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Chapter Reference: Encounter; Colonial Crucible; Independence
The Virgin Mary with an Indian face, Guadalupe is the most cherished symbol of Mexican identity. Her appearance to an indigenous youth by the name of Juan Diego in the 1530s did not immediately cause much of a stir. Clergy who heard the story did not place much stock in it—at least at the beginning. But soon after Diego offered miraculous proof of what he had seen, a bishop gave orders to build a church on the hill at Tepeyac, scene of the first appearance. Little could the bishop have imagined that the new shrine to Guadalupe in Tepeyac would become the second most visited Catholic shrine in the world. Mexican devotion to Guadalupe was clearly aided by her association with an Aztec deity, Tonantzin—the mother of the gods—whose sacred site was at Tepeyac. At first, the Spanish clergy actually encouraged the indigenous people to associate this vision of Mary with Tonantzin. Their ability to see something familiar in this European image of holiness obviously facilitated their acceptance of it and fueled their conversion to Christianity. A paper on the Virgin of Guadalupe should consider the process of transculturation that allowed for the Catholic Mary to become the representative of indigenous communities during colonization. It may also examine how this process is related to the Virgin of Guadalupe as the most treasured symbol of national identity in Mexico.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- How did Mexican devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe rise during the colonial period?
- What public role did the Virgin of Guadalupe play in the wars of independence?
- Have people of Mexican descent in the United States continued their devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Brading, D. A. Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition across Five
Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
** Brading's book is the most complete study on the history of the Virgin in Mexico.
Johnson, Maxwell E. The Virgin of Guadalupe: Theological Reflections of an Anglo-
Lutheran Liturgist. Boulder, New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002.
This is a work in comparative religious studies.
** Orsini Dunnington, Jacqueline. Guadalupe: Our Lady of New Mexico. Santa Fe: Museum
of New Mexico Press, 1999.
Smith, Jody Brant. The Image of Guadalupe: Myth or Miracle? Garden City, NY: Doubleday
& Company, 1983.
Other Resources:
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