The of Guadalupe: Symbol of Conquest or Liberation? Author(s): Jeanette Favrot Peterson Reviewed work(s): Source: Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, (Winter, 1992), pp. 39-47 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777283 . Accessed: 06/01/2013 23:38

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Virgin of Guadalupe Symbolof Conquestor Liberation?

JeanetteFavrot Peterson

the many images of the Virgin Immaculate vene- -AAA. f rated in , only the Virgin of Guadalupehas an overarching political significance. This essay will challenge two myths concerning her role as national -: i-fi emblem:first, that her spontaneouslywelded together all the strataof New ; and second, that Guadalupefrom the 39 sixteenth century on served as a symbol of freedom for the oppressed native populations. Instead, her meaning was reinterpretedfor differentruling parties primarilyin those times when existing sociopolitical institutions were being 11 reconstituted.' Ratherthan acting as an unchanging"single ...... Mastersymbol," to use Eric Wolf'swords,2 Guadalupehas been used alternatively,and sometimessimultaneously, as a ...... symbol of liberation as well as one of accommodationand control. Not until the nineteenth century did Guadalupe's cult gain in strengthamong a largely disenfranchisedpopu- lation. Moreover,only in the twentiethcentury has her image Wei taken on new meaning compatiblewith her title, "Motherof the ." At the heart of my inquiry are the image and legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe. According to the account of the apparition, which was not recorded in a dated publication until the mid-seventeenthcentury, Guadalupe first appeared on December8, 1531, on the hill of Tepeyacac(now ), to the north of .3 She showedherself to a newly Christianized native, whose baptismal name was Juan Di- ego. Using the Aztec language of , the Virgin asked that a church be erected in her honor. tried three times to convince Juan de Zumairragaof this apparition.He succeeded only on the last visit to Zumairraga whenroses tumbledout of his openedtilmatli, or cloak, and a life-sized image of the Virgin was found miraculouslyim- FIG. I Virginof Guadalupe,16th century,oil andtempera (?) on maguey printedon its cactus-fibercloth. JuanDiego's cloak is said to cactuscloth and cotton, 69 x 41Y4inches. Basilicaof Guadalupe,Mexico be the same painted icon that is central to the cult of the City. Virgin of Guadalupe, venerated today in the twentieth- peoples after the conquest, were superim- century basilica that bears her name (fig. 1). posed on pre-Hispanic temples. Given its traditionalsignifi- By no coincidence, Tepeyachad served as an ancient cance, Tepeyacwould have been a logical place fora chapelor pilgrimage site dedicated to several pre-Columbianearth hermitage (ermita), probablydedicated to one of the many deities, who were referredto in the early colonial period by of the Virginof the ImmaculateConception imported by the generic name of , meaning "our revered the . While scanty documentationhas obscured mother."4In the ambitiousprogram to evangelize all native the origins of the Guadalupedevotion, it is likely that neither

