As we contemplate the upcoming birth of Jesus, our thoughts turn as well to Jesus' mother, Mary. Today is a special feast day for Mary, the feast of Our Lady of Gaudalupe. The readings for the feast are those recounting the Annunciation, and Mary's subsequent trip to visit to visit Elizabeth (Lk1:26- 38, and Lk 1: 39-47). When we read these readings, how do we imagine Mary? For many of us, raised in an American culture with northern European roots, the image that comes to mind is that of a young, northern European woman. That's what the public images of Mary tend to portray. Google it and you'll see. Nice white young women. That image has its place, although it is not historically-representative of the Mary, who was Jewish and spoke Aramaic. She looked much more like the people who live in the Middle East today than she looked like someone who lives in Germany or England or France (and even less like someone who lives in Norway or Sweden). Our Lady of Guadalupe is portrayed as a mixed-race woman, at least partially indigenous, and according to the stories of her apparition, she spoke Nahautl, the language of the Aztecs. She appeared in 1531, not long after the Spanish had overthrown the Aztec empire. Thus, as was the case with Mary's history, she was from a conquered people speaking a language that was the native language, not the language of the conquerors. There was some controversy over the legitimacy of the apparitions, and over whether Our Lady of Guadalupe was simply an adoption of an indigenous pagan image for Catholic purposes. Remind you of the controversy over the Marian image used at the Synod of the Amazon that ended up getting thrown into the Tiber? That controversy is long-gone and whatever its roots, the feast of Our Lady of Gaudalupe is well-established in the Church. This feast day might remind us of the problem of racism in the Church, and of our presumption that all the images and symbols ought to reflect a northern-European perspective. Sometimes I even hear people express shock that Jesus was a Jew. Like Jesus, Mary was a historical person in a particular place and time. But, also like Jesus, that particular place and time should not limit how we think about her. She is as much the Mother of God to those whose heritage is Aztec as she is to those whose heritage is Jewish, or British, or Chinese, which is why she appeared speaking and looking as she did. As we prepare for Christmas, perhaps we might imagine the baby Jesus as something other than a white baby-- perhaps someone who is Aztec, for example. After all, that's how His mother appeared in 1531.