Millions and millions of people from all over the world gather in a certain place called "church" to worship a superior being that they believe is their creator. This superior being is also known as God. People must follow a doctrine imposed by Him in order to show their respect for this superior being. If it's not followed, you will not win your "passport" to Heaven and you will surely end up in Hell after you"re dead. This is a very short summary of what the Catholic Religion is. .
The Catholic Church is one of the most powerful institutions of the world. It's one of the main religions in America and Europe. But each country has its own variants of this religion. Each country mixes its culture and tradition with the principles of Catholicism and makes a unique version of it. This also happens in Mexico, where it's also the religion with the biggest number of followers. The Mexican Catholicism philosophy is very complex due to the many influences it has got, but this also makes it an important representation of our culture, history, tradition, beliefs, society and the most important of all: our faith.
The arrival of Catholicism in Mexico happened during the Spanish Conquest. When the colonizers arrived to this country, they started founding missions with the purpose of "saving" the souls of the Indians that lived in ignorance and had pagan practices. They pretended to accomplish this objective by teaching them by force the Catholic principles and ordinances. They also were baptized in order to convert to Catholicism. Most of these Indians refused to abandon their gods and costumes, so they were tortured or killed. Indians started to accept the new religion because they didn't want to die. But despite the fact that they had to accept a new religion in order to survive, the Indians probably got used to it quickly because of the similarities it had with their anterior beliefs. Their gods were exchanged by the catholic patron saints and instead of adoring Ometeotl, their main god, they had to worship the god that the colonizers brought to their lands.