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions a specifically dedicated to the Mexican Virgin of the Indian and Spanish communitieswas a relativelylocal Guadalupe nor an image of her existed priorto 1555-56.5 phenomenon,like hundredsof similar communitycults.9 Iconographicand stylistic evidence suggests thatthe tilmatli Guadalupe'scult gained a widerfollowing in the seven- icon was painted by a native artisan, perhaps as early as teenth century and can be best understoodin the contextof mid-century.By this period, one of the most commonrepre- class distinctions, which were largely based on skin color. sentationsof the ImmaculateConception relied on the bibli- Although tragically decimated in the decades followingthe cal text of the Apocalyptic Womandescribed by St. John. conquest, by the end of the colonial period the indigenous The creatorof the Guadalupeicon appearsto have used as a races in NewSpain remainedthe largest ethnic group.In the model a late fifteenth or early sixteenth-centuryengraving late eighteenth century, four-fifthsof the total population fromthe Bookof .6Like the ApocalypticWoman of were nonwhiteand most constitutedthe lowerclasses; these Revelation12:1, Guadalupeis "clothedwith the sun, and the included the fastest-growing component, the , or moon under her feet." She stands on a moon, the individuals of mixed blood. The white, upper fifth of the sunrs rays creating an almond-shapedmandorla, or glory, population was composed of peninsular Spaniards, de- aroundher, with the twelve stars that crownher head in the risively nicknamed gachupines, and Mexican-bornSpan- multiplied and scattered over the surface of her blue iards, or criollos. This schema does not do justice to the mantle. The Virgin at Tepeyacwas called Guadalupeafter a multiple classifications, or , that rankedpersons, with popularshrine in the regionof Estremadurain centralSpain. their attendantaccess to power and wealth.10Whether by Althoughthe painted MexicanGuadalupe bears little physi- birth or persuasion, the criollo, or creole, was intensely cal resemblance to her Spanish counterpart,a diminutive dedicated to the success of the new colony. Creoles were 40 sculpture of the Virgin and Child, name recognitionalone distrustedby the Spaniards,treated as second-class citizens insured her appeal for Europeanand Spanish devotees. and given inferiorpositions in everyprofessional sphere. With The introduction of the Mexican Guadalupe some their expandingnumbers, the creoles wouldbecome the most thirty-fiveyears after the conquest is significant. In spite of importantprotagonists in the promulgationof Guadalupeas the Catholicchurch's zealous programof evangelization,by part of their ambitionto create a Mexico out of . the time of the first Mexican church council in 1555, the The movementto associate the MexicanGuadalupe with failureto eradicatepaganism had becomepatently clear. The creole interests is already apparentin the first datablerepre- hierarchy acknowledged Indian resistance to domination, sentationof the Virgin of Guadalupe (fig. 2). The 1615-20 both overtly in the form of uprisings and covertly in the engravingby a Flemish artist, SamuelStradanus (or van der persistence of traditional religious beliefs. Aggressive Straet), was commissionedby the metropolitanarchbishop, methods of indoctrinationwere intensified, including the JuanP6rez de la Serna, whose armsappear at the foot, to help substitution of new Christian for old gods and the raise funds for a new Guadalupebasilica, which was com- incorporationof parallel beliefs and ritual. The Mexican pleted in 1622. The central icon is endowedin the engraving Virgin of Guadalupe was one such fusion of an imported with the features and more ample proportionsof a Flemish EuropeanMother of God with native mothergoddesses. Like .Eight lateral panels are ex-votos, testimonialsin the pre-Columbianearth deities, the Virgin Maryof popular wordand image of Guadalupe'smiraculous powers. These all Spanish Catholicismhad power over fertility, disease, and record workedon behalf of the ruling white class natural disasters.7 However,while these similarities facili- and include, in the upper left, the cure of Don Luis de tated syncretic solutions, they also underminedChristian Castilla, a wealthy Spaniard, and in the upper right, the orthodoxy.In 1576 the Franciscanfriar Sahagtn complained escape froma riding accidentof the creole son of the conquis- that the pilgrimages to Tepeyacwere only a continuationof tador Don Antoniode Carvajal.Guadalupe's intervention in pre-Hispanic practices and that native worshipersconsis- young Carvajal'sfall from his horse was used to underscore tently referred to Guadalupe as Tonantzin-a name that is the creole's unique status, favored by the Virgin, and it still linked to Guadalupe in some regions of Mexico.8 Aside remained a popular artistic theme throughout the viceregal from her association with a traditionally sacred space, her period. The Stradanus engraving is also important for what it female gender, and her reputed powers over natural forces, does not depict. None of the ex-votos represents a the Mexican Guadalupe was an eminently European image worked by Guadalupe on behalf of her native constituency, that had little meaning for the native worshiper. The classical including her cure of Juan Diego's uncle in 1531, an event beauty of Spanish Marian images and the standardized Im- that would immediately establish her efficacy in later ac- maculate iconography were modified in the painted icon to counts of the apparition. These omissions lead to the conclu- include ashen-olive skin and straight black hair. Along with sion that either such miracles had not yet been articulated or her humble attitude and pious gesture, the Virgin of Gua- that they were still only part of an oral tradition. It is also dalupe conveniently reflected the colonial church's image of possible that they were intentionally excluded from the the native population that it sought to bring under its control. Stradanus graphic, given its fund-raising function among the By the late sixteenth century, Guadalupe's following in both upper classes.

