The Virgin of Guadalupe and Other Miracles - 6/6/2006
It has been a busy few days! After recovering from the experience at TELMEX, I spent the rest of last week running around trying to gather bits and pieces together for our resubmission of the permit request. This progresses slowly but surely. Today, I finished rewriting the proposal for research! Hopefully, I'll soon have the permit sorted out and productivity can begin!

I finished up last week by meeting with the student who is running the ethnography part of the program, and the two of us developed projects for the students who are working for me.

We began research in the village near the Hacienda yesterday. Mainly, we are collecting oral histories about the Hacienda, and the archaeologists are concentrating on the material "things" in the stories people tell to help contextualize our excavations. We are also collecting information on distribution systems, studying what things are available for purchase in the village and what are available at the market in town. We have a student who is, uhm, socially challenged (read "my cross to bear"), and we gave him the task of writing complete lists of items in the stores while Mary Carmen and I talk to the store owners.

This last strategy has worked out brilliantly. The student has totally risen to the occasion. I talked to him for a long time about what an important assignment this is (which it genuinely is, and unique suited to his personality, or lack thereof), and he is completely pumped up. He was actually showing enthusiasm and initiative (this is the second summer I've worked with him and I've never seen this before). Apparently the change in him, rumored due to being entrusted with important work, has been noted and gossiped about throughout the department. Zee came home today from work and said, "So I hear you have worked a miracle with that kid!"

We'll see if the miracle sticks, but at the moment I'm totally thrilled at the possibility of not only keeping him from alienating some of our informants, but also getting some really good data out of it! More on the progress of research over the course of the coming weeks! Keep fingers crossed for me!

And with all the work out of the way, it was and is off for some fun!

My friend Kim arrived from Boston Saturday afternoon. I took the bus into Mexico City to meet her and we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the City. Saturday afternoon and evening, we wandered around the streets of the historic center in the rain, stopping for snacks in this cafe and that when the rain got to heavy.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed out for a day at the Basilica of Guadalupe. In addition to a profound religious experience, we expected to enjoy the opportunity to shop for great tacky kitsch. We were not disappointed. At least not in the kitsch department! All sorts of unbelievable crap was proudly displayed underneath bright awnings for blocks and blocks surrounding the basilica. One does wonder how great the demand is for a CD (designed not to play but to hang from your rearview mirror) emblazoned with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe cradling Pope John Paul II in her arms. Apparently, though, it sells quite well, as quantities of them were available at possibly a dozen stands (that I saw...). Also available was the much sought after Virgin of Guadalupe-in-a-walnut-shell-key-chain. For the younger set, many vendors were selling framed images of the Virgin Mary, but not just any framed image. The frame had a plug, and when plugged in, hypnotic, swirling lights flashed behind the virgin. I'm not sure what kind trip it is meant to send you on, but I doubt it would be a good one! The connection was unclear, but, while visiting the basilica, you could also pick up a life sized paper mache statue of the grim reaper to commemorate your visit.

Beyond the nasty commercialism stood the Basilica itself. The new Basilica is really, really ugly (this time, pictures will follow. I promise!), a monument to some self-satisfied architect who was probably determined to build something totally unique. In the stone courtyard in front, half a dozen people approached the Basilica on their knees, crawling towards the Virgin in penance and devotion (OUCH!).

Inside, the scene was one of quiet chaos. There were hundreds of people pressed in, trying to see the apparition of the Virgin. It seemed as if everybody had an infant in their arms, and a toddler underfoot. Everyone was quiet and polite and respectful. Curiously, Kim and I were the only foreign tourists I saw during our entire visit!

As we approached the cloak of Juan Diego, kept high up above the rabble and protected behind glass, we were all forced to step onto one of four moving sidewalks which allowed us to glide by the Virgin (not unlike a trip to see the crown jewels in England!). Reaching the end of the "ride", we stumbled up a ramp, and back into the courtyard, where we were greeted with the photo ops. Some enterprising people had set up huge cardboard cutouts of the Virgin. In front of these, they placed plastic horses. For a mere 30 pesos, you could climb onto the back of the plastic horse, don a sombrero, and have your digital pic taken with the Virgin by a fleet of men in grey lab coats and white cowboy hats.

I am hoping that somebody out there can fill me in on the relationship between horses/sombreros and the Virgin of Guadalupe? I'm just not up on my miraculous apparition stories, I guess...

And on that note, I should dash! It is getting late here, and I have a busy week ahead.

I hope this finds everyone well, with your own miracles of your choosing!

Hugs to all,
Elizabeth