‘El Yndio Mas Venturoso’: A Spanish Guadalupan Drama of the Early Nineteenth Century

The Catholic missionaries who first brought Christianity to New Spain (colonial Mexico) were often very creative and innovative in their teaching methods. They used various audiovisual devices and, often without realizing it, built on preconquest and pre-Christian concepts, a form of unconscious syncretism.¹ It is widely accepted that the missionary enterprise began in 1524 with the arrival of “The Twelve,” the first Franciscan missionaries. Their initial decision that evangelization would be carried on in the native languages, not Spanish, was crucial and had become Church policy by the eighteenth century. They were aided in this by the fact that Nahuatl, the Aztec language, served as a lingua franca, especially in commerce and diplomacy, throughout the central plateau and as far south as Guatemala. The Franciscans, and later the Jesuits, produced grammars (artes), dictionaries, sermonaries, catechisms, miracle stories, and even religious drama in Nahuatl. The adaptation of Nahuatl to the Latin alphabet was enthusiastically received by the native peoples who left us chronicles, town council records, censuses (with valuable information on baptisms and polygamy), lawsuits, and other documentation. With all this, we have been able to open a new window on colonial life.²

One of the most creative approaches used by missionaries, especially the Franciscans, was religious drama. Plays of a didactic and moralizing nature were composed in the native languages, most frequently Nahuatl, and often employed elaborate sets and costumes, dramatic effects, and both native music and Latin hymns.³ Most of these works were written and performed in the sixteenth century and thus truly merit recognition as the first American theater. In contrast to theater in many other countries, native-language plays in New Spain featured female actresses in major roles. Almost all the dramas were presented in the open air, something that the natives would have been accustomed to.⁴ However, for reasons that are not clear, Nahuatl theater became less common in the seventeenth century.

The Guadalupe Narrative

The tradition of the appearances of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the indigenous neophyte Juan Diego at the hill of Tepeyac in 1531 is fundamental to the history of religion in Mexico. It is equally so to its civil history, and so a common assertion has been that “Mexico was born at Tepeyac.” The story has been told and retold manifold times. Juan Diego was a newly converted Indian who, en route to Tlatelolco for religious instruction, had a vision of the Virgin Mary in which she instructed him to go to the bishop-elect of Mexico, the Franciscan Juan de Zumárraga, with instructions that he should build a church at that site. When Juan Diego delivered these instructions to the bishop-elect, he was received with understandable skepticism. Returning to Tepeyac, the native told the Virgin of his lack of success and asked her to send other higher-born messengers, who would be believed. She, however, directed him to return to Zumárraga the following day.

On that day, a Sunday, Juan Diego returned to the bishop’s residence. He informed the bishop-elect of his new commission. This time Zumárraga was more interested and asked him for a sign to prove the truth of the communication. When Juan Diego departed, Zumárraga sent two of his servants to follow him to see with whom he spoke, but they lost him at the hill. Angry, they returned to the bishop-elect to denounce the native as a sorcerer. On Monday Juan Diego did not return to Tepeyac. His uncle, Juan Bernardino, had fallen mortally ill and asked his nephew to bring some priests from Tlatelolco to hear his confession and prepare him for death. This time, Juan Diego tried to avoid the hill and the Virgin, but she found him and assured him that his uncle had already been cured. He asked her for a sign to give to the bishop-elect. She directed him to go to the top of the hill and collect the flowers that he would find, even though flowers did not grow there...