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The Road to Guadalupe: A Modern Pilgrimage to the Virgin of the Americas
The author takes readers on a fascinating journey into the heart of Mexican spirituality, exploring the unique confluence of cultural and religious beliefs that have produced the phenomenon of Guadalupe.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 10, 2008
Beautiful (and short) book on a man's journey to Mexico City to find Guadalupe. What he finds says much about Guadalupe's power not just culturally but also spiritually in individual lives.
October 7, 2011
A very lovely read.I love everything Our Lady of Guadalupe,though I'm not a Christian,so when I saw this at the library I just had to read it.She seems to change lives no matter whar your faith.
September 23, 2024
AN AUTHOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER LOOKS INTO THE FAMES SHRINE IN MEXICO
Eryk Hanut is a photographer and author, who has also written I Wish You Love: Conversations with Marlene Dietrich and Rumi the Card and Book Pack: Meditation, Inspiration, & Self-Discovery.
He states of a 1998 visit, "One of the day's interminable masses is ending... During mass, the pilgrims of Guadalupe get up, talk to each other, wander from one row of benches to another, breast-feed babies quite openly, but all without ever losing their naked devotion. Anywhere else in the world, such an attitude would seem profane. Not here. Here, it seems brattily peaceful...
"A priest points out to us the place where we can see the Tilma [cloak] close up. To get there, you need to walk down an impressive gray marble staircase behind the main altar... The Tilma is hung against the gold and wooden wall, about eight feet above eye level, placed so expertly that it can be seen from every angle... At last I raise my eyes. They fill with tears. Looking down below, looking at me, looking at each and every face, is the Mother of the True God Teotl, who printed her image on a piece of cloth long ago...
"I am at last facing the most famous miraculous relic in the world, along with the Holy Shroud of Turin, and I find that I cannot pray. Dozens of people---women and men of all ages---float by under the Tilma. Some raise their hands... hoping that la Lupe will understand and bless them first... The smell of hot wax starts to disturb me... I want some fresh air." (Pg. 25-27)
He says of scientific investigation of the image on the cloth, "Even if the 1946 team was cautious about using the world 'miracle,' their verdict was clear: 'If the image of the woman on the cloth had been hand made, it could have only been made by techniques unknown by artists and scientists of the twentieth century.' Meanwhile, they observed meticulously that the rays of light surrounding the Virgin were painted in oil, as was the angel at the bottom of the image.
"When seen through a microscope, the texture of these parts of the Tilma was totally different. They also noted for the record that the fingers of the Lady seemed to have been shortened by a painter, perhaps to make her more characteristically Aztec in appearance." (Pg. 29-30)
He also notes, "Back to ... the new basilica... Near the exit is the official souvenir store, just behind where the Tilma is displayed... the only way to leave is to go through the store... Exactly the same bazaar reigns here as outside, only here it is stamped with the approval of the basilica. Everything's slightly more expensive... Despite the same of thousands of unauthorized images outside, the trick seems to work...
"If you buy something coming from the basilica, you're more likely to be granted your prayer. Poor people seem to be more susceptible to this blackmail than mean tourists like us, who buy cheap outside. The clergy must be making a tidy fortune on this obvious racket, while discouraging the populace from 'exaggerated cults and superstition.' Another masterpiece of Catholic hypocrisy." (Pg. 71)
For "moderns" wanting a contemporary perspective on the shrine and its history, this book will be warmly welcomed.
Eryk Hanut is a photographer and author, who has also written I Wish You Love: Conversations with Marlene Dietrich and Rumi the Card and Book Pack: Meditation, Inspiration, & Self-Discovery.
He states of a 1998 visit, "One of the day's interminable masses is ending... During mass, the pilgrims of Guadalupe get up, talk to each other, wander from one row of benches to another, breast-feed babies quite openly, but all without ever losing their naked devotion. Anywhere else in the world, such an attitude would seem profane. Not here. Here, it seems brattily peaceful...
"A priest points out to us the place where we can see the Tilma [cloak] close up. To get there, you need to walk down an impressive gray marble staircase behind the main altar... The Tilma is hung against the gold and wooden wall, about eight feet above eye level, placed so expertly that it can be seen from every angle... At last I raise my eyes. They fill with tears. Looking down below, looking at me, looking at each and every face, is the Mother of the True God Teotl, who printed her image on a piece of cloth long ago...
