Thursday, July 11, 2024: Mexico City and the churches of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill: The image of the Virgin Mother is addressed in passionate terms as a source of warmth and love
This sculpture of our Lady is in one small area of the original church built in her honor. I spent a good amount of time with this lovely sculpture because this Mary is so dark brown - like the dirt of the hillside on which she appeared. I love her expression - so compassionate. Although she's hidden in a quiet place within the church, many people come to visit with her and leave mementos and offerings: rosaries, flowers photos, jewelry and various bits of their lives on a railing a few inches from the statue.
Mexican family life may be understood in terms of two major types of families. The first type of family is congruent with the closed and static life of the Indian village. This is the Indian family. The husband is ideally dominant, but in reality labor and authority are shared equally between both marriage partners.
Exploitation of one sex by another is atypical; sexual feats do not add to a person's status in the eyes of others. Physical punishment and authoritarian treatment of children are rare.
The second type of family is congruent with the much more open, manipulative life in communities which are actively geared to the life of a nation, a life in which power relationships between individuals and groups are of great moment. This is the Mexican family. The father's authority is unquestioned on both the real and ideal planes. Double standards regarding sex prevail, and male sexuality is charged with a desire to exercise domination. Children are ruled with a heavy hand. Physical punishment is common, even frequent.
The Indian family pattern is consistent with the behavior toward Our Lady of Guadalupe noted by John Bushnell in the Matlazinca-speaking community of San Juan Atzingo in the Valley of Toluca. There the image of the Virgin Mother is addressed in passionate terms as a source of warmth and love; and the pulque (century plant beer) drunk on ceremonial occasions, is identified with her milk. Bushnell assumed that Our Lady is identified with the mother as a source of early satisfactions, never again experienced after separation from the mother and emergence into social adulthood. She embodies a longing to return to the pristine state in which hunger and unsatisfactory social relations are minimized.
The Mexican family pattern is also consistent with a symbolic identification of Virgin and mother, within a context of male and adult dominance and sexual assertion, discharged against submissive females and children. In this context the Guadalupe symbol is charged with the energy of rebellion against the father. Her image is the embodiment of hope in a victorious outcome of the struggle between generations.
From an article published by the University of Dayton.
Written by – Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.
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