La Virgen de Guadalupe

I found this paper I wrote for my Chicano Studies class a couple of semesters ago. Most of the time I don't read my own papers after I write them. I just read this one for the first time today, haha. It's actually pretty good, I'm kind of a genius (and very modest). hahaha jk. For real though, read it. It may look boring but its very relevant to concepts of race and systems of oppression and inequality. For anyone who reads the whole thing, you get a prize.

La Virgen de Guadalupe:
Perpetuator of Oppression or Symbol of Liberation?

Katie Chase
Chican@ Studies 3221
12-19-2005

There is no doubt that La Virgen de Guadalupe has a strong presence in Chicano culture. There is however, much debate over whether La Virgen contributes to or defies systems of oppression. La Virgen is a woman, an image, an icon that embodies the duality representative of the Chicano experience. Is La Virgen a nurturing, forgiving mother figure to be looked up to as someone who Catholics, Chicanas, indigenous peoples, and poor people can relate? Or is she an example of how institutions and oppressors perpetuate the suppression of female equality and maintain the stifling ideal of purity and sacrifice of sexuality that she represents?
The full title of La Virgen is, La Virgen Maria Santísima, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Patrona de México y Emperatriz de las Américas (The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas) (Demarest and Taylor 2). Mary is a very important figure in Catholicism because she is the mother of God. Catholics believe in the Trinity, a very complex concept of faith that states there is one God who takes on three forms: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is God in human form.
Apparitions of Mary are very rare and usually serve as warnings to people about the dangers of abusing their free will (Demarest and Taylor 3). The appearance of La Virgen de Guadalupe contains several key elements that assist in the argument for and against her contributions to systems of oppression. The Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego in the form of a dark-skinned Indian woman who spoke Nahuatl, the language of the people (Demarest and Taylor 26). There are several theories as to where the name Guadalupe originated. One theory is that “the name is a corruption of a Nahuatl name "Coatlaxopeuh", which has been translated as "Who Crushes the Serpent". In this interpretation, the serpent referred to is Quetzalcoatl, one of the chief Aztec gods, whom the Virgin Mary "crushed" by inspiring the conversion of the natives to Catholicism” (“Our Lady of Guadalupe”).
This theory would suggest that La Virgen is a symbol of oppression of Indigenous beliefs, since the goal of her apparition was to convert native Mexicans to Catholicism. Although it inspired peaceful conversions, (in direct contrast to the forced conversions first imposed by the Spanish conquistadores) the objective was nevertheless to eradicate the “primitive” and pagan belief systems of the Indigenous peoples.
In their book, The Dark Virgin, Demarest and Taylor suggest that La Virgen “has been the factor that has preserved the Mexican Indian groups from the cultural disintegration that overcame the Indian populations of the rest of the continent” (3). This implies that converting to Catholicism saved the lives of Indigenous peoples and became a unifying factor for all people of Mexico, whether they be Spanish, Indigenous or a combination of both. The fact that the Virgin Mary would appear as an Indian to an Indian and become a symbol of peace and acceptance would then oppose the system of oppression that venerates “Whiteness”. La Virgen as a Nahuatl speaking Indian is no less significant than the traditional image that portrays Mary as blonde-haired and blue-eyed.
Another important aspect of La Virgen’s apparition was the site at which she appeared, and the site at which she requested a teocalli, or Basilica to be built in her name. This location was the exact same place where a temple to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin once stood. Many people believe that La Virgen de Guadalupe is a “Christianized” form of Tonantzin (“Our Lady of Guadalupe”). This would support the idea of the religious syncretism that exists among many colonized peoples. Instead of completely abandoning their beliefs (voluntarily or not), many indigenous peoples combined their religion with the religion that was imposed upon them. This is an example of the adaptations to cultural plurality that are representative of the complexity that defines the Chicana/o experience. Chicanos/as are not just American or just Mexican, just as the religion was not just Catholic or just Indigenous.
