The identification of Quetzalcoatl with Christ or any other non-Indian figure depends upon a series of traits which appear in native sources. Quetzalcoatl is said to have been a benevolent lawgiver who provided the moral basis for the society; he was a white, bearded man wearing a long white robe, and he left with a promise to return and rule again. While all of these traits have roots in the native legend, each one has been altered by the pressures of the Conquest. The most striking aspects of these traits--those which suggest that the legends referred to an appearance of Christ--are all Spanish elaborations on native legends. The original tales, as far as I can reconstruct then’,, do not support the identification of Quetzalcoatl with any foreign visitor.

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Stripping away the influence of the Spanish, Quetzalcoatl becomes once again a very Aztec; god, complete with the duality of good and bad which characterizes the Aztec pantheon. The moral and political climate of the Conquest generated pressures which selected certain facets of the native tradition and so presented them as to appear Christian.. The early Spanish fathers found such evidences behind every tree, but no bough was more fruitful than Quetzalcoatl.

The centuries which have passed have expanded those themes to the point that our popular conceptions of the deity have replaced the native understanding of their own god. Personally, I am satisfied that a reconstruction of the native Quetzalcoatl leaves rio room for an identification with any of the popular suggestions.