Beneath the Cross, the Maize Gods Sing : Unveiling Indigenous Worldview in “Female Song for the Resurrection of Our Lord”

Abstract This article offers a critical analysis of the song “Female Song for the Resurrection of Our Lord,” found in the colonial manuscript titled Cantares mexicanos . While seemingly a Christian hymn, a close reading of this song reveals deep continuities with pre-Hispanic Nahua religious thought, cosmology, and ritual language. Through contextualized textual analysis grounded in ethnohistorical scholarship, the study uncovers the song’s hybrid nature and the Indigenous conceptual models embedded within its Christian language and imagery. The article places the song within the evangelization efforts of sixteenth-century Franciscan friars in New Spain, highlighting the role of Native authors, singers and translators in shaping Indigenous devotional expression. It argues that the analyzed piece functioned not merely as a catechetical tool but as a site of cultural negotiation, where Christian themes were reinterpreted through Indigenous frameworks—most notably, by aligning Saint Francis with the Nahua corn deities, whose cult, associated with regeneration, sustenance, and cyclical vegetation renewal, coincided with Easter celebrations. Though rarely studied, this song contributes meaningfully to debates on syncretism, Indigenous authorship, and resistance in early colonial Christian literature. Emphasizing the agency of Native intermediaries, the article reveals the dialogic nature of missionary textual production and offers a more nuanced understanding of the Cantares mexicanos corpus.