For many, Our Lady of Guadalupe is thought to be an aspect of Mary, the mother of Christ. She is said to have first appeared to Mexican Indian Juan Diego on December 9, 1531 and appeared four times over a period of four consecutive days. Her visits with Juan Diego took place on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City, Mexico.
Juan Diego, known as Juanito to his family, was walking from his village to the city when he first saw La Virgen Morena (the brown skinned virgin). She requested that Juan Diego ask Spanish Bishop John to build a church in her name.
Being a Mexican Indian, fifty-seven-year old Juan Diego did not have great deal of pull with the Spanish run Catholic Church. Guadalupe appeared to him four times and four times he appealed to the Bishop.
On his forth visit with Bishop John, Juan Diego brought Castilian roses that Our Lady had arranged for him in his tilma, a multi-purposed cloth wrap that is often used by Indians to carry food or children and perhaps to keep the beholder warm. The Spanish roses are indigenous to Spain, not Mexico, and in addition were believed not to grow in wintertime. The roses were to signify a miracle to Bishop John in order to prove Juan Diego was telling the truth. Juan Diego unwrapped his tilma of roses in front of Bishop John only to discover that there was a perfect image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on his garment. This iconic picture has been photographed and can be found in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico.
The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe seems to represent the very essence of unconditional love. For many of us, Our Lady represents the divine unconditional mother.
When we study this iconic picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we might wonder about the relationship of this aspect of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, to the indigenous Mexican goddess and lunar deity Tonantzin. Certainly, native imagery is represented in this iconography. Moreover, it is theorized that Our Lady may have used the Aztec Nahuatl word coatlaxopeuh (pronounced quatlasupe), which sounds like the Spanish word Guadalupe. In any case, the integration and inclusion of different cultural and religious references for the divine feminine invites us to see ourselves in her representation.
