Our Lady of the (Many) Names
by Jeffrey Richardson
La Conquistadora, the diminutive Madonna who watches over her people from a chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assissi in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has been known by a number of titles, all reflecting certain phases of her history as a focus of veneration. Here is a brief look at the names by which she has been, or still is, known.Nuestra Señora de la Asunción – The 33-inch wooden statue of the Virgin Mary brought to Santa Fe in 1625 by Fr. Alonso de Benavides was a figure depicting her Assumption into Heaven. Thus she was initially known by this title, at least for a short time. Upon her arrival, she was installed in the church in Santa Fe, making it the first Marian shrine in the United States.
Nuestra Señora de la Concepción – Since there was already a confraternity (cofradía in Spanish, a lay society whose devotions are focused on a particular image) dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in Santa Fe, and since the statute was used in processions celebrating this aspect of belief, it appears that she soon came to be known by this title.
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| La Conquistadora Chapel, Santa Fe, NM |
Nuestra Señora del Rosario – The eminent scholar of La Conquistadora’s long history, Fr. Angélico Chávez, was convinced that by the middle of the 1600s, worshipers in Santa Fe had formed a confraternity of the Holy Rosary, while keeping the venerable wooden figure as the focal point of their devotions, in essence “re-naming” her yet again. The adoption of the Rosary as a key element in community worship apparently derived from the New Mexicans associating their ongoing struggle against constant raids by nomadic tribes with the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. In that climactic encounter the victory of Spanish naval forces over ships of the Islamic Saracens was traditionally attributed to large crowds of Christian faithful praying the Rosary as they marched through the streets of Rome. It should be noted that the practice which took hold among the Rosary confraternities of dressing Marian figures in gowns and jewels required that La Conquistadora be significantly altered; some of these changes resulted in her current height of 28 inches, and the addition of articulated arms to facilitate changing her wardrobe.
Nuestra Señora La Conquistadora– Chávez has clearly established through firm documentary evidence that the statue was known to her devotees by this familiar and rather unofficial title during the exile of the New Mexicans in El Paso following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, as well as after the colony was re-established by Don Diego de Vargas in 1693. De Vargas himself, in some of his correspondence prior to the re-settlement, referred to her as Nuestra Señora de la Conquista, which Chavez describes as a more refined nomenclature such as we would expect from the nobleman de Vargas. Thus, while being venerated by a confraternity focused on the Rosary, New Mexico’s faithful had taken to calling the statue La Conquistadora, probably well before 1680. Although it is not precisely clear how or why she acquired this title, Chavez seemed to favor the theory that New Mexicans simply came to associate the figure with the arrival of their parents and grandparents in the colony during its earliest years, collectively referring to them as “conquistadores.”
It should be noted that the statue has been, and is, sometimes referred to in a blended fashion that results in her being identified as Nuestra Señora del Rosario La Conquistadora.
Nuestra Señora de la Paz – In 1992, to promote fuller reconciliation between the Church and Native Americans as the result of their long, problematic history, this additional title was bestowed on the venerated figure, a name sometimes used with, and sometimes without, her traditional La Conquistadora name.
Sources: Research and writings of Fr. Angélico Chávez; Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D.; and Jim Griffith, as well as information provided by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the Cofradía de la Conquistadora. Text and photo copyright by Jeffrey Richardson.
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La Conquistadora/Dine Spider Woman/
Puebloan Corn Maiden
Detail
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| Mixed media retablo ©Cristina Acosta |
