Huei tlamahuiçoltica Totally Explained

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Huei tlamahuiçoltica omonexiti in ilhuicac tlatocaçihuapilli Santa Maria totlaçonantzin Guadalupe in nican huei altepenahuac Mexico itocayocan Tepeyacac (Nahuatl: "By a great miracle appeared the heavenly queen, Saint Mary, our precious mother of Guadalupe, here near the great altepetl of Mexico, at a place called Tepeyacac", generally shortened to Huei tlamahuiçoltica and translated as "The Great Event") is the title of a 36-page tract published in 1649 by Bachelor Luis Laso de la Vega, the vicar of the chapel at Tepeyac, and published the same year in New Spain (now Mexico). It contains an account of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Tepeyac.
The tract is written almost entirely in Nahuatl and includes the Nican mopohua which contains the story of the apparitions. According to the sworn testimony of D. Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, the original preprint was in the calligraphy of Valeriano, its author. A very old and battered partial manuscript copy of the Nican Mopohua in 16 pages, dating c. 1556, can be found at the Public Library of New York; it's there since 1880 together with two later ones (one copy is complete). The older copy appears in Tonanzin Guadalupe with full historical details.

Sections

Preface

The first section, a preface, is titled in Nahuatl "Noble Queen of Heaven, Forever Virgin, Mother of God". In it Lasso addresses the Virgin directly, and after an introduction of four to five lines proceeds to the reason why he took up Nahuatl to print the history of the apparitions:

"You yourself spoke in Nahuatl to a poor Indian and painted yourself in his ayate, thus showing you're not displeased with many languages..."
"That the Indians of this land remember and keep in their language all you did for them and how it happened..."
"Christ on the Cross had His sentence in three languages..."
"You were with the apostles in Pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit" (a remembrance of the miracle of Diaspora Jews understanding each in his own language )

The preface ends with a short prayer in two lines pleading the Virgin's intercession that the Holy Ghost may help him to write in Nahuatl.

Nican mopohua

The second section, the Nican mopohua (Nahuatl: "Here is recounted"), constitutes the apparition narrative (including the Virgin's apparition to Juan Diego's uncle Juan Bernardino). It is probable that the Nahuatl manuscript used by Lasso was the original by Valeriano which is actually in the New York Public Library. Most authorities agree on this and on the dating of when it was written: c. 1556, even O'Gorman.

Content, style, and structure

The Nican mopohua which has been described as "A Jewel of Nahuatl literature, whose beauty and depth of thought make it worthy of renown the world over" relies on the beauty of the dialogues between the Holy Virgin and Juan Diego to express the most tender feelings to be found in world literature. Her promise to grant the wishes of the locals who beseech her is prominent, as is her demand for a temple on the very spot. The Nican Mopohua section by Valeriano of Lasso de la Vega's account is related in a poetic style, typical of the most elegant formal classical Nahuatl in its full beauty. The other parts are clearly different and with greater Spanish influence. The Nican Mopohua is unique for presenting a blending between the deepest Nahuatl thought with the Christian message. It is precisely on this point that an abysmal difference exists with other Dialogues which invoke elements of the dramatic writings (called autos), many of which were used for the purposes of proselytization during the Spanish colonization of Mexico. The autos reflect only Spanish Christian thinking, while the main characteristic of the Nican Mopohua is the exceptional blending of the best of two cultures. The emphasis on the beauty of a miraculous event as given by the Nican Mopohua can be contrasted with the account of Sánchez, which focuses primarily on the agreements between Indian accounts of the apparition and Biblical prophecy (most notably and ).

The Nican mopohua and liberation theology

According to scholar of Mexican religion D.A. Brading, "...the romantic engagement with folk culture that characterized the revolutionary years was eventually taken up by the clergy. Equally important, the effect of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the rise of Liberation Theology was to convert the text into a catechetical instrument, since its emphasis on a poor peasant and his willing acceptance of the Virgin's message, not to mention [Bishop] Zumárraga's initial disdain, responded perfectly to the new-found 'option for the poor'." The discovery in 1995 of the Escalada codex was trumpeted by Catholic historians and proponents of Juan Diego's canonization, but viewed suspiciously by mainstream historians and scholars of religion, who questioned its timing (just as Pope John Paul II was considering sainthood for Juan Diego), and its content (it bore the date 1548 and the names of Juan Diego, Valeriano, and an "authentic" signature of Bernardino de Sahagún, a find one critic likened to "finding a picture of St Paul's vision of Christ on the road to Damascus, drawn by St Luke and signed by St Peter."

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