Huei tlamahuiçoltica
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Huei Tlamahuiçoltica ("The Great Event")
The
The traditions recounted in the 1649 tract were first published in the Spanish book Imagen de la Virgen María, Madre de Dios de Guadalupe ("Image of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God of Guadalupe"), written by Miguel Sánchez in 1648 and being a theological dissertation linking the Guadalupan Image to Revelation 12:1.[4][5]
There is an equally contentious and much shorter manuscript in Nahuatl preceding the Nican Mopohua, which is titled the Inin Huey Tlamahuiçoltzin ("This Is the Great Marvel"), also known as "The Primitive Relation" of the apparitions. It is in The National Library of México.[6]
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 in order to publish the history of the apparitions:
- "You yourself spoke in Nahuatl to a poor Indian and painted yourself in his ayate, thus showing you are 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 Acts 2:1–6)[7]
The preface ends with a short prayer in two lines pleading the Virgin's intercession for the assistance of the Holy Spirit in writing in Nahuatl.
Nican Mopohua
The second section, the Nican Mopohua ("Here Is Recounted") constitutes the narrative in
Content, style, and structure
The Nican Mopohua, which has been described as "A Jewel of Nahuatl literature",[
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. Scholar Richard Nebel insists that the Nican Mopohua is not necessarily a historical account, but a document designed to convert the Nahua and "bring about a state of harmony between different peoples, cultures, and religions, in order that, during a period of radical change, new possibilities of coexistence could be envisaged".[12]
It is precisely on this point that a difference exists with other dialogues which invoke elements of the dramatic writings (called autos), many of which were used for the purposes of
Because the apparition, and the purportedly miraculous transposition of the Virgin's
Critical response
In authorizing the publication of the Huei tlamahuiuçoltica, in an "opinion" published as part of the front matter to the main text, Baltazar González, a
Some contemporary scholars have written skeptical or critical texts about the origin of the image and the texts. Sousa, Poole and Lockhart, in their 1998 edition and translation, suggested that the most reasonable hypothesis was that Laso de la Vega's core narrative was based on Sánchez's earlier Image of the Virgin Mary, with an early 17th-century engraving by Samuel Stradanus as a secondary source.[15] Today, Catholics, especially those in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, accept the Nican Mopohua, whether written by Laso de la Vega, Valeriano, or another, unknown author, as the primordial telling of the Virgin Mary's personal evangelism to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[16]
The Nican Mopohua and liberation theology
According to
Description of the image
The third section is a description of the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as it was exhibited in the chapel of Tepeyac during Laso de la Vega's day.
"Nican Motecpana"
The fourth section, called the "Nican Motecpana" (Nahuatl: "Here is an ordered account"), relates the fourteen miracles ascribed to the image of the Virgin that remained stamped on Juan Diego's tilma after the apparition.
Biography of Juan Diego
The fifth section is a post-apparition biography of Juan Diego, detailing his pious life and devotion to the Virgin and her image.
"Nican Tlantica"
The sixth section, the "Nican Tlantica" (Nahuatl: "Here ends"), is a general history of the Virgin in New Spain and an exhortation to her devotion.
Final prayer
The seventh section is another prayer, this one following the structure of the Salve Regina.
Publication and authorship
The responsibility for the composition and authorship of the Huei tlamahuiuçoltica is assigned by many contemporary
The work was initially published under the auspices of Dr. Pedro de Barrientos Lomelín, vicar general of the Mexican diocese, at the press of Juan Ruiz in 1649.
In 1666, Lic. Luis Becerra Tanco (1603–1672), a secular priest, affirmed that the
Other scholars who have disputed Laso de la Vega's authorship include Francisco de Florencia, a Jesuit chronicler, who assumed that the "Indian manuscript" mentioned by Becerra Tanco was written by
Some contemporary scholars hold the notion that Becerra Tanco, Florencia, and Sigüenza y Góngora endeavored to authenticate the events of the narrative by placing its original authorship in hands that were both native to Mexico and of greater antiquity than the mid-17th century. Since Mexican petitioners to the Vatican for official recognition of the miracle relied on Sigüenza y Góngora's testimony that the story predated the publication of both the Nican Mopohua and Image of the Virgin Mary, ecclesiastical writers have continued to cite Valeriano as its author.[20]
Notes
- ^ The text's full title is Huei tlamahuiçoltica omonexiti in ilhuicac tlatocaçihuapilli Santa Maria totlaçonantzin Guadalupe in nican huei altepenahuac Mexico itocayocan Tepeyacac ("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")
- United States of America, including the three authors of the 1998 work cited below. Nahuatl scholars and historians in Mexico lean to or accept authorship by Antonio Valeriano. These include Edmundo O'Gorman (1991) and Miguel León-Portilla (2001).
- ^ See Poole, p. 168.
- ^ ISBN 968-16-6209-1.
- OCLC 11142386.
- ^ See Poole, pp. 40–43 etc., who shows that historians variously date it to the 16th, 17th, or 18th century, he himself preferring the latest date.
- ^ Although the presence of “Mary, the mother of Jesus” is not explicitly mentioned in Acts 2:1–6, Acts 1:14 states that “[The Apostles] all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
- OCLC 9593292.
- ISBN 968-837-870-4.
- ^ "The Writing of Nicanmopohua of Guadalupe, Jewel of Literature in Náhuatl".
- ^ "Nican Mopohua".
- ^ Nebel, Richard (1998). "The Cult of Santa Maria Tonantzin, Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico." In Sacred Space: Shrine, City, Land. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press. pp. 253–254.
- ^ Leon-Portilla, Miguel (2000). Tonantzin Guadalupe: Pensamiento Nahuatl y Mensaje Cristiano en el "Nican Mopohua". D.F., Mexico: El Colegio Nacional Fondo de Cultura Economica. p. 68.
- ^ See text as printed in Sousa et al., p.51.
- ^ Sousa et al. (1998), pp. 17f, where they review the three possibilities which could explain the literary relationship and conclude "Nevertheless we are not dogmatic on these matters . . We consider our conclusions on the relationship of the Huei tlamahuiuçoltica and the Imagen de la Virgen to be more as indicated than as definitively established." Cf. at p. 47: "For the apparition story and the miracle accounts, the most indicated source is the work of Sánchez, supplemented by the Stradanus engraving".
- ^ What might be termed the "catechetical" aspect of the Guadalupe apparitions as narrated in the Nican Mopohua is explored by Brading at p. 340f., where he quotes from the homily delivered by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 6 May 1990 on the occasion of the beatification of Juan Diego, and, more extensively, at pp. 345–351. See also the section below on "The Nican Mopohua and liberation theology".
- ^ Brading (2001) p. 331.
- ^ Sousa et al. (1998), pp.42–47.
- ^ Sousa et al. (1998), pp.46–47.
- ^ "The Apparitions and the Miracle". sancta.org. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
References
- OCLC 44868981.
- Poole, Stafford (1995). Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531-1797. Tucson: ISBN 0-8165-1526-3.
- OCLC 39455844.