¡GUADALUPE!
FROM NOV 19th- Dec 23rd.
A Summary of the NicanMopohua Text
Written in 1545, fourteen years after the Guadalupe event of
December 9 to 12, 1531 the NicanMopohua was titled for the exact
chronological order in which it relates the various phases of the apparitions.
This account is also the first and oldest written source on Guadalupe. It is
considered a masterpiece of Nahuatl literature and was written by Don
Antonio Valeriano. The following text is a condensed version of the
translation made by Primo Feliciano Velazquez from the original in
Nahuatl. Elise Dac translated the Spanish text into English. The story
was published in 1951 by Publisher Dac, Mexico/Paris, under the title
Stream of Light, Queen of Tepeyac.
“On a Saturday morning in December 1531, on his way to
church in Tlatelolco (Mexico City), Juan Diego passed by
Tepeyac hill as dawn broke. Suddenly, he heard the delightful
singing of precious birds whose songs echoed in the hills. He
stopped to listen and asked if this was a dream or the
Terrestrial Paradise of which his forebears spoke. When the
singing stopped, he was beckoned to the hilltop, where he saw a
Heavenly Lady glowing with brilliant lights and superhuman
beauty. The Lady identified Herself as the Virgin Mary and as
Mother of Ometeotl: Lord and Lady Two. Then she sent Juan
Diego to instruct the bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, to built a
temple at the foot of the hill.
Juan Diego’s first attempt to deliver the message ended in
dismal failure, and the Lady sent him for a second time. This
time, the bishop demanded a sign as proof of the Lady’s
heavenly origin. The Lady agreed to provide the sign, but the
next day Juan Diego did not return. When he arrived at home
that Sunday evening, his uncle, Juan Bernardino, was sick and
dying; as his uncle’s condition worsened, Juan Diego promised
to bring a priest from Tlatelolco to hear his confession before
he died.
On Tuesday morning, while it was still dark, as Juan Diego
passed Tepeyac enroute to Tlatelolco, the Heavenly Lady
confronted him. When Juan Diego explained his uncle was
dying, she told him Juan Bernardino was cured. After freeing
him from this obligation, the Lady sent Juan Diego to gather
flowers from the hilltop to give to the bishop. Despite the cold
winter frost, he found many beautiful flowers glistening with
morning dew; he put them in the fold of his tilma (mantle) and
took them to the bishop’s palace. When he opened the tilma in
the bishop’s presence, the image of the Heavenly Lady was
imprinted on the cloth.”
SYMBOLISM
The Virgin of Guadalupe, the patroness of the
Americas, is the symbolic mother of Mexicans
everywhere, the symbol of Mexican identity, history,
and culture. The image of the Virgin, Nuestra Señora de
Guadalupe, is more than an image. The portrait is a
history lesson since the design on the Virgin’s dress
point to the geography of Mexico and to Nahuatl
(Aztec/Mexica) deities. The symbols also reveal part of
the message of the Virgin to Juan Diego, the Nahuatl
artisan who saw the Virgin. The symbols held a special
meaning for the indigenous people of Mexico due to
their tradition of this type of writing:
-The mantle is blue-green, the color reserved for
Ometecuhti/Onecihuatl who are the divine couple
considered the creator and unifying force of all creation.
The mantle is covered with stars and these reflect the
eras of this civilization and the relationship to Ometeotl
the god of all duality.
-The dress or robe is red with symbolic “writings” that
tell a story to the Nahuatl people.
-The belt worn by the Virgin is a maternity band,
explaining expectant birth or new expectations.
-The Virgin is stepping on the moon, indicating greater
importance in relation to the sister of the sun,
Coyolxauhqui.
-The golden rays of the sun point to the presence of the
“sun” god, Quetzalcoatl.
-The angel who “carries” the Virgin is perceived as the
symbol for a new beginning, and also denotes Nahuatl
nobility since royalty were carried.
Source: UT Pan American 2000 internet archives ©
CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATIONS
“Virgen de Guadalupe: The NicanMopohua and the
Theopoetic of Flor y Canto, El Silencio
Guadalupano” (Excerpt from a longer article by scholar Juan
Alvarez Cuauhtémoc, 2002)
In “Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasqua-chismo,”
the artist and theorist Amalia Mesa-Bains broadens the
definition of Rasquachismo by introducing Domesticana as a
paradoxical neologism critiquing patriarchal ideology and the
subjugation of women in the home. Thus, Mesa-Bains’s
Domesticana becomes the hermeneutical key for interpreting
the works of Chicana artists like Yolanda M. López, Ester
Hernández, and Alma Lopéz. These artists reconceive in art
form the theological significance of Guadalupe and
appropriate the image for Chicanas in their everyday struggle
for liberation. For them, the image of a passive Virgen de
Guadalupe standing high on a pedestal, unmoved by maledominated
structures of oppression is not a liberating image.
These artists subvert the patriarchal stronghold on the image
by visually making radical feminist theological statements on
canvas.
Yolanda López, Ester Hernández, and Alma López portray
Guadalupe in their own images. Theologically, for example, in
Mark’s Gospel 8:29, Jesus asks his disciples, “who do you say
that I am?” The image of Guadalupe poses for them the same
question. Who is Guadalupe for us? Their answer: she is a
powerful woman who leaves her niche and runs to our aid; she
is a seamstress who toils in a sweatshop to feed her family; she
is a grandmother filled with knowledge and wisdom; she is a
woman (in high heels with
her traditional dress cut
below the knees) who
walks
with us in our journey; and when provoked, she is a
woman who puts on her karate uniform to fight our battles. In short,
Guadalupe is not distant and aloof but here with us de carne y hueso
(in flesh and blood).
Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe (32″ X 24″ )
Yolanda López.
Oil pastel on paper, 1978
