Decolonizing La Virgencita

🦋 Pialli Community! 🦋

Just wanted to take a Mariposa Mindful Moment to check-in with you all on this day, the 12th of December, a day Celebrated by many Catholic followers. 

If you grew up Catholic (like me) and your family celebrated el día de la Virgencita, on December 12th, then you may know the story of Juan Diego and how La Virgen appeared to him. 

For those of you who don’t know, the story goes that Juan Diego (who was an Indigenous person of Nahuatl Descent) was walking on top of a mountain in Cuautlitlán, which is now Mexico City, and the Virgin Mary appeared to him “supposedly” to tell him that they should build a shrine for her in that spot.

This happened in 1531, only 39 years after Mexico was first invaded by Spain, and they had begun their Colonization process.

Juan Diego then went to tell the priests that La Virgen had appeared to him, but they didn’t believe him, and he went back to the mountain to tell La Virgen. 

La Virgen then told him where to pick roses and to take them as proof of her power. 

Roses were not in bloom during this time because its Winter, so this was the “Miracle” that Juan Diego presented to the Priests, which they then believed as he revealed the Roses and the “image” of La Virgen appeared on his Clothing. This “miracle” then led the Catholic priests to build a Chapel to honor La Virgen de Guadalupe in that spot. 

This Colonized version of the story has a deeper impact & significance for the erasure of our Ancestors’ Beliefs & practices. 

So I wanted to offer you all a Decolonized version of this story: 

We all know that History is written by the Oppressor and during this time in Mexico, the Spaniards had been committing Genocide & Colonizing our Ancestors since 1492, which included the destruction & burning of our Ancestors’ sacred sites, statues, & written sacred texts. 

This story was created/written to:

Dismiss our Ancestors’ Veneration of Coatlicue, Mother Earth, because she was revered by our Ancestors, she had a lot of power, and the Spaniards could not have her be a part of our lineages’ Spirituality. 

The mountain that “La Virgen” appeared to Juan Diego was actually a Sacred Mountain, Coatepec, which was the sacred site of Coatlicue. So it was really Coatlicue who appeared to Juan Diego, not “La Virgen.”

Moreover, because our Ancestors revered the Divine Feminine, and they could not be converted to worship a masculine God, the Spaniards used “La Virgen” to replace Coatlicue. 

Having La Virgen de Guadalupe (aka: Coatlicue) as a Feminine entity to worship, made it “easier” for them to “convert” our Ancestors and erase their worship of Coatlicue. 

Why else do you think that only in Mexico and other Latinx countries, there is a Virgen in their stories? (Because our Indigenous ancestors revered the divine feminine). This is not the case in Europe Countries, which are Patriarchal, and have brought this system to our Mother Lands

But don’t be fooled, because our Ancestors knew that if they did not “convert,” they would be executed. 

So really, what choice did they have?

Also, it is said that Juan Diego was one of the “first Indigenous people” to “voluntarily” convert to Catholicism and thus, became a Saint.  Juan Diego’s real name, which is Indigenous was also erased. His real name is: Cuauhtlatoatzin.

This is how we also lost our connection to our languages, as our Indigenous names became replaced with Spanish names after being baptized. 

So, knowing this Decolonized version of the purposeful & Intentional Erasure & Displacement of our Connection to the Divine Feminine, Coatlicue;

of our Ancestors’ Spiritual Beliefs & practices,

of our Sacred Sites,

of our Languages.

I want you to take a moment to sit with this Decolonized version of the Story.

I want you to Notice what is coming up in your Body, your Heart, Mind, & Spirit after reading this.

I want you to acknowledge the Pain, the Anger, the Grief that may be showing-up.

And most of all, I want you to Heal. 

Part of the process of Healing includes re-learning our Stories, and our Connection to Colonized Stories, as Painful as it is.

Part of the process of Healing also includes acknowledging that our Stories, our Ancestors, our Names, our Languages, our Mother Land, our Divine Feminine has been purposefully & ritually displaced & erased. 

I want you to acknowledge that there is a current Genocide happening in Falasteen (Palestine) and they are currently under-going exactly what our Ancestors endured 500+ years ago. 

This pain is Ancestral, this Grief is Real, and I hope that you take time today to pray to La Virgencita, to Coatlicue, to whatever version you connect to, and know and feel and understand that she is one and the same. 

That this is why you feel connected to La Virgencita, because she is Mother Earth, she did give bEarth to us all, she is Creatrix, she is Powerful, and we get to Honor the Divine Feminine.

And I also hope that you continue to Pray and Engage in Radical acts of Resistance in support of our Relatives in Falasteen (Palestine) because they are our Ancestors, they are our Stories, they are the Present.