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FIG. 2 SamuelStradanus, Indulgence for Alms towardthe Erectionof a ChurchDedicated to the Virginof Guadalupe,ca. 1615-20, copper engraving,127/e x 8Y4inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York,gift of H. H. Behrens,1948 (48.701

This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions serpent standing on a cactus. In this image, Patmos is transferredto Mexicoand St. John'svision of the Apocalyptic Womanis transformedinto the Virgin's appearanceto the faithful in the New World.Further visual links to the Bookof Revelation occur in paintings of St. where Gua- dalupe's image appears on the 'sbanner, assisting him in defeating the seven-headeddragon of evil. In a self- Am ?~* serving argument,the Virgin Maryas Guadalupewas said to have appeared in Mexico to help vanquish ;thus, ki ?R, // the conquest was justified as due punishment for native /iix/oma idolatry. The creole conscience was further vindicated for overcomingheresy and reassured abouta futurelinked to an Indian peoples whose salvationwas nowguaranteed because Y 7~ of Guadalupe's intervention.The more militant functionof would be invokedmany times overin the centu- l Guadalupe /WI .. ries ahead, when her banner heraldedrevolutionary causes. The most importanttheme in the apologistpublications associates the Apocalyptic Woman with the new church triumphant.For creole intellectuals, Guadalupe'sapparition 42 was an opportune sign that the Virgin Mary had chosen Mexico as her "favoredcity" and Mexicans as the elect. UnderscoringGuadalupe's endorsement of Mexico,her image was increasingly linked to the Latin wordsNon fecit taliter

FIG. 3 Artistunknown, Virgin of GuadalupeFlanked by St. Johnand Juan Diego, 18th century,engraving. Private collection, Mexico City.

The campaign to legitimize Guadalupeas the primary Virgin Mary in New Spain began in 1648 with the first published account of the apparitionby MiguelSainchez."11 He is one of four creole seventeenth-centuryauthors referred to ...... i as the "fourevangelists" for their fervorin establishing the historicityof the Virgin of Guadalupe.12In orderto provethat •i~i!i~iiii~iAso: Guadalupe was an authenticallyAmerican Virgin, her ap- pearance to poor, humble, and virtuousnatives was empha- sized as well as her use of the Nahuatl Further language. gpf efforts to link Guadalupe to the indigenouscultures is evi- dent in the frontispiece of the Sainchezpublication, where the Virgin is placed on a nopal, or pricklypear cactus, as well as on a crescent moon.13 Thereafter, scores of treatises and published sermons reveal the same mixture of nationalism and ferventguadalupanismo. The Virgin'sapocalyptic iconographyembodied all the componentsof the creole program:to verify the miraculous apparitionsof Guadalupe as an American phenomenon,to justify the conquest, and to glorify Mexico. The apocalyptic message is explicitly localized in Mexico in eighteenth- century graphics. In one example (fig. 3), St. John is shown recording his on the lower left while Juan Diego is kneeling on the lowerright. Belowthe Virgin of Guadalupeis FIG. 4 Artistunknown, Virgin of Guadalupe,18th century,engraving, 4 x 21h the Aztec's toponymfor their capital city, an eagle with a inches.Museo de la Basilicade Guadalupe,Mexico City.

