12/12/12: Fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Today, 12 December 2012, is the Fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico—12/12/12.

Outside Mexico, this date—made up of the same three numbers 12-12-12—is touted for being the only day like it for a hundred years. But the numeric occurrence raises nary an eyebrow here. Clearly,"12/12/12" is a non-event when put up against the symbolic power of the Fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe.


Taxi Drivers Have Decorated this Shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe on the Montezuma Cypress Tree just around the block from our apartment (Photo: Reed)

There is no way anyone in Mexico could possibly forget or ignore this day. For one thing, there are the cohetes—giant, rocket-like firecrackers that shoot five hundred feet or so into the air before exploding with a distinctive boom unsettling to the uninitiated—accompanied by a telltale puff of smoke.

Yesterday, the cohetes started going off at 6:00 AM. Usually, they signal the start of mañanitas, morning prayers, but a Mexican friend told us that those cohetes announced the arrival of peregrinos, pilgrims, walking along the Calzada Tlalpan on their way to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Let me mention that the Calzada, which runs perhaps a quarter mile from our apartment, is built atop a causeway constructed by the Aztecs for southern access to their capital Tenochtitlán. The Spanish constructed the National Cathedral and National Palace (government offices) on the ruins of the ancient capital. These buildings now take up two sides of the gigantic Zócalo that is Mexico City's main plaza.

No Day for Ordinary Tasks

Reed just returned from running errands. In reply to my casual inquiry, "How'd it go?", he reported partial success. The ATM was accessible, but the bank was closed. Technically, today is a religious holiday in a secular state but this day is clearly much more than that.

So he decided to go get our clothes from the laundry, which is on the back side of our block. He returned laughing, "It's closed, too, but something wonderful happened. Wait'll you see what they've done at the Shrine to the Virgin."

With that, he picked up his camera and hurried out again. He returned a few minutes later, began uploading the photos he'd taken, and explained to me that the taxi drivers had covered the Shrine with flowers.

"Hmm," I muttered, "it's a good thing you didn't go to Migration today; it's probably closed." We exchange rueful glances. Reed is still trying to pick up his renewed non-immigrant, resident visa, which was 'approved' but not physically 'ready' when he made the trek last Monday.

Shall I mention the music blasting from a private fiesta somewhere on the block? It started modestly enough, but has now been building for a couple of hours. When it starts this early (5:00 PM), it usually stops by 10:00 PM, but we'll see....

Understanding the multi-layered, nuanced cultural complexity of the Virgin of Guadalupe calls for a bit of historical digging. Over the years, I've posted several articles on the Virgin of Guadalupe. You'll find them in the Still Curious? section at the end of this post.

Virgin's Deep Roots

In 1999, Pope John Paul II proclaimed this manifestation of the Virgin Mary in the Western Hemisphere to be Patroness of the Americas, Empress of Latin America, and Protectress of Unborn Children. However, at a more profound emotional level, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the beloved mother of all Mexicans.

Patricia Harrington sums up the historical process like this:

"The Aztecs ... had an elaborate, coherent symbolic system for making sense of their lives. When this was destroyed by the Spaniards, something new was needed to fill the void and make sense of New Spain ... the image of Guadalupe served that purpose."[40]

Our Lady of Guadalupe Appears in Spain

Hernán Cortés, the Spaniard who overthrew the Aztec empire in 1521, was a native of Extremadura, Spain, home to Our Lady of Guadalupe. When Cortés arrived on the shores of what would become Mexico in the 16th century, the Extremadura Guadalupe, a statue of the Virgin said to be carved by Saint Luke the Evangelist, was already a Spanish national icon.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Extremadura, Spain

At the beginning of the 14th century, the Virgin appeared to a humble shepherd and ordered him to dig at the site where she appeared to him. Digging as she had ordered, he found her statue.

The recovered Virgin then miraculously helped to expel the Moors from Spain, and her small shrine evolved into the great Guadalupe monastery. One of the more remarkable attributes of the Guadalupe of Extremadura is that she is dark-skinned, like the original peoples of the Americas. Thus she became the perfect icon for the missionaries who followed Cortés to convert the original peoples of Mexico to Christianity.

Virgin of Guadalupe Appears in New Spain

According to the traditional account, the Virgin herself chose the name of Guadalupe when she appeared to the peasant Juan Diego on a hill outside Mexico City in 1531, ten years after the fall of the Aztec empire. But according to secular history, in 1555 Bishop Alonso de Montúfar commissioned a Virgin of Guadalupe from a native artist, who gave her the dark skin that his own people shared with the famous Extremadura Virgin.

Whatever the connection between the Mexican Virgin and her older Spanish namesake, the fused iconography of the Virgin and the indigenous Nahua goddess Tonantzin provided a way for 16th-century Spanish missionaries to gain converts among the indigenous peoples, while simultaneously allowing the 16th century indigenous peoples to continue the practice of their native religion.

Virgin of Guadalupe: Mother of Mexico

The Virgin of Guadalupe continues to be a mixture of the cultures that have blended to form Mexico, both racially and religiously. She is recognized as "the first mestiza" (mixed racial heritage, Spanish and indigenous), or "the first Mexican" who "brought together people of distinct cultural heritages, while at the same time affirming their distinctness."

The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once observed that "you cannot truly be considered a Mexican unless you believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe." In 1974 Nobel Literature laureate Octavio Paz wrote that "after more than two centuries of [political] experiments, the Mexican people have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery."

What is indisputable is the vitality of this national, religious symbol throughout the Americas. A young woman from Central America cutting my hair in Chicago was visibly moved when I mentioned that we live in Mexico. "Oh, México," she murmured in awed tones, "México is very special."

And so it is.

Still Curious?

Related Jenny's posts:

• Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of Mexico is our exploration of a shrine to the Virgin on a giant Moctezuma Cypress that's just around the block from us; it's the shrine the taxi drivers decorated today;
• Méxica (Aztec) Dancers at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe recounts our tour of the Basilica, which almost overwhelmed us with its cultural complexity;
• Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe relates our experiences last year (2011) in Mexico City on the day of the Virgin's Fiesta day;
• Mexican Traditions: Peregrinación (Pilgrimages) describes the ancient and traditional role of pilgrimage in Mesoamerican culture and how it came to be shaped by Catholicism;
• Mexican Culture: Cohetes (Firecrackers or Rockets) tells about our experiences of cohetes being set off during High Mass in a Purhépecha community and our discovery of their surprising significance.

This post is indebted to the Wikipedia entry for the Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is exceptionally well written and documented.