Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and the Americas

by Linda B. Hall

Book Overview

A Mother who nurtures, empathizes, and heals... a Warrior who defends, empowers, and resists oppression... the Virgin Mary plays many roles for the peoples of Spain and Spanish-speaking America. Devotion to the Virgin inspired and sustained medieval and Renaissance Spaniards as they liberated Spain from the Moors and set about the conquest of the New World. Devotion to the Virgin still inspires and sustains millions of believers today throughout the Americas.

This wide-ranging and highly readable book explores the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Spain and the Americas from the colonial period to the present. Linda Hall begins the story in Spain and follows it through the conquest and colonization of the New World, with a special focus on Mexico and the Andean highlands in Peru and Bolivia, where Marian devotion became combined with indigenous beliefs and rituals. Moving into the nineteenth century, Hall looks at national cults of the Virgin in Mexico, Bolivia, and Argentina, which were tied to independence movements. In the twentieth century, she examines how Eva Per n linked herself with Mary in the popular imagination; visits contemporary festivals with significant Marian content in Spain, Peru, and Mexico; and considers how Latinos/as in the United States draw on Marian devotion to maintain familial and cultural ties.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292705956
• ISBN13: 9780292705951
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Re-presentation at its best

Another great book by Dr. Hall. She describes the many "re-presentations" of Mary as a mother, a healer, a warrior, and a protector in Spain, Latin America, and the US from the conquest to the present. During the conquest and colonization of the New World, she describes how Marian devotion synchronized with indigenous beliefs and rituals. While I have read about these ideas in other books, I think the book really comes into its own when she looks at national cults of the Virgin in Mexico, Bolivia, and Argentina, which were tied to independence movements. Her chapter on how Eva Perón linked herself with Mary is by far her most interesting examination in the book. And of course, Dr. Hall drives her point home by discussing the Virgin in the borderlands by discussing examples of her devotion and symbolism in New Mexico and Texas.