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions carnationsof the noble savage, complete with the requisite feathered headdress (fig. 5). In spite of the disjunctionbe- tween these fictive Indians and prevailing attitudes and conditions, they served the creole cause by endowingNew Worldsociety with an appropriatelyillustrious past. The civil and ecclesiastical hierarchyworked to elevate Guadalupe to a new institutionallevel. An opportunitywas afforded them in 1737 when Guadalupe was said to have intervenedcollectively for "herpeople" during an epidemic. This virulentplague had alreadytaken the lives of 40,000 in MexicoCity and 50,000 in Pueblain eight months;one might wonderwhether it had not already run its course. Severalof the otherimages of the Virgin had been invokedbefore that of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Nonetheless, when her aid was sought, there was an apparentcessation of deaths, her effi- cacy was acclaimed, and she was convertedinto an official emblem. In a 1746 book by Cayetanode Cabreray Quintero, M:. iL -iTT!!/jUiiiiMi b b U a creole spokesman for the archbishop,an engravingshows Guadalupe enshrined in a shield floating over the stricken city (fig. 6); wealthy upper-class supplicants beseech her 43 aid. In the accompanyingLatin text, Mexicois comparedto a second Rome, with an allusion to Numa Pompilius,the king

...... AfsQ. ?:: ... i, FIG. 5 Josefusde Ribera/Aragomanis,Virgin of GuadalupeVenerated by Juan Si~i5?i• Diego and an Indian,1778, oil on canvas,65 x 401/Vsinches. Museo de la Basilicade Guadalupe,Mexico City.

V.. ... omni nationi, "He [the Lord]has not dealt thus with any other nation,"words from Psalm 147:20 found on engravingsand :: ?l,: :/ =: paintings of Guadalupebeginning in the last quarterof the •, ,, seventeenthcentury (fig. 4). By associating Mexicowith the biblical NewJerusalem, spiritual equality with the OldWorld was achieved-a necessary first step in creating a religious- 44•.

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of Rome whose vision of a shield likewise protectedhis city A frompestilence. It is not surprisingthat the cathedralchapter of MexicoCity elected the Virgin of Guadalupeas its princi- pal protectressfollowing the epidemic. Othermajor cities in Mexico likewise swore allegiance to Guadalupe, until in 1746 she was instated as patroness of the entire colony of MM" Mexico, an act that received papal confirmationin 1754. Lavish festivities honoredGuadalupe's new status and like- Clio wise confirmedthat of the wealthy class; amongother flam- .. md boyantdisplays, jewelerscovered their balconies with sheets ...... 1- Tr? of silver.14 Jacques Lafayehas writtenthat the recognitionof Gua- ?do dalupe after the 1737 epidemic created a "sacred bond between all Mexicans who themselves to 116 acknowledged be

go 'serfs of Guadalupe.'"15 In reality, the only "serfs"remained :4 -A 44 /x those confinedto a servile state fromthe time of the conquest. Mi While Guadalupe'scult did growgradually among all social If "'w classes, she continuedto conveya paradoxicalmessage that was manipulated for political purposes. Spanish rule in Mexico had always dependedon a hierarchyof legal, civil, 411 and ecclesiastical intermediariesthrough whom the Indians aired their grievances. The Virgin of Guadalupe'srole as an intercessor ...... A was stressed by the church. William Taylorhas ooll shownhow often in legal documentsshe was appealedto as a mediator between the native petitionerand higher authori- ties, both celestial and civil; as a "modelof acceptance and legitimationof colonial authority,"Guadalupe thus encour- FIG. 7 Jos6 GuadalupePosada, Interior of the Basilicaof Guadalupe,ca. 1900, zinc etching.Private collection. aged the status quo.16 Discriminatory colonial policies were foundeven in the celebrationof Guadalupe'sannual feast day on December 12, which was restrictedto the viceroyand the elite in the secular and religious hierarchy.A separateSun- day in Novemberwas instituted for the commoners.17 Foundations,, and churches dedicated to Gua- dalupe multiplied throughoutMexico, and her image was embellished in precioussettings. The basilica of Guadalupe was incorporatedinto the official life of MexicoCity. Linked to the city by the grandcalzada, or avenue, the basilica was used by viceroys as an honorarypoint of entry for most visiting dignitaries and as a burial site for importantoffi- cials. In art, Guadalupewon a respected place in Christian ,and God the Fatherhimself was even repre- sented as painting her image.'8 The eighteenth-century flow- ering of the Guadalupe cult can be tied directly to the economic prosperity of New Spain. Rich silver deposits were discovered, which, along with advances in the technology of amalgamation, created a mining boom. Although New Spain became the most prosperous of the colonies, the mother country imposed onerous taxes and monopolies on many exports. Profiting from the flourishing economy were not the creoles, but a new wave of Spaniards who once again dis-

