Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City and member of the Pontifical Council for the Family
In the welcome address at the World Meeting of Families in Mexico (2009), Cardinal Norberto Rivera quoted the wisdom of the ancient Aztecs:
«The family is not only a ecclesial reality, it is a divine and human institution, as the beautiful words that an indigenous father spoke to his daughter in the sixteenth century manifest and that, on the other hand, show how the family is an integral part of Mexican culture: “Here you are my daughter; my necklace of precious stones, my quetzal feathers, my human work, the one born of me. You are my blood, my color, my image is in you.
Whoever will be your companion, you should know that you will have to live together throughout life. Don’t leave him, clinging to him, hold him close to you even if he is a poor man, even if he is only an eaglet, even if he is a tiger cub, an unhappy soldier, a poor nobleman, perhaps tired, without possessions, you won’t despise him for that. May you be seen and invigorated by Our Lord, the One who knows us men, the inventor of the people and maker of human beings.
I entrust all of this to you with my lips and my words. So, before the Lord, I conclude my duty. I have done my task, my little one, my child. May you be happy, and may Our Lord make you joyful”». (Version one of the huehuetlatolli, “talks of the ancestors,” collected by Bernardino Sahagún in the 16th century and inserted in the Florentine Codex, sheets 74v-84r).
