On Monday 20 July I went to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Leading up to this visit I became aware of my ignorance as to the importance of this place. I knew it was important, but I failed to recognize that it was considered to be the holiest place in the Catholic tradition in the New World. Once this was told to me I was not surprised, but still, my ignorance about this has made me more aware of how ignorant I am about history and culture so close to my home. Last December in New York City I even attended a December holiday to respect Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I could tell that the event meant a lot to the many people who were there, but still I was not recognizing the importance.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is an appearance of the Virgin Mary in Mexico which happened over some days in 1531. The relevance is that today Mexico and all countries south in the New World are Catholic for many reasons, but perhaps mostly because of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here are my initial thoughts upon visiting:
- Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. The Aztec Nation in Mexico, including the greatest military in the New World, was destroyed not later than 1520 by not more than a few hundred Spanish and the diseases they spread. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531. My insight was that after tens of thousands of years of separate development one culture erased another within 40 years of meeting. I know that Our Lady of Guadalupe was not immediately accepted or well known but the speed of Catholicism overtaking all other culture with plans to erase it still shock me.
- The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe says that a certain cloth, the tilma of Juan Diego, has a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary on it. In the Old World so far as I know all miraculous relics are lost, discounted, or “worthy of belief” if one chooses to believe in them but not required for belief if one does not. The tilma of Juan Diego is there for anyone to see at the basilica and people for hundreds of years have attributed many miraculous properties to it. The tilma has hardly been examined scientifically, but when it eventually is, I have doubts that science will find the miracles inside it. Christianity has a way of encouraging its adherents to put their faith in places which conflict with science and to create disputes which can be logically and scientifically settled by science’s own rules. Many people believe that this cloth has passed and will continue to pass scientific scrutiny. I think that changing times will change that belief.
- Faith the in church is being tied here to advocacy for changing cultural positions. Inside the basilica there were scientific models of fetuses to teach the idea that abortion and birth control are murder. There was also anti-gay propaganda, literature saying that sex should not happen out of marriage or with birth control, and other ideas which are out of touch with the values of contemporary youth. There are many ways to communicate culture to youth but a method which can never work is to avoid the questions that youth have and to attempt to suppress their values by trying to teach them to only entertain some thoughts and not have questions about other ideas. There is no moderation in this propaganda, no acknowledgement of the existence of other views, and really no way to participate in society while keeping true to these kinds of teachings. Mexico City is a sex positive environment – seemingly everywhere everyone is in love. I get the idea that if someone is affluent enough to have any leisure time here, even at the lower end of the free social classes, then they enjoy their life a lot. The parks and cafes are filled with people in love and all kinds of straight and gay people are very open with affection here.
- It is a much more minor issue – but the entire Basilica seems cheap to me. I had the same feeling in visiting the Louvre, and obviously both this basilica and the Louvre are two of the most luxurious and opulent places on earth. Still, hand-made luxuries and arts from generations ago have imperfections which would never be permitted in similar products made in the digital age. My eyes expect to see more perfection than human hands can produce. I was imagining that soon any object or detail in the basilica could be reproduced with 3D printing. I was also imagining that the greatest luxury of the basilica was not the place, even though it was beautiful. The human time necessary for the upkeep of it all and especially the investment of interest in the culture is probably proving to be the more rare complement to the place than all of the luxury objects the place contains. As the place stands – it seems hardly curated to me. No one has invested the time to have even Spanish language guides to all of the beautiful works the place contains, much less English ones to propagate the appreciation of this culture. I am again struck that a masterpiece produced by someone who devoted their lifetime to creating art may not also get any kind of documentation of its significance or basic information about its creation.