My life’s journey has offered me many twists and turns. Around each corner has been a new challenge, a new opportunity, a new adventure, a new questioning of faith. I have come to believe that God’s hand has always been there guiding me throughout this journey, always ending up somewhere I had not planned or imagined.
My new home is in Mexico, in the State of Oaxaca, in an area called Bahías de Huatulco (Bays of Huatulco). An area that I had very little knowledge of. For a long time I had planned to ‘retire’ to Mexico. Well here I am, in Mexico, but employed as an English teacher at the Universidad del Mar, Huatulco Campus, a job that was offered to me two weeks after being laid off from an almost 34-year career in telecommunications and in an area about a 16-hour bus ride from where I was ‘supposed to be’. But God knows why he brought me here and not to the person and place where I had longed to be for the past 10 years. I have to trust Him.
Does God have something he needs me to do here? Probably. Do I know what it is? Not a clue. In time, His plan will be revealed like the many pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle and all the question words will be answered. As a priest, one of the first pieces of this puzzle that I have discovered is in the name Huatulco itself. It tells me that I am in a place where faith in God is strong.
The word Huatulco (Quauhtolco, the original word) comes from the indigenous Mixteco language meaning “the place where the wood is adored”, being comprised of the word “quahuilt” for wood, the verb “toloa” which means to bow your head down to and by the syllable or particle “co” which denotes place. The term came into being because of the worship of an important cross that was located in the area near the Port of Huatulco, placed there by an enigmatic individual 1500 years before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores.
In the second volume of his book, La Historia de Oaxaca (The History of Oaxaca), historian and priest, José Antonio Gay Castañeda (1833-1886) dedicates one complete appendix to the history of this holy cross and the tradition of its veneration by the local inhabitants of the area because of its effective and sure cure to all their afflictions.
As a port for transporting treasures by Spanish galleons, the port of Santa Cruz (Huatulco) drew the attention of foreign corsairs, the likes of Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish. Towards the end of 1587, Cavendish invaded the port now called Santa Cruz. There he found the large cross and the worshiping inhabitants. Believing it to be the work of the devil, he made several unsuccessful attempts to destroy the cross by chopping at it, burning it and by finally trying to pull it down with ropes tied to his sailing ship, believing the force of the wind would surely topple the cross. He ultimately sailed away, leaving the cross intact next to the shore.
News of this had spread far and wide. As related by Dominican Brother and historian Francisco de Burgoa (1606-1681), by 1600 arriving pilgrims had cut away so many slivers from the cross that to protect it, in April 1612 the Bishop of Antequera, Juan de Cervantes, much to the protest of the locals, ordered that the cross be brought to Oaxaca City. There it was placed in a sanctuary built for it. The cross was cut and made into 4 separate crosses. One cross was sent to church authorities in Mexico City, one to Pope Paul V in Rome, one to the head town of Santa María de Huatulco and one was kept in the cathedral in Oaxaca City. The crosses in Oaxaca City and Santa María de Huatulco are still there today.
Veneration of the Holy Cross is held on May 3 in the Chapel at the port of Santa Cruz.
The Cross of Huatulco - Part 2 will discuss who, according to legend, placed the Holy Cross on the shores of Huatulco.
My new home is in Mexico, in the State of Oaxaca, in an area called Bahías de Huatulco (Bays of Huatulco). An area that I had very little knowledge of. For a long time I had planned to ‘retire’ to Mexico. Well here I am, in Mexico, but employed as an English teacher at the Universidad del Mar, Huatulco Campus, a job that was offered to me two weeks after being laid off from an almost 34-year career in telecommunications and in an area about a 16-hour bus ride from where I was ‘supposed to be’. But God knows why he brought me here and not to the person and place where I had longed to be for the past 10 years. I have to trust Him.
Does God have something he needs me to do here? Probably. Do I know what it is? Not a clue. In time, His plan will be revealed like the many pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle and all the question words will be answered. As a priest, one of the first pieces of this puzzle that I have discovered is in the name Huatulco itself. It tells me that I am in a place where faith in God is strong.
The word Huatulco (Quauhtolco, the original word) comes from the indigenous Mixteco language meaning “the place where the wood is adored”, being comprised of the word “quahuilt” for wood, the verb “toloa” which means to bow your head down to and by the syllable or particle “co” which denotes place. The term came into being because of the worship of an important cross that was located in the area near the Port of Huatulco, placed there by an enigmatic individual 1500 years before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores.
In the second volume of his book, La Historia de Oaxaca (The History of Oaxaca), historian and priest, José Antonio Gay Castañeda (1833-1886) dedicates one complete appendix to the history of this holy cross and the tradition of its veneration by the local inhabitants of the area because of its effective and sure cure to all their afflictions.
As a port for transporting treasures by Spanish galleons, the port of Santa Cruz (Huatulco) drew the attention of foreign corsairs, the likes of Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish. Towards the end of 1587, Cavendish invaded the port now called Santa Cruz. There he found the large cross and the worshiping inhabitants. Believing it to be the work of the devil, he made several unsuccessful attempts to destroy the cross by chopping at it, burning it and by finally trying to pull it down with ropes tied to his sailing ship, believing the force of the wind would surely topple the cross. He ultimately sailed away, leaving the cross intact next to the shore.
News of this had spread far and wide. As related by Dominican Brother and historian Francisco de Burgoa (1606-1681), by 1600 arriving pilgrims had cut away so many slivers from the cross that to protect it, in April 1612 the Bishop of Antequera, Juan de Cervantes, much to the protest of the locals, ordered that the cross be brought to Oaxaca City. There it was placed in a sanctuary built for it. The cross was cut and made into 4 separate crosses. One cross was sent to church authorities in Mexico City, one to Pope Paul V in Rome, one to the head town of Santa María de Huatulco and one was kept in the cathedral in Oaxaca City. The crosses in Oaxaca City and Santa María de Huatulco are still there today.
Veneration of the Holy Cross is held on May 3 in the Chapel at the port of Santa Cruz.
The Cross of Huatulco - Part 2 will discuss who, according to legend, placed the Holy Cross on the shores of Huatulco.