cover image THE ROAD TO GUADALUPE: A Modern Pilgrimage to the Goddess of the Americas

THE ROAD TO GUADALUPE: A Modern Pilgrimage to the Goddess of the Americas

Eryk Hanut, . . Putnam/Tarcher, $23.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-58542-120-6

In December 1531, an Aztec Indian named Juan Diego climbed a hill in Mexico that had long been home to a shrine to the Aztec mother goddess. There, Diego encountered the radiant apparition of a beautiful young woman. Hanut, a photographer and author (I Wish You Love: Conversations with Marlene Dietrich), recounts how this woman, who introduced herself by a name later interpreted as "Guadalupe," dispatched Diego to the Spanish bishop to command that a shrine to her be built on the site of her appearance. Hanut interweaves the fantastic story of the Lady of Guadalupe with a piquant, deliciously iconoclastic account of his own pilgrimage to contemporary Mexico City. Wading through armies of rosary- and candle-sellers, nasty nuns and believers of every stripe to behold the image of Guadalupe that miraculously appeared on Diego's "tilma," or serape, Hanut captures the way this mysterious divine force overflows every container and impediment, from the Catholic church to the commercialization that grows up around her image. What makes Hanut's account special is his unsparing honesty and his refusal to gloss over inconvenient details like Mexican poverty or the sinuous brew of witchcraft and prayer that this goddess of the Americas evokes. Over the course of his journey, Hanut reveals with profound insight how loving and seeking the divine with abandon can be coupled with the dignity of true discernment. His faith is tempered by his keen eye for human pretense and manipulation, and many readers will be served by his example. (Oct.)