Theme
On December 12 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.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 swore in its first ever female president in 2024.
Guest 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, and 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
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