Guadalupe: A Compilation

8/13/2019 Guadalupe: A Compilation

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4 Poetry

Guadalupa compilation

EDITEDANDILLUSTRATEDBYERIKAMARQUEZ


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And of all those who love me, of those who

cry to me, of those who search for me, of those

who have condence in me, in my Teocalli, I

will listen to their cry, to their sadness, so as

to curb all their different pains, their miseries

and sorrows, to remedy and alleviate their

sufferings to realize what my compassionate,merciful gaze intends, she said to make known

her precious will.

ANTONIOVALERIANO,Huei Tlamahuicoltica


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The Virgen de Guadalupe is an iconic religious gure that has inu

Hispanic culture for centuries, and her prominence is undeniable o

and homes of East Cesar Chavez Street in Austin, Texas. She plays

role in symbolizing Mexican identity through religion, culture, emp

and social justice. Seeing her portrayal on murals, grafti, statues, t

gurines, candles, and so much more, has allowed me to feel her in

I walked through the streets of the East Cesar Chavez neighborhoo

This book intends to reect my experience in this culturally unique

explore some personal views on the Virgin de Guadalupe. This com

writings is taken from the book Goddess of the Americas: Writings on t

Guadalupe, edited by Ana Castillo. The book is comprised of short st

poems, and prose composed by Chicano writers who have been imp

Virgen in some way. I have combined these writings with illustratio

by pictures that have been taken on East Cesar Chavez Street to sho

Virgens inuence in the community in a poetic and artistic way.

Prologue


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In the early morning on December 9, 1531, an Indian named Juan D

his way to a Roman Catholic monastery in Tlatelolco when he hear

celestial music near the hill of Tepeyac. The sky turned a bright bea

and he heard a voice telling him to ascend. He obeyed and what he

of the hill was the Blessed Virgin Mary, standing in the midst of a g

in heavenly splendor. Juan Diego was in complete awe. She told hi

was the perfect and eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, him of her wish to have a shrine built on that hill so she could dem

her love, compassion and her protection. She requested him to sp

Bishop in Mexico City and tell him of her desire.

The Bishop did not believe Juan Diego and requested proof of her

He was scheduled to see the Virgin the following morning, but his u

Bernardino, became gravely ill, so Juan Diego was unable to meet u

As he was on his way to bring a priest to his dying uncle, the Virgin

him again. He explained to her his reasons for not being able to me

having to care for his sick uncle. Upon hearing him, the Virgin reas

that they were under her protection, and that his uncle was already

She requested Juan Diego to ascend the hill where they previously

there he would nd many blooming owers. She asked him to pick

owers and bring them to her. He did as she asked, having placed through cloak, or tilma, and wondering all the while how it was possib

owers bloomed on the stony hill where owers not once bloomed

Virgin rearranged the owers on the cloak and told him to send th

Bishop as the sign he requested.

The Story


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Juan Diego met up with the Bishop, with cloak and owers in hand. He opened

the tilma to show the Bishop the sign, and as the owers cascaded to the oor,

there appeared upon the coarse fabric of the Indians mantle a marvelously

wrought, exquisitely colored portrait of the Blessed Virgin.


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Prose


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some sources claim Juan

Bernardino answered: She calls herself

Tlecuauhtlacupeuh. Tlecuauhtlacupeuh

does not translate as the Christian Mary.

Tlecuauhtlacupeuh means She Who Comes

Flying from the Light Like an Eagle of Fire.

Am I not here, your Mother?

Are you not under my shadow and protection?

Am I not your foundation of life?

Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the

crossing of my arms?

Is there anything else you need?

ANACASTILLO,Introduction


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Conoc a la Virgen de Guadalupe en Extremadura, Espaa, y la nuestra

la Mexicana, es ms guapa. Creo estar enamorado de la imagen de

la Virgen de Guadalupe.

I saw the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain, and our Mexican one is

better-looking. I think I am in love with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Contemporary Mexican Composer

Juan Gabriel

Mi mamagrande Romana toda su vida mantuvo un altar pequeo en

esquina del comedor. Siempre tena las velas prendidas. All haca p

a la Virgen de Guadalupe.

