Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe)

19th century

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe typifies how imported religious traditions were adapted to local circumstances in New World colonies. In 1531 an indigenous convert named Juan Diego experienced a vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him as a native woman and instructed him to have the bishop build a church in her honor. The bishop reacted with skepticism until the Virgin miraculously made roses grow out of season and her image materialized on Diego’s cloak. That picture was widely copied— as in this humble example—and became the quin- tessential symbol of Mexico during its struggle for independence in the nineteenth century.