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions placed creoles in the expandingcolonial bureaucracy.Long- ing of the Virgin of Guadalupeas Queen of the Americason term resentmentof the peninsular Spaniardwas fueled into October 12, 1895. The coronationwas choreographedto hatred. Nationalist aspirations, for which Guadalupe was include primarilythe upperechelons of the hierarchy,includ- used as a providentialsign, were given added impetus by the ing fortybishops. Withthe exceptionof a tokenrepresentation NorthAmerican and Frenchrevolutions. of natives fromJuan Diego's town of Cuautitlin, the absence Duringthe 1810 Warof Independence,the creoles found of Indians was notable. The expense and elitism of the it expedient to side with the lowerclergy, mestizos, landless ceremonyand subsequentbanquet were lambastedas politi- farm workers,and Indians in their struggle against the gac- cally motivatedby certain journalists and members of the hupines. Guadalupe'scollective role as patronessof Mexico House of Deputies.22 was appealed to, and as is well known,her image was used to Even nineteenth-centuryliberals continuedto maintain symbolize the insurgent movement.Less known is the fact a colonial attitudethat whitewasheddiscrimination, as exem- that the instigatorof independence,Father Miguel Hidalgo, plified by two men otherwiseknown for their trenchantsocial was a creole who initially envisioned an autonomous criticism. The journalistIgnacio Manuel Altamirano and the creole kingdom. In a move calculated to attract a wider graphic artist Jose Guadalupe Posada romanticize their following, Hidalgo took up the bannerof Guadalupe,giving descriptions of pilgrims at Guadalupe'sbasilica. When de- 45 the Virgin the title of "GeneralCaptain" and parading the scribing the contemporarydevotion to Guadalupe, Alta- image aroundeach of the city plazas he enteredon his march miranowrites that the celebrants include "all classes of the to MexicoCity. Althoughthe insurgentleader shrewdlyper- new Republic, all the castes who live in our new democracy, ceived Guadalupe as a catalyst for nationalist goals and a and all the costumes of our civilization . . . no one is the focus for anti-Spanish sentiments, she was only one of three exception, no one is distinct: it is equality beforethe Virgin; symbols forthe insurgency;the otherswere Cuauhtemoc(the it is a national idolatry."23A similarly rose-colored inter- last and most resistant of Aztec rulers) and the Mexican pretationcan be seen in Posada'sbroadsheet, where barefoot eagle, likewise displayedto reinforcepublicly the indigenous and well-heeled devotees kneel togetherand piety to Gua- roots of the rebellion.19 dalupe is seemingly without socioeconomic pretensions Hidalgo'ssuccessor, a mestizopriest, FatherJos6 Maria (fig.7). Morelos,required all Mexicanpatriots to wearthe emblemof Elsewhere Altamiranohad claimed, "Mexicansadore Guadalupe. Royalists identified, then shot, insurgents by the Virgin. . . those who professCatholic ideas, forreligious their devotion to Guadalupe and desecrated the image by motives; the liberals, as a reminderof the 1810 banner;the wearing it on the soles of their shoes.20 Morelosproposed a Indians, because she is theironly goddess;. . . and everyone radical programof land reform that benefited native-born considers her as a symbol essentially Mexican."24 Al- groups, primarilymestizos and Indians, both referredto as tamirano'sobservation that Guadalupecontinued to act as the "Americanos."Although ultimately doomed as too visionary, Indians'"only goddess" is revealing. The nineteenth-century Morelos'sprograms were the first to associate Guadalupe priesthood, like the Franciscan Sahagfin in the late with a moredemocratic definition of nationalprivilege. Even sixteenth century, was very much aware of surviving pre- so, the War of Independencewas not yet truly an Indian Hispanic elements in popular religion.25 In spite of the phenomenon,and Guadalupe'scult continuedto be promoted waning of practicingCatholicism from 1850 on, there was a primarilyby the creole intellectuals.21 Guadalupe'sfollowing growthin the belief in miracles. Guadalupe'sapparition was did not become firmly entrenchedand pervasive until after seen severaltimes; once she appearedas if painted on a cliff 1828, when Hidalgo was enshrinedas a hero;his name was in , and once on the leaf of a magueyplant near Mexico added to the cult center aroundTepeyac when the Villa of City.26 Long associated with agriculture and , the Guadalupe was changed to Guadalupe Hidalgo, and Mex- Virgin of Guadalupe was still sometimes called the "Mother ico's first president was inspired to call himself Guadalupe of Maguey."27 Hidalgo. Patriotism was again allied with religion during the The universality of Guadalupe's cult, however, ob- tumultuous revolutionary decade following 1910. The most scured the harsh reality of a neglected and impoverished notorious leaders of the rebel armies, Pancho Villa and native population for whom independence yielded few gains. , both invoked the Virgin of Guadalupe in In addition to being a lucrative source of revenue for the support of their cause. Zapatistas wore her image in the band church at the official level, the cult of Guadalupe was still of their wide-brimmed hats. Only when affiliated with pro- paternalistic and exclusionary vis-a-vis its Indian policies. found social and agrarian reforms did Guadalupe's image No event better demonstrates this than the pontifical crown- become a viable symbol of freedom for all classes.28 The