The miraculous story of the apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe has had a massive historical, social and cultural impact on the lives of Mexicans and Chicanas/os alike. After La Virgen told Juan Diego to inform the Bishop of her desire to have a Basilica built in her honor, the Bishop needed proof that Mary was indeed in their presence. On December 12, 1531, La Virgen told Juan Diego to collect roses, which he thought was odd, because flowers do not grow in the winter. Nevertheless, he went to the bottom of a hill where he saw Castilian roses. He gathered them in his tilma, an apron made of maguey, a cactus fiber. Deciding that the flowers were miracle enough, Juan Diego went to prove to the Bishop that his message was in fact the desire of La Virgen. When he opened up his tilma, an image of La Virgen was imprinted on the cloth.
La Virgen’s image is that of a dark-skinned woman with black hair, standing with her hands in together in prayer. She is dressed in a blue robe with gold stars and is surrounded by a gold circle of light. She is pictured standing on a serpent, the symbol of the devil according to Christian tradition, and is being upheld by a crescent moon and an angel. The amazing thing about this image is that is has remained unchanged on the tilma of Juan Diego since 1531. The material from which the cloth is made generally disintegrates within 20 years. Scientific studies done on the cloth indicate that there are no paintbrush strokes, and that the color is not from an animal, vegetable or mineral source. Magnifications of the picture also show images reflected in the eyes of La Virgen, believed to be Juan Diego and Franciscan monks (“Our Lady of Guadalupe”). The image has been undamaged by the centuries of exposure to harsh winds, high humidity, smoke from candles, chemical spills and even the explosion of a bomb that left a bronze crucifix twisted and bent (Demarest and Taylor 10).
La Virgen’s appearance sparked mass conversions to Catholicism, making Mexico the country with the most Catholics in the world. This had an enormous impact in the history of Mexico. Acknowledgement of the apparition by the Vatican was dependent on Indian songs, dances and oral history as documentation of the event; as most of the Spaniards in Mexico at the time were not record keepers (Demarest and Taylor 168). This recognition of Indigenous culture as reliable records of the account was a big step for the white European dominated Vatican. However, with the wave of Catholicism came the demonization and oppression of Indigenous beliefs that still exists today.
The cultural impact of La Virgen can be seen on objects from t-shirts, candles and postcards to key chains, paintings and murals; her image is visible in small villages in Mexico and enormous sides’ of buildings in Los Angeles, California. La Virgen de Guadalupe is very prevalent in Chicana/o art, has been the principal image of many movements including those of Emiliano Zapata and Cesar Chavez. La Virgen is also a key element in the center of many Chicana feminist ideologies.
As Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “La gente Chicana tiene tres madres, all three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned, and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a combination of the two” (Madsen 8). The dichotomy of la virgen and la chingada, the virgin and the whore, shape many Chicana feminist arguments. Cherríe Moraga discusses the impact that these inherited ideologies have on shaping the Chicana mindset. “As a Chicana and a feminist, I must, like other Chicanas before me, examine the effects that this myth has on my/our racial/sexual identity and my relationship with other Chicanas” (Madsen 9). Sandra Cisneros addresses the issue that many Chicanas are afraid to challenge the traditional view of femininity. “The virgin and the whore—these categories of “good” versus “bad” women are complicated by the perception, shared by many Chicana feminists, that they risk betrayal of the people if they pursue an alternative construction of femininity that is perceived to be Anglo” (Madsen 123).
La Virgen and the notion of ideal purity, combined with the shaming tactics historically used by the Catholic Church represent a problematic view of sexuality imposed on many Chicanas. In her piece “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess”, Sandra Cisneros says, “Religion and our culture, our culture and religion, helped to create that blur, a vagueness about what went on “down there” (Sewell 158). Cisneros argues that when a woman is too ashamed to go to a gynecologist to get help for a medical problem, or is completely ignorant of the way her own body works, the shaming has gone too far. The Catholic Church has been consistent with its lack of promoting sexual education. According to Freire, this deficiency of transmission of essential knowledge is oppression. The best way to keep the oppressed unaware of the oppression is to keep them uninformed (Freire 54).
