Tepeyac is the oldest surviving feature-length silent film from Mexico. Films Colonial, which produced only one other film (Confesión trágica, 1919), made the narrative in 1917, at the beginning of Mexican cinema’s first Golden Age. When production in Europe virtually ground to a halt and US exports to South America declined because of World War I, Mexicans took the opportunity to develop a nationalist narrative cinema: fictional films set in Mexico, telling Mexican stories about its people and customs.
The film opens with a contemporary woman, anxiously awaiting word of her fiancé called away to Europe during wartime, who finds succor in the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This Marian apparition took place on a hill overlooked Tenochtitlán, now Mexico City. Tepeyac – meaning ‘hilltop’ – was sanctuary to Tonantzin, the Aztec goddess of the earth, corn, and fertility. Once Spain defeated the Aztecs, the Catholic Church began to hold sway over the souls of the indigenous people. The transformation of Tonantzin’s hilltop from an Aztec to a Catholic holy site became complete in 1531, when Juan Diego, née Cuauhtlatoatzin (‘eagle that talks’), reportedly encountered Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 9. After the first appearance of the Virgin, Diego visits the Bishop to relay her instructions to build a church on Tepeyac. Bishop Zumárraga does not believe the Indian convert, so the Virgin appears again…
With the end of WWI, both Europe and US stepped up production and soon took over Mexican, indeed Latin American, movie screens. Mexico did not reclaim its cinematic voice until well into the era of talkies, when prodigal stars returned home from Hollywood, and, with the onset of World War II, Mexican filmmaker Emilio Fernández and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa ushered in Mexico’s second Golden Age.

Shari Kizirian