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November 2: the Day of the Dead
Her face is unforgettable and she goes by many names: La Catrina, la Flaca, la Huesuda, la Pelona — Fancy Lady, Skinny, Bony, Baldy. A fixture in Mexican society, she's not some trendy fashion model,...
View ArticleSilver, saints, and sinners™: Semana Santa in Taxco, Mexico
The City of Silver If you have heard of the picturesque, old colonial Mexican town of Taxco at all, you probably associate it with that precious metal so characteristic of Mexico – silver. If you...
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Saint Anthony and John the Baptist: June festivals at Lake Chapala
During June, we investigate the history, lives and legends of Saint Anthony of Padua, the beloved patron saint of San Antonio Tlayacapan and San Juan Cosala's Saint John the Baptist as these...
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Guadalupe: La Virgen Indigena
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the beloved patron saint of Mexico and the Americas. Celebrated on December 12, her feast day is a major Mexican holiday. Juan Diego's mantle, carefully preserved in the...
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Church Of Our Lord Of Villaseca
Cata, Guanajuato This is part of one wall of the church in Cata, near the town of Guanajuato. When I visited in 1996, the walls were completely covered with exvotos to a height o...
View ArticleExvotos To St. Francis Of Assisi
The pictures here were taken in the church in the old mining town of Real de Catorce, in San Luis Potosi. There is a side room of the church dedicated to exvotos.
View ArticleThe Virgin of Guadalupe celebration in Oaxaca
Map of Oaxaca Map of Central Oaxaca She is the mother of all Mexicans, the savior and succor of the indigenous spirit, protectress of the poor, dark, ailing and humble. ...
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Mesoamerican Religion: Symbolism of the Gods Part One
Our main sources of information on pre-Hispanic religion in Mesoamerica include archaeological monuments and Classic murals, as well as Landa's Relación and ethnological reports of surviving religious...
View ArticleDid you know? The first Archbishop of Oaxaca: a miraculous birth and re-birth
In 1887, Eulogio Gregorio Clemente Gillow y Zavalza (1841-1922) was appointed Bishop of Antequera (Oaxaca). Four years later, he became the first Archbishop of Antequera. Named after a town in Spain, A...
View ArticleDid you know? The Sistine Chapel of Mexico
A small church in Michoacán has been called the "Sistine Chapel of the Americas".
View ArticleDid you know? Mexico's first tourists
Father Alonso Ponce and Friar Antonio de Ciudad Real were probably Mexico's first ever tourists. Father Alonso Ponce de León arrived in Veracruz in September 1584 and spent the next five years travel...
View ArticleA Shrine To Santa Lucia
St. Lucia is the patron saint of eyes. The story is told that she was very beautiful, and had many suitors. One of them said that he had fallen uncontrollably in love with her eyes. She...
View ArticlePilgrimage from San Miguel de Allende to San Juan de los Lagos in 1967
Founded in 1542, San Juan de los Lagos is set in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, an area distinguished by its devotion to the Roman Catholic faith. The Cathedral there is home to the diminutive image...
View ArticleSan Juan de Los Lagos: The Virgin, her basilica, her pilgrims, and their exvotos
Exvotos are both very public and extremely personal -- like "thank you notes to God."
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Sacred places around us: Is Talpa a "power place"?
Quite by accident, I recently ran across a website that lists Talpa de Allende as a sacred power place. Martin Gray spent years visiting and photographing every place he heard was a sacred site, and...
View ArticleOur Lady of Guadalupe: Tonantzin or the Virgin Mary?
It was on December 9, 1531, when Juan Diego, a humble Indian peasant, was crossing the hill of Tepeyac just north of present day Mexico City that — it is said— a beautiful shining woman miraculously...
View ArticleOur Lady of Guadalupe in Mexican art
The Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared in Mexico in 1531 to Juan Diego and, as proof of her visit, caused roses to bloom at the site. Because church leaders did not believe he had seen her, she instruc...
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