From: Commonweal | Date: October 26, 2001| Author: Bankston III, Carl L. | COPYRIGHT 2001 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Mexican Phoenix 
Our Lady of Guadalupe: 
Image and Tradition Across Five Centuries 
David A. Brading 
Cambridge University Press, 
$34.95, 444 pp. 

In describing the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe, David A. Brading also tells the history of Mexico, impressing on readers the inseparability of the nation and its Marian tradition. The tradition has been a complicated one, marked from the beginning by controversies over the historical and theological veracity and significan...