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Yes that prayer to the "Mother of Mercy" is the one I think is the key to the story. I looked up the Mayan pantheon and didn't find any kind of analog to Our Lady although I think the woman names Ixchal.

The Spanish while present are not characters. The sole thing they do is bring Christ. I guess you could say that bringing Christ brought judgment on the Aztec/Mayans. The Spanish or Western civ. is the enemy that the Aztec/Mayan were turned over to but that's not in the movie. What is shown is that the culture of life slips back into the woods, safe but not yet born.

The imagery I think is what's important to the movie and maybe why Gibson chose this particular material. I really think this is an anti-abortion film. The human sacrifice scene in the temple is Gibson's version of pictures of bloody aborted babies and the culture of death that produces it. Therefore if we are western civilization I didn't see Gibson saying we are better than the Aztec/Mayans but rather analogous to it.

I agree completely about Columbus and the way our history is taught now. I would go further and say there is still too much anti-Catholic (much of it turned into generic anti-Christian) propaganda masquerading as history. The true story of the Church in the New World (or even in the US) is a tale yet to be told.

I didn't see Gibson saying we are better than the Aztec/Mayans but rather analogous to it.

Yes, there are both strains: our mission as the bearers of the Christian message, which will eventually overcome the worst excesses, and the fact that all have fallen short of the ideal, so that we are indeed somewhat analogous.

Did you notice the woman who was being carried around on that portable throne? In one fleeting moment, she is seen to be wearing the stars and stripes. (Tell me I really saw that, and was not overdosing on popcorn.) Then as the violence accelerates, she appears doubtful about it all.

This movie does not contain anything of historical value for the audience. Gibson is a liberal capitalist who makes movies for the same reason as all the other liberal capitalists in Hollywood: TO MAKE MONEY!! ( He couldn't exist long without financial success.)
This movie tries to equate Mayan mistakes with the problems of the present world. It delivers an unrelenting barrage of violence in McLuhanesque style which no historian, Roman Catholic, or any other God-fearing individual will find entertaining or enlightening. Mel did some great work in the past, but this movie will endear him to the druggies from "Rolling Stoned" magazine much more than the inhabitants of main stream christianity. Simply pandering to Hollywood and Disney's needs here, he is. The film would be more aptly titled "Marshall McLuhan does East LA Gangs."
Sorry, he is not on a good track here in my opinion.