Guadalupe

Last weekend was the Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe, one of the most important religious days in the Mexican calander. It is believed that on this day Juan Diego (ni idea!) was finally successful in offering the Bishop Zumarraga a vision of the Virgin (he opened his cloak where a cascade of roses revealed her portrait [obviously]). Due to this the Capilla de Cerrito (chapel on the hill [photo above]) was built since it was on this hill that the Virgin had first appeared to Diego (the image below from the story was taken inside the chapel).
For the full story go to; http://www.caryana.org/miracle.html

As with Dia de los Muertos, this may be yet another example of the Catholic conquistadores trying to incorporate yet another Mayan image into the Catholic church in order to convert the indigenous Mexicans. However la Virgen is still, to this day a strong cultural symbol of Mexico and la Basilica in Mexico City is an extrmely popular pilgrimage destination. The weekend before last we visited both la Basilica and the Capilla de Cerrito, a beautiful little chapel overlooking D.F. While it would have been great to visit the Basilica on the 12th, el Dia de la Virgen marks the begining of what is known as the Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon in Mexico. This means 25 days of squeezing in as many parties as is humanly possible from the 12th right through till the 6th January. Hence duty called and most of this past weekend was spent attempting to salsa, drinking wine and eating tamales at Mexican friends' or "friend of a friend's" houses all over D.F.

An advantage of this is that I can feel my Spanish improving rapidly as the combination of classes at IH, revision at home (flashcards I love you) and being a noisy little Brit fortuante to have some great Mexican friends work together brilliantly. Granted this is slightly more of an excuse than a reason (hopefully I shall be able to add some photos of this soon...).