La Virgen de Guadalupe

 As a Chicane person that used to be Catholic, I have grown an admiration for La Virgen de Guadalupe. I used to be Catholic, go to church and look up at her as mass commenced and I would ask “When will this be over?”. My mom and I prayed to her in our car on Tuesdays at 3 pm on the radio station Guadalupe Radio, though I preferred to listen to music or do my own thing. I still have songs about her stuck in my head at times, like right now, “La Guadalupana, la Guadalupana bajó al Tepeyac”. I never looked into the lyrics until today, but I found out about her real history last year and it blew me away. 

Growing up, all I knew about her was that she was the mother of Jesus Christ, and she was portrayed as a holy symbol. I also knew about the debate Christian people had with Catholics about how the Virgin Mary is “not virgin”, and that she shouldn’t be a symbol of faith. I heard about that when I was really young, and I was taught to “wait until marriage” because that is what a holy woman, like La Virgen would do. This confused me because I was so young, so I interpreted it as, I need to get married to a man first and then have babies (even though I didn’t know the process, or the complexities, as a child should). I think teaching children this watered down version isn’t okay, because it prioritizes her having children and pushing the Catholic agenda, above her being a confirming light and hope to the Nahua after the downfall of Tenochtitlan.

My family and I have celebrated her birthday almost every year and have done our best to visit her at St. Elisabeth Church where everyone would go to mass and pray for La Virgen and give her twelve roses because roses were her favorite. Now that I’m more aware of her importance, I love seeing her and reading about her.