Our Lady of Guadalupe: From Colonization to Liberation

In 1531, the newly converted Indigenous man Juan Deigo was walking to mass in a nearby town which required him to pass Tepeyac.  As he passed the hill he heard bird song, singing, and someone calling his name which caused him to climb the hill.  At the top of the hill he encountered a woman who was Indigenous in appearance and identified herself as Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She asked that Juan Deigo go to Tenochtitlan to speak to Bishop Don Fray de Zumárranga (1468-1548)  in order to request that a shrine be built on Tepeyac in her honor.  Juan Diego compiled, however Bishop Zumárranga dismissed his story along with the request to build a shrine.  Juan Diego repeated this process several times until the apparition of Mary agreed to provide him with evidence so he could better convince the Bishop.  She requested that he gather roses in his tilma (traditional cloak) which she then after imprinted herself on. This supposed imprint on Juan Diego’s tilma became the blueprint for the way in which Our Lady of Guadalupe was most commonly depicted.  The painting by Nicolás Enríquez being one of the most iconic pieces of art showing both the virgin and her apparitions to Juan Diego.  Her apperance in this painting and other popular depictions draw insperation from the description of Our Lady of the Apocalypse from the New Testament.

This story of Juan Deigo was first published in 1648 over 100 years after the apparition supposedly took place. This publication was Imagen de la Virgen María by Miguel Sánchez’s (1594-1674) along with telling the story of Juan Diego it also provided the first in depth analysis of Guadalupe's appearance. In order to further spread the story it was translated from Spanish into Nahutal so that it was accessable to the Indigenous people. However, the publishing of this book came out during a time where many members of the church were concerned that Tepeyac was still being used to worship Tenotizin. By giving a new meaning to the hill and making it the site of miraculous apparition it was hoped that the people who went there would start worshiping the Virgin Mary instead.