For a devout Catholic, finding the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the opportunity of a lifetime. Doña Natalia Robles has been fortunate enough to see the image of the “Empress of the Americas” twice; first on the metal panel of a public telephone and second on a postage-stamp -sized piece of tortilla. Robles, a mother of 15, first gained notoriety five years ago when she discovered an image of the Virgin on a panel of a Telmex pay phone on a rundown corner in eastern Guadalajara. People came from miles around to pay their respects, leave offerings and, in the case of one mariachi musician, to cry. The Virgin reigned peacefully over the corner, next to an electronics repair shop and across the street from a flower stand, until last November when an out of control car crashed into the telephone. “The whole thing was bent,” says Robles. “But somehow the panel with the Virgen survived.” Robles helped to salvage the metal panel and created a bright red altar that now sits on the same corner of the phone. She became a de facto caretaker of the new altar and she says that since the Virgen appeared, the area has become a safer place. “Before she came people smoked marijuana on that corner, and there was a lot of fighting between families,” she says. “Now everything is tranquil.” Nearly a month after the crash, Robles’ son, Jorge Gonzalez, decided to heat the last tortilla in a one-kilo package. But he didn’t even have time to turn the stove on before he saw it: the oval shaped outline of Guadalupe in her mantilla. He called for his mother and it didn’t take long for her to put it in a safe place and have it blessed by a priest. “My son wanted to take it to school and show it to his friends, but I said, ‘No, we need to make sure to keep it safe,’” she says. Now, five months later, the image is still clear. Robles keeps it under lock and key in her humble home that is decorated, of course, with paintings and statues of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Robles has raised a Catholic family. Each of her 15 children attends church on a regular basis and has gone through the age-appropriate Catholic rites. But she is modest about her discoveries. “People think they’re lies, but here they are,” she says. “Nothing has really changed, I’m still living my life every day.”
Posts
