IN GUAD WE TRUST
In Santa Fe her feast day (and my
birthday) December 12, offered a host of community events which I
always tried to squeeze in. After las Mañanitas the
danzantes paid tribute to her and to their cultural and spiritual
birthright, dancing on the old stone patio, sometimes snow-covered, in
front of the Santuario de Guadalupe. As their guests, we would
hover and shiver around bonfires as they moved, often barefoot, through
the courtyard burning copal incense, blowing the concha and offering
songs of prayer to their beloved madre. If time allowed, I would head
north to Pojoaque Pueblo, the only one of the Eight Northern Pueblos
dedicated to her. Encircling the Butterfly and Buffalo dancers,
all visitors were welcomed and invited to participate in the all-day
feasting and give-aways.
From 1995 to 2001, I curated Guadalupe exhibitions with Larry Ogan,
executive director of the Santa Fe Council for the Arts. One of
the most popular of these was titled “Guadalupe: 12x12”, in which
artists were invited to contribute works in those exact
dimensions. Featuring painters Carlos Fresquez, Rosalia Mariz and
Tony Ortega, among others, it also included photographer Miguel
Gandert. Sculptors and 3-dimensional artists Julia Benites
Arriola, Marion Martinez and Katherine Wells produced works in keeping
with the theme: theirs were 12’x12”x12”. The works that year,
1997, possessed an exceptional energy, perhaps in response to the
confines of twelve, the number of mystical power and cosmic
transformation.
Evidence of this numeric posturing can be found in the 12 tribes of
Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, 12 knights of King
Arthur’s round table, 12 Namshans in the Council of the Dalai Lama,
and 12 signs of the zodiac. The Greek Pantheon counted 12
principal gods, and the Book of Revelations describes a woman,
interpreted as the Virgin Mary, wearing a crown of 12 stars.
The Mayan and Hopi prophecies mark the 12 month of the year 2012
as end of time, or the beginning of a new age. Even the 12-
Step Program employs this mystical number, promising transformation
through belief in ‘a higher power.’
And so it was that on the 12th day of the 12th month, the heavens
and earth consorted to introduce the Virgin of Guadalupe, forever after
known as the mystical mother of a new race. I also like to think
of her as the Patronness of artists, having left her portrait on Juan Diego's tilma. This image has
inspired paintings, songs, books, poems, films, performances,
photographs and public art.
At the Museum of Fine
Arts in Santa Fe, I was introduced to the healer El Niño Fidencio, and
photographer Dore Gardner, author of “A Heart
Thrown Open.” Through her extraordinary black and white images
and intimate interviews with his followers, we explore the life of this
Mexican saint who worked miracles via the power of La Virgen, and the
cult of healers who have become his legacy. Since his death,
devotees have popularized images which fuse his identity with that of
Guadalupe, ie. his face with her clothing and symbology, producing an
image that blurs the boundaries between male and female, earthly and
heavenly. Not coincidentally, Gardner’s birthday is also December
12.
All photos on this page are the sole property of Lena Bartula, unless otherwise specified.
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