Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe — The Sacred Syncretism
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most profound example of indigenous-Hispanic syncretism in the Americas. According to tradition, in December 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Indigenous Chichimec peasant, on Tepeyac Hill in what is now Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, she asked that a church be built on the site. When Juan Diego relayed this to Archbishop Zumárraga, the bishop demanded a sign. The Virgin instructed Juan Diego to gather Castilian roses blooming miraculously on the frozen hilltop, and when he opened his tilma (cloak) before the archbishop, the fl