Reverencing the Feminine: The Chieftains and Los Lobos with "Guadalupe"

Megan and I quit going to our church last weekend. We had been attending a Newman Center on the University of New Mexico campus which had been run for 64 years by Dominican priests. Megan and I felt very welcome there, and we had a community that we really enjoyed. We sang in the choir (though Megan is a much better singer than I am) But back in January, the Archbishop of Santa Fe told the Dominicans that they would have to leave by July 1st - he wanted to use the Newman Center to boost archdiocesan vocations. With one fell swoop, the Dominicans were gone, archdiocesan priests came in and, we think because they felt that there was some evil going on in the parish, they removed everything that belonged to the parish such as vestments, chalices and artwork on the walls and replaced it and sprinkled the whole church with holy water in a blessing ceremony that felt to us like an exorcism. Over the past month, parishioners have been making the decision whether to stay or leave, and most have left. Megan and I made our decision just over a month after the occupation...excuse me, I mean takeover.

One of the first longtime residents of the parish to leave was a large Virgen de Guadalupe painted by one of the parishioners and which had hung on the parish wall for many years. Rumor has it that the Archbishop thought the church's decorations were too "feminine." Rumor also has it that they were going to hang the Virgen on the wall of the parish hall, but the artist was so incensed by the takeover and the attitude of the new priests that she took it back home. I spent a lot of time looking at that Guadalupe. When I moved around the church, her eyes seemed to follow me. For a while, our choir was placed right under her, and I would often look up at her and study her. She seemed to see through me...all my failings were naked for her to see and she seemed to also forgive them. I'm not a very proper religious person, despite the fact that I attended this Catholic church for many years. I can do without the pomp and circumstance, which actually increased after the takeover. But there was something in her that resonated with me.

And now she is gone. It is said that in Mexico, the Virgen appeared to Juan Diego at Tepeyac and asked him in the Nuahaltl language to make sure that a church was built at that site. The archbishop there wouldn't believe him, as archbishops usually do, and told Juan Diego to go back there and return with a miraculous sign to prove that she was there. She appeared again and told Juan Diego to gather flowers from the hill. Even though it was December, he found Castilian roses not native to Mexico, and she arranged them in his cloak. When he opened his cloak for the archbishop, the roses fell to the ground and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin Mary.

I don't know whether one should believe the story or not, but I do miss the painting of the Virgen that hung for so many years in our church and which is now gone. When today's song came up through my random process, on the first Sunday that Megan and I count as our leaving the church we had attended, it seemed like she appeared again for a moment, to let me know that she was still around. It seems very comforting to me to know that.

Guadalupe is a traditional Galician song interpreted by The Chieftains with help in this video from American Latino group Los Lobos. The Chieftains are an Irish ensemble who introduced the wider world to Irish music. However, Guadalupe is an instance where they strayed off the beaten path to make connections between Ireland and other areas of Europe. After a string of successful albums of Irish music, The Chieftains decided to explore the music of the Galicians of Spain. Paddy Maloney remarked that Galicia "is the world's undiscovered Celtic country." The Chieftains were formed in Dublin in 1962 and played their music primarily around the distinctive sound of uileann pipes. They took their name from the title of a novel by Irish author John Montague. Besides releasing several critically acclaimed albums, they are just as well known for their collaborations with such artists as Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Sinead O'Connor and Roger Daltry. They have released 44 albums. Guadalupe is from their 1996 album Santiago.