Gustavo Vazquez Lozano

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts describing the image and the theories surrounding its origins *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading No other artwork in the world is comparable to the Virgin of Guadalupe. What makes this painting unique -located in the Basilica of Guadalupe, north of Mexico City- is not precisely its artistic quality, as is the case with the Mona Lisa by Leonardo or The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, nor its place in the evolution of painting. It clearly does not constitute a landmark in art history, and the most visited painting in the world is certainly not the summit or the harbinger of a new aesthetic movement, like Dali s melting watches or Van Gogh s Starry Night. In fact, for some, the execution of the image is coarse and all its elements fit well known techniques. For others, it s merely a copy of a sculpture of the Virgin found in Spain. What distinguishes the Virgin of Guadalupe of Mexico is her universality: unlike any work of art in the world, it can be recognized by any local; it s certainly the most ubiquitous symbol in her country. It would be difficult to find a Mexican who cannot name her. Likewise, it would be complicated to find one who hasn t been at least once in his or her life before the image at the Basilica, either reluctantly or filled with devotion. The other thing that makes the Virgin of Guadalupe incomparable is her power to unite her nation, something that has been widely demonstrated throughout history. At different moments, and raised by different hands, the Virgin of Guadalupe (never the original painting) has led the troops that changed the history of the territory now known as Mexico. Not even a few hours had passed after the start of the War of Independence when the rebel army was already carrying the image of Guadalupe; in the twentieth century the image was present at the indigenous rebellion in Chiapas in 1994 and also materialized during the Mexican "perestroika" of 2000, which ended the single-party regime that had lasted for seven decades. Going further back, during Mexico s Conquest, Hern n Cort s carried an image of the Virgin that, to the disinterested observer, is obviously the prototype of the Mexican Madonna. For some, Guadalupe is the work of a talented Indian painter, and this work was retouched and embellished by others in later centuries. The majority of scholars note how the image "appeared" at a very convenient time in Mexico s history, when evangelization functioned as the ideological arm of the material conquest of the Aztec empire. There are even reasons to wonder whether the image currently on display in Mexico City is the same as in the 17th century since it is known from testimonies of the time that Mary had a crown on her head. That means if it s the same, at the very least it s been retouched, doctored and tampered with again. Conversely, for the believers, the image was miraculously stamped on the tilma or cloak of a man named Juan Diego. Among the latter are most of the 17 million persons who visit the original every year in Mexico City, which makes it the most visited painting in the country, and certainly the world. By comparison, the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris receives six million visitors per year. What nobody questions -believers, skeptics or atheists- is that the Virgin of Guadalupe has been the most important symbol, religious or not, in Mexico s history, a kind of non-official flag. Her influence has spread even to the Mexican diaspora, where it has become a sign of identity, pride and resistance among undocumented immigrants in the United States. For Mexicans, it s not necessary to be religious to believe in the power of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a unifying symbol and embodiment of national identity. The Virgin of Guadalupe: The History and Legacy of One of the Catholic Church's Most Venerated Images looks at the history of the image.

