Our Lady Of Guadalupe The image of the Virgin Mary seen by Juan Diego has changed the world. About forty years after Mary’s appearance to Diego, it is believed to be a turning point in western civilization. At this time there were a lot of copies of the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe being circulated around Europe and one ended up in the hands of Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria. The King of Spain gave this special copy to him. There were three hundred Turkish ships blocking the Gulf of Lepanto and the admiral was given command of a squadron to sail to the blockade. The Christian fleet consisting of about three hundred ships was to meet the Turkish navy head on. However, the Turkish outmaneuvered the Christian forces. It is said that when this crucial hour was at hand, Doria went into his cabin to kneel and pray before the Image of Guadalupe. By nightfall the direction of the battle started to shift. One Turkish squadron was defeated and captured causing the others to panic which lead to the destruction of the whole fleet. Fifteen thousand Christians that were enslaved in the Turkish galleys were freed. This battle marked the end of the Ottoman Empire’s expansion into the western Mediterranean.1 First Apparition In 1531, ten years after the capture of Mexico City, a poor Indian named Juan Diego left his house to attend divine service in the beginning of December. On his way he passed the hill of Tepeyacac ("Hill of the Nose", in Nahuatl) and he heard beautiful music from the top of the hill. The music was heavenly; he heard the most beautiful songbirds singing soft and pleasant. He wondered if he was worthy of hearing such beautiful music, and if maybe it was a dream. He thought he might have died and gone to heaven. Over the sounds of birds Juan heard a voice from the hilltop; however, it did not frighten him. In fact he was strangely set at ease by the voice. He climbed the hill in search of the mysterious voice. When he reached the top of the hill he saw a magnificent woman who appeared to glow like nothing he had ever seen before. She radiated like the sun, and the stones that she was standing on were like gems beneath her feet. The foliage surrounding the magnificent woman was full of translucent colors that glimmered in the radiating light.
In countless circumstances, especially in the work force, there are oppressors and there are those who are oppressed against. If one chooses to permit the act of being demoted upon then they will continue to be underestimated and continue to be mistreated. For those who are petrified of speaking out regarding unjust situations they endure, there are people that are willing to promote and try to stop the unjust ways people face when working. Generally in the society we live in today, men do not think women are in any way superior or could make a difference; whether that be in politics or the type of profession that women chooses to practice. Certain people cannot comprehend or step out of this negative critical view point they have towards women because of what they believe is correct and because they picture women as useless objects that should not be taken seriously. You do not hear about many women activists, but there is an abundant amount that actually stepped fourth to alter their community for the ones they care about. Yet Dolores Huerta is a Hispanic female who strived for improving the rules in regards to the way people treat their employers. There was an abundant amount of Mexican-Americans that were being mistreated and were expected to work long periods of hours in the heat, which were farm laborers; all that pain and struggle to receive barely enough to support your family off of. She knew it would take various extents of struggle and sacrifice to reach the goal of altering the union workforce regulations. Dolores Huerta, alongside Cesar Chavez pursued this goal non-violently in order to better the employers because she knew it not only affected them but their families as well. While Dolores Huerta is known as a Hispa...
The study of religion is often a rigorous process because the central tenets of the subject: image, ritual, and myth are often copious in their complexity. For example, consider the multiple meanings that are inherent in the image of a crucifix. Some Christians might view it as an image of suffering, whilst others would reject that notion and instead perceive it to be one of love. These differences may seem inconsequential at first, but they can overtime shape the beliefs of an individual and by extension a community. To understand this dynamic better one only has to analyze the Christo Aparecido (Christ Appeared), an authentic Mexican crucifix with a fascinating history from the colonial era to the present. This history is made known by the text, Biography of a Mexican Crucifix: Lived Religion and Local Faith from the Conquest to the Present by Jennifer Hughes, from which I contend that over the life of the Christo Aparecido there continues to be an understanding among devotees that this crucifix is sacred because it displays animus while being a vestige for the sacred to occupy. To support my position I will attempt to relate the moments where the Christo Aparecido is said to show signs of life, in particular his stay in Mexico City during the colonial era and his role in more modern times with rival groups clashing over its efficacy in the village of Totolapan.
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
In A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas vividly describes the brutality wrought on the natives in the Americas by the Europeans primarily for the purpose of proclaiming and spreading the Christian faith. Las Casas originally intended this account to reach the royal administration of Spain; however, it soon found its way into the hands of many international readers, especially after translation. Bartolomé de Las Casas illustrates an extremely graphic and grim reality to his readers using literary methods such as characterization, imagery, amplification, authorial intrusion and the invocation of providence while trying to appeal to the sympathies of his audience about such atrocities.