Coatlalopeuh, She Who Has DominionOver Serpents

by GLORIAANZALDAby JUANGABRIEL

Gloria Anz


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My Virgen de Guadalupeis not the mother

of God. She is God. She is a face for a god

without a face, an indgenafor a god without

ethnicity, a female deity for a god who is

genderless, but I also understand that for her

to approach me, for me to nally open the door

and accept her, she had to be a woman like me.

Guadalupe the Sex Goddessby SANDRACISNEROS

Sandra Cisneros

On the windshield, the rain

has become ever ner. When

don Luis gets out of the VW it

is no longer raining. I see him

through the glass standing

on the sidewalk. He smiles. I

cant see his teeth. Above allelse, I look at his beautiful

solid ascetic head. Around his

face, the Virgin of Guadalupe

has created a triple-layered

rainbow from the water

droplets. Watercolors emanate

from it in pale hues, but

nevertheless I can discern:

green, white, and red.

Dont Go Away, Im Going toBring You Something

by ELENAPONIATOWSKA

Elena Poniat


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Of the two candles my grandmother ordered,

Saint Jude is the patron saint of the desperate,

the terminally ill, a no-nonsense heavenly

emissary when all other hope is lost. His

devotional candle is green and dispels the

malevolence that has overtaken us as it burns.

The other candle was devoted to none other

than Our Lady of Guadalupe, our Mexican

Mother who is unfailing when our mortal

mothers, all too human and burdened by lifes

demands, arent there. Our beloved Mother

who takes us back into the folds of Her robe at

the hour of our death.

Extraordinarily WomanbyANACASTILLO

Ana Castillo

.I arrive at the front of the super

Now I have twenty-one candles to

on the counter. The people behind

impatiently for me to nish lining

The people in front of me get out

quickly. The black woman behind

Why you buying all them candlesBecause theyre cheaper here. Th

cashier rings up seven Guadalupes

green, three white, and one bright

looks at me quickly and lowers her

Caridads, Reg Miguels, Blue Regla

of others, unmarked, unnamed.

I walk out of the store to the music

dancing and change jiggling in my

Before I get to the car I hear the w

was behind me say to her husband

fooling nobody, that woman worki

with them candles. She knows. I t

and look at her. We both try not to

The Warrior Queen: Encounters wi

by LUISAHTEISH

Luisah

Latin Lady


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When Our Mother is seen only as the one-

dimensional Mary of modern times, instead

of the great dual force of life and death, She

is relegated to the same second-class status

of most women in the world. She is without

desires of Her own, seless and sexless except

for Her womb. She is the cook, the mistress,bearer and caretaker of children and men. Men

call upon Her and carry Her banner to lead

them out to war. They show Her off, take Her

love and magic to form a formidable fortress, a

team of cannons to protect them against their

enemies. But for a long, long time the wars

that women have been left to wage on behalf

of men, on behalf of the human race, have

started much sooner, in the home, in front of

the hearth, in the womb. We do what we must

to protect and provide for our young, our

families, our tribes. Because of our humility,

we call upon Her privately, quietly in prayer,

from our kitchens and bedrooms, as if She

had more important matters to tend to besidesthose of a mother, of all mothers, besides those

of any ordinary woman when no woman

born who knows herself could

ever be ordinary.

byANA CASTILLO

Extraordinarily Woman

Ana Castillo

When I was eighteen, I met this guy with a rotating Our Lady doll.

it in Mxico, so, of course, I fell in love.

His skin was white, he ate broccoli, and he spoke like actors in a TV

was everyPartridge Family/ Brady Bunchepisode rolled into one. He

many things how to kiss like the French, lick an earlobe, and danc

dark. Once, my grandmother, la Abuela, sent us lovers a crate of grapoff our clothes, smashed the grapes all over our bodies, and licked t

off each other.

