Guad's Day

Hey, it's Virgin of Guadalupe Day--Patron of the Americas, Protector of Mexico, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the poor.

On Dec. 12, 1531, an apparition of the Virgin showed up on the hill of Tepeyac, just north of Mexico City where an ancient temple dedicated to the Aztec earth goddess Tonantzin had recently been destroyed the Spanish conquistadors. The brown-skinned Virgin, appearing to the Indian Juan Diego & speaking in his native tongue of Nahuatl, requested that a church be built in her honor.

Now, when Mary shows up & wants a temple, you have to go tell the Archbishop, so off Juan Diego went, but the Archbishop was pretty skeptical.

Dejected, Juan Diego returned to the hill, where the Virgin comforted him & filled his cloak with roses--out of season at the time. When he opened his cloak in front of the Archbishop the roses spilled out, exposing an image of the Virgin which had been imprinted on it. Miracle! The Archbishop ordered that a basilica be erected at the site at once.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is our lady of liberation, conquest, assimilation, and cultural identity, tying Latin Americans to their indigenous roots. She marched with the rebels in the Mexican Revolution & with the Zapatistas. She stands on a crescent moon, cunt goddess. She's Tonantzin, she who has dominion over snakes; manifestation of the Earth Mother Coatlicue, big mama of all living things, conceived by immaculate and miraculous means. She is the giver of life & the devourer; Patron of childbirth & decider of death-days; the earth both mother and tomb.

"Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything."
-- Our Lady to Juan Diego