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The Vision of Guadalupe greets newly-arrived visitors from Central America to "The Mission Delores," along with organic, raw Mexican food prepared from ancient grains.

According to official Catholic accounts of the Guadalupan apparitions, during a walk from his home village to Mexico City early on the morning of December 9, 1531, Juan Diego saw a vision of a young girl of fifteen to sixteen, surrounded by light. This event occurred on the slopes of the Hill ofTepeyac. Speaking in the local language of Nahuatl, the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor. From her words, Juan Diego recognized her as the Virgin Mary. When he told his story to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, the bishop asked him to return and ask the lady for a miraculous sign to prove her claim. The Virgin then asked Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill, even though it was winter when no flowers bloomed. There, he found Castillian roses (which were of the Bishop's native home, but not indigenous to Tepeyac). He gathered them, and the Virgin herself re-arranged them in hispeasant cloak. When Juan Diego presented the roses to Zumárraga, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth of Diego's tilma.

Patricia Harrington and Virgillio Elizondo describe the image as containing coded messages for the indigenous people of Mexico.

"The Aztecs...had an elaborate, coherent symbolic system for making sense of their lives. When this was destroyed by the Spaniards, something new was needed to fill the void and make sense of New Spain...the image of Guadalupe served that purpose."

Yet another interpretation of the image is offered by the historian William Taylor, who recounted that Guadalupe has also been "acclaimed goddess of themaguey [agave]" and was drunk on her feast day. A 1772 report described the rays of light around Guadalupe as maguey spines.

Proposed remodel and passive solar addition to an existing San Anselmo home.
2008. Not yet started.