When he left, la Bruja Malditas hand replaced his in my heart. And

pounded on it. She laughed like Mexican mothers laught while han

at a clothesline. My sorrow was so strong, but I kept it hidden with

were like the veils my aunts wore at Immaculate Conception churc

sorrow bled through, like stigmata, like rushing waters, and my rela

say,Ay mijo, dont you understand?Blood is thicker than water, family

than friends, and that old Virgin, Our Lady, she just watches over all of us

The Dollby LUISALFARO

Luis


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Essays


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The most striking features of her anatomy are the eyes. On Decemb

on the eve of the Virgins most solemn festivity, Archbishop Luis M

stirred a commotion when he announced on the radio that he had

a commission for the scientic study of the Virgins eyes. Years befo

studying close-up photos of the painting, had discovered certain re

the corneas that to his own artists eyes suggested a human shape. I

of the ocular iris, the reection suggested a human being, perhaps nthan Juan Diego kneeling in adoration before the Queen of Heaven

F. Gonzalez -

The Anatomy of a VirginbyF. GONZALEZ-CRUSSI


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What accounts for Hispanics massive and

persistent devotion to Mary? Latin American

and U.S. Hispanic theologians view Marian

images from a liberationist theology point

of view: Marys cult appeals strongly to the

oppressed because she gives dignity to

downtrodden people and thus renews theirenergy to resist assimilation into the dominant

culture. Further, as Virgil Elizondo points

out, the cult not only liberates downtrodden

peoples but also liberates us from a restrictive

idea of God (Johnson 1989: 514; Elizondo

1977:25-33, 1983b).

Jeanette Rodriguez

Guadalupe: The Feminine Face of Godby JEANETTERODRIGUEZ

Jeanette Rod


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Our Lady of Guadalupe manifests divine power and might: The word power comes

from the Latinposse,meaning to be able, yet often when we think of power it is

in terms of having power oversomeone or something, rather than power with.

Again and again, the women in my study found that in encountering and being

in the presence of Our Lady of Guadalupe they regained their sense of self in

an accepting and empowering relationship.

Our Lady of Guadalupe images power with, in a dynamism centered around

mutuality, trust, participation, and regard. The power accessed by these women

in their dialogue with Our Lady of Guadalupe is the power of memory, which

she continues to stand for, justice, solidarity with the oppressed, belonging,

unconditional love, the power of expressed feelings and sharing (women come

to her and share their immediate needs and they feel heard). The power of

commitment, the power to endure suffering, the power of caring, the power

of risk (As long as she is beside me, Im going to keep trying), the power of

naming fears, the power of knowing that the way things are is not the way

things are meant to be, and with her help they are encouraged and given hope.

She gives them not the will to suffer under injustice, but the will to continue

la lucha(the struggle).

Jeanette Rodriguez

Guadalupe: The Feminine Face of GodbyJEANETTERODRIGUEZ

...In the Chicano movement, la Virgenwas no longer the contempla

Mother of all Mexicans, but a warrior goddess who blessed the cultu

political weapons of activists and artists,. She was against racism, th

patrol, the cops, and supremacist politicians. And in the Chicano fe

Olympus, la Guadalupanastood deant and compassionate as a sym

female strength, right next to la Malinche, Frida, Sor Juana, and mo

Selena. She was no longer just standing motionless with prayingand an aloof gaze. She actually walked; she showed up in demonstr

strikes, and lent her image for barrio murals, album covers, T-shirts

posters. She could even sit down and take a break, abandon tempo

holy diorama and jog, or let a working-class woman temporarily tak

as in the artwork of Lopes.

The Two GuadalupesbyGuillermoGmez- PeA

Guillermo Gmez


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Guadalupeunites people of different races, religions, languages: Chicano

protestants, American Indians and whites. Nuestra abogado siempre sers/ Our

mediatrixyou will always be. She mediates between the Spanish and the

Indian cultures (or three cultures as in the case of mexicanosof African or other

ancestry) and between Chicanos and the white world. She mediates between

humans and the divine, between this reality and the reality of spirit entities.

