Celebrating more than 30 years of tradition, El Teatro Campesino
enters its final performances of
”
La Virgen Del Tepeyac
”
this weekend.
Celebrating more than 30 years of tradition, El Teatro Campesino enters its final performances of “La Virgen Del Tepeyac” this weekend.
The final shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with a 4 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for students and seniors, and $10 for children.
The biennial performance offers a dramatization of the four apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Indian messenger Juan Diego in 1531.
The play reenacts the events that inspired the religious rebirth of the indigenous people of Mexico, 10 years after the Spanish Conquest.
Appearing in the powerful vision of light and faith one early morning in December, the Mother Of Christ spoke to newly baptized Juan Diego in his native Aztec language. She asked him to relay a request to the Bishop of Mexico that a temple be built in her honor on Tepeyac Hill, where the Indians had worshiped Tonantzin (Our Mother) for centuries before the arrival of the Conquistadores.
This marked the first time in recorded history that the Virgin Mary had appeared to anyone, so the consequences for her Aztec messenger in the heyday of the Spanish Inquisition could have been severe.
It was only the miraculous proof of Our Lady’s beautiful roses that saved him.
The play is adapted by Luis Valdez from 17th century text. El Teatro Campesino’s “La Virgen Del Tepeyac” is performed and sung entirely in Spanish and Nahuatl (Aztec) with accompanying librettos for English-speaking audiences.
