MEXICO/WORLD.- The Basilica de Guadalupe will welcome today 7,000 faithful that, between dancing, Latin-American singing, offerings and orders, will take up the tradition of celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe, also known as "La Virgen Morena", "Our Lady of Guadalupe" and even as "La Patroncita", the Patron Saint of Mexico.

Every year on December 12th, followers celebrate the supposed appearance of this particular Virgin Mary on Tepeyac hill, in Mexico City, according to the testimony of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a chichimeca native who was anointed the miracle of discovering, for the first time, a Virgin with indigenous

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According to the Catholic Mexican folk tale, the Patrona de America (Patroness of all America) ordered Juan Diego to present himself in front of the First Bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumárraga, around the year 1531. As proof of the appearance, Juan Diego would take roses to Tepeyac in a peasant poncho (ayate), even though the hill's earth didn't give such flowers.

Upon his arrival with the Bishop, Juan Diego discovered one of Latin America and the Philippines' most celebrated miracles by the Catholic community. On Juan Diego's poncho was the image of Virgin of Guadalupe.

The poncho's fabric, sown with maguey (a type of aloe common in Mexico) vegetal fibre, has lasted over 480 years, unlike other image reproductions that decompose due to rotting, lasting less than 50 years.

Books such as Jody Brant Smith's "The Image of Guadalupe", assures us that, in the cornea of her eyes, you can see a man with a beard reflected, "with the location and distortion of a real human eye". Adding to this, Rodrigo Franyutti author of the book "El Verdadero y Extraordinario Rostro de la Virgen de Guadalupe" (The Real and Extraordinary Face of the Virgin of Guadalupe) points out that such characteristic would be humanly impossible to create in the 16th century.

This is why one of the most intriguing aspects of tale is its evidence, commonly known as the "the secret in the Virgin's eyes" remains a mystery even for those who see themselves as men of science.

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