PICTURED SITES ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS TEXT.
Vantage describes Mexico as a surprisingly complex nation of many cultures, ancient civilizations, and friendly people which we explored ranging from charming Spanish-colonial towns with cobbled plazas and vast complexes of pre-Columbian ruins to sophisticated cities full of culture, baroque architecture and the arts. We learned of the people's traditions through music and dance performances and museum visits.
An index of articles related to this trip can be seen at our home page: http://www.worldisround.com/home/jdtan/index.html
If you have any questions, email them to me at jdtanner@a5.com rather than including them in your remarks at the bottom of the photo page.
Mexico City with almost 25 million inhabitants is located in the center of the country at an elevation of 7,347 feet.
Just north of Mexico City in what we would call a suburb is located the Basilica of Guadalupe, a church dedicated to Mexico's patron saint. The country's holiest shrine derives its importance from the miracle that is believed to have occurred there on December 12, 1531.
Juan Diego, an Aztec, received from the Virgin a cloak permanently imprinted with her image so he could prove to the priests that he had had a holy vision. The image has become a powerful national symbol. Although the miracle and the cloth itself have been challenged for centuries, the story's authenticity seems to grow. On December 12 each year millions of pilgrims arrive, many crawling on their knees for the last few hundred yards as they pray for cures and other devine favors. The coarsely woven material on which the image appears is thin and loosely woven. It consists of two strips, about seventy inches long by eighteen wide, held together by weak stitching.
Outside the old basilica, which dates from 1536 with various additions having been made since then, there is a statue of Juan Diego who became a saint (the first indigenous saint in the Americas) in the summer of 2002. The old basilica is now more a museum with hand-painted depictions of miracles dedicated to Mary or another saint in gratitude and popular religious art, sculptures, paintings and decorative arts from the 15th through the 18th centuries. The current building housing the old basilica was the fourth building in Mexico constructed in honor of Saint Maria of Guadalupe.
In 1904 in recognition of churchgoers' devotion, the building was bestowed the title of Basilica, a word with Greek origins meaning "regal house." The columns inside holding the dome are surrounded by concrete to strengthen the structure which was damaged due to mud and soft soil resulting in sinking. Closed for conservation reasons in 1976, the basilica was reopened in 2000 as an expiatory temple which means a house of prayer where sins may be atoned for in the presence of the holy Sacrament which is on permanent display.
The old basilica's structure had weakened and it was not large enough for all the worshippers so a new shrine was designed by the architect responsible for the city's National Museum of Anthropology. Consecration of the new basilica took place in 1976. It has been criticized as being a gigantic circular mass of wood, steel and polyethylene that seems more like a stadium than a church.
The image of the Virgin in the new basilica can be viewed from a moving sidewalk by visitors but is so high on a wall that it appears to those in the basilica as if it is part of the altar. The basilica has a circular floor plan so the image can be seen from any point in the building. An empty crucifix symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. The choir is between the altar and the worshippers to indicate it is part of the faithful. The seven front doors are a reference to the seven gates of Celestial Jerusalem referred to by Christ.
On March 25, 1966, Pope Paul VI presented the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a golden rose, an honor subsequently accorded only to the shrines at Lourdes and Fatima. In January 1979 Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the shrine in person.
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