By Carmen Rioja
The Mexican Virgin is known around the world, and she is celebrated every December 12 throughout Mexico and Central and Latin America. Inside temples and chapels adorned with flowers and music, hundreds of altars are dedicated to her. Followers visit her in markets, bus stations, neighborhoods, and alleys, and she is even seen in taxis and passenger buses in every town and in every city. The Guadalupana tradition is the largest pilgrimage and cultural celebration in Latin America.
With almost five hundred years of tradition, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe has gone through everything. It has been the most venerated figure for its dogma of faith throughout Latin America and a good part of the United States, it has been painted and represented in hundreds of ways and in various expressions ranging from colonial art, modern art, pop, folk, punk, tattoos, and even digital art. Her image is so beloved that a worldwide controversy arose the day a person named Wu You Lin filed a trademark registration for the image of the Virgin from China, with which he intended to collect rights to use the Virgin of Guadalupe herself.
Although this day is not an official holiday, it is considered the most important religious celebration for Mexicans almost everywhere, sometimes even more than Christmas. The celebration in Mexico is so big that it is always mentioned with sardonic humor when the Guadalupe—Tres Reyes long weekend is about to begin. It starts with the serenade of Las Mañanitas to the Virgin on December 12. Then it seems that the work year is over, and there is a return to intense work until after the day of the Three Kings, on January 6.
In this country, even most atheists recognize that we are, before being a Catholic or nationalist people, a people of Guadalupe. The Mexican philosopher and chronicler Carlos Monsiváis said, «Speaking of popular culture in Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the point that founds it since this figure covers primordial functions: it is the mystical perimeter of millions of people.”
The image of the honoree, also known as Empress of the Americas, presents a simple composition in which the Virgin of Guadalupe wears a turquoise blue mantle, where the stars appear, golden rays emerge from her whole body, and her face conveys the sweetest maternal gaze. As a restorer of colonial and pre-Hispanic art, I have participated in multiple projects, museums, and galleries throughout the country, and I must say that, without a doubt, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the image that most seems to arrive in the restoration workshops. This occurs because almost every Mexican home has at least one little virgin. Just this summer, a magnificent painting of the Guadalupana passed through our workshop. It was an oil on canvas of extraordinary workmanship belonging to the eighteenth-century school of Miguel Cabrera. People say that the same painting generated a few miracles before leaving home and another major one upon arriving at its destination.
Even more significant than the December 12 celebrations are the pilgrimages that begin weeks before the occasion and walk from all directions to reach the Basilica of the Guadalupana next to the hill of Tepeyac, where the faithful, pilgrims, musicians, and dancers gather to celebrate her en masse and with diverse customs with elements of an unsuspected syncretism. Everything culminates with the fervent veneration that is catalyzed in the particular image of the Virgin that appeared on a cloth of maguey fibers that the indigenous Juan Diego wore in the year 1531 when they met.
There are several versions of the origin of the Lady of Guadalupe’s advocation in America and how it grew stronger. Some theorists point its origin to Guadalupe, a region of Extremadura in Spain, where a brown virgin had already gained fame for her apparitions and miracles. But the national narrative of the Guadalupan miracle presumes a local American origin. It was first told by the indigenous Antonio Valeriano in 1556 in the Nahuatl language and titled «Nocan Mopohua» In his chronicle, Valeriano explains how Friar Zumárraga received the indigenous Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, who proved to him, by displaying the cloth where the now-famous image with Castilian roses appeared, and the veracity of the four apparitions of the virgin in his encounters with her at the Tepeyac Hill.
It is worth mentioning that on that same hill, Tonantzin was already venerated, and Mexicas, Chichimecas, and other groups made pilgrimages to the site.
This chapel continued to give life to the cult, and its important veneration grew until it soon got the name Villa de Guadalupe, almost at the same time as Mexico City. Later a basilica was built next to Tepeyac to house the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is preserved on the main altar.
The Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the most visited shrine in the Catholic Church, second only to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. More than 10 million pilgrims a year visit to ask for her protection, for a miracle, or to thank her. That’s just talking about the basilica in Mexico City. UNAM historian Gisela Von Wobeser conducted an exhaustive study of the Virgin’s image back to its origins in the 16th century and found the presence of some of the same elements in other Virgins venerated from North to South throughout the Americas, Spain, and Portugal. In almost all cases, the Virgin always appears as the pure conqueror of darkness, savior of Adam and Eve, and mother of the Messiah.
This year, at least 7 million pilgrims are expected to arrive at the basilica for the December 12 celebration. The same figure was reached in 2019 before the pandemic.
The Guadalupana will continue to be a symbol of syncretism since the symbolisms of three cultures converge: the Mexica represented in the female deities such as the previously mentioned Tonantzin, but also Coatlicue, as the mother of god, Cihuacóatl as the giver of life and food, and Xiuhcoatl, the mother who defeats the serpent. As if this were not enough, the Morena is represented as triumphant over the new crescent moon.
During these days, it is customary to celebrate with tamales, atole, and buñuelos and to sing Marian and Guadalupan songs. If you know Lupita, be sure to congratulate her!
