Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe is an aspect of the Virgin Mary, who, according to legend, appeared to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Catholicism, in the vicinity of Mexico City in 1531. Less famously, the same name also refers to a statue of the Virgin Mary that dates from 1326 and was named after the city of Guadalupe in Spain.

According to the story generally accepted by Catholics, Juan Diego was walking between his village and Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), where the Catholic mission was headquartered, on December 12, 1531. Along the way, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared, speaking to him in his native Nahuatl language. She told him to build a church at the site, but when Juan Diego spoke to the Spanish bishop, the bishop did not believe him, asking for a miraculous sign. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from a hill, even though it was winter, when nothing bloomed. He found Spanish roses and presented these to the bishop. When the roses fell from his apron, an icon of the Virgin remained imprinted on the cloth.

The apron Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin wore was studied by NASA in 1979 with infrared rays and reported the image had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections, and no paintbrush strokes. Nobel Chemistry prize recipient Richard Kuhn, said the coloration is not of a mineral, vegetable, or animal source. In 2001, 20 years of studies were published on a reflection in the eyes of the Virgin after amplifying the photographs 2,500 times. The pupils reflect a group of Indians and Franciscan priests. Scientists cannot explain how all these images can be painted in a space as small as the cornea. Experts from the textile industry cannot understand how the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been conserved since 1531, exposed to dust, heat, and humidity, without wearing down, and without discoloration. On Nov. 14, 1921, a factory worker placed a bomb a few feet away from the apron. The explosion demolished the marble steps of the main altar, the windows of nearby homes and it bent a brass crucifix, but the fabric suffered no damage. Since 1993, the apron is protected by a bulletproof glass in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Many sceptics disbelieve this story, of course, but in any case a church was built in 1533, dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thereafter, Spanish missionaries used the story of her appearance to help convert millions of indigenous people in what had been the Aztec Empire. Our Lady of Guadalupe still undergirds the faith of many Catholics in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, and she has been recognised as patron saint of Mexico City since 1737, with her patronage extended piece by piece until it included all of the Americas by 1946. Much of the recent increase in Marianism in the Catholic Church, including the call to recognise Mary as coredemptrix, stems from the cult of Guadalupe. Today many make the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe, some crawling on their knees for blocks, to pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The apron containing her image has been hung in the church built on the spot through the building's various versions, including today's Basilica of Guadalupe. The picture is of a woman with olive skin, rather than the white skin of European iconography, that appealed to both indigenous Mexicans and their mestizo descendants as one of them. Similarly, the man that she is supposed to have appeared to, Juan Diego, was an Indian, not a European Spaniard. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been used by advocates of indigenous rights throughout Mexico's history, most recently by the Zapatista movement.

The origin of the name "Guadalupe", in the American context, is something of a mystery. Those who doubt the story of Juan Diego and the apparitions can argue that the 1533 church was dedicated to the Spanish Our Lady of Guadalupe, with the American version developing later. Others have suggested that the name is actually a corruption of a Nahuatl name, "Coatlaxopeuh", which has been translated as "Who Crushes the Serpent". In this interpretation, the serpent is Quetzalcoatl, one of the chief Aztec gods, whom she crushed by inspiring the conversion of the natives to Catholicism.