On December 12th, at 2a.m. I was out at Placita Olvera (Olvera Street) dancing barefoot on the cold ground along with many, many others to pay homage to the Virgen de Guadalupe. Before I left, I wrote up a post about her and how much she means to me, my family and to the Mexican people. See the December 11th post for more about La Virgen Morena.
There is poetry to her as well as songs written in her honor. I thought I'd include some here along with the words to Las Manañitas - the traditional birthday song that we sing to her on her feast day.
Las Mañanitas is a traditional Mexican song that is sung on birthdays and other important holidays. It is often sung as an early morning serenade to wake up a loved one. At birthday parties it is sung before the cake is cut.
Las Mañanitas Lyrics:
Estas son las mañanitas
que cantaba el rey David
a las muchachas bonitas
te las cantamos aquí
Si el sereno de la esquina
me quisiera hacer favor
de apagar su linternita
mientras que pasa mi amor
Despierta mi bien despierta
mira que ya amaneció
ya los pajarillos cantan
la luna ya se metió
Ahora sí señor sereno
le agradezco su favor
encienda su linternita
que ya ha pasado mi amor
Amapolita adorada
de los llanos de Tepic
si no estás enamorada
enamórate de mí
Despierta mi bien despierta
mira que ya amaneció
ya los pajarillos cantan
la luna ya se metió
Here's just about the whole of Mexico singing it to her in the Basilica
and check this out!
The round up is here at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Thanks for hosting Tricia!
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By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 12/14/2007
Blog: AmoxCalli (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Tonantzin, Virgen de Guadalupe, Tonantzin, Poetry Friday, Virgen de Guadalupe, Add a tag
By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 12/11/2007
Blog: AmoxCalli (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Tonantzin, Virgen de Guadalupe, paying homage, Tepeyac, holy days, tradition, mexico, Virgen de Guadalupe, Tonantzin, paying homage, Tepeyac, holy days, Add a tag
In Mexico, I think nothing is more honored and adored than the Virgen de Guadalupe or, as I know her, Tonantzin. Her image is everywhere. Statues, candles, blankets, sarapes, scarves, murals, roadside shrines - her peaceful and radiant countenance blesses you. She lives in homes, tattoos, in the marketplace, in song, everywhere, she touches everything. Even one of the most popular singers in Mexico wrote a song for her! In fact, singers of all types - rock bands, mariachis, the
pop stars, the rancheros, EVERYONE loves the Virgencita Morena, the Goddess of the Americas.
She was the image on the banners and flags of Father Manuel Hidalgo and his followers in the Mexican Revolution. She is entrenched so deeply into our culture and ideology that she’s like an old and very beloved friend. We call her little mother. She’s our collective mother, the mother of a conquered but not defeated nation, the mother who fights for us, protects us and loves us no matter who or what we are and become. We live and breathe Guadalupe. In every family, someone, boy or girl is named Guadalupe and carries that name with pride. 
The Catholic Church has it's story of the Virgen de Guadalupe and Juan Diego, we indigenous people have another. Somehow, like so much in Mexico the two things blended and we have Catholic dogma mixed with indigenous belief. Tonantzin wouldn't be erased and she lives stronger than ever in our hearts and minds.
Every year on her day, December 12th - thousands of people gather at her shrine on Tepeyac to give her honor, to pay homage, to dance prayers for her, to sing Las Manañitas to her and to show their devotion. Indigenous people from all over Mexico leave their villages and walk or crawl up to the sierra de Tepeyac in an ancient pilgrimage. The actual holy ground is a little hill behind the Basilica. This hill was sacred to Tonantzin and consecrated to Her by the indigenous people of Mexico long before the conquest. The pilgrimage was happening in pre-Columbian times as well.
As far back as I can remember my life was dominated by the Guadalupe. In the sala (living room) my grandmother Lupe’s house (her name was Maria Guadalupe) in the place of honor on the wall was a huge, framed print of the Virgen de Guadalupe standing on the hill of Tepeyac with Juan Diego kneeling at her feet, tilma open and filled with roses. It was a beautiful print with a soft washed from age look to it. You could clearly see the nopales (cacti) that were growing on the hillside. Every day my grandmother would put fresh flowers in front of that print. “Flores para la virgen”, she would tell me, “Flowers for the Virgen”. I learned to cut fresh roses and other flowers from the garden for vases throughout the house, keeping only the best and showiest to put in front of the print. Just like my grandmother, I’d say a little prayer to her as I left her her flowers. She was as real to me as my sisters were and I talked to her far more freely. La Lupita was my confidant, my protector, my dear little mother.
At church, my grandmother was a member of a society called Las Guadalupanas and they were devotees of her. Every morning, my grandmother Lupe would don her lacy mantilla and head off for mass where she’d pray to the Virgen de Guadalupe. See, she’s everywhere and in everything.
