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Juanita Salazar Lamb describes the four encounters of Juan Diego with Our Lady of Guadalupe on Truth of the Spirit with the episode Intro to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego Part 1. The Blessed VirginMary appeared in 1531 in Mexico on Tepeyac Hill to an Aztec Christian peasant between December 9th and 12th and left behind a sign for all to see, even to this day, with instructions to share it with the Bishop Juan de Zummaraga in Tlatelolco. Included in this series on Our Lady of Guadalupe will be #2 The Codex of the Tilma, #3 the Music of the Tilma, and #4 Conversions through the Sign of the Tilma. Host is Patti Brunner.
Juanita Salazar Lamb graduated with a master’s degree with a thesis topic of “La Virgen de Guadalupe in Chicano Popular Culture: Images in Art and Literature” in 2003. She has a diploma from the Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe for the advancement of Guadeloupian studies in Mexico City headed by Msgr. Eduardo Chavez, the lead investigator for the canonization of Juan Diego. This became Lamb’s biggest resource with more than 30,000 documents concerning the 2002 canonization of St. Juan Diego.
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So as he was walking he heard this music; this music was all around him. And he listened very closely. It filled the air completely and it seemed to echo around the foothills. It sounded like the entire foothill was filled with birdsong. And he looked around and the rocks were shimmering with luminousness as though they had fire and light inside of the rocks.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit, I am your host Patti Brunner, and today we are going to have a special presentation by Juanita Salazar Lamb, and it’s all about our Lady of Guadalupe. And so we are so excited to have her join us today. And now I welcome Juanita.
Thank you Patti, Thank you for having me today. I am so excited to share with you about the four encounters that Our Lady of Guadalupe had with the indigenous man, Juan Diego. They occurred between December 9th and December 12th in 1531. To the Indian Juan Diego, whose Nahua name was Cuauhtlatohuac, the Eagle Who Speaks.
The first encounter was Saturday, December 9, 1531 as he walked to Tlatelolco to attend mass and religious instruction at the village church. Juan Diego was fifty-seven years old and a devout Catholic. He had been baptized, along with his wife María Lucía and his uncle Juan Bernardino, some seven years before then.
By 1531, Juan Diego had been widowed since 1529 and was living in Tulpetlac near his aging uncle Juan Bernardino (Brading 91). As he was walking to Tlatelolco for mass and religious instruction Juan Diego had to cross over Tepeyac hill which is outside of present day Mexico City. And it was in the middle of the night, two-ish o’clock in the morning because he had to walk about 5-7 miles to even get to church in time. So as he was walking he heard this music; this music was all around him. And he listened very closely. It filled the air completely and it seemed to echo around the foothills. It sounded like the entire foothill was filled with birdsong. And he looked around and the rocks were shimmering with luminousness as though they had fire and light inside of the rocks. Juan Diego knew that Tepeyac was a cold and barren hill. This was in the middle of December. Nothing grows on Tepeyac Hill except cactus. And a lot of rocks. And he remembered what he had been taught as a young boy in the Aztec religion, and he said, he said to himself, “Am I dreaming? Am I really seeing these things? Is it possible that I am in the paradise on earth that my ancestors have described?”
And as he is thinking, He hears his name called: “Juan Diego, Juan Diegotzin.” In the Aztec language “tzin”, the suffix “tzin”, indicates a term of endearment. It is a diminutive but not a pejorative diminutive, you use it for affection.
So he hears his name called, “Juan Diegotzin”. And it’s such a beautiful voice. So he climbs to the top of the hill and he keeps hearing his name called.
And he sees a beautiful woman draped in a blue mantle, surrounded by the rays of the early sun. He doesn’t know who she is. But he is filled with awe. He wants to meet her; he wants to talk to her. And so he addresses her as a man, a person in his position; he was a common man. He was not learned; he was not one of the tribal leaders. And he says to her, “mi niña, my little girl, and mi señora, my lady.” And the lady speaks to him, “Listen, my dearest and youngest son, where are you going?” So he tells her, “I’m on my way to your little church in Tlatelolco.” And she says to him, “Know for sure, my dearest and youngest son, that I am the “perfect ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the one great God of Truth” (v 26) who gives us life, the Inventor and Creator of People, the Owner and Lord of What is Around us and What is Touching us or very close to us, the Owner and Lord of the Sky, the Owner of the Earth. I want very much that they build my sacred little house here in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him, and make Him manifest. I will give him to the people in all my personal love. In my compassionate gaze, in my help, in my salvation because I am truly your compassionate mother, yours and all the people who live together in this land. And of “all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, those who cry to me, seek me, trust in me” (v 31) because there I will “listen to their weeping and sadness, [and] to remedy (to cleanse and nurse all their different) troubles, miseries [and] suffering” (v 32). Listen to their weeping, their sadness, to remedy, troubles, their miseries, their suffering.” And then she says to him, “I want you to go tell the bishop (in the city of Mexico), everything that you have “seen and heard and marveled at.” (v 33).” So, Juan Diego assured La Virgen that he would do exactly what he asked. And he set off on his mission. So he continues on to Tlatelolco. As he has said, he first attends Mass. And then he attends religious instruction or catechism. And afterward, he goes to see the bishop. At the time it is Interim Bishop Juan de Zummaraga.
