Media in Mexican National Identity: The use of Mexican national symbol “La Virgen de Guadalupe” to unite the country.

Nowadays, Mexico is facing one of its hardest periods of all times. As the drug war is taking control over the whole country, other major problems such as insecurity, unemployment and poverty are taking part of Mexicans lifestyle. This had lead to a series of internal problems that have caused the population to distrust the government and try to find a solution to all these problems from a different source: faith.
Mexico’s national identity has always been recognized as being one of the strongest and most distinguished identities in the world, with a united and rich culture, full of beliefs, memories, history and symbols; Mexican culture was something Mexicans always felt very proud about. But with such problems affecting the country, Mexico needs more than ever maintain this feeling of feeling proud about being Mexicans, to start being positive about things getting better and continue improving in order grow and share their culture they are very proud about.
The media is always playing an important role in Mexican’s lifestyle. In this case, we choose to make the example of Mexican Television and how it has played an important role reinforcing national identity with a known Mexican symbol “ The Virgin of Guadalupe”, a symbol that is full of history and which has united Mexicans before. We will analyze the way that the media in Mexico has taken this religious symbol with the purpose to increase the confidence among the population and try to make them see positive solutions to try to help the country. “La Virgen de Guadalupe” actually has been the inspiration for one of the Mexican’s most popular TV show called “La Rosa de Guadalupe”, a soup-opera based on typical problems within Mexican society, that with the help of “La Virgen de Guadalupe”, all their problems become easier and by the end of every episode it leaves the audience with the learning of values and a sense that everything will come positively in the future. The reactions of the population to the TV show cannot be measure accurately, but they are shown on some attitudes towards the nation and the increment of nationalism over the last few years. The case will focus only on Mexico’s sense of nationalism, not patriotism, due to the unconformities with the government and that the main purpose of the Media’s actions is to unite the nation, not to be proud of their leaders.

Mexican National Identity

National identity is understood as the sense of belonging to a certain community, society or country, it is a feeling that describes the sharing of certain values and history with a particular group of people. It is commonly represented by national symbols, history, characters and images of a country. As John Mraz describes in his book “Looking for Mexico”: “Identity does not grow up from the ground, nor drop down from the skies. Is not something given once and for all, nor is it discovered it is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed endlessly” Mexican national identity has been created just as Mraz described before along the time, it has been a result of years and years of constant battles and important events in the nation, and it is still in process of uniting the nation as one.

In particular, Mexican history has played a major role during the creation of their national identity; important events had played the role of uniting the country and creating important values that are still present in Mexican culture:
Mexico was a pure indigenous country until the 1519 where the Spanish conquerors took place of the territory and began to control the indigenous local people. Indigenous groups such as the Mayans, Aztecs and Olmec adapted to the Spanish rules and as the time passed by they started to lose their values in order to be a part of the new Spanish state called “The New Spain”. During these times, Spanish and indigenous people began to mix and so their cultures did. Then after about 300 years of being ruled by Spanish monarchy, the new mixed Mexican-Spanish population got their independence in 1810. This event was the most important in Mexico’s history and with such great consolidation, the country started to create it’s own culture. Nationals symbols began to appear: Mexico’s national anthem, Mexico’s shield, flag and the Virgin of Guadalupe represented all the hard work ancient Mexicans did in order to pursue their independence. After becoming an independent country, Mexico had different internal battles around the time that became key factors of consolidating their identity, for example The battle with the US where Mexico lost part of its territory created a cultural disaffection with the neighbour country that is still alive among Mexicans. The way Mexicans had learned about their national symbols shows why that strong culture pride and nationalism is strong over the country. Since their childhood, every Mexican school has the obligation to offer one morning of its weekdays to commemorate these symbols, and every kid of the country must know how to play respect to Mexican flag and the entire Mexican anthem.

According to Smith’s nation definition, Mexico is considered as a nation by the vast majority of their habitants: “As a named human population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all the members, a nation is a multidimensional concept, an ideal type that provides a standard, which concrete examples imitate in varying degrees.” This can be perceived every year on Mexico’s independence commemoration, the variety of festivals and parties thrown around the country and the way people celebrate their culture, the pride of being part of a nation.

