[Varda]

I should have mentioned that the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a Marian feast day and in Catholic theology references to Eve also apply to Mary who is considered the "new Eve".

[firebrand]

I missed that it opened on Dec. 8. I'm sure you saw that there is a prayer in the movie to a "Mother of Mercy," when the children are left abandoned as the prisoners are taken away. There was probably a goddess in Mayan beliefs, although I didn't know this.

The Western civilization reference is only at the end, when the ships appear. There is sudden calm, as both pursuers and pursued stop in their tracks. The men on the ships are just sitting or standing there calmly. Gibson leaves it to us to breathe a sigh of relief.

Although I know the white man was not a total blessing to the natives, to say the least, Columbus's diaries reveal that he was on a mission from God, which is conveniently left out of all elementary school teaching on the subject. Europeans brought Christianity to the New World and that is a fact that eclipses their aberrant brutalities.