Scene 2: The Fifth Sun

[A split stage. BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA sits at a desk covered with papers, exhausted. JUAN DIEGO stands in humble clothing, clutching his tilma close. The CHURCH SECRETARY guards the door.]

NARRATOR: December 1531. Ten years after the Conquest, a new world struggles to be born. The old gods are silent, their temples torn down to build churches. Yet the indigenous people remain unconverted, their hearts closed to the faith of their conquerors. Until one morning, on the hill of Tepeyac, a poor man named Juan Diego encounters something extraordinary.

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: (sighing) You again, Juan Diego. This is the third time.

JUAN DIEGO: (humbly) Forgive me, my lord Bishop. But she sent me. She insists that you build a church on Tepeyac Hill.

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: "She." The woman you claim to see on the hill where Tonantzin was worshipped. (standing, frustrated) Do you not see how this looks? Your people refuse our faith, and now you bring me visions of a lady on a pagan site?

JUAN DIEGO: She is not Tonantzin, my lord. She spoke to me in Nahuatl. She called herself the mother of the true God. She said... (emotional) she said she wishes to show her love to all the people of this land.

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: (more gently) Juan Diego, I know you believe what you say. But I need proof. A sign that this is truly from heaven and not... (trails off)

JUAN DIEGO: What sign would you accept, my lord?

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: (dismissively) I don't know. Something impossible. Something that could only come from God.

[Lights shift. JUAN DIEGO moves to the other side of the stage—Tepeyac Hill. A warm glow suggests the presence of the VIRGIN.]

OUR LADY (voice): Juan Dieguito, my smallest son. Why are you troubled?

JUAN DIEGO: Noble Lady, the Bishop demands a sign. And my uncle is dying. I should be with him, not—

OUR LADY (voice): (with infinite tenderness) Am I not here, I who am your mother? Are you not in the crossing of my arms? Your uncle is already healed. Now go to the top of the hill. Gather the flowers you find there.

JUAN DIEGO: (confused) Flowers? But it is December. Nothing blooms on that rocky hill...

[JUAN DIEGO mimes climbing, then stops in amazement.]

JUAN DIEGO: (in wonder) Castilian roses... impossible...

[He gathers the flowers in his tilma. Lights shift back to the Bishop's office. JUAN DIEGO approaches BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA.]

JUAN DIEGO: My lord Bishop, she has sent your sign.

[JUAN DIEGO opens his tilma. Roses spill out onto the floor. The BISHOP falls to his knees, staring not at the flowers but at the tilma itself.]

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: (in awe) Mother of God...

NARRATOR: On Juan Diego's simple cactus-fiber cloak, an image had appeared—a young woman with indigenous features, surrounded by sun rays, standing on a crescent moon, her hands folded in prayer. The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe would become the most visited religious site in the world. Within seven years, nine million indigenous people would be baptized.

JUAN DIEGO: (looking at his tilma) A new sun rises, my lord. Not the Fifth Sun of our ancestors' prophecy, but something they never imagined. A mother... for all of us.

BISHOP ZUMÁRRAGA: (still kneeling) Build the church. Build it exactly where she asked.