Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe y La Villa de Guadalupe, December 12

A religious festival held every year to honor The Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico. She is also identified with the Aztec earth goddess and mother of humankind, Tonantzin. The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the sixteenth century. Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego was a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for the indigenous peoples. Millions today show their respect to her by making pilgrimages to the Basilica in La Villa de Guadalupe. According to legend, it is the place where Mary instructed Juan Diego that the bishop of Mexico was to build a chapel in her honor. Smaller celebrations take place in churches throughout Mexico. In the Ciudad de Mexico, La Villa de Guadalupe is a festival that draws enormous crowds. Dances from a wide variety of indigenous cultures are performed. Ephemera and religious art are plentiful. The photographer returned to this festival in four different years. These slides document the dance, pageantry, procession, costumes, ephemera, religious art, pilgrims and merry-making associated with this festival. In the smaller towns of Chiapas, Baborigami, Chihuahua, and Tulancingo, Hidalgo, San Blas, Nayarit, and Santa Maria Acapulco, SLP, there are typical dances, costumes, processions, and other traditions associated with these various villages and towns as documented by these slides.

These slides are housed in LSF Container HH, Container II and Container JJ.

A descriptive narrative of these slides is found on audiocassettes #14 side B, #15 side A and B, #16 side A, which are housed in LSF Container RR.