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions myth of the "Indian Virgin" did not become consonant with iconographyand style has meant contesting the powerful reality until some four hundred years after Guadalupe's first place of Guadalupein their upbringing.Beginning in 1978, apparition in Mexico. The legislated separation of church and YolandaLopez conceived of a series of paintingsand collages state marked an end to her role as an institutional insignia, that convert the passive, colonial Guadalupe into a more and she passed into the realm of popular culture. relevantrole modelfor women. Superimposing her own image In the face of pressures to acculturate, many Mexican- as a runnerover the symbolic attributesof the Virgin, Lopez Americans in the have chosen to maintain the activates the traditionallysubmissive figure (fig. 9). Other Virgin of Guadalupe as a powerful symbol to create commu- artists have used the Guadalupeimage to condemnharshly nal solidarity. The revived festivities on December 12 the church'snoninvolvement in critical social issues or have throughout the Southwest proclaim loyalties that are at once satirized her canonical role. There is an ongoing attemptto religious, social, and national. Societies of Guadalupanas rediscoverthe original (read "indigenous")meaning of Gua- march together, displaying on their banners the image of dalupe, depicting her as an embodiment of Tonantzin- Guadalupe in the green and red colors of the Mexican flag. , goddess of the cosmos, sacred guardian and When painted on advertisements, calendars, cars, and out- motherimage for the Mexicannation. door walls, Guadalupe is also a declarative emblem that In herrole as intercessor,the Virginof Guadalupewas a identifies that object or place with a specific ethnicity model of mediationthat sanctionedsecular channelsof colo- (fig. 8).29 In public murals and posters, her figure is one of nial rule. At the same time, the apocalyptic iconographyof several instantly recognizable symbols to express Mex- Guadalupepromised a newbeginning for an ambitiouscreole icanismo. Guadalupe's revolutionary meaning has also been constituency.This providentialsymbolism was not extended 46 revived. To profess his personal faith and refute charges of to include mestizos and Indiansuntil the nineteenthcentury, Communist leanings, activist chose her as one and the promise of freedom did not become social reality of the principal symbols for the farmworkers' strike in the until afterthe twentieth-centuryrevolution. Today, the image 1960s. of Our Lady of Guadaluperemains deeply embedded in the In the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, artists ethnic identity of peoples of Mexican descent; considered began challenging as stereotypical a certain repertoire of images, the of For Chicana including Virgin Guadalupe. FIG. 8 Artist/sunknown, Guadalupe with Mexican-American Community, artists in particular, the call to develop an independent 1973, detailof mural.Freeway ramp, Logan Heights, San Diego.

