“There She Is!”
Geographic Background
The National Palace and adjacent Metropolitan Cathedral were built upon the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, strategically located on an island in Lake Texcoco. It is the historic center of Mexico City. Widowed and childless Juan Diego lived in the settlement of Tulpetlac with his uncle, about twelve miles north of the Cathedral, the residence of the bishop. Tepeyac Hill was the northern access point for the causeway to Tenochtitlan.
Tlatelolco
Juan Diego was a weaver and artisan who worked with the fibers of the agave cactus plant, of which we pilgrims were soon to learn a great deal. Juan made baskets, and it’s possible that he himself sewed the miraculous Tilma. Juan attended Mass, received religious instruction, and sold his goods in Tlatelolco, a market town along the causeway to Tenochtitlan that served as the commercial center of the region. Tlatelolco was the first stop on our pilgrimage.
As we filed along a cobblestone walkway, the remains of an Aztec temple complex spread out ahead and to our right, with a 16th century Franciscan college looming on our left. We came upon the 17th century twin-spired Church of Santiago, in which the baptismal font of Juan Diego is preserved. Chris Stefanick, also on his first pilgrimage to Mexico City, gave a talk in front of the main doors. “I don’t know about you but I feel like a kid going to Disneyland,” he said. “But guess what? God is more excited than you are that you’re here. He is our Abba-Father, our Loving Daddy.”
“One of the pilgrims asked me how the builders fit all these different sized stones together,” Chris continued with a smile. “I told him, ‘Welcome to the Catholic Church.’” He referenced the nearby Aztec temple ruins and their broken altars, saying something like, “They were a very religious people, offering sacrifices to appease angry gods until Our Lady of Guadalupe introduced them to her Son, a loving God who sacrificed himself for them.”
A brief aside: Concurrent with the Tepeyac apparitions, some five million Catholics in Europe were leaving the Church in the so-called Protestant Reformation. Our Lady meanwhile drew more than nine million souls into the fold in Mexico and, through her continued intercession and her miraculous Tilma, continues to do so today.
Next Stop: Tepeyac
Though the lake was drained long ago, the old causeway road from Tlatelolco to Tepeyac is still used. It is a divided avenue with a broad central pedestrian walkway called Calzada de Guadalupe. Many pilgrims still walk the route that Juan Diego used – some barefoot, some even on their knees in acts of penitential humility. We pilgrims boarded tour buses, and as a group we reverently walked the final 150 yards on the Calzada toward the Basilica.
As soon as we passed through the gates I looked to the left and exclaimed, “There she is!” All the doors to the New Basilica were propped open, and the image in the framed Tilma gazed lovingly out to her children in the plaza. I felt an immediate intimacy, even from that distance. She seemed closer to me in the plaza than she appears in the photos taken shortly afterward in the sanctuary.
The Old Basilica
The miraculous image has been enshrined in a number of places in Mexico City: In the Cathedral, for the two weeks immediately after Juan Diego’s visit in December 1531; In a quickly constructed shrine, built upon the site of the first three apparitions (to which Juan Diego retired as caretaker, and where he died in 1548); In a new chapel, built and then enlarged on the same site in the 1600s. In 1629, during a disastrous flood, the then-archbishop had the image quickly folded and moved through the pouring rain to his residence. The fold remains visible in the fabric, the head of the Virgin bent forward and to her right in humility, and as if to avoid the crease she knew would be coming.
In 1709 the Tilma was installed in the Old Basilica, then a massive and magnificent new church, and there it remained with the exception of a few years during height of the 1920s anti-Catholic persecution. By the 1970s the Old Basilica was settling and tilting significantly. Though the foundation has since been reinforced, the skew is noticeable to the eye and as you walk the aisle and stand at the pews. The image was installed in the New Basilica upon its completion in 1976.
We celebrated Mass in the Old Basilica. During his homily Father Richard noted the commerce and commotion in the plaza behind us. He then referenced our short visit to the New Basilica with its people movers directly beneath the Tilma from which “we carpet-bombed Our Mother with our intentions.”
The Basilica Complex
Both the Old and New Basilicas lie at the southern base of Tepeyac Hill. We spent some time in the Chapel of the Indians, the site of the first three apparitions and the first shrines, where Juan Diego’s adjacent hermitage is being restored. We briefly visited the lovely Chapel of the Well, built upon a spring with purported healing qualities. We climbed the stairs to the Chapel of El Cerrito at the top of Tepeyac Hill, presumably the site where Juan Diego gathered the roses, and from which we enjoyed a lovely view of Mexico City.
It is a grand complex and, like Juan Diego, I felt small and unworthy to walk this holy ground; However, though we may be perceived as nobodies to the world, we are somebody to God. If we remain open to His call we can, like the humble Juan Diego, be used in great ways.
Dinner and a Show
We had dinner on the 37th floor of the iconic Torre Latinoamericana building, erected in 1956. It was a rainy evening, and the view was limited. We walked as a group to the grand neoclassical Palacio de Belles Artes (1934) to watch a Folkloric Ballet. The music and dancing were high-energy and memorable. With an 11:30pm return to the hotel, we quickly showered and looked forward to an early Day 3.
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