Our Toluca friends, the Mandujano family, invited us to visit some wonderful sites in the Mexico City area. We agreed to meet in Tepotzotlán, where we visited the spectacular Museum of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, located in the huge Jesuit complex built originally in the 1580s that includes the College of San Francisco Javier with its Church containing magnificent Churrigueresque altarpieces. The Museum is highlighted by the Church, with retablos of La Virgen de Gualdalupe, La Virgen de la Luz, San Ignacio de Loyola, and others, with works by the famous artists Miguel Cabrera (Alegoria de la Preciosisima Sangre) and Cristóbal de Villalpanda. We enjoyed the Huerta (gardens), and especially the Capilla Doméstica, the ‘everyday chapel’. The Capilla Doméstica was built in the first part of the 17th century as a legacy of Pedro Ruiz de Ahumada, and designated for the exclusive use of residents of the College. According to a description posted there, the ceiling vault features the emblems of the religious orders, placed in the order of their arrival in New Spain: the crossed arms of the Franciscans (1524), the fleur de lis cross of the Dominicans (1526), the pierced heart of the Augustinians (1533), the monogram of the Jesuits (1572), the starred cross of the Carmelites (1585), and the Maltese cross of the Mercedarians (1589). 

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