La Virgen de Guadalupe

Old saying says: “sixty percent of all mexicans are catholic, 95 percent of all mexicans believe in the virgin of Guadalupe”. In Mexico, religion is a very important issue , it does not only represents their beliefs, it also plays an important part of mexicans life. The Virgin of Guadalupe is considered as a powerful cultural symbol of Mexican identity and nationhood and actually her image cuts across all sectors of Mexican life, her image is displayed not only in churches, but can also be seen in taxis, buses, tee-shirts, amulets and as tattoos.

Every single Mexican knows the story of La Virgen de Guadalupe. According to catholic beliefs: The virgin of Guadalupe appeared four times to young Mexican-Spanish mixed boy called Juan Diego in a hill close to Mexico’s city in 1531. On her fourth appearance to the young boy, the Virgin asked Juan Diego if he could present her to Mexican’s bishop by that time, Juan de Zamarraga. After mistrusting the young boy, the bishop demanded proof, so the Virgin told Juan Diego to gather roses from a nearby hillside (which were impossible to find in the deserted area), put them into his cloak and bring them to the bishop. When the roses where released, the Virgin's image was imprinted on the boy’s cloak. The image was hanged out in the Basilica in Mexico City, which is still visible by the eyes of everybody and is an object of veneration and daily demotion.

The image of the Virgen de Guadalupe has an special meaning to Mexicans, because in contrast with other catholic images over the world, her image specially represents Mexican culture: her skin was brunette, neither white as Spanish, nor dark as indigenous, it was a mixed, representing the mixing culture of Mexican-Spanish of that times. “It is the perfect image of acculturation, is their national identification, their personal identification, their miracle maker," said Yale anthropology professor Enrique Mayer. "There is a significant bit of nationalism as well."

The Virgin of Guadalupe has played an important role in the development of Mexican national identity. The Mexican-Spanish population, who were discriminated by the Spanish conquerors, interpreted her appearance as a legitimization of their national aspirations and propagated the cult as part of a plan to build New Spain in Mexico. During the independence, Mexicans warriors used her image on their flags and banners in order to make people join the battle of freedom and independence, and her image became a symbol of fight and perseverance for the Mexican people.

Actually La Virgen de Guadalupe image, is probably replicated more than any other religious symbol, while 10 million people annually make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe where the image remains, making the site second only to the Vatican in terms of visitors to a Catholic church. It has a celebration day that happens on December 12th, were the entire country join it’s prayers and go make pilgrimages to the churches celebrating La Virgen’s birthday. As people have grown over time with this symbol, it has become part of their lifestyle; they always go after The Virgin’s support even when they don’t use to visit Catholic churches. In contrast with many other countries that differ of different religions, Mexico’s “Virgen of Guadalupe” demonstrates a clear icon, which unites all Mexicans from different religions and beliefs into one nation.

It’s important how do diaspora Mexicans communities around the world make their nationalism overcome their current nationals cultures. Even tough, after globalization occurred and the migration of Mexicans to the US increased, Mexican diasporas communities over the US continue to play their respects and celebrate every year La Virgen de Guadalupe, and this customs are already spread over the US.

To conclude explaining this issue, Maria de la Luz Hernandez, 10, a fifth-grader with Mexican offspring and who lives in California, US express the way Mexican diasporas over the US feel about celebrating “La Virgen de Guadalupe”: “we get to like celebrate the culture of Mexico and that's make me really proud”

Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexican’s Media

According to Datamonitor Study of the Media industry in 2010, the Broadcasting & Cable TV is the largest segment of the media industry in Mexico, accounting for 53.7% of the industry's total value, and only 4.8% of Mexican population does not watch television.

