Mexico City & the Virgin of Guadalupe

I have just returned from a week in Mexico City where I was working at a manufacturing plant and a distribution center.  Throughout both facilities near the end of most assembly lines and shipping doors were shrines dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  The company has allowed workers to build these.  I am told that the intention is for the Virgin to watch over the workers and protect them.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is a powerful symbol in Mexico.  She seems to be a cross between the Catholic Virgin Mary and the native mother-goddess Tonantzin.  Her features are not quite indigenous and not quite European, representing the modern Mexican. You see her everywhere in Mexico City... on clothing, buildings, cars, key chains, everywhere.