La Virgin de Guadalupe: 
Reina y Madre de México

By Maria Teresa Valenzuela

Mexicans know that their homeland belongs to Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. In order to understand Mexico, one must understand the Virgin de Guadalupe. She is connected to the history and people of Mexico. She is known in the Mexican pueblos variously as “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,” “La Reina de México,” “La Virgen de Guadalupe,” “María del Tepeyac,” “La Madrecita,” “Nuestra Madre,” “La Lupe” and “La Morenita.”

But devotion to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe knows no geographic boundaries, and La Reina has a huge following around the world. In all homes and businesses in Mexico, she holds a place of deep respect, honor and hope. Almost 500 years have passed since her appearance, but every year millions of people make a pilrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12, seeking the Virgin’s help or keeping a promise to repay her intercession. It is part of the spiritual inheritance of the Mexican people.

The image of the Virgin is seen on calendars, T-shirts, baseball caps, car decals, drinking cups and street murals. Guadalupe is everywhere, and she walks in many forms, side by side with the Mexican people, every minute of every day.

In pre-Hispanic times, the Aztecs worshipped many gods and goddesses, and massive hilltop temples were built as sites to honor them in rituals. Tepeyac, the site where La Madre de Mexico appeared in 1531, was one of those hills.

The people were deeply moved upon hearing that a noblewoman appeared from the sky and imprinted her image on the clothing of an indigenous man named Juan Diego and also healed his uncle, Juan Bernardino. Word of this miracle quickly spread around the countryside and was soon known to all the traditional cultures.

It was a cold winter Monday morning in a pueblo just outside of Mexico City on December 9, 1531, only 10 years after Spanish conquistadores defeated the great Aztec nation. Juan Diego was on his way to mass. When he approached Tepeyac Hill where the pre-Hispanic goddess Tonantzin was worshipped, he suddenly heard the sounds of singing birds—rare at that time of the year.

Then he saw a beautiful, brown-skinned woman with a shining halo of rays like the dawning sun, reminiscent of the supreme god Omeleotl. She was dressed in shades of gold, blue and rose.

In his native Nahuatl she spoke to Juan Diego as the Blessed Mother Mary, calling him “Juan Diegito, my little dear.” She told him to go the city to visit the Bishop and request a shrine be built to her on the sacred temple site of Tonantzin.

Guadalupe appeared three times to Juan Diego and begged for her temple. Juan Diego was turned away three times by the Bishop, who demanded proof that the beautiful brown lady was truly the Mother of God. Guadalupe told Juan Diego to climb the Tepeyac hill and gather roses, which did not grow in the winter. He gathered the flowers and brought them to her. She placed them in his tilma (apron) and told him to deliver them to the Bishop. As he dropped to his knees in front of the bishop and opened his tilma, imprinted on it was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, exactly as Juan Diego had described her. In 13 days, a chapel was built for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The first written account of the apparition was El Nican Mopohua, written by a noble, educated native named Antonio Valerino on paper made from the maguey plant. His account includes the symbols, myths and logic of the Nahuatl people. In the Nican Mopohua, Guadalupe was the true evangelist of the Aztecs, not the bishop, who was ignorant of Aztec culture and the Nahuatl tongue. This noblewoman led her people to Christianity through her divine words and love. 

Featured in the story of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe are Tonantzín (the pre-conquest Aztec fertility goddess), María (Our Lady of Guadalupe), Juan Diego (an Aztec native), the Hill of Tepeyac, Juan Bernardino (Juan Diego’s uncle), and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. Juan Diego was the indigenous ambassador and the intermediary between the will of Guadalupe and the Church. In the Aztec cosmology, the eagle standing atop the nopal (cactus) signifies that the Aztec people had reached the land they were destined to settle, as promised by the god Ometeotl. Symbolically, Juan Diego was the Aztec warrior, and the eagle was to convince the bishop of Guadalupe’s message about the birth of the new nation of Mexico. In the Aztec world, the warrior that triumphed was rewarded with land, gold, precious stones, women and an important government position. Juan Diego would be rewarded with the riches and prosperity of the heavens—which officially occurred in 2002, when he was canonized.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the source of faith for the Mexican people, and life without Her is unimaginable. She is our first mother and we are here because she gave us life; she is the Mother of all Mexico that we take deeply into our hearts.