This narratives follows the life of Guglielmo Embriaco, the patriarch of a well-respected Genoese family, and his journey to the Holy Land during the First Crusade—where he emerges not only as a fearless leader but also as an innovative engineer, instrumental in the successful but challenging siege of Jerusalem and also the siege of Antioch (Bent, 1881).
The Spanish armada was known as the most powerful navy in the world and they were prepared to go overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was known as a corrupt international political leader, she also encouraged her own Navy to rob Spanish ships that were caring valuable exports from America. The Spanish were ready for revenge; “nearly 140 ships and 24,000 men were supposed to rendezvous with an army of similar size in the Netherlands” (Tompson 1). With a navy this size aiming to overthrow the Queen, the odds were not in favor for the English. The Spanish were even known for having the world’s strongest navy. As they Spanish headed to the Netherlands to meet up with more troops and the other half of their navy, the English fleet intercepted them. On the first day “the English countered with a fleet about 200” they kept their distance and only “annoyed them with long range gunnery” (Tompson 1). As being outnumbered the English were very smart in keeping their distance. This was just the beginning of the English pestering the Spanish with their long-range gunnery. The Spanish armada was heavily weighted with foot soldiers to board the English vessels, but “the English f...
The portrait of Mexican Americans is layered in shades of ambivalence. Aside from the fact there is evidence that they can not really be classified as a migratory culture in that the land where they tend to migrate once belonged to Mexico, they can also lay an earlier claim to the land as Native Americans. The Spanish Europeans who settled in the area that became Mexico evolved as the dominant culture over the oral culture of the Native Americans. Nevertheless, there is evidence of ambivalence among the Native Americans to the dominant culture of the Spanish in what is arguably one of the Mexico's basic texts, the story of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin of Guadalupe does not fit the usual model of the Virgin as she appears to believers, the biggest change being her native appearance. She is of the dominant culture's religion, and yet she is not. Her appearance is one of only eight worldwide that have found acceptance by the Catholic Church (Apparition 48). Moreover, she is a symbol of the native culture as well and has reverence in the eyes of both Mexicans and Mexican Americans that remains evident to date.
Menocal, Maria Rosa. The ornament of the world: how Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a
The subsequent Battle of Gravelines was inconclusive but once more succeeded in doing significant damage to the Spanish fleet. However, th...
In conclusion, if not for early Indian women, Mexico’s population, and religion would be entirely different. If not for Doña Marina’s bilingualism, Cortés would have had a much harder time communicating with the Indians. It would have slowed the conquest down, and there could have been a very different outcome. In accepting women as gifts from the caciques, and baptizing them, Christianity spread rapidly. The Indians, to appease the Spanish, surrendered their gods. Most importantly, the children of the Spanish, Indian, and black created new racial groups, and a hierarchal system to classify them.
...aiting with her army. So when the Armada came into clear view, England set empty ships on fire and let them loose to wreak havoc. Unable to avoid the floating flames, The Spanish ships caught fire from the floating flames and many of them sank. Only about sixty seven lifeless home remained and they were badly damaged. This was a significant victory that sent a message to the rest of the world that England was still a fearsome enemy in combat..
Castillo says that they "stood so high that from it [the temple] one could see over everything very well, and we saw the three causeways which led into Mexico" (World History: Castillo, 252). Cortés is observing the future and destiny that awaits him and the great city of Mexico.
The people who inhabited this ancient site considered it to be magical because of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. The Temple of the Condor was a place of worship where the head of the condor was used as an altar for sacrifices. The Intihuatana is a column of stone that is rising from a block of stone. As winter approached, a priest held a ceremony to prevent the sun from disappearing. Intihuatana means ‘for tying the sun’ and ‘hitching post of the sun.’ Intihuatanas in other Incan civilizations were destroyed by the Spanish. However, the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, th...
In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells the tale of a drowned man that washed up in a small, remote town by the ocean. The women of the town tend to the cadaver and are awe-stricken by the man’s size as well as his beauty. As a result, the women begin to fantasize about how the man’s life must have been while alive, stating “…he would have put so much work into his land that springs would have burst forth from among the rocks so that he would have been able to plant flowers on cliffs” (2). Thus, the women begin to develop a connection with the cadaver, as he becomes a representation of improvement and happiness. This is because the women believed that this stranger would have been able to bring back color into
His hands trembled as if his heart was making his whole body shiver; his eyes, opened wide to their full extent, tried to capture the magnificent sight that stood before him; and that inner sensation, so indescribable and special, as though all questions have been answered, allowed him to gain sovereignty over what he saw. This, most definitely, must have been how Garcia Lopez de Cardenas felt when he first saw the Grand Canyon. In “ Loss of the Creature”, Walker Percy, concerned with how to gain the “sovereignty” Lopez had of the Canyon, explains how the loss of such doesn’t not allow a “consumer” to fully experience things (Percy 753). He criticizes the modern world’s media and pre-packaged ideas, for they create an image in one’s mind