‘La Virgen’ Carries On Mexico’s Tradition

“La Virgen del Tepeyac” (The Virgin of Tepeyac) is not solely the dramatic adaptation of a religious story, it is also the carrying on of a tradition strongly rooted in Mexican culture concerning the apparition of the Virgin Mary at the Tepeyac hill in 1531.

As presented by the Latino Theatre Company at St. Alphonsus in East Los Angeles, the mise en scene expands the confines of the stage to sections of the church’s central hall. The choreography surrounds the audience, making its members participants in a ceremony. The primitive cadenza and the brilliant costumes of the Aztec dancers, plus the seductive beauty of the music, are the main elements of this communal act.

The play, performed in Spanish, begins with a prologue in which a young Indian will be baptized and given the Christian name of Juan Diego; during the ceremony he is stripped of all symbols of his cultural roots.

We do not realize how much the humble soul of Juan Diego has embraced his new faith until he is overcome by his first vision. The virgin appears in the wilderness of Tepeyac and asks him to deliver a message to the Catholic hierarchy: She wants a church built on the site (where Mexico City’s Church of Guadalupe stands now).

Juan Diego obeys and, with the help of a maid who works at the convent, is able to deliver the virgin’s message to three friars at the bishop’s service. None of the monks believes him, but when the bishop hears the story, he orders an audience with the messenger.

Politics erupt as the priests recognize that the hill of Tepeyac is the sacred place of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. Furthermore, Juan Diego describes the virgin as being brown-skinned, thus making the story less believable for the Spanish monks, for whom the virgin Mary can only be white.

To many of the monks, Juan Diego’s story is a fake. The bishop remains undecided. He believes Juan Diego is sincere, but he is torn because the story is simply unbelievable. Subsequent apparitions of the virgin make Juan Diego renew his efforts until the bishop demands miraculous proof that what he’s saying is true.

The miracle happens when the virgin makes red roses bloom at Tepeyac, “where nothing but cactus grows.” When Juan Diego delivers the roses to the bishop, an indelible image of the virgin is revealed on the coarse wool in which the flowers were carried.

In his adaptation, Luis Valdez uses dramatic elements that are neither arbitrary nor demagogic. The play not only reflects the indigenous soul, it also interweaves a style that values the purity of simplicity far above the complex structure of established ideas.

It comes down to the power of faith, and it is Juan Diego’s belief in a brown-skinned virgin from America that supports the formation of a nation with a new cultural identity: a mestizo Mexico.

“La Virgen del Tepeyac” is an uncommon show directed with fluidity by Jose Luis Valenzuela, featuring a large ensemble in which Sal Lopez stands out as Juan Diego. Lupe Ontiveros makes an impressive comical personification as the maid. Linda Lopez adds a serene presence as the virgin.

* “La Virgen del Tepeyac,” St. Alphonsus Church, 532 Atlantic Blvd., nightly through Sunday. $16. (213) 223-6403.

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Hugo Quintana is theater critic for La Opinion, where this review was originally published.