Transforming Borders by Elenes Alejandra C.;Elenes Alejandra C;

Author:Elenes, Alejandra C.;Elenes, Alejandra C;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Historical Accounts of the Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe

The narratives about the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe sanctioned by the Church were not disseminated until the seventeenth century. Given that these accounts and agreement that she performed miracles did not become acceptable until the seventeenth century, there is much speculation about her celestial origin (Matovina 2005). It should not be a surprise that Guadalupe has ambiguous meanings given that a century lapsed between Juan Diego’s vision, the miracle of growing flowers, and the appearance of her image in the tilma. Nevertheless, the first description of the apparition is documented in the Nican Mopohua (Aqui se Narra) [Here it is Told], written by Antonio Valeriano in Nahuatl and in paper made of the pulp of maguey between 1540-1545 (following Aztec practices).3 Valeriano was of Indian noble class and knew classic Nahuatl. He was educated in the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco under Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. Valeriano knew Juan Diego; it is believed that it was Juan Diego himself who gave him his first-person account of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the miracles she performed. The Nican Mopohua is considered the authoritative document that describes what happened in December 1531. There are also four “evangelists” that document the development of the devotion of Guadalupe. In 1648, Father Miguel Sánchez wrote Imagen de la Virgen María, Madre de Díos de Guadalupe, Celebrada en la Historia con la Profesía del Capítulo doce del Apocalipsis. The second evangelist was Lasso de la Vega who published in 1649 the Hue Tlamahuizaltica, which is the Nican Mopohua (Here it is told) written in Nahuatl.4 In 1666, Luis Bezerra Tanco wrote Origen Milagroso, which was posthumously published by his friend Antonio de Gama with the title of Felicidad Mexicana. And the fourth evangelist is Francisco de Florencia, who in 1688 published La Estrella del Norte, which expounded Creole Theology. La Estrella del Norte is considered the first translation to Spanish of the Nican Mopohua. The development of the worship of Guada-lupe and modern understanding of Guadalupe are based on the writings of these four evangelists.

Early opposition to the veneration of Guadalupe appeared in an Information that Fray Alfonso de Montúfar ordered in 1556 (Florescano 1994, Matovina 2005). Fray Francisco Bustamante used this Información in a sermon, in which he attacked the worship to the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe:

It seemed to him that the devotion that this city had taken in a hermitage and home of Our Lady that they have entitled of Guadalupe is a great harm to the natives because it leads them to believe that the image painted by the Indian Marcos perform miracles . . . and to tell [the Indians] that an image that was painted by an Indian perform miracles, would be great confusion and undo good that had been planted there. (Bustamante qtd. in Florescano, 1994, p. 132. My emphasis)

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