"I am at last facing the most famous miraculous relic in the world, along with the Holy Shroud of Turin, and I find that I cannot pray. Dozens of people---women and men of all ages---float by under the Tilma. Some raise their hands... hoping that la Lupe will understand and bless them first... The smell of hot wax starts to disturb me... I want some fresh air." (Pg. 25-27)
He says of scientific investigation of the image on the cloth, "Even if the 1946 team was cautious about using the world 'miracle,' their verdict was clear: 'If the image of the woman on the cloth had been hand made, it could have only been made by techniques unknown by artists and scientists of the twentieth century.' Meanwhile, they observed meticulously that the rays of light surrounding the Virgin were painted in oil, as was the angel at the bottom of the image.
"When seen through a microscope, the texture of these parts of the Tilma was totally different. They also noted for the record that the fingers of the Lady seemed to have been shortened by a painter, perhaps to make her more characteristically Aztec in appearance." (Pg. 29-30)
He also notes, "Back to ... the new basilica... Near the exit is the official souvenir store, just behind where the Tilma is displayed... the only way to leave is to go through the store... Exactly the same bazaar reigns here as outside, only here it is stamped with the approval of the basilica. Everything's slightly more expensive... Despite the same of thousands of unauthorized images outside, the trick seems to work...
"If you buy something coming from the basilica, you're more likely to be granted your prayer. Poor people seem to be more susceptible to this blackmail than mean tourists like us, who buy cheap outside. The clergy must be making a tidy fortune on this obvious racket, while discouraging the populace from 'exaggerated cults and superstition.' Another masterpiece of Catholic hypocrisy." (Pg. 71)
For "moderns" wanting a contemporary perspective on the shrine and its history, this book will be warmly welcomed.
July 12, 2021
Meh. I enjoyed a bit of it but not much. As a woman having a gay European man who doesn't understand women, Frida Kahlo OR Our Lady write this was annoying past belief. As a Catholic I was equally annoyed. I was really done when he thought that Frida's painting "My Nurse and I" of an Aztec woman breastfeeding a baby Frida was with a breast full of cancerous tumors instead of a very good rendering of the milk duct system. All that he saw was wasted on the author, there was no understanding (spiritual or otherwise) of La Virgin, bruja or anything else, at all.
June 17, 2017
Sketches from a trip taken for vague reasons showing in good part that Our Lady of Guadalupe has her own line of evolution in Mexico separate from her origin in Spain.
January 6, 2022
Must read for Catholics interested in learning more about Guadalupe. I like the author's leanings toward social justice.
August 6, 2016
I got this from the library after returning from a weeks vacation at St. Augustine Florida. While there I visited the shrine to our Lady of La Leche. It was a beautiful, peaceful, spiritual place. One of the displays outside on the grounds, was a large image of the virgin of Guadalupe made out of tiles. I recognized it as the same image I have on a votive candle I bought, as well as an image of Mary that I printed from the internet to use in my Triptych collage of female religious figures. So I decided to look into this image a bit more, it obviously is a big deal to many people. I did an internet search on the term and found many books, this one caught my eye, and it was at our local library! I'm about half way through- he goes into the verbatim report of the peasant who saw the virgin, as well as the cultural/historical setting in which this all happened. He also describes the present day Mexico City Basilica that houses the image and the pervasive and sometimes perverse use of the image. I am particularly interested in the Aztec goddess worship that is linked to this vision- the place, the image, the name given to her. Just finished it, very good book! By the end I felt immersed in the author's experience of the place, he also goes into other Virgin places of import and apparition or visitation. He is honest about his own yearning for a spiritual experience. He does give a good history of the Aztec, then Spanish conquered beliefs. Near the end he also visits a "witch" who is a great melding of Catholic and Aztec beliefs.
August 9, 2008
Beautiful.
September 15, 2012
Reading about the tilma was fascinating but I wish Hanut included more interviews with people who make the pilgrimage instead of reflecting on his own.
July 14, 2012
A very enjoyable read!! Loved it!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews