The depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe by numerous celebrated painters but also countless less well-known painters in Nueva España, inspired great devotion to this iconic symbol of the Mother of God and his people but more importantly, helped construct a national symbol. The transformation from religious icon to a potent emblem of pride and identity for a conquered people, who began to sense a national homeland as other than a territory of Spain, was indeed palpable, especially by the 17thcentury. Her astonishing intercessions during plagues and natural disasters were recorded, and further encouraged fervent veneration. Thus, this image of the Mother of God or Virgin Mary became the most profound emblem of native identity for a people who would eventually claim a nation. Indeed the man she is said to have appeared to at the hill at Tepeyac—a sacred site for the Aztecs and other ancient peoples—was a native and like him, she was brown, and would be embraced fondly as La Morenita.
The oral tradition describes how on a cold morning in December in 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, spoke to him in Nahuatl, his own language, and eventually asked him to tell others of her apparition and great love for all mankind. She also instructed him to build a temple on the very site where she first spoke to him so that others would come to know of her. Devotion to the cult of the Virgin was further promoted by religious orders such as the Franciscans and Augustinians and by the early 1550s, Archbishop Montúfar, a Dominican friar who became the second Bishop of Mexico, was also a pious devotee. (W.B. Taylor, “The Virgin of Guadalupe in New Spain: An Inquiry into the Social History of Marian Devotion.” American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1, 1987, 9–33, p.12.)
This monumental painting was commissioned by the elite or religious classes for private or public worship. Mary is portrayed as the Immaculate Conception, a young Virgin who stands on the moon, her hands clasped in prayer. Her dazzling cloak is covered with stars and she wears a crown befitting her special status as Queen of Heaven. The golden rays which emanate around her confirm her divine status as she is about to become the Mother of God. Angels surround her and sing her praises while roses allude to her immaculate state. The various episodes of her apparition are clearly detailed and form part of her wondrous narrative and, as most images deployed by the Church, the painting facilitated religious instruction and conversion. The Virgin of Guadalupe’s role was that as intercessor between God and his people but also between the Spanish rulers and the natives. Her role as a symbol of liberation was later embraced during the wars of independence starting in the early 19th century. (Ibid., p. 20.)
M. J. Aguilar, Ph.D.
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