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This content downloaded on Sun, 6 Jan 2013 23:38:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions not appear until 1648. A valuable anthologyof primarydocuments is in Ernestode la TorreVillar and Ramiro Navarro,Testimonios hist6ricos guadalupanos (Mexico City: Fondode Cultura Econ6mica, 1982). 4. Tonantzinis one of several names associated with an Aztec female earth-and- fertility deity complex whose members included (Our Grandmother)and Cihua- coati (Woman-Serpent).It is not clear whether the appellation Tonantzin is pre- Hispanic in origin or a postconquest constructto facilitate mergerwith the reverential names given the Virgin Mary. 5. See EdmundoO'Gorman, Destierro de sombras(Mexico City: UniversidadNacio- nal Aut6noma de Mexico, 1986), 7-21, 67-91. The origins of the shrine, its dedication, and the exact nature of the original cult image (sculpture, print, or painting?) have been embroiled in polemic from the time of Francisco de Busta- mante's iconoclastic sermon and subsequent testimonials, referredto collectively as the "Informaci6nde 1556." On this, see Torre Villar and Navarro, Testimonios, 36-141. 6. Elisa Vargas Lugo suggests Albrecht Diirer's 1498 woodcut of the Apocalyptic Woman;"Iconologia guadalupana," in Imdgenesguadalupanas: Cuatrosiglos (Mex- ico City: ImprentaMadero, 1988), 60. I am currentlyinvestigating graphic and mural for the icon. !!!!jiiiii'Ilk• prototypes Guadalupe 7. Similarities iiii~iiii71ii4 ? in the structuralpatterns of Spanish and MexicanMarian legends are discussed by William Christian, Apparitionsin Late MedievalandRenaissance Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 4, 18-21; Victor Turnerand Edith Turner,Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture(New York:Columbia University Press, 1978), 40-52; and Anna-Britta Hellbom, "Las apariciones de la Virgen de ii~iiiiii/0R, Guadalupe en Mexico y en Espafia," Ethnos 1-2 (1964): 58-72. i~iiiiiiii.2Ri 8. Bernardino de Sahagin, :Introductory Volume, trans. and ed. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles Dibble (Santa Fe: School of American Research and University of , 1982), 90. 47 9. See MartinEnriquez's letter written to Philip II in 1575, cited in Torre Villar and Navarro,Testimonios, 148-49. On the timing and extent of Guadalupe's following, Taylor,"The Virgin of Guadalupe," 15-19, concludes that not until the eighteenth century did devotionto her penetratebeyond the capital into the provinces. 10. On miscegenation, see MichaelC. Meyerand William L. Sherman,The Course of MexicanHistory, 2nd ed. (New York:Oxford University Press, 1983), chaps. 12, 15, 21. 11. Reprinted in TorreVillar and Navarro,Testimonios, 152-260. 12. The other three were Luis Lasso de la Vega (1649), Luis Becerra Tanco (1666), and Francisco de Florencia, S.J. (1688); see Francisco de la Maza, El gua- dalupanismo mexicano (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1981 [1953]), 54-97. FIG. 9 YolandaLopez, Self-Portrait as Joggerwith Symbolsof Guadalupe, 13. The Sanchez frontispiece is illustrated in Album conmemorativodel 450 aniver- 1978, oil and pastel on paper,26 x 22 inches.Collection of the artist. sario de las apariciones de Nuestra Ser~orade Guadalupe (Mexico City: Ediciones Buena Nueva, 1981), fig. 17. The nopal cactus is an Aztec symbol for Tenochtitlhin. 