In Mexico there is a temple that disconcerts its visitors due to the presence of Nazi symbols We tell you where it is and what its history is
Shared from/by Mexico Desconocido
Being the Nazi swastika the most censored symbol by all of humanity, it is not surprising that all those who enter the Tampico Cathedral for the first time are frozen when they see that the floor of the temple is engraved with 141 swastikas. What is the link of the Nazis with this building?
And in the absence of explanations, visitors begin to speculate about the reason why such an infamous insignia related to Hitler, hatred of Jews, racial supremacy and death, is in the most important church in the state. The most common is that the construction of the enclosure was financed by a supporter of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, could it be?
History of the Tampico Cathedral, before the Nazi symbols
According to the documents, the Tampico Cathedral began to be erected in 1841 under the design of Lorenzo de Hidalga and the supervision of the San Carlos Academy. It was completed in 1872. So far, by the dates, we can see that the temple was not made thinking of showing sympathy with the Nazis, since this ideology, with everything and swastika, began to be established from 1920.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves because strong doubts come. In 1917 the central nave of the Tampico Cathedral collapsed, as if that were not enough, a few years later a lightning bolt caused the west tower to fall, both events ended up leaving the temple in ruins. It was then that the controversial oil tycoon from the United States, Edward Doheny, came to the rescue with his money.
With money from Edward Doheny, the floor with Nazi symbols is installed in the Tampico Cathedral
The millionaire financed the construction of new domes, vaults, walls, columns, and of course the floors that are preserved to date, including the one with the 141 swastikas that would have finished being installed in the central corridor of the temple between 1926 and 1931, dates in which the advance of Nazism and fascism was a burning issue in the world.
A few years ago, the former administrator of the Tampico Cathedral, Monsignor Elías Gómez Martínez, denied that the swastikas were placed to pay homage to Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism, but rather that they were placed because the symbol has older positive meanings. And you’re right.
Before Hitler the swastika was better seen by humanity
The swastika was used at least 5,000 years before Hitler did it on his Nazi flag. It comes from the Sanskrit svastika which means “good fortune”. It is also a sacred symbol for Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Odinism.
There are indications that the swastika made a strong comeback in the late 19th century after archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found it on pottery inside ancient Troy, thereby ascertaining that it was an important religious symbol of the ancient ancestors. Germans.
When they decided not to remove the swastikas from the floor of the Tampico Cathedral
Returning to the case of the swastikas in the central aisle of the Tampico Cathedral, these had the possibility of being removed in the mid-1990s with the permission of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). However, the priests responsible for the temple decided not to do it, as Monsignor Elías Gómez Martínez explained, but why?
On this mystery Edgar González Ruíz, a researcher specialized in the political right in Mexico, offers some light. He explains that the then bishop Rafael Gallardo García did not want to keep the symbols because of his relationship with Nazism, however those who opposed it were the members of the “ultra-Catholic” sector of Tampico society.
It seems that we will have to live with the doubt of whether the 141 swastikas that go from the door to the atrium of the Tampico Cathedral were placed with or without the intention of sympathizing with one of the most hated characters in universal history.
