Mary the Aztec

Heretics Say Unbiblical Things

Excerpts from a tour promotion flier:

If you have spent time in a Mexican community, in Mexico or even in the  U.S., you have seen the image of Our Lady in public and private spaces. . . . Why do the Mexican people love her so? The Virgin of Guadalupe is the  modern touchstone to the pre-Conquest Goddess Tonantzin, who was worshipped  by the Aztecs on the same site as her apparition in 1523, only 10 years  after the defeat of the great Aztec nation by the Spanish conquistadores.  She appeared, not to an elegant, educated Spaniard, but to one of their  own, an Aztec Indian named Juan Diego. Even today, visiting the Basilica  de Guadalupe in Mexico City, you hear the faithful whispering, "Tonantzin-Guadalupe, hear our prayers." 

Mexican Catholicism celebrates and combines both traditional Catholic  and pagan elements, and many of the ancient practices that survive incorporate  the Virgin of Guadalupe. Mexicans have prayed to Her in times of tragedy,  illness, death--with miraculous results. An estimated 10 million worshippers  visit her Basilica annually, making it the most popular shrine to the  Virgin Mary in the world.

P.S: If you are lucky enough to be in San Migue de Allende on Dec. 12th,  visit Colonia Guadalupe around 2 p.m. to catch one of her processions. . . . Or visit the Parroquia at night where you might see hundreds of baby girl Virgincitas and little boy Saint Juan Diegitos, often with bird cages on their backs, symbolic of the birdsong that brought the Lady to Juan Diego during the apparition in 1523. The faithful weep for her intercession in their lives. They leave roses at the foot of the Virgin statue and later have their children's Polaroid photographs taken  in a paper grotto with Guadalupe's image vividly and lovingly painted as the background" (http://www.internationalliving.com).