La Virgen de Guadalupeis the symbol of ethnic identity and of the tolerance forambiguity that Chicanos/mexicanos, people of mixed race, people who have

Indian blood, people who cross cultures, by necessity possess.

Coatlalopeuh, She Who Has DominionOver SerpentsbyGLORIAANZALDA

Gloria Anzalda Gloria Anz


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Poetry


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She Who Inspires Her people,

She Who leads them to ght.

Shine like the Sun in the daytime,

Sooth like the Moon in the night.

LUISAHTEISH, The Warrior Queen: Encounterswith a Latin Lady


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Excerpt from the poem, Mi Guadalupe by C.P. Ests.

Mi Guadalupe is a girl gang leader in heaven.

She is unlike the pale blue serene woman.

She is serene, yes, like a great ocean is serene.

She is obedient, yes, like the sunrise

Is obedient to the horizon line.She is sweet, yes,

Like a huge forest of sweet maple trees.

She has a great heart, vast holiness

And like any girl gang leader ought,

Substantial hips.

Her lap is big enough

To hold every last one.

Her embrace

Can hold us,

All

Guadalupe: The Path of the Broken HeabyCLARISSAPINKOLAESTS

Clarissa Pinkola


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I want to go to Mexico City and be mysterious and sad

I want a one-way ticket and a blank notebook

I want to stay at the Flora Hotel

Cheap, but very clean,

Hotel with an interior courtyard

Poinsettias that are taller than I am

I want to go to Mexico City and be mysterious and sadMen, and women too, will look at me and ask

Who is that beautiful mysterious woman

And why is she sad?

Every day at ve oclock

I will walk through the Alameda Gardens

Give one American quarter to each of the rst three beggars

Watch the man swallow re

I will go to the lobby with the Diego Rivera mural

Death walking on a Sunday with Mrs. Death

I will order two shots of tequila

I will drink only one

I will lick the back of my hand

Sprinkle salt on it

Lick that off

Like a child who has stayed all day at the beachI will drink a shot of tequila with a ghost

I want to go to Mexico City with a borrowed suitcase

All my bras will be black and my underpants white

Hotel FlorabyMIRIAMSAGAN

Miriam Sagan

I will wash them by hand in the little sink

Hang them on the balcony to dry slowly

Smelling of diesel fumes

I will build a shrine on my bureau top:

Red plastic comb, two pesos,

Postcard of Frida Kahlo

Sequined Virgin of GuadalupePiece of lave, and a key

To a room that is not mine.

Miriam


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6

Madre

aqu ests

con nosotros?

enjuganos

el sudor

las lgrimas

Coatlicue

t que reinas

sobre las serpientes

Chalchiuhcueye

haznos

el favor

Citlalcueye

que nos guen

tus estrellas

Guadalupe

s nuestra auroranuestra esperanza

bandera

y fuego de

nuestra rebellin!

Mother

are you here

with us?

wipe up

our sweat

our tears

Coatlicue

you who rule

over snakes

Chalchiuhcueye

grant us

our request

Citlalcueye

let your stars

guide us

Guadalupe

be our dawnour hope

the ag

and re of

our rebellion!

TonantzinbyFRANCISCOX ALARCN (English translation)

Francisco X. Alarcn Francisco X. A


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Returning from Watsonville

the road, a forest of apparitions

the Mother Creator

in every Standing

Sequoia

every Virgin Forest.

Ehcatl

follows me

reminds me to listen

to the stillness

observe

her subtle and violent

appearance

in pine-scented breezes

copal dancing smoke

in icy san Francisco windswhipping through open bedroom

windows, sudden slamming

doors: did she enter just then?

was she taking leave

or her senses?

Our Lady of the Cannery WorkersbyCHERREMORAGA(forCELIARODRIGUEZ)

In June 1992 in Watsonville, California, a U.S. Mexican town of cannery and

agricultural workers, a woman reported that la Virgen Mara had appeared to her

near the county park lake where her son had drowned a few years earlier. Nearby,

a tree took on the Virgins form in its bark.

