January-February 2001

Guadalupe: Icon of the people

by Mauro Pineda

Last Dec. 12, a winter storm and subzero cold closed schools and workplaces in Chicago, but nothing deterred parishioners from gathering at 4 AM at San Francisco de Asis Church in the rich Mexican tradition to celebrate “Las Mañanitas” on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Believers across the city and believers across Mexico were doing the same, while Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George and Mexico’s Cardinal Norberto Rivera were concelebrating Mass at the Guadalupe shrine on Tepeyac hill near Mexico City with thousands of worshippers.

What happened on Dec. 12, 1531 has stood the test of time because Guadalupe is of the people. On that day, the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian, at Tepayac and said: “Xuajla, noconetzin, nejua Nimonantzin …” Dark-skinned herself, she spoke neither English nor Spanish, but Nahuatl, the native tongue. Tepayac was an Aztec sanctuary to the virgin goddess Tonantzin, mother of the god Huitzilopochtli. The flowers Juan saw and the song he heard were signs of the divine. The woman appeared over the moon, carried by an angel: for Nahuatl people, any god that came down from the heavens would be carried by a messenger. She appeared covering the sun, the very life of the Aztec religion: covering it, but not extinguishing its spirit. Guadalupe was overshadowing indigenous people, their language and traditions, but she did not want them to disappear. Now, doesn’t that remind you of any mother holding her child?

Pineda leads a Guadalupe prayer service for CTA staff.

Soon after the appearance, the common men and women of Mexico, living out their popular religiosity, began pilgrimages to Tepeyac. It was 24 years before the hierarchy officially recognized Guadalupe in 1555. But then, Guadalupe is of the people.

Pineda is CTA membership coordinator.