La Basilica de Guadalupe

Once upon a time...

A man named Juan Diego with indigenous blood was walking up a hill in a place called Tepeyec to go and worship at a shrine to Coatlicue. As he was walking, a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared to him and spoke to him and Nahuatl and asked him to build a church for her there. So he ran to the bishop at the time and told him. 

Panteon de Tepeyec

The view going up the hill

Juan Diego

The bishop said that he would need a divine signal of some sort if he was going to build a shrine. The image of Mary appeared to Juan Diego again and told him to go pick some flowers from the top of the hill. He did, and he found Castillian roses blooming there. He filled his tilma with them and went to the bishop.

He went before the archbishop and opened up his cloak and the flowers fell to the ground.

And on his tilma was an image, today knows as Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her cloak was covered in stars, 400 of them. Her cloak was originally green, and her skin was like that of the mestizos. 

The cloak

The angel at her feet wore the colors of corn, she had a jade brooch, and her belt was black. In short, she was a tie between the religion of the indigenous and Catholicism. Green/jade is a holy color, Coatlicue had 400 children who, in her legend, became stars. 400 is the indigenous old version of infinity since their number system had a base of 20. The rays of sun around her reprezent Huitzilopochtli, but there is convergence. The symbols mean something to both sets of beliefs.

The original cathedral is literally sinking now, and the place is full of tourists, but it is incredibly beautiful still.

There are still statues of Coatlicue around, and knowing the story makes it that much better.

All in all a wonderful day. We have our first test tomorrow and a visit to a professional site of some sort, and a busy week is ahead. 

Kristen, Marisa, and Me!

Hasta Manana!