*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts from the apocrypha *Includes a list of the apocrypha, online resources, and a bibliography for further reading Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church. In fact, it was not until a synod in Rome in 382 that the Church in the West formally adopted a list of the canonical books of the New Testament. For the intervening three centuries, there was much discussion among different writers over the many manuscripts circulating among the early Christian communities. Many of the manuscripts were anonymously authored by members of early heretical groups of Christians who shaped supposedly inspired writings to provide support for their doctrinal positions. Many more had the veneer of inspired texts because they were attributed to one of the Twelve Apostles or Mary, the mother of Jesus; they claimed to offer details of Jesus' life not covered in depth in the Four Gospels (such as his infancy and childhood), or the activities of the named apostle, or doctrinal teachings. The process of determining the Canon of the New Testament was a long one. It involved numerous scholars directed by the teachings of the Church sifting through numerous manuscripts with various attributed authorships. The 29 that made it into the canon were those that passed muster in terms of apostolic authorship and conformity to orthodox Church teaching. Most of those that did not make it in failed on those two accounts. Others were not included because they were judged not to have been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the reason they were excluded, the writings that comprise the New Testament Apocrypha, while not inspired Scripture, do show something of the context in which the early Church developed its doctrines and its writings. Even today, not every branch of the Christian church agrees on which writings should be regarded as "canonical" and which are "apocryphal", even though some apocryphal texts often have noticeable links with books regarded as "canonical". Regardless, the New Testament Apocrypha refers to texts written by early Christians that were not included in the Bible used by the main branches of Christianity today. These texts vary in subject matter, with some being accounts of Jesus, others being about the nature of God, and still others being accounts and teachings of Jesus' apostles. What makes them fascinating is not just the history behind why they are considered non-canonical, but what they tell us about the early Church and early Christianity. Moreover, they offer insight into what sources were used to write them, and whether they shared the same sources as the texts that comprise the Bible today. Given their historical and religious importance, there is still a fierce debate over the authenticity of many of these texts. The Apocryphal Gospels: The History of the New Testament Apocrypha Not Included in the Bible looks at some of the famous texts that were kept out of the Bible. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the apocryphal books like never before.

Jes s de Nazareth fue un maestro jud o de origen rural que vivi en el primer tercio del siglo I de nuestra era. Durante una celebraci n de la Pascua en Jerusal n fue condenado a la pena de muerte -espec ficamente crucifixi n- por la autoridad imperial de Roma, que en ese momento ten a el control de su pa s. Muchas cosas m s podr an decirse de su vida, pero aparte de este peque o resumen y quiz uno o dos detalles m s, ser a complicado que todos los acad micos estudiosos de la Biblia levantaran su mano en se al de acuerdo. Sin embargo, la literatura escrita en los siguientes 250 a os despu s de la muerte de este predicador jud o -relativamente desconocido en vida- fue abundante, casi estridente. Cu ntas personas dejaron por escrito vida o dichos de Jes s de Nazareth? La persona poco versada en estos temas responder que cuatro: los autores de los evangelios de Mateo, Marcos, Lucas y Juan, libros que se encuentran en el Nuevo Testamento. Pero para muchos resulta una sorpresa saber que los evangelios que aparecen en la Biblia no son sino una peque a muestra de los que se produjeron. Desde el principio, la producci n literaria de quienes consideraban a Jes s como Mes as fue abundante. Sin contar las breves menciones sobre la vida de Jes s que aparecen en las cartas de San Pablo, en los primeros dos siglos y medio de nuestra se compusieron muchas otras colecciones de dichos y hechos sobre el maestro jud o, algunas de ellas posiblemente por testigos oculares, o cuando menos, por cristianos de la primera o segunda generaci n (disc pulos de los disc pulos de Jes s). Algunos de esos textos fueron tan populares y gozaron de tal difusi n que han dejado su influencia hasta nuestros d as. Los nombres de los reyes magos -Melchor, Gaspar y Baltazar-, la tradici n de que Jos el padre de Jes s era viudo, los nombres de los bandidos que perecieron junto a l en la cruz -Dimas y Gestas- y el de la esposa de Pilatos, por citar s lo algunos ejemplos, provienen todos de los ap crifos: nunca se mencionan en la Biblia. La imponente pintura que est en la iglesia de San Paolo Maggiore, en N poles, que muestra a San Pedro luchando contra el mago Sim n, tambi n proviene de la imaginer a ap crifa.

"Pancho Villa", dec a la gente en M xico a principios del siglo XX, "puede andar 100 kil metros sin parar, vivir 100 d as sin comer, aguantar 100 noches sin dormir y matar 100 hombres sin ning n remordimiento". La leyenda de Francisco Villa est saturada de hero smo, tragedia y romanticismo; es la historia de un campesino pobre que se convierte en bandolero por necesidad, por haber vengado una injusticia sobre su familia; la del genio militar que primero huye del gobierno opresor, y despu s, frente al ej rcito revolucionario m s grande en la historia de su pa s, lo derrota y se convierte en el liberador de M xico, s lo para volver a caer en la desgracia cuando sus tropas lo abandonan o son liquidadas por el enemigo. La caballer a de Pancho Villa, agregan los mexicanos con algo de orgullo, invadi Estados Unidos, y aunque vinieron a buscarlo, jam s lo pudieron encontrar. sta es, cuando menos, la versi n que conoce la mayor parte de sus compatriotas, que ciertamente no es la de sus libros de texto.

*Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts and descriptions of the cult *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading European and American scholars are fascinated by her. She is exotic; they look at her with the romantic look of the anthropologist and the sociologist; she is Mexican, colorful, and third-worldly (not to mention that she is a fantastic reason to get funding from their universities). Many see in her, correctly, a prodigious syncretism, so common in the troubled history of Latin America. The Catholic hierarchy, the predominant religion in Mexico, is horrified; the church calls her a satanic cult figure, associated with organized crime. Similarly, governmental authorities watch cautiously, deny official recognition to her "churches," and destroy her solitary shrines in northern Mexico, in roads riddled with crime. However, among her followers -besides prisoners, drug traffickers and many well-meaning men and women seeking other spiritual alternatives- there are some working on the side of the law, especially soldiers and police officers. Enter La Santa Muerte, the "Holy Death", a skeletal figure dressed like a Catholic saint, whom her faithful raised to the altars without asking anyone for permission. From her followers, she gets not only candles, prayers and petitions, as any other saint; they also call her loving names that to the outside observer would seem to be a joke: beautiful, skinny, cute girl, little mother, and at the height of the confusion, "virgin". What then is the Santa Muerte movement? As a practice, it has borrowed extensively from Catholicism, Santeria and even New Age, depending on the leader of the moment and the region, from Central America to Chicago. In the variety most similar to Catholicism, people find images of the skeleton dressed in a green robe with stars and golden borders, with rays of light coming out of her head: a negative image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. "It's our little mother, our skinny, she always takes care of us," says an anonymous woman who refers to Santa Muerte in the same way Mexican Catholics refer to The Virgin. Although fleshless, Santa Muerte is, without a doubt, a female figure (in the Spanish language, "death" is a feminine noun). But the garments of the Virgin of Guadalupe are not the only thing that the "white girl" borrowed. In fact, one of the main features of this cult is its extraordinary elasticity. It will adapt to anything. Anyone can dogmatize. Everybody contributes according to his or her feelings and experiences. Young cholos (street punks) prefer a version more reminiscent of some Iron Maiden albums, and the elderly of the Tepito neighborhood, another more similar to those found at small town churches, with flowers in her hair, and a robe with embroidery. Therefore, for the casual observer watching the candles, the flowers, listening to the murmur of prayers and noticing the insistence on receiving miracles, Santa Muerte is like another Catholic saint, despite the fact the cult of the Holy Death is not only not approved by any Christian denomination but is not even tolerated. This is the story of Santa Muerte, the so-called cult of crisis, a red-hot combo of a kermesse (Mexican carnival), Catholicism and New Age; a hedonist practice but involving bodily sacrifice too. It is an expression of economic, psychological and social forces, bigger than perhaps any of her acolytes suspect. The Santa Muerte: The Origins, History, and Secrets of the Mexican Folk Saint looks at the folk saint and the manner in which her cult grew. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Santa Muerte like never before.

Hoy, el profeta de Nazareth sigue despertando un vivo inter s en una amplia cantidad de c rculos ortodoxos y heterodoxos. Los libros sobre l son tan abundantes como la proverbial planta de mostaza. Jes s, cuya muerte ocurri hace casi dos mil a os, contin a siendo la m s c lebre figura religiosa, seguida por cuando menos dos mil millones de personas en todo el mundo, y fuente de inspiraci n para algunas m s.

