Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is at the heart of all Mexicans.
Without any doubt, our Lady of Guadalupe is firmly rooted in Mexican culture and society. Ever since the Mexican Independence Wars against Spain, countless politician and military men have associated their names, campaigns, revolutions, or flags, to the name or the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
According to the Catholic legend, the Virgin appeared for the first time to the indigenous Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin(in 1531) in the Tepeyac’s hill, located in the suburbs of the Mexican capital, identifying herself as the mother of God , and asking the peasant to contact the Church’s authorities and inform them of her wish, that a temple on Her honor was built in that same place.
Hurried, the native visited archbishop Zumarraga and transmitted to him the Virgin’s petition, supplying also further details about the apparition.
But the prelate did not believe what Juan Diego said, taking the peasant’s words as simply the product of the feverish mind of a newly converted native.
Hopeless, Juan Diego wearily climbed the Tepeyac again, where the Virgin appeared before him for the second time.
There, Juan Diego informed the Virgin what had happened, emphasizing the incredulity of the prelate.
The Virgin listened intensely to him, and with a smile on her face, asked the pheasant to please, insist once again.
Up in the hill of Tepeyac, at that time there was only a small chapel, which the Franciscan monks had ordered built to facilitate their evangelization work, in those lands of the New World.
Juan Diego, insistent, obeying the Marian mandate, addressed the archbishop once again, passing on to him the Virgin’s petition.
But, the archbishop Zumarraga still did not believe what he said.
Just to get that Indian off his back, the prelate asked Juan Diego to bring him flowers cut in the Tepeyac, aware of the fact that, in mid-December as they were, and with the reigning cold weather, it was practically impossible for the Indian to deliver his petition, unless of course –if the apparition happened to be true — the Virgin performed a miracle.
Once again, Juan Diego climbed the Tepeyac, and the Virgin appeared in front of him for the third time. The native told the Virgin that he didn’t know what else to do or say, but the fact was that the archbishop still didn’t believe him, having asked him this time for an almost impossible proof.: to bring him flowers cut in the Tepeyac in the middle of a cold December!
But the Virgin, with all calm and smiling, asked Juan Diego to come-back the following day in the morning, that She would provide him with the proof requested by the archbishop.
However, the following day, Monday, December 11, Juan Diego’s uncle, Juan Bernardino, woke up very ill, so Juan Diego spent the whole day taking care of him, not going to his scheduled appointment with the Virgin.
On Tuesday, Juan Bernardino’s health was even worse, so Juan Diego, fearing his uncle’s imminent death, went to Tlatelolco (today’s Mexico City) to look for a priest. To avoid delays encountering the Virgin, and ashamed for not meeting Her, as agreed, Juan Diego decided to take a different route, surrounding the Tepeyac, instead of climbing it. But half-way through, the Virgin intercepted him, appearing before the native for the fourth time.
Distressed and very ashamed, the indigenous excused himself with the Virgin, informing Her of his uncle’s mortal illness, to which She reprimanded him slightly for not resorting to Her, and addressed him with the following words, which are engraved today, on the portico of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico:
Am I not Here That am Your Mother?
The Virgin assured Juan Diego of the good health now of his uncle, that he shouldn’t worry about him anymore, that he should climb the Tepeyac, cut and gather the requested flowers, and take them to the archbishop, as the proof he’d asked for.
Juan Diego then climbed the Tepeyac’s hill, where in spite of the time of the year, he found some shrubs with the flowers known as Castilian Roses, non-native to Mexico, which he cut and deposited in his tilma, sort of a light cape used by Mexican peasants to carry vegetables and fruits, at the time of the harvest, but also used to carry all kind of parcels in it.
With the flowers in his tilma, Juan Diego went to see the archbishop Zumarraga.
When he unfolded his tilma before the prelate, the flowers fell to the ground, uncovering the image of the Virgin, dark-skinned and with mestizo features, engraved in Juan Diego’s tilma.
The archbishop then believed Juan Diego, asking him to stay in town one more day to show them exactly the location of the Virgin’s apparition.
Juan Diego agreed to stay that night in town, and the following morning climbed once again the hill of Tepeyac, but this time he was not alone, for the archbishop Zumarraga and various persons of his entourage, insisted on accompanying him.
After a while on the Tepeyac, and having shown his companions the exact position the Virgin had at the time of Her first three apparitions, Juan Diego excused himself before them, saying that he had to go home, as he was still very worried about the health status of his uncle Juan Bernardino.
His companions did not want to leave him alone, so they went with him to his home.
On arrival home, Juan Diego found his uncle happy and enjoying good health, as the Virgin had said.
Juan Bernardino said that a lady he did not know, had appeared before him and had him cured.
Eventually, Juan Diego (A Saint today) dedicated his life to God, leaving his house, possessions, and family, and moving to a little house located on the Tepeyac, next to the church (A Basilica nowadays ) built in the Virgin’s honor and taking care of its cleanliness and maintenance.
Juan Diego died in 1548, at the age of 74, and was canonized as Saint, by the Pope Juan Pablo II in 2002.