When Diego goes to the palace where the bishop lives and, first of all the servants won’t let him in to see the bishop “Who is this lowly man?” Finally, they let him in and he has to wait for several hours. And Juan Diego explains to the Bishop what he has seen, what he has heard, what the Lady told him, that she wants a house built on Tepeyac. And, so, the Bishop says, “Let me think about it. Why don’t you come back tomorrow and I will have an answer for you.” And Juan Diego goes away. And Juan Diego goes back by way of Tepeyac. He retraces his steps. And he says to La Virgen, “I am sorry but I have failed you. I did as you asked me to, but the Bishop doesn’t believe me. He just turned me away. You really need to send someone who is used to dealing with people at his level. “I am nothing. I am the dirt on your feet. I am the wing of a bird, the tail of an animal. I don’t belong in places like that.” [Juan Diego reminded La Virgen of“his humble status in society and expressed his shame and his fear that she would be displeased with him” (v 54-56).] And she says to him, ”Are you not aware, don’t you know Juan Diegotzin, that I do not lack for messengers to do my work. [And insisted that he was the one to carry the message to the bishop (v 58-59).] If I asked anyone, I could ask anyone to do this for me. But I want YOU to carry this message to the Bishop.
So then Juan Diego goes on home for the day, but La Virgen urges Juan Diego to return the next day and to visit the Bishop. She says to him, “Tell him again how I, personally, the Ever Virgin Holy Mary, I, who am the Mother of God, am sending you” (v 62). So, Juan Diego promised La Virgen that he would return to the Bishop the following day and report back to her.
The next day, which was Sunday December 10, again Juan Diego went to Mass and afterward he went to the Bishop. Again, after many delays at the door to the Bishop’s residence, he finally gets in to see the Bishop. And this time the Bishop had a lot of questions for Juan Diego, “Where did you see her? Tell me again, what was it you said yesterday? What did she look like? What did she say to you? What does she want? Why does she want us to build a church?” And Juan Diego answered his questions truthfully, saying exactly the same thing that he had said to the Bishop before. So, the Bishop says, “Okay, bring me a sign from this lady that I know that what you are saying is true.” [in order that he might have evidence (v 78)] And Juan Diego says, “Well, yes, Your Excellency, I will, but tell me what you want.” And so the Bishop is convinced that this will trip up Juan Diego. And so the Bishop says, “She will know what I want.”
Juan Diego goes home, this time, though, when he leaves the Palace the Bishop sends two of his trusted servants to follow Juan Diego. “Follow this man. Who is he? Who does he hang around with? Who is his family?” And so they go and they follow him the best they can. But as he crosses the wooden bridge, that leads out of present day Mexico City, they lose him. To them, to their eyes, he just disappeared. [The spies quickly lost sight of him (v 82-84).] And so they go back to the Bishop, and they are not going to tell the Bishop that they failed, that they lost him, so they tell the Bishop, “This is an evil man. He made himself disappear. You know that nothing good can come from him.” But Juan Diego hurried on, he just kept walking, and he meets, once again, encounters La Virgen de Tepeyac and he says to her, “This time he received me. The Bishop asked me a lot of questions. I answered them truthfully, signora, but he wants a sign from you, and he didn’t tell me what he wants.” So she said, “Ok, Juan Diego, come tomorrow and I’ll be waiting here with a sign for the Bishop. [She would be waiting for him and give him the sign the bishop required (v 90).]
