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PB July 2011
Mexico Rising: The Gods Are Alive 39
ance of Our Lady of Guadalupe ten years after
the fall of Mexico City was miraculous.
The legend tells of Saint Juan
Diego, a poor Indian native of
Cuautitlan who walked on a
cold December morning past
the Tepeyac Hill. He saw a
beautiful lady standing
on top of the hill. Speaking
to him in Nahuatl,
the Holy Lady revealed
to Juan Diego that she
was the Divine Mother
of God. She asked him
to go to the bishop in
the city and tell him to
build a temple for her
on this hill. Juan Diego
followed her command
and, although he managed
to gain an audience
with the Spanish
archbishop, the bishop
did not believe his story.
On his way back,
Juan Diego passed the
Tepeyac Hill and again
saw the Holy Lady standing
there. She told him to
go back the following day and
tell the bishop to build a temple
for her on this hill. The second
time Juan Diego came before
the bishop, he was again met with disbelief. He
dreaded to walk home past the hill of Tepeyac.
When the Divine Lady appeared to him once
more, Juan Diego plaintively asked her not to
request him to see the bishop again; he pleaded
that it was impossible to convince the bishop.
The Lady smiled and commanded Juan Diego
to climb up Tepeyac Hill and gather the Castilian
roses blooming there and bring them to
the bishop as proof. To his surprise, Juan Diego
found roses blooming out of season on
top of the hill.
Juan Diego went back to the
bishop and, as instructed
by the Holy Lady, opened
his poncho to hand over
the Castilian roses. To
everyone’s surprise an
imprint of the Holy
Lady of Tepeyac was
clearly marked on
the rough cloth of
cactus fibres on Juan
Diego’s poncho. This
was enough proof
for the bishop and
he fell to his knees.
The Holy Lady, who
spoke in Nahuatl
to Juan Diego calling
herself Coatlaxopeuh—or
perhaps
Coatlicue—was renamed
by the bishop as
Our Lady of Guadalupe,
after a Spanish town that
was similar in sound.
A chapel dedicated to
the Virgin was built on Te­
Our Lady of Guadalupe
peyac Hill over the ruins of a
temple to the Aztec mother goddess
Tonantzin. The miraculous image of Our Lady
of Guadalupe on the cloth appealed to both
conquerors and conquered. The Spanish saw
an image of the Holy Mary, but the indigenous
people saw the brown-skinned image of Tonantzin
and, thereby, stopped resisting conversion to
Christianity. This saved the lives of so many local
people who previously resisted.
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