Week 5: La Virgen de Guadalupe

 As a Chicanx and someone who used to consider themselves Catholic I know and have experiences with Virgen of Guadalupe. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe has resonated throughout my life since my mother is a strong-felt and devoted catholic. She has always associated her life with the image and because of it, we have many of that kind of artwork, whether they are paintings or photographs of the Virgin of Guadalupe all around my home. My mom, from a very young age, has always one of the traditional “milestones’ a catholic goes through and the most recent that I had just completed was my confirmation. During the years of going and completed these “milestones’ as a catholic, I learned a lot about the different figures in the religion, one of them being the Virgen of Guadalupe. 

One year when I went on a trip to Mexico City, I was able to visit the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral which is a catholic cathedral that dedicates itself solely to the Virgen of Guadalupe. Here I also learned a lot of the history and the Virgen de Guadalupe including the cloak where she appeared after Juan Diego was asked by a bishop for proof of this Virgen of Guadalupe. Although I have disassociated myself from the religion and her image, it is still something very prominent in my family. I still find the knowledge that I have gained through years of having that aspect in my life very interesting and I am always open to learning and understand about her. I have never really been exposed to learning about the Virgen of Guadalupe in an academic setting besides learning about overall religion but nothing specific. The only time I was exposed to was through family and those “classes” I had to take to pass the different “milestones’ in the catholic religion. Because of this, I enjoyed last week’s discussion lectures because they brought up the Virgen of Guadalupe but in a different context. Hearing Yolanda Lopez talks about the Virgen of Guadalupe in that different context was something new and interesting to learn about. Overall, I think my experience with the Virgen of Guadalupe was interesting to learn about regardless of whether I follow through with her image or not.