The Mughal Princess of Mexico

In the central Mexican city of Puebla, a short drive from the largest pyramid ever built, stands the world’s most unexpected Mughal tomb.

It’s hidden inside the 18th century Templo Explatorio del Espiritu Santo, a baroque masterpiece just off the city's main square with the most incredible sacristy.

The art fuses Baroque European and local Nahua (Aztec) motifs, with doors that wouldnt be out of place in the Alhambra. You know you're in the right place when you spot a giant fresco of Francis Xavier bringing Catholicism to India.

Pass through the doorway and you'll finally come face to face with a grave covered with a Persian rug, decorated with a giant AI rendering of a Mughal Princess.

This is the grave of Caterina de San Juan - aka Mirra - a 17th century Mughal princess.

Possibly the granddaughter of the Emperor Akbar, she converted to Christianity under the influence of court Jesuits, was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates after being expelled from the capital, and was sold as a slave in the Phillipenes before eventually being trafficked to Mexico.

Here she travelled across the ruins of the former Aztec Empire, won her freedom, endured an abusive marriage, became a counter-reformation mystic, nearly became a Catholic Saint, and possibly inspired Mexican national dress.

For a fleeting decade in the seventeenth century, engravings of her face were the most venerated icons in New Spain. The longest book ever published in the history of the colonial Americas was an exhaustive, three-volume hagiography dedicated entirely to the miraculous events of her life.

Within just ten years of her death, however, the Spanish inquisition burnt all evidence of her life and banned people from worshiping her. All that survived was her grave and a memorial plaque that reads “Catharinam de San Juan, Quam Mogor Mundo… dedit” - Catharina de San Juan, who the Mughals gave to the world.”

A century later, however, she remerged as the “China Poblana,” a symbol of Mexican nationhood.

Its the craziest story I have dived into in 2026 so far and Ive just written a ✨️Substack about it.