14. See p. 592 in Francisco JavierClavijero's essay on Guadalupe'scult in 1782, in TorreVillar and Navarro,Testimonios, 578-98. 15. Lafaye, Quetzalcoatland Guadalupe, 255. "beyondbeing Catholic-she has been integrated into the 16. Taylor,"The Virgin of Guadalupe," 20. Chicanocultural space."30However pervasive her folk mani- 17. Clavijero, in TorreVillar and Navarro,Testimonios, 593. 18. ForGod the Father the see Album festations certain Mexican-Americanartists have Painting Virginof Guadalupe, conmemorativo, may be, figs. 85, 86. challenged the image they associate with colonial institu- 19. MattS. Meier,"Maria insurgente," Historia Mexicana 23, no. 3 (January-March and the of the Catho- 1974): 469-71. tions, genderdiscrimination, passivity 20. TorreVillar and Navarro,Testimonios, 1014-15, n. 6; and Meier, "Mariainsur- lic church. In short, the Virgin of Guadalupe is still per- gente," 473-76. 21. "The of has shown that the move- ceived as both a symbol heraldingfreedom and a signifier of Taylor, Virgin Guadalupe," 23-24, Hidalgo ment was based in the Bajio region northof Mexico City, an area that had the fewest submission. That she continuesnot only to establish parame- Indians. ters of nationalidentity but also to conveydissent testifies to 22. See Moises Gonzalez Navarro,El : La vida social, vol. 4 of Historia modernade Mexico (Mexico City: Edici6n Hermes, 1970), 469. the potency of the image. 23. TorreVillar and Navarro,Testimonios, 1129 (author'stranslation). 24. Ibid., 1209-10 (author'stranslation). Notes 25. Gonzalez Navarro,El Porfiriato, 455-69. was 1. The premise that the Virgin of Guadalupe conveys a paradoxical message 26. Ibid., 452-54. influenced two sources: and by important Jacques Lafaye, Guadalupe: 27. Taylor,"The Virgin of Guadalupe," 19. TheFormation National trans. Keen ofMexican Consciousness,1532-1815, Benjamin 28. On the social and agrarianreforms that ultimatelybrought the Indians of Mexico of and William "The of (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 1976); Taylor, Virgin into the mainstreamof national life, see Meyerand Sherman, The Courseof Mexican in New An into the Social of Marian Guadalupe Spain: Inquiry History Devotion," History, chaps. 33-36. American no. 1 9-33. The term of libera- Ethnologist 14, (February1987): "symbol 29. See also Shifra M. Goldman, "The Iconographyof Self-Determination: tion"was to 20. This has also benefited from applied Guadalupe by Taylor, paper Race, Ethnicity, and Class," Art Journal 49, no. 2 (1990): 167-73. discussions with Stacie Widdifield and Shafer in 1987 and from written Lynn 30. Amalia Mesa-Bains, personal communication, 1987. exchanges with StaffordPoole, C.M., in 1990. 2. Eric R. Wolf,"The Virgin of Guadalupe:A MexicanNational Symbol," Journal of AmericanFolklore 71 (1958): 34-39. 3. Considerablescholarship either endorses or refutes the reliability of early appari- JEANETTE FAVROT PETERSON, assistant professor of art tion accounts. According to apparitionists, the germinal source is a Nahuatl docu- history, University of , Santa Barbara, is the author Nican is often to a sixteenth- ment titled Mopohua (Here Recounted), attributed The Paradise Garden Murals of : and century native scribe, AntonioValeriano. Both the authorshipand dating of the Nican of Utopia Mopohuaare contested; the first securely dated account of the apparitionlegend does Imperial Policy in Sixteenth-century Mexico (1992).

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