The apparition in 1531 that led to the veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe and which is celebrated this Friday in Mexico

- Author, Alberto Najar*
- Author title, BBC News World, Mexico
December 12, 2025

The human flow begins in the first days of December.

Millions of Mexicans travel to the Basilica of Guadalupe in the north of Mexico City every year by bicycle, on foot, in long bus caravans or trucks.

These days the streets to the state capital are full of pilgrims. The neighborhood where the sanctuary is located is completely closed.

On the day and night before December 12th, when the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe is commemorated, the flow of people never stops.

Millions of people come together for the annual event.

A large nighttime memorial procession in Mexico in which believers carry the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe — caption, Millions of Mexicans travel to the Basilica of Guadalupe north of Mexico City every year.

And these are only those who arrive on this day, because in the remaining months the visits are never interrupted. Every year around 20 million people pray in front of the basilica’s altar.

It is the most important religious festival in Mexico, and after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Shrine of the Virgin of Morena, as it is also called, is the most visited in the Catholic Church.

But beyond devotion, the image, whose origins date back to 1531, is one of Mexico’s greatest symbols of identity.

“The Virgin of Guadalupe reflects in a very profound way the popular religiosity of the Mexican people,” Bernardo Barranco, vice president of the Center for the Study of Religions of Mexico, told BBC Mundo.

A woman in a black hat holds an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe — caption, The origin of the image, which represents the symbol of Mexico’s greatest identity, dates back to 1531.

“It is the faith of the simple people, the farmers, the indigenous people, the taxi drivers, the workers, who do not need great encyclicals, but faith through what is lived, through symbolic expressions such as celebration, pilgrimage, family, to realize in their own way the commitment to the Marian vocation.”

The apparitions

The story began in December 1531. According to the Vatican in its documents, on the 9th, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin went to the Tlatelolco market, the main trading center of the Aztec people.

As he passed through a place called Tepeyac, he met a woman surrounded by intense light who said she was “the perfect virgin of all time, the mother of the true God.”

Catholic tradition says that the woman asked him to speak to the then Bishop Fray Juan De Zumárraga so that he could build a temple on the same site.

The priest did not believe him and demanded proof of his statement. Juan Diego experienced three more apparitions, the last on December 12th.

It was then that he received orders to climb to the top of the hill, where he found fresh roses, a flower that was not cultivated in December, then in Mexico.

Believers crouching on all fours on the ground with the image of the Virgin on their backs — caption, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin said he saw the virgins four times.

It was the beginning of a 487-year-old cult that has not been spared from controversy.

At different times, several historians have questioned the existence of Juan Diego and the history of the apparition.

In fact, there is no reference to this episode in De Zumárraga’s archives and writings.

However, most agree that the veneration of the Morena Virgin is part of Mexico’s history and has even shaped it.

For example, in 1810, priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla used the image of the Guadalupana on the banner with which he led the start of the War of Independence.

A century later, during the Mexican Revolution, the Southern Army led by Emiliano Zapata adopted the religious image as its own, Barranco recalls.

And in recent decades, many migrants in the United States have continued the devotion.

A blue car decorated with lights, garlands and several images of the Virgin of Guadalupe — caption, The priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla used the image of the Guadalupana on the banner with which he led the beginning of the War of Independence.

In December, religious ceremonies and celebrations commemorating Guadalupana often take place in cities such as Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.

And since 2001, the Guadalupana Torch Run has taken place, with thousands of people running from the Basilica of Guadalupe to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

At this point there is an altar dedicated to the Virgin of Morena. And those who walk and carry a burning torch are migrants.

Founding tragedy

Mexico is one of the countries with the largest number of believers in the Catholic Church in the world.

But even since the middle of the last century it has been common, especially among non-believers, to hear a very specific religious definition.

Many Mexicans do not identify as Catholics but as Guadalupeans.

A pious woman wearing a green veil with gold trim and her eyes closed prays before a statuette of the Virgin of Guadalupe

More than just a phrase, it represents the deep roots of the Virgin of Guadalupe among Mexicans. And it is related to the origin of the country and its society.

In 1531, when the alleged Guadalupana apparitions occurred, only ten years had passed since the army of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec Tlatoani, was defeated by the Spanish.

It was a moment of deep depression. The Aztecs were a “military-despotic” empire, says Bernardo Barranco, which based its power on the conquest of neighboring peoples on whom it imposed tribute.

When it was defeated by the Spanish – led by Hernán Cortés – in 1521, “collective suicides occurred, women who became pregnant committed suicide,” says Barranco.

“It is a moment of deep depression for the Nahuatl people in the face of brutal subjugation by the Spanish.”

In this scenario, the apparitions of the Guadalupana occur in the place where, according to Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – the monk who recounted the moments of war and subsequent subjugation – there was originally a place of worship of the goddess Tonantzin.

“Tonantzin Guadalupe”

Tonantzin was one of the most important deities of Mesoamerica, as she was considered the mother of the earth and all the gods.

Barranco says that Fray Bernardino was impressed by the fact that after the apparitions, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people from many parts of the area of so-called New Spain came to Tepeyac.

The suspicion was that it was actually a homage to the Nahuatl goddess. Since then, Guadalupana has also been referred to as “Tonantzin Guadalupe.”

A child wearing a white cap and a gray T-shirt with red trim, with his back to the camera and flanked by two adults, carries the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on his back — caption, There are Mexicans who do not see themselves as Catholics but as Guadalupanos.

The name represents “a very deep intertwining that gives meaning to the meeting of two cultures, European and Mesoamerican.”

But it is also something more. Veneration of the Morena Virgin increases during times of tragic events such as epidemics, floods and civil wars.

On December 12, 1985, months after the earthquake that devastated part of Mexico City, the pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe was particularly intense.

The same thing happened in the economic crisis of 1995, known as the “Tequila effect”, or in 2017, after the earthquake in September of the same year, when seven million pilgrims came to the site.

A reflection, says Barranco, of the vision of this protective mother and her safe space for Mexicans.

*This article was originally published on BBC News Mundo on December 12, 2018