The Virgin of Guadeloupe

On December 9, 1531, the Virgin of Guadeloupe appeared to Juan Diego, a recently converted Aztec in Mexico, just outside of Mexico City. In order to fully appreciate the apparition, we need to place ourselves in the position of native Mexicans nearly wiped out the the Spanish invaders, suggests the blogger at religionnerd in "The Gift of Guadeloupe." The Virgin of Guadeloupe has long been a symbol of Catholic Mexico. Her image can be found on churches, candles, bath towels, and even car windows.

In Sor Juana or, The Traps of Faith Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz suggests that the Virgin of Guadeloupe was so important to colonial Mexicans because it was "an answer to their triple orphanhood." For Indians, the Virgin was a "transfiguration of their ancient female deities"; for "Criollos, because the Virgin's apparition made the land of New Spain more of a real mother than Spain had been; Mestizos, because the Virgin did and does represent reconciliation with their origins and the end to their illegitimacy"(40).

On the feast day of the Virgin of Guadeloupe, January 12,2012, the Hispanic and Latino Bishops of the United States signed a letter supporting Latino Immigrants to the United States.

Works Cited

Paz, Octavio. Sor Juana or, The Traps of Faith. Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1988.

Windows and Mirrors

For the concept of Windows and Mirrors as a tool for discussing multicultural literature, I'm indebted to Emily Style's seminal article, Curriculum as Window and Mirror.

The tool is simple, but profound. You look at a text and ask yourself: what do I recognize here from my own experience? What is unfamiliar to me? Then you discuss what you see in the mirror (reflections of your own experience) or window (unfamiliar things) with others.

We'll begin by asking these questions of paintings of family and community life by Carmen Lomas Garza.

Carmen Lomas Garza's artwork has been published in numerous picture books marketed to a children's audience, but her artwork is also relevant to adults. Her books include In My Family and A Piece of My Heart/Pedicito di mi Corazon.

The concept of windows and mirrors has developed into a widespread concept for helping people understand each other across cultural barriers. For instance, an international art exhibit entitled Windows and Mirrors opened in Altanta this past summer (August 2011). It featured 40 works portraying the civilian casualties in Afghanistan by artists from around the world, sponsored by American Friends Service Committee.

Latino/a Literature: Exploring Identity

I'm thrilled to launch the first-ever Latino/a Literature class at Goshen College in January 2012. My students and I will be blogging about the literature we read as we reflect on the extent to which it serves as a window into a new cultural space, or a mirror of our own culture and preoccupations. For each student, this window and mirror configuration will be different, which I hope will lead to some lively discussion. For instance, we will read works by Mexican-(Chicano), Cuban-, Puerto Rican-, and Dominican-American writers. So even Latino students will find windows as well as mirrors in these texts, for Latino/a Literature is, by its very nature, multicultural.

Works we're reading include:

Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima

Aragon, Francisco, ed. The Wind Shifts

Augenbraum, Harold, ed. The Latino Reader

Castillo, Ana. The Guardians.

Diaz, Junot, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Christina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

Ernesto Quinonez, Bodega Dreams