In the late 1990’s, when Lake Chapala’s shoreline had receded nearly a kilometer beyond the town pier, I heard there were two schools of thought on rescuing Mexico’s largest lake from certain doom.
“There’s the practical approach and the miraculous one,” environmental pundits said. “Relying on government for solutions implies belief in miracles. The practical way is to call on the Virgin of Zapopan.”
Represented by an antique statuette made by Purepecha Indians of Michoacan nearly five centuries ago, Nuestra Señora de la Expectación de Zapopan ranks as Jalisco’s number one religious patroness. Measuring just 34 centimeters from head to foot, she is a giant among devotees who trust her as an intermediary for divine protection against strife, disease and pestilence, deadly storms and natural disasters.
Credited with propitiating countless miracles, she has earned nearly a dozen honorary titles such as La Pacificadora (1541), Generala y Protectora de Jalisco (1823), and most recently Reina del Lago de Chapala, bestowed in 2009 for saving Lake Chapala from extinction twice in the span of 50 years.
During the early 1950’s Lake Chapala withered away to a fraction of its normal size due to brutal drought. In July 1954, Guadalajara Archbishop Jose Garibi Rivera led his flock in appealing to the Holy Virgin for divine intervention to refill the lake. He vowed to take La Zapopana to Chapala in return for answered prayers.
The heavens opened and the waters surged more than three meters in a single summer, rising right up to the doorstep of the San Francisco Church. At the end of 1955 Garibi personally escorted the revered image to Chapala for a jubilant thanksgiving celebration that rocked the town for five days running.
Three decades later, when the lake again fell into alarming decline, church authorities began booking the icon for regular visits to Chapala. To this day thousands of pilgrimages accompany her in early summer to pray for a favorable rainy season. They return in the fall to give thanks.
Initially, I took an interest in these events and all their colorful pageantry with the dispassionate eye of a journalist. But witnessing the lake’s astounding recovery in 2003 left me awestruck, engendering a new perspective on the power of faith. Since then I have transitioned from passive observer to journalistic pilgrim, getting more into the spirit of the Queen of Lake’s Chapala appearances.
When you mix it up with true believers, observe the conviction in their eyes as they reach out for a glancing touch of the Virgin’s protective crystal case or hop aboard a tourist launch to ride with her in a festive nautical procession to Alacran Island, you get a sense that Almighty forces are keeping guard over Lake Chapala, preserving this precious natural resource whether by practical or miraculous means.