La Virgin de Guadalupe

The Aztec people had been decimated by the Spanish. The carnage was indescribable. The libraries and holy places had been razed. Those left alive were subjugated and enslaved. Singing Eagle, renamed Juan Diego, was crossing the hill of Tepeyac where the temple of Tonanzin, the Virgin Earth Goddess, had once stood. Suddenly the radiant figure of a beautiful dark-skinned maiden appeared to him. She addressed him as one would a child and asked him to take a message to the Bishop. She wanted a church built in her honor, built in that very spot.

The clergy would pay no attention to an ignorant indian, so the mysterious lady gave him a miracle to convince the Bishop. Juan Diego was to gather roses in his tilma, his outer cape. Remember it was December in a desert environment! But gather roses he did and when he released the roses at the feet of the Bishop, there on his tilma, was the miraculous image of the beautiful lady! This image, the real miracle, allowed the healing of a culture. The Spanish and the Aztec came together as a spiritual people, the mestizo, protected by La Virgin. Today, as the Empress of the Americas, she is celebrated on December 12. Click here for a detail image