MEXICO PLATES

Historias Mexicanas por el Camino

1930/32 México

1930s Tijuana, Baja California Hippodromo
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico officially known as the “Templo Expiatorio a Cristo Rey,” the first structure of the old basilica was begun in 1695 and it was not finished until 1709. In 1921 a bomb planted in a flower vase near the altar by an anticlerical terrorist exploded, causing great damage to the interior of the building. (In memory of this incident, the New Basilica displays an iron crucifix called “the attempt on Christ”.) The cloak survived undamaged. The basilica is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the world’s third most-visited sacred site.