A Vision Comes Into Focus : Bowers Exhibits Works Celebrating 450-Year-Old Miracle of Guadalupe

SANTA ANA — Thousands of visitors flock each month to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City because of a vision of the Virgin Mary that came to a poor Indian named Juan Diego more than 450 years ago.

Today, thousands are flocking to Bowers Museum in Santa Ana for the same reason.

They’re coming to see “Visions of Guadalupe: Selections From the Museum of the Basilica de Guadalupe,” containing 80 works: Spanish and Mexican colonial paintings, votives, engravings, statues, textiles and vestments from the 17th through 19th centuries.

Many of the pieces have left Mexico for the first time. Bowers officials believe it will be one of the museum’s most popular exhibits.

“I think it’s a perfect exhibit for the Bowers and Southern California,” Bowers director Peter G. Keller said, “given the Latino demographics of the region and the interest in the Lady of Guadalupe,” the patron saint of the Catholic Diocese of Orange. “I’ve seen quite a few people actually get tears in their eyes.”

It’s an especially emotional story for those familiar with it, one that began Dec. 9, 1531. On that day, legend has it, Juan Diego was scurrying over Tepeyac Hill outside Mexico City when a dark-skinned Virgin Mary appeared to him. She told him to ask the local bishop to build a church on the site in her name.

At first, the disbelieving bishop shunned Diego. But three days later, the Virgin reappeared, telling Diego to bring the bishop flowers. Diego showed up with roses--a miracle because the blossoms were out of season at the time. And he was wearing a cloak bearing Mary’s image, another miracle.

That persuaded the bishop, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe was erected at the sacred site.

Multitudes of the faithful now trek to the basilica to worship the revered mother and caretaker of all and behold her glowing image, one of the most powerful and acclaimed in Latin America.

Exhibit curator and Basilica Museum director Jorge Guadarramma, explains in a catalogue essay that the treasures in the museum were collected by the basilica over the centuries “to satisfy the needs of the cult” of the Virgin. “Many objects were donations from people who wanted these objects to be kept here,” he writes. Others were acquired by the basilica’s 20th abbot, Msgr. Feliciano Cortes y Mora, “a great lover of art.”

Depictions of Juan Diego, kneeling in prayer or humbly presenting his roses, a stately silver altarpiece shaped like a sunburst and a priest’s embroidered, red velvet robe are among the works on view.

The exhibit is dominated, however, by imagery of the Virgin, whose miraculous appearance solidified Catholicism in Mexico. She is seen repeatedly with her hands pressed together in prayer, an angel at her feet. She wears a blue robe--which represents virginity--and stands peacefully amid golden rays of heavenly light shining from behind her.

“Since the first years of the Guadalupan tradition,” Guadarramma said through an interpreter in a recent interview at the Bowers, “there has been an enormous reproduction of the Virgin’s image. In every household, you would see her.”

Clearly a man who loves his work, Guadarramma spoke enthusiastically about how many paintings on view reflect a tremendous national pride Mexicans take in the fact that she appeared as a criollo --one with Spanish and Mexican Indian blood--in their country and in no other. One such work, an 18th-Century anonymous painting, depicts the Virgin as the patron saint of New Spain.

“The apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico is considered by the criollos such a privilege for the Mexican land,” he said. “This painting glorifies that privilege.”

The same goes for another anonymous 18th-Century painting, in which the winged Archangel Michael battles the biblical seven-headed beast.

“The archangel is known to Catholics worldwide,” Guadarramma said, but inextricably linked to Mexico in this tableau by virtue of a standard, held aloft by Michael, bearing the Virgin’s image. “The Virgin of Guadalupe is giving him the energy to fight this devil.”

Depictions of the Virgin changed over time, Guadarramma said. At first, she appeared alone, then, for decorative flair, was painted with flowers (“but they had to be roses”), then portrayed with the Holy Spirit. “We think that was done to give her more power and make her image more important.”

One work in the exhibit, however, seems to bring the Virgin down to Earth, as it were. It is one of several ex-votos, or offerings, painted by followers asking her for miracles or expressing gratitude. This retablo --a painting on wood--was made by a man thanking Our Lady of Guadalupe for having returned his stolen 1952 Chevy.

That should make museum-goers smile, although a sense of piousness typically prevails when visitors, even those outside of Mexico, view the basilica’s riches, Guadarramma said.

“A few pieces [from the basilica museum’s collection] came to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston three years ago,” he said. “I was expecting a different reaction in the United States, but people were moved by the same feelings of respect, devotion and admiration.”

* “Visions of Guadalupe: Selections From the Museum of the Basilica de Guadalupe” continues through Dec. 31 at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday; Thursday nights until 9 p.m. $1.50-$4.50. (714) 567-5600. A symposium entitled “Visions of Guadalupe,” exploring the Virgin of Guadalupe’s historic and contemporary impact, will be held at the museum from 1-5 p.m. on Oct. 14. Registration is $15, which includes refreshments and admission to the exhibit.