The Centre for Marian Studies Research Seminar: A Walk on the Wild Side

On December 12th every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims descend upon the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, from every corner of the nation.

Some come by car, truck or minibus, some on bikes but many make the journey on foot, crossing the 3400m high Paso de Cortes at the foot of the twin volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. As a manifestation of faith and culture it is a moving spectacle and a testament to the enduring popularity of pilgrimage

But the Guadalupe pilgrimage is no Camino de Santiago. Forget the snazzy hiking gear and expensive, ergonomic rucksacks. Like many acts of Marian devotion in Latin America – particularly Nicaragua’s La Purísima celebrations – it’s an expression of something that goes beyond belief, an organic, from-the-grassroots, feet-on-the-ground theology that the official Church has never quite had under control.

In this presentation, which will be delivered ‘live’ from this year’s Guadalupe pilgrimage (albeit, for practical reasons, from the comfort of a Mexico City hotel room), Dr Siân Lacey Taylder will describe her pilgrim experiences and reflect on the past, present and future of the Guadalupe phenomenon and the Virgin Mary’s continued significance in contemporary Mexico, a nation with a long history of machismo and high rates of violence against women but which has just sworn in its first ever female president.

The Speaker

Siân Lacey Taylder has a PhD in geography and theology from Exeter University, with a thesis exploring the relationship between landscape and religious/spiritual experience on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in France, Portugal and Spain. She is a regular visitor to Mexico and Central America, having written a dissertation on women and the Catholic Church in post-civil war El Salvador for her MSc in Latin American Politics (Institute of Latin American Studies/University of London). She has published work on Mariology and feminist/liberation theology, her current research extends her interest in pilgrimage to Latin America as well as combining her love of mountaineering with exploring manifestations of the female divine in the Catalan Pyrenees.

Register

To join the audience, please register for the free Zoom link by sending an email to Catherine O'Brien at info@marianstudies.ac.uk.