Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe), which venerates Mary, the mother of the big JC.

(image from wikipedia's entry on Our Lady of Guadalupe)

As a Filipino Catholic, I didn't really grow up knowing about this holy day. Our parents didn't really have any statues or images in our home growing up. However, I have many Mexican friends and the Virgin of Guadalupe (VOG) is very important to them. My good friend La Ley collects her images and even I have a small necklace with a tin frame of the VOG. In many Catholic churches (at least in the ones down here in Chula Vista), there is a separate wing with either a painting or a statue of the VOG.
I thought it would be cool to compile a post of all of the images of the Virgin I've taken over the past few years....

It's kind of become an obsession to find different renditions of her image.

But first, some hiostorical backgroud:
(from wikipedia):

Official Catholic accounts state that on the morning of December 9, 1531 Juan Diego saw an apparition of a young girl at the Hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, the girl asked that a church be built at that site in her honor; from her words, Juan Diego recognized the girl as the Virgin Mary. Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop of Mexico City, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return to Tepeyac Hill, and ask the "lady" for a miraculous sign to prove her identity. The first sign was the Virgin healing Juan's uncle. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. Although December was very late in the growing season for flowers to bloom, Juan Diego found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, on the normally barren hilltop. The Virgin arranged these in his peasant cloak or tilma. When Juan Diego opened his cloak before Bishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.


I've read online that the tilma with the image is still in great condition, considering it is more than 400 years old.

Here's one of the first pics I took from our SF Road trip in 2009:

This is from the Mission Santa Barbara.

I'm not quite sure where I took this photo but it might have been from another one of the missions we visited during that same road trip (maybe San Luis Obispo).

This one was taken at the Mission Dolores in San Francisco...

And at the Mission Dolores Basilica was this statue...

For the life of me, I cannot remember how and why we were here (whether it was a funeral, baptism, or what), but this is from St. Michael's in Paradise Hills.

A tile seen at the St. Charles school...I like this one because of the roses in the corners.

During our Fall visit to the Bay Area in 2010, we saw this cool mural in the Mission District, which is a heavily Hispanic area.

A mural in the small Central Coast town of Guadalupe seen on the main drag (Highway 1). This was on the wall of a bookeeping business. During that trip, we stayed in the neighboring town of Santa Maria and visited the Nipomo Dunes, Solvang, and Lompoc. It was such a memorable trip. It was fitting to see the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe in the town of Guadalupe.

(from my "Day 7 - Mural in Guadalupe" post, September 2011)

This photo is more recent. I saw this the day after Thanksgiving while we were driving on 30th St. in North Park.  A thrift store had some paintings displayed outside and I happened to get a quick snap of this. I love the butterfly wings.

This was also another recent find. The Mexican parishioners at a local church were selling tamales and champurrado (that post is forthcoming) after mass. This was seen on the serving tables.

As seen at my favorite Mexican bakery, Moreliana Panaderia, a huge wall hanging of the VOG.

(from my first post on Panaderia Moreliana, September 2013)

Also seen at another Mexican bakery, this time at Panchita's in Golden Hill.

(from my "Panchita's Bakery, Golden Hill" post, November 2013)

Somewhere in the Mission District (side of the Casa Maria mini market)...

(from my Murals and More" post, November 2010)

From the St. Charles Parish Hall...

This was kind of old and faded.

This is one of my favorite photos. TC and I were on the 5 on our way up to PB when we saw THIS.

This El Camino had it ALL - the VOG, a Mayan pyramid, an angry Aztec god, a sacrificial victim and an eagle soaring over a volcano. You can't beat all that artwork on the back end of a car!

(from my "Which Wich, Pacific Beach" post, April 2013)

Although this photo is not an actual image of the VOG, you can definitely see where they got their inspiration. This is at Viva Pops, an upscale popsicle shop on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights.

(from my "Viva Pops and Mariposa"post, November 2010)

As seen at a local church bazaar vendor table...a "cute" version of the VOG next to a Disney princess and La Chilindrina (a freckle faced Mexican tv character)...

(from my "Return of Bazaar Food" post, June 2013)

This was really cool - an OVEN MITT!

As seen at JUNC Life & Style at the Shops on Fern St. in South Park (photo taken October 2013)...

Tattoos, car murals, religious candles,statues, tapestries, wall calendars, and even bracelet charms, her image is present if you know where to find it, sometimes in unexpected places. In my parents' neighborhood, there was one house whose wall NEVER got graffitied because they had a tile portrait of the VOG. The houses adjacent to that always got tagged with gang graffiti but not that one. I thought it was quite clever of the home owners and also showed that the taggers had some sort of respect (and selectivity) due to the home's "protective image".  One of these days, I'll have to stop by when I'm in the old 'hood so I can snap a photo...

I hope you enjoyed this compilation. It's quite interesting to see how and where the VOG's image pops up, like here in Leucadia near a cafe (the mural is now in another location nearby).

(photo from surftransworld, Summer 2012)

Sometime during the break, I plan to head up north to check out the infamous tile mosaic, the "Surfing Madonna"! The artist originally installed this beautiful art piece commando style underneath Highway 101 in Encinitas a few years ago. Then it was removed because it was there illegally. The city also deemed it too religious so it was removed, lay dormant somewhere, was installed at a coffee shop, then removed again and is now on a wall near a pizza place in Leucadia. Controversy or not, I really like this piece and can't wait to see it in person!