In contrast to the view of Demarest and Taylor that the Indigenous people survived because of La Virgen, Cisneros argues that the Aztec women survived despite the Virgin’s people. She uses poems like “You Bring Out the Mexican in Me” to illustrate that “Catholicism is a powerful legacy, but the pagan legacy is just as potent…[the pagan forces] can be used to resist the gender stereotypes of Catholicism and the guilt with which they are enforced” (Madsen 124). An example of another form of spirituality that resists gender stereotyping is the practice of curanderas. In “Brujas and Curanderas”, Ana Castillo argues that this practice not only breaks away gendered systems of oppression, but also those of ‘race’ and class. Through the practice of curanderas, and “healing, we [recover] from the devastating blows we receive from society for having been born poor, non-white, and female in a hierarchical society” (Castillo 153).
In Lara Medina’s “Los Espíritus Siguen Hablando: Chicana Spiritualities”, she acknowledges the syncretism often found between traditional curanderas and Christianity. “Our consejeras, curanderas, rezadoras, espiritistas, and even comadres practiced and still practice their healing ways in spite of, in lieu of, or in conjunction with the sacraments and teachings offered by the Christian churches” (Medina 189). How could a practice that embraces two cultures, two systems of belief and honors poor women of color be oppressive?
La Virgen de Guadalupe herself does not partake in the oppression of the people. The meanings that are assigned to La Virgen are what oppress or liberate. As with all subjects, it is important to assume the complexity of La Virgen and what she represents. The same meanings that have positive connotations for some have negative implications for others. For example, for some, the fact that La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared as an Indian is representative of the appeal many see in her because of their ability to relate to her indigenousness. For others, the fact that she appeared as an Indian is seen as an exploitive means to convert the Indigenous population. For still others, it is possible to find common grounds.
The fact that La Virgen is a woman provides strength to some because she is so revered and is a positive example of a strong woman in a time where women are so often exploited as sex objects. Some people see the idea of La Virgen as justification for men to perpetuate repression of female sexuality. Women internalize that if they are not as pure as La Virgen, they are eternally damned.
I can see both sides of the argument of whether La Virgen de Guadalupe helps to uphold or deconstruct systems of oppression. In defense of the Catholic Church, suppression of sexuality is not exclusive to women. Sacrifice is a key component of the Catholic faith; the logic is that Jesus sacrificed his life for us, we should honor that sacrifice by not being greedy with worldly pleasures. I understand that sexuality is an important part of human life, and people have free will to do whatever they want. However, for all people, including Chicanos/as, who identify as Catholics, this is a part of faith. I do disagree with tactics that the Catholic Church has used to enforce these ideals. Shame, guilt and ignorance should never be used to implement moral and religious principals.
In her book, La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender, Irene Blea acknowledges that the Catholic Church tends to be characterized by a middle-class population whereas “most, but not all Catholic Hispanics are working-class or very poor. This inconsistency places Chicanos at a disadvantage in the church” (Blea 112). While she is arguing that the Church is functioning as a system of oppression against the poor, I would argue on the contrary. Most social services that provide assistance to the poor are run by the Church, these services are working with the poor instead of for them because many orders preach denunciation of material things, and are thus on the same level as those in need.
La Virgen de Guadalupe has been a powerful symbol in the Chicano community for centuries. While it will always be open to interpretation whether or not her image serves to uphold or dismantle systems of oppression, the level on which so many can relate to her as a woman, a mother, an indigenous person, or a person of limited economic means, La Virgen will ensure the continuation of her status as an icon for Chicana/o Catholics. There will also be people who exploit her image of purity as a social control mechanism however this should be overlooked at the true message of La Virgen, compassion and acceptance of all people.