Celebrating Mary! In Search of the Perfect Virgin! Part 1

     In Mexico, when Spain had conquered the indigenous people, the tale is told that the Virgen de Guadalupe, an apparition of the Virgin Mary, appeared to a native convert, Juan Diego, and told him to tell the Bishop to build a Chapel on the hill at the site of the encounter.  Juan Diego obeyed and was met with skepticism by the bishop.  The bishop asked for a sign.  Juan Diego went back to the site and the Virgen had Juan Diego pick some roses that, as it was December, shouldn't have been blooming on the hill.  Juan put them in his cloak and took them to the bishop.  When he opened his cloak, the roses fell out and there was an image of the Virgen on the Cloak. 
     A shrine was built on the hill; conveniently it was over ruins of a temple to the indigenous goddess, Tonanzin, that had been destroyed during the Spanish Conquest.  Historically, the Catholic church has, in the name of conversion, been able to absorb the beliefs of their converted flocks and help them align with the prevailing dogma.
     The Virgen has since been called the Queen, the Mother, the Empress, the Patroness of the Americas, by the church.  Being a Catholic nation, Mexico revers all forms of the Virgin Mary.  To celebrate that celebration, periodically I will post pictures of the Virgin as she appears in churches, plazas, mercados, on wall, in niches.  Part One is Guadalupe herself at a site in San Miguel:

 Que Viva La Virgen de Guadalupe!  Que viva!