In Aztec culture, Guadalupe was Tonantzin, the mother of all, Mother Earth, The Goddess of Sustenance, Honored Grandmother, Snake, Aztec Goddess of the Earth. She brought the corn, Mother of the Corn. Even then She was All and Everything. She represented mothers, fertility, the moon, the sacred number 7. In fact, she was sometimes known as 7 Serpent. She was always there and she was always our little mother.
Corn is sacred to Tonantzin. The flowers we know as poinsettias were called Cuetlaxochitl were also very sacred to her and they grew on Tepeyac in wintertime as tall as ten feet high. Tunas (cactus fruit or prickly pear) are also especially sacred to Tonantzin growing as they do on the cacti that grows on her sacred and holy ground. Filled with seeds inside and a rich, juicy red fruit, the tunas represent both fertility and the womb, the blood of women and the sweetness of life. Tomatoes are another sacred fruit to Her. On my altar, I often put flor de noche Buena (another word for poinsettias meaning flower of the good night), tunas, chiles, cacao beans and tomatoes. The colors red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag are sacred to Her as well.
Early tomorrow morning, the morning of the 12th at 2a.m. at the Placita Olvera (Olvera Street) in Los Angeles, mariachis, devotees of the Virgen de Guadalupe, Aztec dancers, folklorico dancers, deer dancers, musicians, priests, nuns, and many more will start paying homage to Her. We will sing Las Mananitas, the traditional birthday song, we will pray and dance. Aztec dancers will dance at Catholic masses everywhere and they will do the prayer dance Tonantzin first. They will dance various variations of Tonantzin and give Her honor. In Mexico, on a much larger scale, celebrities, the elite, the politicians, Zapatistas, narcotrafficantes, men, women and children will all pay homage to our beloved Virgen de Guadalupe. We will give thanks to her for all we’ve received from her merciful hands, we will pray for the sick, the prisoners, the homeless, the helpless and we know that She is mercy, kindness, acceptance and love. She commands a tremendous devotion from the people that love her just by being Guadalupe. I believe she has given me much – my life, my children, my grandchildren, the food I eat. She is the goddess of the harvest, she represents the mother in me and in all women. She simply is and so I say Tlaxocamatl Tonantzin, thank you virgen de Guadalupe for all you have given. Tlaxocamatl Tonantzin. Ometeotl.
From the City of the Queen of the Angels, desde la ciudad de Nuestra Reina de los Angeles,
Atonatiuh Eloxochitl
Mar y Sol Datura Flower
otherwise know as
Gina MarySol Ruiz
Who is on her way to dance for the Virgen de Guadalupe and one for her Grandmother Lupe too.
By: Jessamyn West,
on 8/17/2007
Blog: librarian.net (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: 'puters, mp3, audiobooksm openculturem freeculture, ipods, shannonhubbell, wmv, Add a tag
New Orleans Public Library is offering audiobooks for their patrons via Overdrive which I read on Shannon’s blog and also on the NOLA blog. New Hampshire public libraries also offer downloadable audiobooks via Overdrive. Well, they’re downloadable to anything but an iPod, the most popular make and model of MP3 player. This is because, generally speaking, iPods don’t play DRM-ed Windows Media files which are the types of files Overdrive makes available. Overdrive makes audiobooks available in this file format because you can program things like “expiration date” into the digital rights management of the file. This allows Overdrive to sell “checkoutable” books to libraries. Some libraries in Vermont are considering going with Overdrive also. I personally think that this is great. However, I also think that it’s just part of what we should be doing to bring digital content and digital content awareness to patrons.
Every time a patron checks out a book via Overdrive, you as the library have an educational opportunity. You can say “Here is this service we are providing you. Yes it won’t work on an/your iPod. Yes there are other ways to get audiobooks for your iPod and some of them are even free. We have provided links to other ways to get audiobooks on our website right next to the Overdrive link.” What do we usually say? Well if my anecdotal experience is any indication — take with a grain of salt of course — we say “Yes you can check out an audiobook via Overdrive. No it won’t work on your iPod. This is the fault of [insert suspected faultmaker — whether it’s Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Overdrive].” and then the story ends there. We can do better.
If you’re using Overdrive — and good on them for getting to the market first with digital content that provides library patrons with the Real Library Experience — why don’t you also consider encouraging and assisting patrons with finding free audiobooks as well? It’s sort of a weird thing to do since both types of books are “free” as far as the patrons are concerned, but one type is free for everyone and one type is paid for, actually subscribed to, by the library. There’s another whole post sometime down the road about whether it’s our business as libraries to help the patrons save us money, but for now, please enjoy these providers of quality FREE audiobook content. Librivox for public domain books, the classic poetry podcast , podiobooks for serialized scifi, and many more listed on this page at Openculture.
audiobooksm openculturem freeculture, ipods, mp3, shannonhubbell, wmv
Hey G,
I love these. It always makes me teary that an entire nation would have such devotion to a religious icon. We've been invited to a Las Posadas procession this weekend -- which will be really weird to do in Scotland!! But what the heck, right?
Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Thanks for this post and for the one you wrote on 12/11. We'll remember Tonantzin at our Solstice celebration this year!