Why did indigenous artists carve stone crosses with foliage in colonial Mexico?

In colonial Mexico, indigenous artists carved stone crosses with sprouting foliage to communicate Christian imagery through a symbolic language familiar to their own culture. By depicting the cross with plant life, they suggested that it was "still alive," a concept that resonated with pre-Columbian traditions where trees were rendered as crosses to serve as world trees connecting the heavens to the underworld.1

This artistic choice allowed the crosses to be interpreted on multiple levels: as both Christian symbols and indigenous sacred icons. Native sculptors often emphasized this symbolic power by omitting the naturalistic depiction of a hanging male torso, replacing it instead with abstract iconography such as the tools of the crucifixion or Veronica’s veil. By blending these traditions, indigenous artists created unique religious forms that spoke to both European and Indian viewers, effectively integrating their own spiritual heritage into the new colonial religious framework.1