*Includes pictures *Includes Villa's own quotes about his life and career *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and given the people a chance to know what real liberty means. And if I could bring that about today by giving up my life, I would do it gladly." - Pancho Villa "Pancho Villa," people whispered at the beginning of the 20th century, "can march 100 miles without stopping, live 100 days without food, go 100 nights without sleep, and kill 100 men without remorse." The legend of Francisco Villa is full of heroism, tragedy and romance. It is the story of a poor farmer boy who became a bandit out of necessity, after avenging an injustice on his family; a military genius who flew from an oppressive government to lead the largest revolutionary army in his country's history, and defeated dictatorship to become Mexico s liberator, only to fall again in disgrace when his troops abandoned him or were massacred by the enemy. Pancho Villa and his cavalry, Mexicans point out with a certain amount of pride, invaded the United States, and although they came and tried to capture him, they never found him. This is, at least, the version that most of them know, but it's certainly not the same as in their textbooks. The story of Francisco Villa bypassed official censorship from generation to generation, like leaves sailing at full speed on the surface of a stream. But the historical reconstruction is full of nuances. Was he a freedom fighter, or a bandit? Was he a Mexican Robin Hood, or a thief and a murderer? Was he present when his troops invaded U. S. territory? Was the advance of his famous "Dorados" (the "golden ones," the name of his troops) the cause for joy, or terror among the people as they passed the countryside towards Mexico City? Pancho Villa s personality has been controversial since the very beginning of his career as a General of the revolutionary army. Many biographies have been written about him, the first of which dates back to only a few years after his death. Counting the number books who take one of those two sides-butcher or freedom fighter-would be impossible, but they would probably form two piles of equal size. Through them, readers can learn divergent tales about one of the most widely known Mexicans, both in his country and abroad. For many Mexicans, he is a hero. In schools, teachers still speak cautiously about him to new generations of children, who are amazed by the tough guy with hat and pistols. And the old, those who had heard about his exploits from their parents, declare that Villa himself will ride again through the mountains of Mexico, on the day when the poor can no longer stand and a new revolution explodes. As Octavio Paz eloquently put it, "The brutality and uncouthness of many of the revolutionary leaders has not prevented them from becoming popular myths. Villa still gallops through the north, in songs and ballads; Zapata dies at every popular fair. ... It is the Revolution, the magical word, the word that is going to change everything, that is going to bring us immense delight and a quick death." Pancho Villa: The Life and Legacy of the Famous Mexican Revolutionary chronicles the controversial life of one of Mexico's most legendary fighters. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Pancho Villa like never before, in no time at all.

Esta es la historia de la Santa Muerte, culto de crisis; remix de catolicismo, kermesse y New Age; un culto hedonista pero tambi n de sacrificio corporal; reflejo de fuerzas econ micas, psicol gicas y sociales m s amplias de lo que tal vez ninguno de sus ac litos sospecha.

C mo sabemos que existi realmente Jes s de Nazareth? Qui n es el personaje central de la Biblia? (No es Jes s, ni Mois s). En qu parte aparece la manzana que representa la seducci n sexual? (No es en el G nesis). Es posible que Barrab s y Jes s fueran la misma persona? De d nde sali la historia de los ngeles rebeldes, si no aparece en la Biblia? Si creemos que la Biblia es un libro de historias edificantes para la familia, este libro dejar boquiabierto a m s de uno. En ella hay suficiente material para hacer varias temporadas de una serie de televisi n nocturna: incesto, prostituci n, suicidio, sacrificios humanos, mujeres seductoras, familias disfuncionales, reyes psic patas y, desde luego, compasi n y ardor por la justicia. En cuanto a Jes s de Nazareth, sin recurrir a las fantas as de los ap crifos tard os, tambi n es posible hallar aspectos desconcertantes. Aplicando los nuevos m todos de investigaci n textual, la capa original de los evangelios revela un ser humano con sus problemas, impaciencias, decepciones y enojos. Lejos de los buc licas cuadros a los que estamos acostumbrados, las fuentes hist ricas nos muestran que Jes s vivi en una situaci n aterradora y peligrosa. Con un estilo ameno, a veces serio, a veces con sentido del humor, pero siempre apoyado en la m s rigurosa academia, este libro ofrece cien rendijas indiscretas e inesperadas incluso para quienes creen conocer bien las sagradas escrituras.... y las no tan sagradas.