Cherre Moraga

she, the pinwheel descent

of an aging

oak

leaf

Is this the same tree

sheltered beneath the giantumbrella of sequoia

that bears the shape of Guadalupe

in its breast? A tattoo

emblazoned into the scaling bark esh

that same slight inclination

of shrouded head, the same

copper rose shade

imprinted on the tela

of Juan Diegos prayer?

Tonantzn

te traigo fores.

Pilgrims hold up mirrors to the sun

Beams of light ricochet in all directions.Earthmother colors

illuminate

coastal gloom,

factory shut-downs

migra raids.

Cherre M


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Ahora,la ves?

S.

Dios te salve

Mara.

Juanita vestida de blanco

advises the faithful,Let go de su coraje.

I thread

my angry ngers

through the chain link

a sagging fortress

of protection.

My swollen knuckles

woven into the rusting wire

like rosary beads

of pink, turquoise-colored glass

carved pine wood

draped from curling polaroids.

Family prayers hang

by a thread

of Christmas ribbon.

There is one who refuses

to pray the catholic words

buries small ties

Cherre Moraga

of tobacco at the four corners

she is Diegos living relative

her anger, righteous

and unforgiving.

If la virgin appeared to me,

what would she look like?Not cannery worker

but pintora?

Sequoia Virgen

I see you in every crevice

of your burnt red esh

vagina openings split

into two thick thighs

of female eruption.

you grow old and tall

you fall

you turn to seed.

Cherre M


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Jews must be everywhere

Even in La Puebla, New Mexico

Where we pass Good Friday pilgrims

Wearing Walkmans

Dusty along the highway.

Its Shabbos, the two sets of candles

Adorn the tablesSet with sea shells

Seder means: the order

In which things happen

Egypt means: narrows

For plagues we dip our ngers in the wine

Hail kills your tomato plants

You quarrel

With a neighbor about a wall

A friend is unexpectedly in jail

Baby cries in the emergency room

Homeless men sleep in the arroyo

Stumble across Paseo to the liquor store

So drink four cups of wine

Its only the second time this year

Jews must get drunk

And lie down with our shoes off

On comfortable couches

The children are playing in the dusk

My daughter feeds a large white horse

A bunch of golden apples

PassoverbyMIRIAMSAGAN

Miriam Sagan

Desert smells like the sea

Of sand and wind and something else

Clean, and scoured

Miriams Well

Springs within

Green oasis that must

Reappear within our heartsVoices singing slightly off-key

This source of water

Follows us

Despite our exile, wandering.

Miriam


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4

Goddess of Love

Goddess of Death

Eater of Filth

Mother of all Seasons:

Mother of the Rivers

Cleanse himWith water owing

From the Fountain of Youth

Mother of the Hummingbirds

Dry off his last tears

Kiss each aching bone

Dress him in morning owers

Mother of the Mountains

Caress him with murmurs

Take him into your bosom

The dream of your deepest canyons

Mother of the Night

Weep with usLight his path with the glow

Of stars along the Milky Way

TlazolteotlbyFRANCISCOX ALARCN

Francisco X. Alarcn

Mother of the Sea

Embrace his ashes

Turn him into bright red coral

Amidst scools of laughing sh

Mother al All Season

Eater of FilthGoddess of Death

Goddess of Love

Tlazolteotl!

Francisco X. A


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Acknowledgements

Photo CreditsAdela Arreola

Elyssa Turner

Andrea Rojas

Brandy Shigemoto

Erika Marquez

Sonia Astorga

Allison Santos

Katie Strahl

Brief History of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe. QueenAmericas Guild., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

All illustrations done by Erika Marquez from photos taken by

Castillo, Ana, ed.Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of

Guadalupe. New York: Riverhead Books, 1996. Print.

Martinez, J. Michael.Heredities : Poems / J. Michael Martinez. n.p.:

Baton Rouge, [La.] : Louisiana State University Press, c2010., 2010.

ST EDWARDS UNIVs Catalog. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.


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Documents

Guadalupe: A Compilation