Our Lady of Guadalupe: Religion and Origins of Mexican National Consciousness

On December 12, the Centro Cultural Aztlan opened the 29th Annual “Celebration a La Virgen de Guadalupe” Group Exhibition. The show was impressive in its depth of iconic imagery and its broadness of thematic concepts. Centro Director Malena Gonzalez-Cid invited thirty-three artists, nearly all from San Antonio, to display their works as a tribute to La Virgen de Guadalupe.

Kandelyne Gomez, “La Madre.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Our Lady of Guadalupe has played an important role in Texas history. Under the leadership of San Antonio parish priest Father Carmelo Tranchese, the Westside San Antonio community adjacent to Our Lady of Guadalupe church was awarded the first public housing grants by the Roosevelt Administration in 1940. Father Carmelo lobbied Congressman Maury Maverick and President Franklin Roosevelt in the late 1930s for the construction of federal public housing.

Juan Hernandez with San Antonio, Texas Cassiano Homes artists. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

First Lady Eleanlor Roosevelt visited the Our Lady of
Guadalupe church following the completion of the public housing Alazan and Apache Court units in 1941. Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the few churches in the Americas visited by a Pope. In 1987, Pope John Paul II visited Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Plaza Guadalupe across the street and blessed over 3,000 parishioners.

Henry de León, Floral altar to La Virgen. Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe began in early December of 1531 when a Madonna with Indian and Mestizo features appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on a hill in Tepeyac, Mexico. Juan Diego informed Bishop Juan de Zumarraga that the Holy Mother had requested that a church be built on that site. The Bishop resisted and asked for proof that Juan Diego had talked to a religious deity.

Anel L. Flores, “A Love Letter to Yolanda Lopez From a Trans Star.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

When Juan Diego conveyed that request of proof to La Virgen on December 12th, she tasked Juan Diego with gathering red roses from the hillside. Juan Diego gathered the roses and placed them in his tilma [mantle of cotton fiber]. Upon opening his tilma to show the Bishop the roses, an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared on the cloth. The Bishop was convinced by this miracle and ordered the construction of a basilica at the site where Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared.

Raul Servin, “La Mera Madre.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexico, Spain’s newest colony in the New World, faced a crisis on many fronts in 1531. Ten years after the conquest of the Aztec empire, the Spaniards continued to wage war on Indian communities. The region surrounding Mexico City, which had numbered 1.5 million inhabitants in 1521 when the conquistador Hernan Cortes defeated the Aztecs, had been devastated by war and epidemics that reduced the native Aztec population to 70,000 by 1531. Every year of forced work in the encomiendas [landed estates] and mines significantly shortened the lives of thousands of Indigenous people.

Hector Garza, “Huitzil.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Mexico had the largest native population of the New World, and the Olmec and Mayan civilizations there were thousands of years old. Moreover, the Aztecs had sophisticated religious rituals dating back to 1325 when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico. During this colonial period, Spanish friars joined with the Spanish King’s Royal Armed Forces in destroying native temples and constructing new Catholic churches in their place.

The apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe on December 12, 1531 on the hills of Tepeyac, Mexico signaled the beginning of a new spiritual era in the Americas. With the visitation of La Virgen, natives who had resisted Catholicism turned to the Brown Madonna as their predominant symbol of inspiration and proof that God listened to them.

Jacqueline Salgado, “Tonantzin.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Jacques Lafaye, author of the book Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe: The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness, noted that before the apparition, Catholic missionaries had little success converting the native population. Researchers partially attributed this lack of success to the Friars’ failure to teach natives the Spanish language, although in their assimilation efforts, the friars created colleges and schools for native children. However, most Indian families rejected the idea of becoming “Spanish.” Moreover, Cortes had rewarded many of his soldiers with encomiendas, the landed estates that came with free Indian labor, and the Indians were also required to pay tribute to the owners of the large estates and mines.

