Our Lady of San Juan de Los Lagos

In 1531, Our Lady of Guadalupe came on Tepeyac Hill and identified Herself as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Almost one hundred years later, we find that these Indians, too, had a devotion to Our Lady, with their hearts centered on a statue they referred to as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It is believed that most likely the statue was brought from Spain, years before, by a Franciscan Friar. The statue's humble beginnings were in a Chapel covered by a zacate (grass) covered roof. The tiny Chapel measured little more than twelve by fifty feet. The custodians of the image were an old Indian couple, Pedro Antes and his seventy-eight year old wife Ana Lucia.
Ana Lucia was the object of much gossip and ridicule, because of her many stories about the messages she was receiving from the Blessed Mother or as she called Her, La Virgencita. But strangely enough, the Inquisition, which, at that time, was very scrupulous about investigating any superstitious practices or alleged apparitions, left Ana Lucia alone, crediting her conversations with the Blessed Mother as mere hallucinations of a senile old woman.
Unloved, ignored, all but forgotten, the little image was removed from its alcove over the Altar and relegated to a dark corner of the sacristy. The little image remained alone and discarded, except for the ongoing loyalty of Ana Lucia, who would gently dust off her little statue, and speak to her, as if she was real. No one else had a place for her in their hearts. But this was soon to change.