The Madonna and the Serpent
Story by Lawrence H. Freeman I happened to mention to someone that I was writing an article about the myths of Quetzalcoatl and the Virgin of Guadalupe. My Mexican friend became immediately incensed. "Myths? He yelped. Myths? Are you one of those people who don't believe in the Bible?". Bible? I thought as my jaw dropped open. What has the Virgin of Guadalupe have to do with the Bible? Instead, both the Virgin and the legend of Quetzalcoatl have to do with the effect of euro-centrism on the Mexican culture. Beginning with the landing of Cortez in 1519, alien Catholicism, with a white god and a white panoply of saints had been forcibly impressed on a confused people with a deeply religious background. In 1531, Juan Diego made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin (Our Mother), when the vision later called the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to him and miraculously impressed her image on Juan's cloak, and image that e...