Bringing the saints to life
By Jesús Ibarra

Genaro Almanza, a favorite son of San Miguel, wants to “return to this town what this town has given me.” Almanza, born in 1928, has dedicated his whole life to preserving and restoring sacred art. “My father, Donato Almanza, began to teach me when I was a very young boy,” recalls Almanza.

After finishing elementary school in 1940, Almanza entered the seminary at the Oratorio, where he remained for seven years. “I studied Latin, philosophy and humanities and learned Gregorian chants in the choir,” he said. When his father fell ill, Almanza was forced to leave the seminary and return home to help his father restore religious figurines. Later, he entered Bellas Artes, around the time Siqueiros painted his mural, studying sculpture with Mario Zamora Alcántara and drawing with Antonio Gómez. 

As a result of his natural talent and expert training, Almanza was sought for commissions and restoration projects in the churches of San Miguel. The stone figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe located at the Casa de la Cultura, next to the church of La Santa Cruz del Chorro, is his. “I made it in 1981 for the 450th anniversary of the Virgin’s appearance to Juan Diego. Once a tree branch fell on the figure, but it was not severely damaged—only a small scratch to her face, which I restored,” recalls Almanza. Another commission resulted in the stone sculpture of the Virgin on the central altar in the San Juan de Dios market. There is also a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe by Almanza in the Church of Cristo Rey in Colonia Guadalupe and a wooden figure of the Virgin in the rural community of Corralejo. 

In addition to statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Almanza also carved the statues of El Señor de las Maravillas (The Lord of Wonders), San Martín de Porres and Santa Cecilia located in the Oratorio, of the three Marías in La Salud and of San Martín de Porres in Las Monjas.

Almanza’s work has been recognized around Mexico. His first work outside San Miguel was the restoration of a figure of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception for a church in Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas. A commission for a figure of Santa Cecilia for the church in Reynosa followed. The Sorrowful Virgin Mary in the Church of Santo Niño in Laredo is also his, as well as a Christ in a church in Saltillo. “I also restored a wooden Christ for the Church of the Virgin of Loneliness of Piedrita in Dolores Hidalgo. It was brought to me broken in many small pieces,” said Almanza. 

Most of Almanza’s sculptures are made of wood or cantera stone. “The face is the measure for sculpting a figure,” explained Almanza. “I paste pieces of wood together, one by one. For painting I use oils and Spanish White (bismuth oxychloride) and 23-carat gold leaf for decorating the figures. My tools are gouges, chisels and a hammer.” 

Every Christmas season, Almanza, his sons and some friends install the life-size nacimiento (nativity) scene in the kiosk in the Jardín. “Years ago, more than 40, in fact, I created the life-sized wooden figures with José Rodríguez, also a creator of sacred art and a disciple of my father, and installed them for Christmas in the Jardín. Now it is a tradition,” said Almanza. His sons also bring the animals, young lambs and a donkey to complete the Christmas scene. “The live animals stay only from December 24 to the 27, but the figures remain from December 24 to January 7.” 

The nacimiento is made up of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the baby Jesus and four angels. “Each year we go to Xichú to collect hay, branches, and anything else we need for the nacimiento,” explained Almanza.

“We receive financial support from the director of the Education and Culture Department for setting up the nacimiento, and even a truck to go to Xichú.”

Christmas is one of the busiest seasons for Almanza. Sanmiguelenses bring wooden or gypsum figures of the infant Jesus for restoration and commission new ones. A small wooden baby Jesus, approximately 25 centimeters in size, takes two to three weeks to make and costs 1,500 pesos. 