The next day which is Monday, [December 11], Juan Diego should have gone once again to Tepeyac to receive the sign from Our Lady but he didn’t go. His Tio Bernardino was critically ill. It’s possible now, looking at records, it is possible that he had smallpox. And he was on his deathbed. So, Juan Diego had tended to his uncle throughout the night. He had gone to look for the indigenous doctor to care for him. The indigenous doctor said, “There is nothing I can do for him.” So in the pre-dawn hours; basically in the middle of the night and by now it’sDecember 12, or the middle of the night of December 11. The uncle says to him, “Please go to Tlatelolco and bring me a priest to give me last rites. I know I am on my deathbed. The end is near.”
Now it’s December 12th, wee, wee hours of the morning. Juan Diego is hurrying, hurrying, hurrying to go to Tlatelolco, bring back a priest hopefully in time that the priest to hear Tio Bernardino’s [his uncle’s] confession. So, he is hurrying along and he is nearing Tepeyac. And he thinks, “If I take my regular route she’s going to see me, and she’s going to slow me down and I’m going to have to talk to her. So, instead, I’m going to take this path that is between these two mountains and that way she won’t see me and I can avoid her. ” So, he starts over the pass [that led from West to East between el Cerro de los Gapuchines and Tepeyac in order to avoid the peak of Tepeyac and La Virgen (v 100).] And what does he see coming down the hill but La Virgen.
Now, remember when you were a kid and your mom asked you to do something and you didn’t do it? And then she found out you didn’t do it! Okay, so, keep in mind that feeling.
And so she comes down the hill and she says to him, “Juan Diego, where are you going? I didn’t see you where I usually see you.” And he says, “O my lady, O my sweetness, how are you? Did you sleep well? How do you feel this morning? You are looking very pretty.” He finally does tell her that he is in a hurry. That he just can’t stop. “I promise, I promise, just please let me do this, let me go get a priest for my uncle. And then after I go back, make sure the priest sees him, and afterward I will come back here and I will do whatever you say.” [Promised to return the following day to receive from La Virgen the sign to take to the bishop (v 111-116).]
La Virgen says to him, “Listen, Juan Diego, put it into your heart, youngest and dearest son, that the thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicted you is nothing. Do not let it disturb you. {Do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness…(v 118).} nor any sharp nor hurtful thing. {Am I not here, I, who have the honor and good fortune to be your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more? (v 119)} Let nothing else worry you, disturb you. Do not let your uncle’s illness pressure you with grief because he will not die of it now. {“You may be certain that he is already well.” (v 120)} And Juan Diego believed her. His heart is at ease, he feels an overwhelming peace. She says to him, “What I want you to do is I want you to climb Tepeyac. And, go up, bring down whatever it is you see up there.” {Gather up the flowers growing there, and bring them to her. (v 125-126)} He climbs to the top of the hill, knowing there is nothing up there but rocks and cactus. But he gets up to the top of Tepeyac and it is just filled with every kind of possible flower. They are growing, they are blooming, they are misted in dew, they are so beautiful.
And so he is wearing his tilma which is what we in the U.S. call a poncho. It had an opening for his head and it went down the front and the back. And so he lifts it like this, to form an apron. And he just gathers as many flowers as he can. And he brings them down; he is just incredulous he had found these flowers. And so he brings them down; his tilma is full of flowers, and when he comes down to where La Virgen is, she takes them and she arranges them and rearranges them, so they fit a little better in his tilma.
{and returned them to Juan Diego’s tilma (v 127-136).}
Juan Diego went directly to the Bishop’s residence. Again, the servants at the front door give him a hard time. They keep wanting to know what he has there. But La Virgen had told him, “Do not show anyone what you are carrying. Don’t tell anyone what you are carrying.” So he just avoids them and he sits outside just waiting. So finally, he is admitted into the Bishop’s quarters. And he is still holding his tilma, up like this, and he goes into the Bishop and the Bishop is surprised to see him. And the Bishop is wondering what he is holding, because, again Juan Diego should have been there the day before but he wasn’t. Now he comes, basically unannounced, on a day when the Bishop didn’t ask him to be there.
Juan Diego tells the Bishop everything that had happened, about what La Virgen had said to him, to go up to a top of a hill. And then “I went up to the top of the hill and I brought these. {How she had rearranged them and placed them in his tilma (v 170-173).} And she told me I should give them to you.” And he drops his tilma and as he drops them, the flowers all scatter at the feet of everyone present. But his tilma is imprinted with her image. The very same image that hangs in the Basilica of Mexico City and which we have had as a gift from her for over 500 years.
Thank you, Juanita; this has just been the introduction to a series on Our Lady of Guadalupe. You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host Patti Brunner and I invite you to come back for more. Because with the Holy Spirit, there’s always more!
