Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most revered female sacred images in Mexican Catholic tradition and culture. Her following is not limited to Mexico, however, but has transcended national boundaries throughout the Americas as well as parts of Southeast Asia. In 1935, Pope Pius XI declared her patroness of the Philippines, and in 1946, Pope Pius XII named her patroness of the Americas. Her following is largely due to the message of empowerment that is embodied in the context under which tradition tells us she appeared.

In 1521, Tenochtitlán, now known as Mexico City, fell to Hernán Cortés after Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec ruler, surrendered. During and after the conquest, Catholicism was used to justify the physical, emotional, and spiritual enslavement of the indigenous people. The vanquished people were dehumanized and lived without hope. Popular tradition tells us that in the midst of this devastation, an event occurred that was viewed as a miracle that helped restore a dying people's dignity and desire to live.

According to the Nahuatl account, Nican Mopohua, in December 1531, the Virgin Mary (in the image and likeness of a mestiza woman) appeared to an indigenous man named Juan Diego several times on the hill of Tepeyac. The hill had been an ancient Aztec sacred site for a goddess whom people referred to as Tonantzin. Each time, she asked Juan Diego to tell Bishop Zumarraga [Page 963]that she wanted a temple in her name to be built on the top of the hill. Though Juan Diego was faithful in repeatedly taking the message to the bishop, the bishop refused to believe the story until Our Lady of Guadalupe imprinted her very image on Juan Diego's tilma (cloak) on December 12.

Today, while many scholars have attempted to prove that the apparition never took place and/or that Juan Diego is not a historical figure, others have devoted extensive research to demonstrate that the miraculous event did take place in history. Still others (most notably Chicana feminist artists) have visually reinterpreted the image in feminist ways. Despite the scholarly debates, for her followers, she is a sacred figure that exists through the miracles they claim she has granted. Many make financial and/or physical sacrifices to travel to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico City, where the tilma with her image is housed. Some devotees walk on their knees for miles to give thanks for a miracle granted or to fulfill a promesa (promise) or manda (a type of religious mandate).

Last year, on her feast day, her sanctuary received more than 7 million followers from all over the world. In fact, the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic sanctuary in Latin America and the second most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world after Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Her popularity has resulted in the commodification of her image, which can be found even on mouse pads, stuffed animals, and dog T-shirts. Yet to those who believe in Our Lady of Guadalupe, her image is not simply a product that can be bought and sold in the international marketplace; she is a Catholic symbol that transcends geographical borders, making her a global sacred image that embodies the survival, hope, and self-affirmation of those at the margins of society.

...