La Virgen de Guadalupe

Today in Mexico is El Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe - Virgin of Guadalupe Day. Arguably, it's the 'highest', most important holiday in the Mexican calendar, as she is Mexico's patron saint. Mexicans often refer to her as La Morenita - the little brown one.



Several centuries ago, in 1531 to be exact, she supposedly appeared to an Indian peasant named Juan Diego (who was later canonized by John Paul II) over the course of 3 days from 12/9-12/12. According to the story, Juan Diego was walking from his town into the city (close to what's now Mexico city) where he saw the apparition of Mary and she spoke to him in Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs) telling him to build a church in her honor on that spot. He took this message to the city's priest, who then asked him for a sign. Mary supposedly told Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the site where she'd instructed the church be built. He did so, and took them back to the priest in his sack, the flowers fell out of his sack and the imprint left on the cloth supposedly looked something like this:

There are several different theories about this: 1) this image of Mary is darker skinned than the colonizing Spaniards depicted her, so Mary spoke to the indigenous peasants of Mexico and appeared to them in a form they could relate to; or that 2) this was their way of combining Catholicism and indigenous religions, as this image supposedly looked somewhat like the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.

Personally, we don't celebrate it as we're not Catholic, and we believe that there is only one mediator between God and man. But to understand Mexicans, you have to understand this holiday and the story behind it. The great Mexican writer Octavio Paz once said that "the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery."

Where do you see the Virgin of Guadalupe today in Mexican culture? Everywhere. She is on license plates, calendars, car air fresheners, jewelry, on the front of Mexican stores, T-shirts, hats, belt buckles, car window decals, you name it. Probably the most poignant reference I've ever seen to her was on the back on an oil painting depiction of a Mexican migrant crossing the border into the US; there was a prayer to her for protection. She's mentioned in songs of all genres, and if you watch the Latin Grammys, Mexican artists thank la Virgen for their success the way people here thank God. Good Mexican Catholic parents, if they are lucky enough to give birth on December 12th, name their children (boy or girl) Guadalupe.

So....to end this, I'm wishing my sister-in-law Guadalupe in Veracruz a very happy birthday (Felíz Cumpleaños). Seriously. Today is her birthday!

(some of this info I already knew, but credits to wikipedia for making up the difference!)