The legend of the Virgen of Zapopan began in 1525 when Franciscan friars arrived in what is now Zapopan to convert the local Indians.
Legend has it that Padre Antonio de Segovia carried a cornhusk doll representation of the Virgin Mary in a case hung around his neck. Local Indians came to believe the doll had metaphysical powers, which perhaps explains why historical accounts tell us that they surrendered to the Spaniards during a critical battle when they saw Father Segovia atop a hill with the image around his neck.
Since then the lore of miracles surrounding the Virgin of Zapopan has grown to include saving lives during a plague in 1734, keeping blood from being shed during the war of Independence in 1821 (after which the Virgin also took on the name “La Generala”), saving Guadalajara from floods in 1909, and raising the water level of Lake Chapala in 1956 after ten years of drought.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared the Virgin “Patroness of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara” although she had already been named “Protectress of Guadalajara Against Storms, Lightning and Epidemics” by city officials after her miracles during the 1734 plague. Throughout most of the year, the 13-inch, corn-based paste statue (which in 1731 replaced the cornhusk figure) occupies a place of honor above the altar of the Zapopan Basilica.
In June she begins her four-month “Romeria” throughout the parish headquarter churches of Jalisco, offering the devout a chance to directly display their faith to the Virgin, pray in her presence and ask her for favors.
For her good deeds to local chapalenses, she was given the name Queen of the Lake in July 2009.