Alexandra Nelipa, “La Virgen.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

In addition to describing the Spanish failure to assimilate the native population, Lafaye argued that nation-building required cultural harmony among the Spanish colonists regarding their identity. This thorny identity question was complicated by the arrogance of the initial Spaniards who arrived with Cortes. They considered themselves Spaniards first, people of the Iberian Peninsula. They sought and held all the important government and religious posts in the conquered territory. In justifying their authority to govern, these Espanoles declared themselves superior to the Creoles, the children of Spanish parents born in Mexico. The Espanoles expressed condescending views of racial mixing and especially viewed themselves as superior to the Indians and those of mixed races.

Richard Arredondo, “Virgen de Guadalupe al Barroco.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The French intellectual Lafaye linked the apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe to the emergence of a Mexican national consciousness. In essence, he viewed the incorporation of Catholicism made possible by the apparition not only as serving as a beginning of religious transformation but also as key to the formation of the identity of the Mexican nation. The earliest mention of La Virgen de Guadalupe in Texas occurred in 1689 when Alonso de León, the Spanish governor of Coahuila, discovered and named the river 30 miles north of San Antonio the Río Guadalupe after La Virgen de Guadalupe.

Anita Valencia, “Soy Tu Madre.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Historians note that La Virgen de Guadalupe also played a significant role in Mexican colonial history. In 1810, nearly three hundred years after the appearance of the Virgen, Mexican colonists began their fight for independence from the Crown of Spain. On September 10, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Roman Catholic priest in Dolores, Mexico, rang the bell of his church calling for parishioners to revolt against the Spanish colonial government. Thousands of Mexicans, mainly of Indian and Mestizo heritage, joined Father Hidalgo hoisting the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe as they marched against the Spaniards.

Willie Herron. East Los Angeles Mural dedicated to Mexican Independence [Virgen Guadalupe is behind the light post]. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

One hundred years later, almost to the date of the Mexican War of Independence of 1810, Emiliano Zapata led a rebel army consisting largely of exploited rural Indian laborers to fight against the dictator Porfirio Diaz in the Mexican Revolution. These soldiers also carried the banner of the Brown Madonna.

Alfredo R. Rodriguez, “La Guadalupe.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Once again in 1965 in the US Southwest when Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta launched the United Farm Workers [UFW] labor movement, farmworkers protesting labor conditions marched with the banner of La Virgin de Guadalupe. The advent of the Chicano Art Movement coincided with these early years of the UFW movement. Chicano artists painted social justice murals which often included images of La Virgin de Guadalupe and adorned public walls in cities across the Southwest.

Mexican historians note that La Virgin de Guadalupe became a unifying symbol for Mexican identity and nationalism during the Mexican Independence era [1810-1820]. This symbolism resonated with Mexican Tejanos during the wars against Spanish rule in Texas, such as in the Battle of Medina in 1813, one of the major battles against the Spanish forces fought near San Antonio. Over the last hundred years, La Virgen de Guadalupe has also been considered a protector of migrants, a role of immense significance today when migration is considered a pressing national issue.

Angelina Pliego, “Tradicion de Guadalupe.” Courtesy of Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The veneration of the Brown Virgin grows every day. The Mexico City Basilica dedicated to the Virgin de Guadalupe is the second most visited church in the world after the Vatican. In 2019, the Basilica in Mexico City recorded more than 11 million worshipers and visitors. Many of the Mestizo and Indian worshipers approach the Basilica on their knees seeking respite and healing or offering gratitude for miracles bestowed by La Virgen. Visitors arrive by the thousands daily to pray before the tilma of Juan Diego with the image of La Virgin de Guadalupe . In the U.S. Southwest on December 12th, many Latinos, and especially Latina/Mexican immigrant women, continue to celebrate the Brown Madonna with rosary prayers and red roses.

Vincent Valdez, “La Virgen de Guadalupe.” [Wood, 8x4 ft.] Gift of Harriett and Ricardo Romo to the McNay Museum of Art.