Our Lady(ies) of the Oppressed Rhyme (Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie)
Introduction: I am a cofounder and resident of the Vancouver Catholic Worker and serve the Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin faith community. We practice a renewed and inclusive Roman Catholic tradition where all are welcome.
Location: Unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories (Vancouver, BC, Canada).
The connection between the brown-eyed susan flower and Our Lady of Guadalupe or Tonantzin is that as Great Mothers, they are mothers to all that lives. What was different was how her spirit shifted my attention and intention.
Her feast day is on December 12th yet she caused flowers to bloom, showing that life is still brimming even in the dark days of the approach of winter. Indigenous Peoples then as now were suffering under the weight of colonialism. Yet they continue to struggle to protect the land and waters and the creatures and plants that dwell therein. Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance on Tepeyac Hill, sacred to Tonantzin, and her words of respect and endearment served to give Juan Diego and the Indigenous people of Mexico a renewed sense of self-worth, hope and resilience. This continues to this day for Indigenous and People of Colour who know the story.
In 2018, I was arrested and found guilty for protesting pipeline construction. This action reflects our intention as a community to bring to life the name of our worship community, Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin Community. The name reflects our intention, despite living in a colonial state, to work for reconciliation with and justice for Indigenous People and all life in our watershed.
”Our Lady(ies) of the Oppressed Rhyme”
written Sunday, October 11, 2020
Paint a brown-eyed susan
Was the thought in my head
When I picked up the brush
That idea quite simply fled
Thoughts of our troubled world
I just couldn’t dispel
So I let my hands dictate
The story the painting will tell
Semite God-Bearer, Aztec Great Mother
Merge as one on hill Tepeyac
In hopes for love to break through
Colonizers hearts even a crack
Mothers Mary, Tonantzin
Love, peace in their gaze
Saying stop this war and oppression
Setting our Old not new world ablaze
For Semite, Indigenous or African,
Then like today, xenophobia is endemic
All lives matter except ours
Deny it or not, racism is systemic
Yet I pray, Great Mothers,
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tonantzin
Though our kinship supremacists deny
I pray open their hearts to let the love in.
Their hatred hurts them
Their hatred hurts us
The fruit of that hatred
Is lives and hearts turned to dust
I pray for the love required
To pray for them that hurts us
that our love, hope and strength
remains, does not desert us
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Great Mother Tonantzin
Our Ladies of Hope
Pray we persevere in letting love in.
The brown-eyed susan painting
As yet is not done
This time was better spent
With these sacred Mothers
Who in truth, are one
