The Story of Guadalupe The Aztec nation that was conquered had the largest scale of human sacrifice and cannibalism ever known. Although the exact number of how many were sacrificed cannot be known, the law of the empire required a thousand sacrifices for each town and subject town in the empire to their tribal god Huitzilopochtli. The total number was at least 50,000 a year and probably many times that number. The Aztec historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated it at one out of every five persons born would eventually be sacrificed. For conquered tribes, it often meant the entire population. The warrior king and religious leader, Tlacaellel, when he was 89 years old celebrated the dedication of the new temple in 1487 by sacrificing 80 thousand men in 4 days (15 seconds per person - day and night). The hearts would be cut out over an altar and then piled up. The sculls would be collected and stacked on racks. Limbs, blood, and other body parts would cascade down the steps of the pyramid style temple. In 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico, finding a society which was in some ways highly developed and civilized, yet also under the oppressive grip of paganism. Later during the conquest he saw his own men sacrificed as they were captured. One of the first things Cortes did after the conquest was forbid the sacrifices and destroy all of the temples. Although Cortes was a conquerer, he was also a religious man and placed limits on the oppression of the newly conquered Aztecs. Those who followed his leadership after he traveled back to Spain and south into Guatemala ruled more as tyrants with no regard for human rights. Many Franciscan missionaries worked for justice and preached the Gospel, but with limited success because of the tyranny of the ruling leaders and the suppression of the clergy and others advocating for the Native peoples. Bishop Zumarraga was desperatly trying to reach the king of Spain in spite of the suppression of information by the leaders, even going so far to smuggle a letter in a side of ham. In particular, he greatly feared an uprising which would result in the death of many people and end any hope for evangelization. He earnestly prayed to Our Lady that war would be averted, and boldly asked to receive Castillian roses, then unknown in Mexico, as a sign that his prayer for peace was heard. His prayers would be answered through the apparitions to Juan Diego on December 9-12. On December 9, 1531, Juan Diego, a poor 57 year old Aztec Native and Christian of less than seven years, was walking the 15 miles on his way to Saturday Mass in honor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. He had to pass by the hill called Tepeyac where formerly had stood a temple dedicated to the Aztec mother-goddess, Tonantzin, her head of multiple snakes, and her garment full of serpents. Suddenly Juan heard beautiful music, saw colors emanating from a white cloud and heard a voice calling him from the top of the temple ruins: "Juan! Juan Diego! Juanito! Juan Dieguito!" As he approached the top of the hill he saw a young Aztec maiden who was about fourteen years old and strikingly beautiful. She spoke to him in his native tongue and asked where he was going. When he said he was going to Mass, the beautiful maiden said, "Know for certain, dearest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God...I ardently desire a temple to be built here for me where I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes. Therefore, go to the Bishop of Mexico City and tell him of my desire." Juan fell prostrate and stated he would do so. Although fifty-seven years old and fasting since sunset, he never-the-less ran the five miles to Mexico City. After waiting all day because of delays, he finally did give the message to the Bishop-elect who said he would consider it. It was almost sunset when Juan came to the hill on his way home. Although tired, he climbed to the top of the hill to give a report to the Virgin Mary saying he had done what she had asked and that the Bishop would think about her request. Even though the Bishop said he could visit with him again, Juan thought she should consider sending someone better qualified. She told him to go back to the Bishop in the morning. Juan did just that. Although astonished he was back so soon, the Bishop agreed to meet with him. No matter how he was questioned or how often, Juan never contradicted himself. So the Bishop asked for a sign. Returning again to the hill; Juan reported to the Virgin the Bishop's request. She told Juan to come back tomorrow for the sign. However, because he had to attend to his sick uncle, Juan missed his Monday morning appointment with the Lady. When his uncle became seriously ill and wanted to receive the last sacraments, Juan decided to try to find a priest to administer the sacraments. Aware that the Lady would be waiting to give him a sign for the bishop and perhaps feeling a little guilty for not planning to take the time, Juan decided to avoid her by sneaking around the east side of Tepeyac hill. His plans were interupted, however, for he saw the Lady descending from the hill at an angle to intercept his path. He knelt at her feet. She