VOICES
The Face of Our Lady of Guadalupe Hosffman Ospino
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saving face. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression means “retain respect; avoid humiliation.” The words are used metaphorically, yet I recently found myself arguing why we must, literally, save—read: affirm, defend, honor—the indigenous, dark-skinned face (el rostro indígena) of a most treasured icon among Hispanic Catholics: Our Lady of Guadalupe. I stood in front of a group of more than two thousand people, mostly Hispanic and Spanish-speaking, to give a conference on how Hispanics are profoundly transforming the U.S. Catholic experience in the twenty-first century. The energy in the room was incredible. People sang hymns that one regularly hears in parishes with Hispanic ministry. Everyone joined in. The musicians leading the moment were delighted to hear this two-thousand-member choir! The moment became even more electrifying when the group started singing “La Guadalupana,” a traditional song in Spanish to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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c21 resources | spring/summer 2021
Those in the auditorium sang louder and more passionately. It was a serenade. The moment captured well the love Hispanic Catholics have for the Virgin Mary. She is our mother. She is la Virgencita. When the song ended, someone said in a loud voice, “ella es como nosotros; es la Morenita” (she looks like us; she is the dark-skinned one). In hearing that, everyone else cheered. Anyone familiar with the sixteenth-century icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe knows that her face is that of an indigenous maiden. In her, one can see perhaps one of the most beautiful expressions of inculturation of Christianity in the Americas. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Galilean woman, the one Christian symbol that has sustained the spiritual life and inspired countless believers for two millennia, represented artistically in various ways through art in many cultures, appeared in the New World as an indigenous, dark-skinned woman. Millions of Mexicans, Latin Americans, and U.S. Hispanics see ourselves in her face. Her complexion is mestiza (i.e.,