This is why the Television is considered as the of major communication link among the many socioeconomic and demographic groups within Mexico and is the one who helps these groups to achieve a degree of integration with one another in the form of their shared national identity. While the country is having more trouble, and with the hope that the future leaders could make the situation change, people all over the country are giving up each day, more and more Mexicans are migrating to another country to search better life opportunities. This is the reason why Mexican media is trying to make the difference to change people’s mind about the country situation. The perfect example for this is the TV show “La Rosa de Guadalupe”

In 2009, Televisa, the most important TV broadcast company in Mexico launched a new soup-opera with the name of “La Rosa de Guadalupe”. This TV show has reached very high ratings on broadcasted Television in the country and it’s popularity is still on rise. This has been recognized to the fact that the show is a reflection of Mexican society in every level (from the lower to the higher socio-economic status), where problems are the most common in Mexican families and people can easily relate. The show consists of different situations that are common in Mexican population, usually there’s a person who is in trouble and as the episode goes by, one character realizes they need the help of La Virgen of Guadalupe to solve the problem, and the Virgin makes presence by sending them a white rose. By the end of each episode, the character who was in trouble find a way to solve it and had time to think about his actions and thank the Virgin to help him get the right track.

The most common issues that are managed in the show are drugs, alcohol, insecurity, intra-familiar violence, prostitution and poverty. The audience of the show can easily relate to the problems showed on it because maybe there is something that may have occurred to them or may had known someone who was in that situation. The interesting part about the show, is that by the ending, there is always a reflection; even the most insignificant problems (a girl who breaks up with her boyfriend), had a different moral knowledge that the audience takes it in a positive way and feel good about being part of Mexico. These final reflections in the episodes have the aim to motivate the audience and to make them feel proud of being Mexicans, to encourage their nationalism and to see that even in the worst of the times, there’s always someone who could help, The Virgin of Guadalupe.

Another interesting issue of this show is that Mexico’s soup operas are exported to many countries around the world. This TV soup opera in particular, started to be exported to some places in the US where it is known that there are Mexican diaspora communities living there. Its exportation is recent, but its goal is to captivate attention of Mexican communities away from home and make them reinforce the nationalism and remember their home culture.

The way Mexican’s media is encouraging the population of being positive and the way they are using a great national icon, as it is The Virgin of Guadalupe, is a very intelligent move, because they are using the power they have as a communication tool to transmit these feeling of national identity around the country, and it’s trying to reach those Mexican diasporas communities in order to increase that sense of national identity the country needs in critical moments as these. If you compare these efforts with other similar countries that are in trouble, such as Colombia or Venezuela, their national identity is temporary lost among their problems and there are not smart actions seen by a powerful institution to prevent it.

Even when the show has been criticized as being part of one of the government strategies to gain the people, most of the Mexicans had very good reaction about the TV show. Mexicans started to remember their history and that they are all part of one same nation. That feeling of nationalism, that they are all equal, all Mexicans who once fought for their independence and solve their problems, is getting stronger. In 2010, the nationalism was even more notorious than ever, when the Mexican beauty won the contest Miss Universe as the most beautiful women in the world the celebrations in the whole country were incredible, people all around the country did pilgrims and went to the Basilica to thank la Virgen de Guadalupe of giving Mexico a good notice after all. Later during the Soccer World Cup 2010, the shirts of Mexico’s team were sold out for weeks for the first time in the country. People began to make peace parades in cities and that feeling of wanted to do something for their country was something not seen in along time in Mexico.

Of course, all these reactions could not been all result of the TV show, but it is only an example on how does the media in a problematic country tried to unite it by using a national symbol and try to give away positive messages of hope and faith. Actually Mexico still has a lot of problems, but at least its population has a very strong sense of national identity that anyone could notice. They feel proud to be Mexicans, to have symbols like “La Virgen de Guadalupe” who is always praying for them and the people who they share territory are making all what they have in hands to improve the country situation

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Branding, D.A. Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe image and tradition across five centuries. 1. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2011. 12-34. Print

Casas Perez, M. "Cultural Identity: Between Reality and Fiction." Television & Media 6.4 (2005): 409-411. Web.

Datamonitor Mexico. Media in Mexico. Industry Profile. , 2010.

Mraz, John. Looking for Mexico. United States: Duke University Press, 2009. 42-65. Print.

Nariman, Joel. Soap Operas for Social Change. 1. United States: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993. 5-21. Print

O'Leary, M. 2007, The miracle of Guadalupe, McClatchy - Tribune Information Services.

Wolf, Eric R. "The Virgin of Guadalupe; A Mexican National Symbol." Journal of American Folklore. 71, 1958.

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