March 14, 2018
Arnold picked us up at 9:00 AM with optimistic plans to visit two major sites: the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Teotihuacan. But before any of that, we made a quick stop at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, or Square of Three Cultures, where Aztec, Colonial, and 20th century cultures are mixed into a not-very-seamless whole. #1 is a Tlatelolco archological site--an old market dating to the 14th century, #2 is the Santiago de Tlatelolco Church, built in the early 17th century, and #3 is the largest apartment complex in Mexico, built in the 1960s.
We took a few photos and then continued on to one of the major tourist draws of Mexico, the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which turned out to be a huge walled plaza containing several important structures related to Juan Diego's visions of the Virgin Mary in the mid-16th century. A very important pilgrimage site for Catholics, according to Arnold it gets 25-million visitors a year and is second only to the Vatican as the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. It reminds me a little bit of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, the "pilgrimage site" for members of my own faith (which gets only 3- to 5-million visitors a year).
The story is that Juan Diego, a middle-class Mexican native born in 1474, was one of the first converts to Catholicism in the 1520s. One day, on his way over Tepeyac Hill to perform his religious duties at the Franciscan monastery, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who told him in his own native language who she was and asked him to request that a chapel be erected on that site in her honor so that she could bless the lives of those who called on her. Juan Diego ran to tell the bishop, but was told to come back another day. As he was returning home, Juan Diego saw the Virgin again and told her what had transpired. She told him to try again, which he did the following morning. This time the bishop asked for a sign that the apparition truly was who Juan Diego said she was. Juan Diego saw the Virgin again on his trip home, and she agreed to provide a sign the following day.
But Juan Diego arrived home to find his uncle deathly ill. He could not return the next day to the assigned spot to meet the Virgin. A day late, he was on his way back to the bishop to get someone to give his uncle last rites, skirting the area where he had seen his visions out of embarrassment. Not surprisingly, the Virgin found him anyway and gently said the words that are inscribed over the main entrance to the Basilica: "No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre?" ("Am I not here, I who am your mother?") She assured him that she had healed his uncle, and she told him to go up the hill and gather the flowers he would find growing there. Normally only cactus and scrub grew on the hill, but Juan Diego found a glorious field of flowers. After filling his cloak with the blooms, he returned to the Virgin, who rearranged the flowers and sent him on his way to the bishop. When Juan Diego arrived and dropped the flowers from the cloak at the bishop's feet, an image of the Virgin was imprinted on the cloak.
Arnold picked us up at 9:00 AM with optimistic plans to visit two major sites: the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Teotihuacan. But before any of that, we made a quick stop at the Plaza de Tres Culturas, or Square of Three Cultures, where Aztec, Colonial, and 20th century cultures are mixed into a not-very-seamless whole. #1 is a Tlatelolco archological site--an old market dating to the 14th century, #2 is the Santiago de Tlatelolco Church, built in the early 17th century, and #3 is the largest apartment complex in Mexico, built in the 1960s.
We took a few photos and then continued on to one of the major tourist draws of Mexico, the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which turned out to be a huge walled plaza containing several important structures related to Juan Diego's visions of the Virgin Mary in the mid-16th century. A very important pilgrimage site for Catholics, according to Arnold it gets 25-million visitors a year and is second only to the Vatican as the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. It reminds me a little bit of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, the "pilgrimage site" for members of my own faith (which gets only 3- to 5-million visitors a year).
The story is that Juan Diego, a middle-class Mexican native born in 1474, was one of the first converts to Catholicism in the 1520s. One day, on his way over Tepeyac Hill to perform his religious duties at the Franciscan monastery, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, who told him in his own native language who she was and asked him to request that a chapel be erected on that site in her honor so that she could bless the lives of those who called on her. Juan Diego ran to tell the bishop, but was told to come back another day. As he was returning home, Juan Diego saw the Virgin again and told her what had transpired. She told him to try again, which he did the following morning. This time the bishop asked for a sign that the apparition truly was who Juan Diego said she was. Juan Diego saw the Virgin again on his trip home, and she agreed to provide a sign the following day.
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| Image from here |
