Making Sacred Space With The Virgin Of Guadalupe Rhetorical Analysis

The engaging binational study by Elaine A. Pena, in her book Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe, explores the devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe in three settings: Des Plaines, Illinois; Tepeyac, Mexico City, Mexico; and Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois. She argues that acts of worshiping to the Virgin create sacred space through devotional labor[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 10.] (such as prayer, dance, song, pilgrimage, festival and shrine maintenance) along public streets or deserted highways across the US-Mexico border. With the outcome of devotional capital, worshipers are able to share social, political

and economic benefits among devotees. Through “co-performative witnessing”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 3.], Pena delivers her own voice in the process of the creation of sacred space, providing an insightful and comprehensive perspective on her fieldwork.
Pena’s first illustration of the creation of sacred space is the Second Tepeyac in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Because of the importance of original Tepeyac for Spanish governors to render the religious conversion of indigenous residents under the name of the Lady Guadalupe during the colonial Mexico, Pena points out the physical significance of the first Tepeyac, which is also shown by the replica in Des Plaines. However as Pena emphasizes, “the act of reproducing a place... Is only the first step”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 43.]. She believes that the space becomes sacred only when devotees’ embodied performances “inscribe their histories, beliefs, and aspirations on the environment”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 43.]. Pena also clarifies that “the Second Tepeyac solidified its dual role as religious sanctuary and political safe haven”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 48.], which is not only a place in which the worshipers can fulfill their spiritual appeals, but also a center for immigration services. As a result, the Virgin of Guadalupe here embodies the struggle of immigrants from all over the world rather than just being a national symbol of Mexico, as that

located in the first Tepeyac.
Pena’s then takes us southward for a gritty portrayal of women’s walking pilgrimages. The all-female delegation to the Basilica in Mexico City from Queretaro, a parallel to the one historically practiced by men, indicates the rising gender egalitarianism through the institutional supports from the archdiocese and state government, building a strong connection between laity and official Church. While unifying, the pilgrimage form Queretaro also reinforces stratification through social class division decided by the peregrinas’ purchasing power, demonstrating the mutual influence of acting and status. During another pilgrimage from Zitacuaro with little institutional supports, Pena meets women who persevere against social as well as ecclesiastical disapproval, and even the oppression from their counterparts based on a larger region. With the “presence of calluses, scabs, and bruises”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 89.], peregrinas from Zitacuaro, with less enjoyment in commercialization, legitimate their faith through trial and indelible memory.
Pena’s last exploration introduce readers the brief lifespan of a sidewalk shrine in Rogers Park. After the appearance of the Virgin’s image in a tree, believers set up a shrine and perform devotional labor. Pena delves further into issues of devotional capital in this immigrant-dominated area, explaining how practitioners sacrifice their time and energy to exchange for a good standing among their fellows and get social benefits. However, as a consequence of the relocation of immigrant labors into this former-white-dominated region, intense racial conflicts are embodied in mutual complaining during the two festivals for the Virgin. With both the external(white neighbors and police’s opposition) and internal(fellows’ disagreement on budget using) pressure, the worshipers fail to enlist significant Church and municipal allies and then lose their shrine in vandalism.
Rather than oversimplifying the devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe through a overall discussion of the worshiping tradition, Pena emphasizes the specific challenge that face both individual and communities in their own situation of the creation of sacred space, providing a guideline for religious and anthropological scholars to render further exploration and research by themselves.

With performing devotional labor, Pena is able to strengthen the connection between the importance of physical layout and the significance of history as well and culture, demonstrating the possibility that sacred space is of a universal meaning around the world and unifying the global cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Her focusing on the two all-female pilgrimages provides readers with a new perspective of faith embodiment different from that of male practitioners, to whom most of traditional researches pay attention. More than that, Pena’s merit of unfolding an indispensable social-religious relationship in sacred space makes Performing Piety an outstanding and even provocative work: the immigrant services in the Second Tepeyac expands the significance of the Virgin to a worldwide level; peregrinas from Queretaro are categorized into different sectors of the pilgrimage by their economic status; women from Zitacuaro bring their familial appeals to the Virgin; and the threat from the relocated immigrants to the local European-Americans instigates the ethnic conflicts between the worshipers and

non-believers in Rogers Park. Theology and secularism are then unified under the Virgin of Guadalupe through the embodiment of social appeals on devotional practice, depicting a more comprehensive view of Latino/a religion, the spiritual expression of the unprivileged group. And Pena’s own involvement through co-performative witnessing makes this research more touching and representative.
There are also some limitations in this research. Although accessible, Pena’s favor of using confusing vocabularies and narrating style, such as the “representations and representational space”[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 20.] presents difficulties to the novices of ethnography. As Pena herself admits, she has difficulty holding in her own emotional reflex-responses to statements that go against her own heartfelt convictions[ Elaine A. Pena, Performing Piety: Making Sacred Space with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 88.], which may lead to some sorts of distortion of the purpose or meaning in her analysis. In both the cases of Zitacuaro and Rogers Park, Pena’s negative assumption of the ecclesiastical Church, with too much focus on laity groups, may result in a biased conclusion on the effort from the ministry side. The lack of male voice is also worth mentioning. It might be better for Pena to include more interviews with male worshipers and make a comparison between them and those of female counterparts to justify a more comprehensive view of the creation of sacred space in the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The research of Pena focuses on the power of devotional practice in the creation of sacred space, which definitely responds to the similar worship of Santeria as well as Curanderismo and provides a good example of the devotional tradition deeply rooted in Latino\a religions. This devotional tradition also demonstrate a combination of indigenous practice and ecclesiastical Christianity as a result of the Spanish colonization. Pena’s clarification of the relationship between the religious and secular appeals in the worship to the Virgin unfolds the struggle of Latino/a immigrants to fight against discrimination and prejudices in the American society, demonstrating the spiritual importance of religions in Latino/as construction and justification of their social identities outside their native lands. The two all-female pilgrimages show the rising gender equality in Latino/a groups, illustrating the importance of women in familial, social and religious affairs. The cases of Queretaro and Rogers Park, with the problems of economic stratification and multiethnic conflicts, present the continuing internal and external barriers on Latino/as’ way to their better future.
Pena’s research illustrates both the improvements Latino/a have achieved and the problems they are still confronting through their religious practice, implying that Latino/a people need more work to be fully accepted and legitimated from both internal and external sides. However, Pena believes the future of Latino/a religions should be illuminating, so is their future as immigrants, workers and mothers.