The Hill of Tepeyac in the northernmost part of Mexico City’s federal district was the site of a Catholic miracle in 1531, when an incarnation of the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before local man Juan Diego and imprinted her likeness on his cloak with Castilian roses. The city’s Archbishop was impressed and agreed with the figure’s request that a church be built on the location; the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is now the most visited shrine to the Virgin Mary in the world.
Each year on her feast day of 12 December, an estimated eight million people set out on a pilgrimage up the hill to the shrine, dressed in beautifully decorated clothing and carrying devotional icons in tribute to the sacred figure, who has strong connections to the Aztec godess Tonantzin. Photographer Alinka Echeverría‘s Road to Tepeyac series picks out more than 100 individuals on their journey to pay homage, highlighting the connection between faith and imagery. The 2010 work is being show along with Echeverría’s 2014 project Deep Blindness and 2012’s Small Miracles as Faith and Vision at The California Museum of Photography in Riverside; the event runs from 1 November to 24 January 2015.