Unlike in many families working in traditional handicrafts, Almanza does have heirs to continue the tradition. His two sons are carrying on this highly valued work, and his four daughters have pursued careers related to art or architecture. 

During the holiday season, Almanza especially gives to the children of San Miguel, teaching them to make tissue paper Christmas ornaments and lamps. He holds classes for this every Saturday from 10am to noon at Plaza Real del Conde, near the movie theater, and from 6 to 8pm in the Casa de la Cultura in El Chorro.

Viva Guadalupe in San Miguel
By Patrice Wynne, Atención archives, 2005

There are two beliefs deeply imbedded in Mexican consciousness: belief in the National Lottery and belief in the Virgin of Guadalupe.

—Octavio Paz, from The Labryinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico

It is said that 80 percent of Mexico is Catholic—but 100 percent are Guadalupanos. For the Mexican people, life without the Virgin of Guadalupe is inconceivable.

She is the most powerful woman of the Americas, Mother of Mexico, Reina de Mexico—her magnitude unmatched by any saint or even by Jesus Christ in the devotion she evokes. Her image is more iconic, as a symbol of Mexican culture, than the Mexican flag or Frida Kahlo. “Macho” men weep before her. In the Iglesia de San Franciso on the eve of her feast day, mariachis sing Las Mañanitas, the traditional Mexican birthday song, to La Virgencita—with tears streaming down their faces. 

On December 12, the day poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti calls the real Mexican Christmas, millions of Mexicans all over the world will celebrate with processions, petitions, prayers, invocations, tributes, dances, songs, festivities, prayers and fireworks to honor Guadalupe. It is estimated that 5 million Guadalupe devotees will travel thousands of miles in pilgrimages along the highways of Mexico to celebrate this female face of the divine, bearing altars, singing her praises, even crawling on their knees to reach her shrine. She has her own chapel in Notre Dame in Paris, and her memorabilia is made largely in China. An immigration attorney in Manhattan has hundreds of Guadalupes over her bed. 

There is no other religious symbol replicated with such diversity. La Guadalupana appears on magnets and mouse-pads, blankets and boots, taco stands and taxi stands, taverns and talaveras, tattooed on the backs of prisoners and painted on the backs of buses.

The cult of Guadalupe is one of the most devotional religious practices in the world.

The Virgin of Guadalupe unifies the pre-Conquest Goddess Tonantzín, the Aztec Dark Madonna, with the Dark Madonna of the European people of the Iberian Peninsula, whose origins are rooted in the African continent.

La Guadalupana is emblazoned in the heritage of the Mexican people, as both a symbol of revolution and liberation. In 1810, the revolutionary priest Father Hidalgo raised a cloth imprinted with the Virgin of Guadalupe’s image, leading his armies of independence to San Miguel de Allende. 

Thousands of campesinos joined in the liberation march, chanting “Viva Guadalupe”—which still resonates today. This same Guadalupe image was to become the first flag of the nation of Mexico in their century-long struggle for liberation from Spain.

One hundred years of solidarity later, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa held aloft the same image of Guadalupe in their battle for the soul of Mexico. César Chavez rallied migrant grape-pickers with Guadalupe as the unifying symbol. In the drug-infested barrios of 21st-century Los Angeles, Guadalupe murals adorn buildings as a protective talisman and a touchstone for the community. She is a gravitational force-field in the Mexican immigrant’s life.

In the 16th century, the first Basilica of Guadalupe was built at the base of Tepeyac Hill. Four centuries later, an estimated 20 million worshippers annually visit the modern, cavernous Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, constructed near the vestiges of the old basilica. Guadalupe’s temple on the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City is the most popular shrine to the Virgin Mary in the world. Guadalupanos making the annual pilgrimages pass in front of the bulletproof glass where her image is enshrined on the same maguey apron believed by the faithful to have been worn by Juan Diego, 475 years ago. The pilgrims gaze upward to her image, in absolute awe and gratitude at the mystery and miracle of her presence in their life. Those unable to travel to the Basilica visit Guadalupe on the Basilica website: www.sancta.org/basilica 

Though the Vatican distorts her liberation message, though scientific evidence may disprove her existence, though intellectuals may proclaim her impoverishment of the people, Guadalupe reigns as a living archetype. 

