Guadalajara’s annual procession honoring the revered Virgin of Zapopan will be submitted as a candidate for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, Zapopan Mayor Hector Robles announced Monday.
More than two million people lined the streets of the city in the early hours of Sunday morning, as the tiny corn-husk statue made her way along a seven-mile route from the Guadalajara Cathedral to its counterpart in Zapopan, the majestic Basilica.
Possibly the largest annual religious gathering on the continent, the Romeria, as it is known, appears to be in no danger of disappearing, unlike some other ancient Mexican traditions.
This means that it will probably be submitted to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a category that comprises cultural “practices and expressions that help demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance,” rather than the shorter List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding – composed of those cultural elements that concerned communities and countries consider require urgent measures to keep them alive.
Robles said he knew the process of obtaining UNESCO recognition would be “long and slow” and recognized that the Romeria would be competing with many other worthy traditions from around the world. He said talks on presenting a submission had been going on for about a year.
Mexican traditions already included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list are: The Day of the Dead festivity; places of memory and living traditions of the Otomí-
Chichimecas people of Tolimán and the Peña de Bernal, guardian of a sacred territory; traditional Mexican cuisine – ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm; Parachicos in the traditional January feast of Chiapa de Corzo; Pirekua, traditional song of the P’urhépecha; and Mariachi, string music, song and trumpet.
Virgin of Zapopan history
Legend has it that in the 17th century Padre Antonio de Segovia carried a corn-husk 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.