Setting: A split stage. Bishop Zumárraga sits at a desk. Juan Diego stands on the other side.
Bishop Zumárraga: (Writing a letter) King of Spain, this colony is a failure. We have been here ten years, and I have baptized almost no one. The soldiers abuse the natives, and the natives would rather die than give up their gods.
Juan Diego: I hear music on Tepeyac Hill... My Lady? You speak Nahuatl? You look like a Mestiza—one of us!
The Lady (Voice): "Am I not here, I who am your Mother?"
Juan Diego: (Running to the Bishop) Bishop! She appeared! She wants a house built on the hill!
Bishop Zumárraga: Juan, please. Why would the Mother of God appear to you? I need a sign.
(Juan Diego drops his tilma. Roses fall out.)
Bishop Zumárraga: (Gasping) Castilian roses? In winter? And the image on the cloth...
Aztec Convert 1: Bishop, the black sash—in our culture, that is the belt of a pregnant woman!
Aztec Convert 2: And the flower over her womb—that is Nahui Ollin. She carries the true Sun!
Juan Diego: Her son is the Sun who gives life. He does not need our blood to shine!
Narrator 1: In just 10 years, 9 million people were baptized—about 3,000 each day.
Narrator 2: The Lady was "Mestiza"—a mix of Spanish and Indigenous. She gave divine permission for two cultures to become one family. They were becoming Mexico.