Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe essay published in The Conversation

Celebrate on December 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Published in The Conversation* by Kristy Nabhan-Warren

Viva Guadalupe! Beyond Mexico, the Indigenous Virgin Mary is a powerful symbol of love and inclusion for millions of Latinos in the US.

Nearly 500 years ago, an Indigenous peasant near Mexico City had a series of visions that would change his life – and shape the lives of millions of others.

According to the Nican Mopohua, an Aztec text, a man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him multiple times. But this wasn’t Mary as she was usually depicted in European churches. She was Indigenous – “la Virgen Morena,” a dark-haired, dark-skinned woman.

The power of that image, which the Catholic Church has embraced, has made the Virgin of Guadalupe an icon of love and inclusivity ever since – a powerful affirmation of the richness in Meso-American culture.

In Mexico, she’s a national symbol. But, writes University of Iowa religious studies scholar Kristy Nabhan-Warren, many Latinos on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border see the Virgin of Guadalupe as a protector of “those who feel marginalized or oppressed” – and celebrations on her feast day, December 12, stretch from Mexico City to Phoenix and Chicago.

The story of Guadalupe’s appearances is recounted in a text called the Nican Mopohua, which means “Here It Is Told” in Nahuatl, an Aztec language. The Nican Mopohua describes Jesus’ mother appearing multiple times to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Indigenous convert to Catholicism, about a decade after the Spanish had conquered Aztec Mexico. After her fourth and final apparition to Diego, Catholics believe that her image imprinted onto his cactus-fiber robe, known as a “tilma.”

As a scholar of Catholicism, I have long been fascinated by the adoration of the Virgin Mary. Often seen as a symbol of inclusive love, the Virgin of Guadalupe has become especially beloved by migrants and Latinos in the U.S., who view her as a protector.

Over the past 20 years, research on Guadalupe has brought me to deeply moving shrines in her honor in the United States: candle-filled, flower-laden places, from South Phoenix, Arizona, to Columbus Junction, Iowa, from Catholic parishes to family homes and yards.

According to the original story of Guadalupe, the Virgin provided Juan Diego with Spanish roses – a type not grown in Mexico – to convince Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga that the apparitions were real. After seeing the roses, and the transformation of Juan Diego’s humble cloak into a holy relic, he declared the apparitions miraculous and built a chapel to honor la Virgen.

The original chapel, the Capilla de Indios, where Juan Diego lived for the rest of his life, still stands in Mexico City. It is flanked by a museum, a Carmelite convent, the Old Basilica – built to honor la Virgen – and the modern one, where the famous cloak has hung since 1976.

Millions of people – Catholic and non-Catholic, Latino and non-Latino – have made pilgrimages to the shrine to pray, to give thanks and to pay respects to this Indigenous manifestation of the Virgin. Affectionately called “la Virgencita,” she is depicted as a symbol of motherhood, care and concern for her children.

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