When visiting the Basilica in Mexico City, one can hear the faithful whispering “Tonantzín-Guadalupe, hear our prayers.” Guadalupe combines Catholic and pagan practices under a new religion, Mexican Catholicism.

Many of the ancient practices from pre-Conquest times survive, such as using milagros (talismans), divination, herbal curing and curandera altars bearing Guadalupe’s image. 

Her supernatural powers are called upon in times of tragedy, illness and death. She is Divine Mother as soul sister and political champion. On the Feast Day of Guadalupe, the Mexican’s love of family, nation, faith, ancestors and tradition are unified in the celebration of the Mother whose loving presence takes away sorrow and restores hope. For Mexicans, Guadalupe is the communion in the dark night of the soul, as they find their way out of the darkness of conquests, past and present.

Patrice Wynne is a writer, street photographer and designer of clothing and homewares based on the Virgin of Guadalupe. This article is based on her memoirs -in - process, Reborn on Cobblestones. She can be reached at: www.sanmigueldesigns.com  or sanmiguelpatrice@mac.com 

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San Miguel Festivals and Events, Dec 8, 2006

Excerpted from “The Best of San Miguel de Allende”© by Joseph Harmes. Reprinted with permission.

December 8: Festividad de la Inmaculada Concepción (Feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception). Als

known as La Purísima Concepción de María Santísima, Mass is celebrated and the Mother of Jesus worshipped at La Iglesia y Convento de la Concepción. One of the town’s patron saints.


December 12: Día de La Virgen de Guadalupe (Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe). The unofficial holiday celebrates Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the madre of all Mexicans. A novena begins Dec. 3, with fireworks nightly, especially at the church in the Colonia Guadalupe. At 11 p.m. on December 11, a mariachi Mass is sung at La Iglesia de San Francisco. The next day, Guadalupanas decorate altars around town, especially at the markets, and girls named Guadalupe are feted. The Catholic Church prefers to say Guadalupe is, strictly speaking, the name of a picture which represents the Immaculate Conception. 

The Blessed Virgin appeared on Dec. 9 to an Indian, Juan Diego, on a hill outside present-day Mexico City. He told a bishop of the visitation, who demanded a sign. The Virgin appeared to him again and told him to gather roses. Although out of season, Juan Diego somehow found them. Gathering the flowers in his tilma (a coarsely woven material, like sack cloth)., he returned to the clergy and unfolded the cloak. The roses fell out and the bishop and priests fell to their knees before him: The life-sized figure of the Virgin, as he'd described her, glowed on the cloth, which today hangs in the Basilica in Mexico City. In 2002, Juan Diego was anointed sainthood. The morena (brown-skinned) Virgin of Guadalupe was accepted as an Indian deity, giving the Spanish Church an instrument of control over its subjects. One of the town’s patron saints. (See Que Pasa for more information.)

December 16-24: The posadas (inns) represent the nine-day journey of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In some neighborhoods, simple candlelit neighborhood processions re-enact the search for an inn. Different homes each night host caroling, costumed children, food and drink and the breaking of a piñata. 

Other colonias frolic with huge mojigangas (papier mâché puppets) and floats. Public posadas take a different route through city streets each night. Two children, dressed as Joseph and Mary, ride a burro while others are dressed as angels. Onlookers toss gifts of candy and nuts to the participants. 

The tradition has been forgotten in the homes of the middle class and wealthy. When a celebrant knocks on the door to their homes, he or she isn’t told to go away but invited inside to a cocktail party. Pastorelas (passion plays) are performed in many locations, especially Bellas Artes. 

Lessons are taught about good and evil, the latter usually represented by politicians, who are joyfully lambasted. 

December 21 or 22: The Winter Solstice. The shortest day of the year, the first day of winter.