Guadalupe sings...

stop ICE. A belated OLG post.

Allison Beyer. Guadalupe, 2025. Acrylic.

What does the Magnificat mean

if it loses all sense of urgency or particularity

—that is, application—

when we hear it?

Sometimes I hear homilies

and I think,

‘we could be in any year, in any time, in any place’

so utterly devoid it is of particularities, of anything that would tip it’s political hand so as not to offend one person or another.

And maybe that’s fine. Well-meaning.

But maybe it’s not. Not fine. Not well-meaning.

Because if we’re not willing to specify which tyrants we’re talking about throwing from their thrones

or which hungry bellies are indeed hungry and need our food to fill them

or which humble folks are in need of some lifting up

—some honest to god protection—

good god, what are we even talking about? What is the point

if we cannot be specific,

if we cannot name evil when we see it?

For surely it sees us

sees us say nothing

do nothing.

Do you know what la Guadalupana would say if she saw

us shrinking

backwards, away from the call to our neighbors, our brothers and sisters?

‘Am I not here, I who am your Mother?’

What is there to fear, little one?

And she would speak to us,

in whatever tongue is the least dominant among us,

to make it very clear where she stands

and with whom.