What role does Our Lady of Guadalupe play in the culture of the Americas today?
Allen: In Los Angeles, where I am from, she is huge. One year we were in Los Angeles for her feast day and went to the new cathedral to celebrate. There was a long line of people with flowers, waiting to get inside the cathedral and kiss a big image of her. It was on a weekday, so people were taking off work and taking their kids out of school to see her. Little boys were dressed up like Juan Diego and little girls were wearing Mexican peasant skirts. Families were doing Indian dances there as they do in the plaza at the shrine. At any store where Mexican Americans shop, you see her image on candles and cloth paintings. She plays an enormous role in their devotional life, no matter if she is a cultural image. It takes devotion to wait in line in order to kiss an image. Q: How has Our Lady of Guadalupe kept the Americas’ Spanish-speaking Catholics tied to their faith? their culture? Allen: Evangelical Protestants who actively proselytize have made inroads with lapsed Spanish-speaking Ca
