes angled down and smiling as she looks at her son. Once in the sacristy, Carrasco uses eye-line matches to communicate the equality between the Virgin Mary and Topiltzin as they stare at each other face to face. Topiltzin then steals the statue from the sacristy and brings it to the roof by his room. As he begins to lower the statue into his window, the baby Jesus falls out of the Virgin’s hands. Carrasco is showing the viewer that Topiltzin has now become the Virgin’s son; he is no longer an orphan.

[14] The Virgin Mary has taken the form of the Mother Goddess for Topiltzin, both literally and figuratively, as a brief shot of this transformation is shown in the following frame. Perhaps the most important idea behind Topiltzin’s death in the final scene is the jolting visual that the viewer gets after the fall. He is lying on the table beneath the statue of the Virgin Mary that just crushed his body. His positioning is reminiscent of the opening scene in which he emerges from beneath a dead body. When Fray Diego discovers him, he removes Topiltzin’s hands from the statue, leaving three drops of blood. This echoes the realism that was shown at the end of part one, when the Virgin sheds tears as Topiltzin gets whipped. Fray Diego positions the two bodies, and Carrasco uses the camera angle to show yet another eye-line match. A dark-skinned native Aztec is lying next to a light-skinned European; Topiltzin lies next to the Virgin Mary as an equal.

[15] Salvador Carrasco’s The Other Conquest tells more than just a story of the monumental changes that came with the Spanish conquest of the 1500s. Through symmetry, parallelism, and duality, the viewers of the film come to see the similarities between two vastly different cultures and are able to recognize one culture’s counterpoint in another. The final scene suggests that the possibility of generating a larger cultural understanding is within reach if cultures can stop looking at their differences and start looking at their similarities.

Comments

Kim Weber 2/15/12

One additional religious allusion in this scene is the actual sacrifice of the woman. This sacrifice mirrors the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Aztecs believe that sacrifices of their people through rituals will bring some sort of luck or favor or salvation to their people from the mother goddess. In much the same way, Christ died on the cross to save Christians from their sins. Both cultures have made sacrifices that are for the salvation and betterment of the group, and this is just one additional example to add to Willard's analysis of how Carrasco aims to bring the two cultures together through allusions to their similarities throughout the film.