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Saturday, Mar. 14, 1998
Virgin of Guadalupe's image appearing on tattoos, protest signs
Religious symbol of protection is gaining in popularity, even among nonreligious folks
By MARY LEE GRANT
Staff WriterHer image appears in shrines, on the hoods of low rider cars and on prisoners' tattooed backs.
Seldom has a symbol been used for as many purposes as that of one of Mexico's most revered saints, the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Miguel Leatham, an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, has been studying the Virgin of Guadalupe since 1982. He says this most potent image of Mexican-style Catholicism is growing in popularity throughout the United States.
She has been a symbol of the Mexican homeland, of resistance to authority for hundreds of years and most recently has become the chosen saint of the anti-abortion movement, Leatham said.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have first appeared to a poor Indian, Juan Diego, outside Mexico City in 1531. According to legend, on his way to church, he heard music and was drawn to a hill where an ancient Aztec goddess was worshipped. There, the Virgin Mary appeared to him and asked him to build a church on Tepeyac Hill.
He returned to tell the bishop, who at first refused to see him because he was an Indian. When the bishop did see Juan Diego, he told him he was probably just dreaming and asked him to return to the spot and see if the Virgin reappeared.
The Virgin appeared again, and Juan Diego told her that no one would believe the word of such a humble man. But the Virgin told him she wanted him to bear the news of her appearance.
The bishop asked Juan Diego for a sign, and the Virgin led him to roses growing on the barren hillside. He returned, and as he dropped an armful of roses in front of the cleric, Juan Diego's cloak came off, imprinted with an image of the Virgin Mary.
Now churches dot the areas outside Mexico City where she is said to have appeared, and the Basilica of Guadalupe in the suburbs of Mexico City has become the second-largest Christian edifice in the world, with only the Basilica of St. Peter's in Rome being bigger, Leatham said. The basilica has a capacity of 45,000 and an estimated 7 million visit annually, Leatham said. The cloak said to be imprinted with her image is still on display in the basilica.
Leatham said that the truth of the miraculous appearance was readily accepted by conservative priests of the time.
``Accepting it was a quintessential part of being a Catholic in colonial Mexico,'' Leatham said.
The Virgin of Guadalupe was named the patroness of Mexico City in 1737 and the patroness of Mexico in 1895, and her image in the basilica was crowned by Pope Leo XIII as queen of Mexico with the richest crown since the crown of Charlemagne, Leatham said. In 1910, she was declared Empress of the Americas by the papal hierarchy.
It wasn't long after her appearance that the Virgin came to be a symbol of opposition to the established order, Leatham said.
When the priest Miguel Hidalgo gathered a band of Indians and mestizos at the start of the War of Independence against Spain in 1810, his band of dissidents bore a banner with her image. Leaders of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 also marched under her flag, with the troops of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa carrying her flag at the front of the procession when they took Mexico City in 1911.
``She is as much a symbol of Mexico as the Mexican flag itself and even has a certain supremacy over the Eagle and the Serpent, because her symbol has galvanized popular support when the Eagle and Serpent has not been used that way,'' Leatham said. ``There have been times when her image has been placed in the middle of the tricolor flag instead of the Eagle and the Serpent. Her image shows God's predilection for Mexico and its native people.
``It is no surprise that the Virgin of Guadalupe has become a symbol for revolutionaries,'' Leatham said. ``She appeared first to a Nahuatl Indian after the church was questioning whether Indians had souls. And she spoke to him in his native language. She has always been the symbol of the dispossessed, the poor and the voiceless.''
In the United Farm Worker marches in 1965, Cesar Chavez incorporated her image as farm workers carrying her banner marched in pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento, Calif., to draw attention to the grape boycott against the growers of the Imperial Valley and to strive for unionization, Leatham said.
Now, in Chiapas, the Zapatista Liberation Army uses the Virgin of Guadalupe as one of its symbols, as demands are made for greater rights for Indians, Leatham said.
``It is no accident that the Zapatista Liberation Army named their provisional headquarters Guadalupe Tepeyac and that it was raided by the Mexican army,'' Leatham said.
Throughout the years, the Virgin of Guadalupe has become a symbol of Mexico to Mexican-Americans.
In South Texas and the Southwest, immigrants and old families establish a connection to Mexico with her image, Leatham said. Her image appears on amulets, T-shirts and bumper stickers. She appears as a dashboard ornament, on candles, in small pictures cherished in wallets and is revered in numerous home shrines in Corpus Christi.
``There are many Mexican men who may not be particularly devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe but their name is Guadalupe Rosario,'' Leatham said.``And she is one of the most popular images for tattoos among Mexican-American prisoners. She is viewed as a symbol of protection. She is traditionally tattooed on the back because she watches their backs. And she is emblazoned very prominently on low rider cars, not to mention the yerberias (herb shops).''
Now the Virgin of Guadalupe is being taken up by New Age seekers, who find in her a strong symbol of the feminine aspect of God, Leatham said.
``Even the Sikh sect derived from northern India has picked up on her image,'' Leatham said. ``As early as the 1940s she began to show up in Hindu temples in India. They have a lot of maternal deities, too, and didn't see her as a threat.''
The Rev. Bob Dunn, secretary for pastoral services for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, said many Corpus Christi parishioners are devoted to the Virgin Mary, and the church has been able to use her as an image with which Hispanics can identify.
``She is for us a symbol of evangelism, because after her appearance, thousands of Indians converted to Catholicism,'' Dunn said.
She is also becoming popular with non-Hispanic Catholics throughout the United States and her latest incarnation has been as a symbol of the anti-abortion movement, Leatham said.
Although the anti-abortion movement is conservative compared to the United Farm Workers protests, the use of her image by those who oppose abortion makes perfect sense, Leatham said.
``She is the protector of the voiceless and the unprotected,'' Leatham said. ``So it makes perfect sense that she should be the protector of the unborn.''
Dunn said he saw her evolve as the patron saint of the unborn beginning about 10 years ago, with the connection growing much stronger in the past few years. He said the Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the few images of the Virgin Mary who appears to be pregnant.
Leatham said the sash she wears has been interpreted as a pregnancy sash common in the Middle East at the time of the birth of Jesus or could just be a convention to make her fit into the European artistic tradition.
Manuel Garcia, 54, leads annual anti-abortion marches for the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
``We use her image as we walk along in marches,'' Garcia said.`` She is always with us.''
Garcia has been devoted the Virgin of Guadalupe since he was a child.
``My grandmother was from Mexico, and she was very devoted to the Virgin of Guadalupe,'' Garcia said. ``She has always symbolized Mexico and been a blessed mother to Mexican-Americans. But now she is becoming more than that. There are a lot of Anglos who are becoming devoted to her. She is the patroness of the Americas, after all. She is even getting popular in Canada.''
Garcia belongs to a society within the Catholic Church here called Guadalupanos, who practice devotions to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Even those who are not religious often use her image, he said.
``She is rooted in a lot of people who are Hispanic, even if they aren't religious,'' Garcia said. ``That is why she is so often found as a tattoo on prisoners. They may not know much about religion, but they remember from childhood that Our Lady is good.''Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web