About Soneto Quien Suno Tu, Dulcisima Maria
Soneto: Quién sino tú, dulcísima María is a single broadside with illustrations approximately 23 x 17 cm. A broadside is single sheet with information printed on one side that is intended to be posted, publicly distributed
Historical Context
A beautifully printed broadside sonnet offering thanks to Mexico's patroness the Virgin of Guadalupe for Mexico's recently-won independence from Spain. The broadside is striking for its sharp clear typography and decorated printed border as well as the prominent woodcut depiction of the Virgin. Miguel Hidalgo rallied the country with his grito, or call to independence, incorporating the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on his standard. Although the broadside is not dated, the reference to Maria (or Guadalupe) having liberated Mexico from the Spaniards and the paper and typography of the piece point to an 1820s publication.
According to religious tradition in December 1531, a vírgen morena or dark virgin appeared to the indigenous peasant Juan Diego on the hill of the Tepeyac (in the northeastern suburbs of Mexico City) and commanded him to ask the Bishop of Mexico to build a church there. The bishop demanded proof and Juan Diego duly returned with winter roses from the Tepeyac. As he laid out the mantle that enfolded them, an image of the dark virgin appeared miraculously on his mantle, since revered throughout Mexico as the Virgin of Guadalupe. This intense symbol of religious and national pride did not escape Father Miguel Hidalgo, who in 1810 would gather his insurgent troops under the image of the vírgen morena and issue the battle cry: “Death to Spaniards, Long Live the Virgin of Guadalupe.”
- Stanford University Libraries
Further Reading
- Cuadriello, Jaime. "Figure, Sign, and Contrivance: The 'Eight' of the Virgin of Guadalupe." Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas 39, no. 10 (2017): 155-204. Reviewing studies of the anachronism and the re-signification of images proposed by Georges Didi-Huberman, this article explores the emergence of a "spontaneous image": the number eight painter Miguel Cabrera and historian Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia detected on the Virgin of Guadalupe ankle. An enigmatic figure which became, first, an exegetical sign, and finally-as an effect of rhetorical exercises-a device conveying a deep prophetic, even libertarian, message, the number eight also established itself as a pictorial practice inherent in the concept of vera effigie or as means of certifying copies of Juan Diego's cloak (known as tilma or ayate), which remained current until the early twentieth century. This sign was not immune to the enlightment and rationalist critique of the eighteenth century, despite the prestige of the painter who reported it in his book Maravilla americana of 1756.
- Noreen, Kristin. "The Virgin of Guadalupe, Juan Diego, and the Revival of the Tilma Relic in Los Angeles. Church History 87, no. 2 (2018): 487-514.10.1017/s0009640718000884 Devotion to the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Los Angeles has a complex and multifaceted history. This article will discuss the initial celebrations of Our Lady of Guadalupe, beginning with a procession in 1928 and developing with increasing popularity in the 1930s. By 1941, the Virgin of Guadalupe had become an important political and religious symbol for the archbishop of Los Angeles, John J. Cantwell, who conducted a pilgrimage to Mexico City, during which he reconfirmed the significance of the Guadalupe image for the Los Angeles Catholic community. In commemoration of Archbishop Cantwell's historic visit, a fragment of the tilma, the cloak on which the Virgin of Guadalupe representation had appeared, was offered to Los Angeles. As the only known piece of the tilma currently found outside of Mexico City, this relic has great devotional significance. As this article will show, the tilma relic disappeared into relative obscurity following its arrival in Los Angeles, only to become a renewed focus of devotion over sixty years later, in 2003. This article will conclude with the reasons behind the relic's revival through a discussion of Juan Diego and his canonization.
- Conover, Cornelius. 2011. “Reassessing the Rise of Mexico’s Virgin of Guadalupe, 1650s-1780s.” Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos 27 (2): 251–79. doi:10.1525/msem.2011.27.2.251. The article explores the relationship between the cult of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe and Mexican nationality. According to the author, Guadalupe's popularity was due less to creole patriotism, as is supposed by some scholars, than to belief in the miracles she was said to perform, changes in the specialties of saints, and endorsement by colonial officials. Particular focus is given to attitudes towards Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico. Details related to the larger culture of saintly devotion in Mexico City are also presented. Other topics include shifts in the cult of Nuestra Senora de los Remedios and the role of the Italian historian Lorenzo Boturnini in securing Guadalupe's status as patron of New Spain.
The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation an Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940 by
When the fighting of the Mexican Revolution died down in 1920, the national government faced the daunting task of building a cohesive nation. It had to establish control over a disparate and needy population and prepare the country for global economic competition. As part of this effort, the government enlisted the energy of artists and intellectuals in cultivating a distinctly Mexican identity. It devised a project for the incorporation of indigenous peoples and oversaw a vast, innovative program in the arts. The Eagle and the Virgin examines the massive nation-building project Mexico undertook between 1920 and 1940. Contributors explore the nation-building efforts of the government, artists, entrepreneurs, and social movements; their contradictory, often conflicting intersection; and their inevitably transnational nature. Scholars of political and social history, communications, and art history describe the creation of national symbols, myths, histories, and heroes to inspire patriotism and transform workers and peasants into efficient, productive, gendered subjects. They analyze the aesthetics of nation building made visible in murals, music, and architecture; investigate state projects to promote health, anticlericalism, and education; and consider the role of mass communications, such as cinema and radio, and the impact of road building. They discuss how national identity was forged among social groups, specifically political Catholics, industrial workers, middle-class women, and indigenous communities. Most important, the volume weighs in on debates about the tension between the eagle (the modernizing secular state) and the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Catholic defense of faith and morality). It argues that despite bitter, violent conflict, the symbolic repertoire created to promote national identity and memory making eventually proved capacious enough to allow the eagle and the virgin to coexist peacefully. Contributors. Adrian Bantjes, Katherine Bliss, María Teresa Fernández, Joy Elizabeth Hayes, Joanne Hershfield, Stephen E. Lewis, Claudio Lomnitz, Rick A. López, Sarah M. Lowe, Jean Meyer, James Oles, Patrice Olsen, Desmond Rochfort, Michael Snodgrass, Mary Kay Vaughan, Marco Velázquez, Wendy Waters, Adriana Zavala
Call Number: F1234 .E15 2006ISBN: 9780822336686Publication Date: 2006-03-13
