Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the psychological underpinning of the Mesoamerican collective self. In the context of the Christianity that arrived with the Spanish conquistadors, she represents the psychological bonding between the Mexican people and the sacred power of the mother.

The story goes that early one morning on December 9, 1531, a newly Christianized Aztec peasant, Juan Diego, was walking up a hill in the Tepeyac area near what is now Mexico City when he heard singing. Soon a voice called to him from a cloud and a brown-skinned woman appeared, announcing that she was, in fact, the Virgin Mary. She asked that a church be built for her on the spot where Juan Diego stood. Juan Diego rushed to tell his bishop of the apparition, but the skeptical bishop demanded concrete proof. Juan Diego tried several more times to convince the bishop but had no success. Finally, on one occasion, the lady appeared again, and when Juan Diego told her of the bishop’s desire for proof, the Virgin...