The painful instance of conflict between religious groups was the famous 1524 exchange between the first twelve Christian missionaries to Mexico and the tlamatinime or Nahuatl (Aztec) wise men who had survived the Spanish conquest of their people. Defeated in battle, subjugated, and told that their ancestral religious beliefs were false and even diabolical, the tlamatinime vigorously defended their traditions. So firm was their conviction that when their adversaries insisted they accept the Christian faith, they respectfully retorted: “Allow us then to die, let us perish now, since our gods are already dead.”

The collective death wish of the tlamatinime contrasts sharply with the vitality of a religious tradition born in Mexico shortly thereafter: The reported apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the indigenous neophyte Juan Diego in 1531. According to the traditional Nahuatl account of the apparitions, Guadalupe sent Juan Diego to request that Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, build a temple on the hill of Tepeyac in her honor. At first the bishop doubted the celestial origins of this request, but came to believe when Juan Diego presented him exquisite flowers that were out of season and the image of Guadalupe miraculously appeared on the humble indio’s tilma (cloak). Subsequently devotion to Guadalupe expanded among Spaniards, Nahuas, their mixed-blood offspring, and all social groups throughout Mexico. Today the Guadalupe basilica in Mexico City is the most visited pilgrimage site in the Western hemisphere.

What made this religious tradition an occasion of common ground for both the vanquished Aztecs and the conquering Iberian Catholics? Some have claimed it was simply a case of intermingling Christian and indigenous religions, since Tepeyac was associated with the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. But on a more fundamental level Guadalupe evoked a sense of awe that transcended the doctrinal impasse between Christians and Nahuas. The Guadalupe tradition shows that interreligious conversation becomes possible when opposing parties first confess that awe, wonder, and the unfathomable mystery of God are at the heart of their faith.