Guadalupan Nahua Stories: An Analysis of the Inner Indigenous Influence in Nahuatl Accounts of Guadalupe

The historical debate over the apparitions’ historicity has overshadowed the beauty of the Guadalupe message. An understudied aspect warrants further analysis: the Indigenous interpretations and background of the Nahua stories of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In this paper, I will analyze the inner Indigenous Nahua meanings of the following Guadalupe Accounts: Nican Mopohua, Tepoanxcuicatl, Inin Hueitlamahuilzoltzin, and Relación Mercuriana. The sources will be studied in the context of Nahuatl literature, particularly the Nican Mopohua, in comparison with the Cantares Mexicanos (Songs of the Aztecs) and the Romances (Ballads of the Lords of New Spain). This work will complement Timothy Matovina’s scholarship on indigenous devotion and on the Indigenous interpretation of the Image. Therefore, the three sources of Guadalupan knowledge (Image, devotion, and the story) could be read through a Nahua-Indigenous lens. This piece will close the gap in the story source, arguing for the “nahuatization of Christianity” and presenting the extent of the Nahua worldview’s influence on Colonial Christianity.