“The temples fell, becoming dust and ash, the idols were destroyed, and the sacred books were devoured by flames, but the ancient gods have not stopped living in the hearts of the Indians.”​—Las antiguas culturas mexicanas (The Ancient Mexican Cultures).

On the very hill where the Aztecs worshipped Tonantzin, the dark Nahuatl-speaking Catholic Virgin of Guadalupe was said to have appeared to an Aztec Indian in 1531. This hastened the conversion of the Aztecs to Catholicism. A shrine to this virgin was built on the foundation of Tonantzin’s temple. On December 12, the basilica is visited by hundreds of thousands of devout Mexicans, many of whom speak Nahuatl.

In their remote sierra communities, the Nahuatl hold numerous festivals devoted to their patron saints, some lasting for days or even weeks. The book El universo de los aztecas (The Universe of the Aztecs) comments that the indigenous people “associate the worship of the saints of the Catholic Church with ceremonies that were practiced before Cortés.” The Nahuatl are also very much involved in spiritism. When they get sick, they go to healers who practice ritual cleansing and animal sacrifices.