said, "Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness, anxiety, or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under the shadow of my protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need? Do not be worried about your uncle. At this very moment he is cured." Then she told him to go to the top of the hill, cut the flowers growing there and bring them to her. He knew that no flowers could be growing on the top of a frozen rocky hill, but he went anyway and found the most exotic Castilian roses blooming. To protect them he put them in his tilma, an Aztec outer garment like a long cape, apron or serape. Made out of beaten cactus (ayate) fiber, the versatile clothing could be used as a coat, sleeping blanket, and tote-bag. When he returned to the Lady she saw that he had dropped the roses randomly in the tilma, so she chose to arrange them very carefully herself. She said to Juan: "You see, my little son, this is the sign I am sending to the Bishop. Tell him now to build the church." As far as we know, this is the last time Juan saw Our Lady or heard her voice. Also during this time, Mary appeared to his uncle, Juan Bernadino and cured him. Holding the tilma closed so that no one could see what he carried, he reached the Bishop's residence and was ushered in to find many of the household already there. He stood and told the Bishop exactly, word for word, what the Lady had told him. When he finished speaking, he let go of the tightly held corners of his tilma and the flowers fell onto the floor in a heap. Worried that the Lady's carefully arranged sign was now a mess, he failed to see the Bishop rise from his chair and fall on his knees before him. The Castilian roses would be a powerful enough sign for Juan, but for the Bishop the Lady had left on Juan's tilma a more wondrous sign: a heavenly portrait of the Mother of God. To this day it still remains vibrant and awe inspiring as it hangs in honor in a special basilica built for it in Mexico City.
The Image Is the Message: Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519. By 1531, when Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec (Nahuatl) Native, the entire Aztec nation had been subjugated and conquered for the king of Spain. But only 200,000 Aztecs had accepted Christianity, which they perceived as the religion of the conquerors. After the appearance of Mary and the miraculous image on the tilma of Juan Diego, in just seven years (1532-38) over nine million Aztecs converted to Christianity. So many were baptized on one day that men had to hold up the arms of the exhausted Franciscan priests. Why did the Aztecs suddenly convert? There was basically no great "oral" message except that she was that the Mother of God and a church was to be built on the hill where she appealed. Why the sudden and massive conversions? Because the message is not oral. It is visual and symbolic! The Aztecs had hieroglyphic writing in which symbols or objects represented words or sounds. When we look at the Image of Guadalupe symbolically we shall "see" the message and read it just as the Aztecs read it. The Image of Our Lady is actually a visual letter written in heaven. The pattern on the dress is not folded so that the hieroglyphic writing-art can be understood by an Aztec. The four petaled flower just below the black band on her waist is a symbol saying "almighty god". The fact that it is on her stomach shows that she is carrying God within her. The little broach on her neck is a symbol of what the Aztecs worshipped as the "unknown god" This states in effect "I am proclaiming the unknown God you worship". It shows a young (14-16 year old) girl with dark skin, slightly flushed cheeks and dark hair, the model of an Aztec maiden. Her head is bent and her eyes are cast down, lowered. Therefore, she is not a goddess. Gods and goddesses look straightforward, proudly, in Aztec representation. As great as she appears, she is not a god and she is humble. Her oval face is the vision of compassion. Aztecs believed the face of a person was the window to the inner person and showed how a person would act. She reflects compassion and love. Her colors and features are not purely Aztec nor European - but of a mixed race. As a good Aztec woman she shows femininity in her face. Her hands are folded, not in the Western style of prayer, but in the Aztec manner of stating I have something to offer, indicating she bears a gift. Her mantle is turquoise, the color reserved for the supreme Aztec god, Omecihuatl-the mother/father creator god and source of unity for everything. Therefore, she has the favor of the true and Supreme God. It has a border of fine gold and is full of stars. To the Aztecs stars are the sign of a new beginning for the nation. Her mantle is literally sprinkled with stars (46 golden eight-pointed stars) a glorious new beginning. Her robe is rose-salmon colored and apparently overlaid with lace woven with gold threads, one of the great achievements of the Aztec artisans reserved for nobility. The gold lace design contains many flowers and a "fruitful vine," like a royal "fleur-de-lis." Around the cuffs of the sleeves she has white rabbit fur. Only the princesses wore rabbit fur so she is royalty. She