The first Basilica dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe was built on the hill of Tepeyac, beginning its construction in 1695, and opening its doors to the believers on May 1°, 1709, with a solemn novena.
After the Conquest, the Spaniards resorted in Mexico to a technique they have used before in Spain, in their fight against the Arab invaders: the systematic destruction of the installations in which the locals, already defeated, used to render tribute to their Gods, and the construction on the same location of churches, chapels, or other institutions of the Catholic faith.
Several pre-Hispanic generations have used the Tepeyac’s installations for their sacrifices and adoration to Tonanzin, the mother of all Gods, according to the Nahual culture. In fact, the place (Tepeyac) was visited every year by thousands of pilgrims, coming from far away locations.
The Catholic Church knew how to take advantage of such beliefs for its evangelization’s work. It did not matter that many of the indigenous visitors, referred to the Virgin Mary as Tonanzin.
At the beginning, the archbishop Zumarraga ordered the transfer of Juan Diego’s tilma to Mexico’s Cathedral, but afterward, with great fanfare, in ceremony that he presided, and with the participation of Juan Diego himself, and diverse local authorities, transferred the tilma, engraved with the Virgin’s image, to the Tepeyac.
By the way, during the procession, another of the many miracles attributed to the Virgin occurred, as an indigenous participant in a ceremonial dance, was badly injured by an arrow. Transferred with urgency and brought down to the feet of the Virgin’s image, miraculously the native recovered completely of his wound.
All through the years, there have been countless controversies placing doubts on Juan Diego’s real existence; the tilma’s authenticity and the divine origin of the Virgin’s image engraved in the tilma, or if the adoration of the image constituted idolatry (as the Franciscan’s Order sustained) or not.
The fact is, that in all Catholicism there isn’t another case exceeding the veneration, which among the Mexican, generates the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located in Mexico City, is the second Catholic temple worldwide with more visitors (the first is San Pedro’s Basilica, in Rome), helped of course, by the 130 million inhabitants of Mexico.
In relation to the name Guadalupe, there are several theories: Some sustain that the term comes from the Nahual coatlaxopeuh, while others indicate that the name Guadalupe comes from the Arab language, given the multitude of words like Guadalquivir, Guadarrama or Guadalhorce, existing in the Castilian Spanish, thus, it seems reasonable to adhere to this theory.
Nevertheless, the truth is that there is disagreement about the origin of the name.
Personally, with reference to the Virgin of Guadalupe of Mexico, I tend to think that both, the name and the legend regarding the apparition of the Virgin, were copied — almost completely — from the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe of Caceres, Spain.
In fact, the Pope Juan Pablo II, after visiting the Virgin and the Sanctuary of Guadalupe in Caceres, Spain, said the following:
“Is out of all discussion the great esteem that I have for the Virgin of Guadalupe of Mexico. Now, I realize, however, that here are its origins. Before I’d gone to the Tepeyac’s Basilica in Mexico, I should have come here to understand better the Mexican devotion”.
The quote is taken from Wikipedia: “Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico)”.
In fact, there are so many similarities with the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe of Caceres, Spain, that it seems reasonable to assume that the story told by Juan Diego (if he ever existed) appears rather an invention.
Thus, the Guadalupe’s Virgin of Caceres is also dark-skinned, it appeared in a rural environment, to a peasant of low social status and education, the truthfulness of Her apparition was doubted by the local Church’s authorities, who also asked for a proof, and the Caceres’apparition also asked for a temple in the Virgin’s honor, to be built on the location of Her apparition.
That is a lot of coincidences (too many in my opinion) between the two Virgins.
And we must add the fact that the archbishop Zumarraga, in spite of the fact that he has been a prolific writer, didn’t mention in his life’s work, neither, the Virgin’s apparitions (by itself, an extraordinary, noticeable event), nor the native Juan Diego.
The miraculous apparitions, if they were true, should have been mentioned by the archbishop, don’t you believe?
It is necessary also to mention, that during the XV and XVI centuries, the Virgin of Guadalupe of Caceres, had many followers in Spain; that Queen Isabel the Catholic herself was a loyal devotee of the Virgin of Guadalupe, hence increasing Her popularity among all Spaniards; and that Colon had named as Guadalupe, one of the first lands that he discovered in the New World.
According to my research, it seems that a sharp Catholic priest (probably a Franciscan missionary) facing the enormous task of evangelizing such a multitude of natives, in a land as large as Mexico’s, decided (to help himself) to invent the story of the Virgin’s apparitions, using the Caceres’ formula, and counting on Juan Diego (if he ever existed) to give the plot more credibility and acceptance by the natives.
Of what there are not any doubts, is of the veneration and adoration that the Mexican people profess to their little mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Every year, on December the 12th, date of the last apparition of the Virgin before Juan Diego, millions of Mexicans of all social status visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Pilgrims coming from all corners of the country, many of them with blood in their knees after they have moved on them for a considerable distance, paying a promise, or as a personal sacrifice, go to the Basilica to pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of Mexico, to ask for a grace, to pay a promise , or simply to ask the Virgin for the concession of a miracle.
