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Originally Posted by pbradley
Catholic atheist, so maybe she's the proverbial mother of all?
Living in Southern California, I did notice the cultural differences between the more Anglo Catholicism and the Mexican Catholicism. In fact, my Mexican friend left Catholicism to a non-denominational church because he found the ritualism of his family's Catholicism to be too much and too removed from his religious experience. This was contrary to my Catholicism. There were sacraments and liturgy, of course, but they were more subdued than the Mexican tradition. In fact, for my own part, I preferred more conservative aspects of Catholicism like masses in Latin and the turn in homilies from deeper theological themes to contemporary politics must have played a role in my apostasy.
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I feel the same way, for me the ritualism and traditions accentuate my religious experience, but many folks feel stifled. Other Mexicans and Chicanos see the Virgin as the epitome of their cultural and nationalistic/ethnic/ancestral identity. The Virgin IS Mexico for many folks..
on another tip..
I was also thinking..
so the Virgin could also represent for men the "one that got away" or at least "the dream girl" that they are always chasing after in the form of a million other women. For women, the virgin could also come to be the idealized woman, the supermodel on the cover the magazine, who is both idolized and bitterly resented in the same breathe (in other words "that bitch")