wears one piece of jewelry at her neck: a gold brooch with a black cross in the center. She wears a black band around her waist. This is the Aztec maternity band worn by all pregnant women for the entire time of their pregnancy. It is a sign of pride for the women to wear it and say to the people: "I carry new life for the nation!" Her message is that she is bringing new life for the Aztec nation. With the color white being "earth" and blue being "heaven" the little man (Juan Diego) acts as an intercessor between heaven and earth. The feathers are actually the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl which Mary is crushing (also in reference to Genesis 3:15). The clouds seem to have opened to show her coming out of the sun, the giver of life. She is not the sun nor does she obliterate its life-giving rays. She stands on what appears to be a crescent moon. It is the dark horns of the moon-god whose time has passed away. The hill on which she appear, Tepeyac, was the site of a temple to the snake goddess. The message Mary gave to Juan Diego in Nahuatl was "Hehuazin ni Coatlaxupeah." "Coatlaxupeuh" which means "I am she who crushed the serpent" (Rev 12- 1-6, 13-17), phonetically sounds like "Guadalupe." Apparently the Spaniards understood the word as Guadalupe and associated it with their Spanish city, Guadalupe. Hence "Our Lady of Guadalupe." Mary standing on this god thus effectively says, "I have conquered him." Mary conquers death and human sacrifice by bringing new life to Juan Diego's people.
The Science and the Unexplained: There are a few supernatural points about Juan Diego's tilma on which the image appears. It is made of beaten and woven vegetable fiber that normally decays after about 25 years. It has been intact, exposed to the elements, for almost 500 years. A 100 years of that time it was exposed directly to light and smoke from candles, the touching of millions of hands and lips, spilt nitric acid (used for cleaning the silver), and a bomb that was placed in a vase directly below the image. The bomb blew the glass out of the basilica church, tore chunks of marble and masonry from the altar, and bent a large brass processional cross, but the image was left untouched. The parts of the image that are peeling or flaking (the gold leaf and silver painted moon and a few retouched areas) were all later additions. The original image remains as bright and intact as it always has been. Art historians point out that the image does not match up with any technology or practice that was available during the early 1500s. Even in our own day it is not able to be duplicated. It is remarkable how such an exquisite image was placed on this coarse agave fiber material, especially since part of the image appears like that of brilliant oil colors and other parts like delicate water colors. In 1963, Kodak Corporation of Mexico concluded that the image is photographic in nature. In 1979 an extensive study of the image was made with infra-red and computer-enhanced photography, which revealed no brush strokes, no under-drawing, no varnish or sizing, and no fading or cracking. The weave of the fabric is patterned to give depth to the face and also color variation through light diffraction. Dr. Richard Kuhn, a German Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, examined some of the threads of the image in his lab in 1936. He concluded that dyes and pigments were not from a known source. The colors actually appear to float above the surface of the tilma. Subsequent investigations have still not explained the origin of the colors nor the nature of the image itself. Since then, a few other scientists have tested the image in 1947, 1943, 1979, and 1982. One had an opinion that some pigments may be of known origin while others differed. Currently, there is still no explanation of how they were done or why they remain so bright and well preserved to this day. There are additional signs as well. For example, the stars on the tilma line up with the constellations that would have been visible on the Saturday morning of December 12, 2019. Decorations on the dress match up with a topographical map of central Mexico at the time. The eye was digitally enlarged and revealed people visible in the refracted light from the pupil.
The Subsequent History: On December 26, 1531, the sacred image was processed from the cathedral to a newly erected chapel on Tepeyac, and Juan was made its custodian and spent the rest of his life repeatedly retelling the story. Because of thousands of pilgrims, the shrine was continually enlarged until a basilica was erected in 1709. A procession of three miles escorted the image into its new home. On October 12, 1895, the coronation of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Queen of Mexico authorized by Pope Leo XIII took place. Forty Bishops and thousands of people attended the coronation. On December 12, 1945, in a radio address to commemorate the golden jubilee of the crowning, Pope Pius XII ordered the sacred image to be crowned again and Mary formally proclaimed "Empress of All the Americas." On October 12, 1976, the Image was transferred to the present Basilica which can hold 30,000 people. Juan Diego was beatified in 1990.