Scandalous Images: Struggles Over the Virgin of Guadalupe

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2009
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
This thesis analyzes the problem of purity and motherhood mixing with sexuality in contemporary appropriations of the sacred image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, perhaps the single most important Mexican national symbol and one linked to the long and conflictive history of Catholicism in that country. As we shall see, while recent controversies reveal changing attitudes about public decency and perhaps women's sexuality, the Virgin of Guadalupe has long been a controversial though powerful symbol. Tracing its disputed meaning from the recent past through the colonial centuries provides us with a unique lens into the central conflicts of Mexican cultural history and complex processes of identity formation. It also reveals how shifting attitudes towards sexuality, the pressures of market forces, and changes in the status of Mexican women over the last half of the twentieth century have challenged traditional understandings of this vibrant though malleable icon.
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