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Thousands Revere Virgin
[Source: San Antonio Express-News, December 13, 2005]

With skin scraped raw and bloody, the most fanatical of the brown-skinned Virgin Mary's devotees crawled on their knees.

They gingerly made their way along the pavement and into the holiest of sites for Mexican Catholics.

With the pain, the pilgrims said, they showed devotion.

Before dropping to their knees for the last 100 yards, some walked more than 100 miles. Shoes were shredded. Faces were flushed. Bodies were dehydrated.

Alejandra Ramíírez, 15, fought back tears as she leaned on a framed image of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

She used it like a crutch to steady herself. She had rolled up the legs of her jeans, as if to hit the turbo button for agony.

Why would she put herself through this?

"I promised," she said weakly, summoning the last of her energy.

Like hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who descended on the storied Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe for an annual celebration, she had her private reasons for being here and for suffering.

Monday wrapped up days of devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe, who Catholics believed first appeared to a peasant almost 500 years ago on a hilltop above what is now the basilica.

The sighting is considered a pinnacle moment in the Catholic Church's effort to religiously convert Mexico's indigenous population.

She is considered Mexico's patron saint and queen.

Carlos Triana, a priest from Colombia, said the Virgin's appearance to the peasant, now known as San Juan Diego, guided the blend of Catholicism with traditional Aztec gods and beliefs. Some scholars believe Guadalupe is the Aztec deity known as Tonantzin, earth mother and ancient goddess of the moon.

"The faith is in their blood," Triana said of Mexicans. "She gave them a new identity."

And so, as Ramírez, the 15-year-old girl who walked on bloodied knees, and 48 others from her community made their way past hundreds of vendors and into the compound, they were swept into a whirlwind of dance, prayer and emotional outpouring that marked the Aztec merger with Christianity.

Holy water was splashed on the sea of people who couldn't fit into a Mass and braved the sun.

Dancers clad in colorful pre-Hispanic costumes jumped and pranced as feathered headdresses swayed and ornate ankle bracelets, made of dozens of shells, shook in a rhythmic cadence.

Incense filled the air. Drums were pounded loudly, and their driving beat could be heard for blocks.

"This is who we are. This is me," said dancer Yolanda Murillo, 38, a native of Mexico City who works in Houston and came here for the festival.

"Somebody has to preserve our culture, who we are and where we are from" she said of why she practices dancing and annually makes the trip to the basilica.

Meanwhile, María Teresa Díaz, 42, a Red Cross worker, said she was awed by the self-inflicted suffering.

"They are exhausted. They faint," she said of pilgrims, noting 376 people had been treated as of Monday afternoon. "Imagine, I walk from here to the subway and I'm exhausted."

Bob Lum, a tourist from Hawaii, said he was moved by the devotion.

"There are so many people from so many places," he said. "But we all have one thing in common--faith."

Latinos Pay Tribute to the Virgin Mary
[Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 12, 2005]

Two miscarriages made Aurora Castrejon of Marietta seek the Virgin Mary even more.

In 1993, the Mexican transplant and her husband, Horbelin, visited an apparition site in Conyers. Soon came the "benediciones," or blessings.

"I received a lot," said Aurora Castrejon, 41, now the mother of three boys and a girl.

The Castrejons were among 3,000 Latinos, mostly from Mexico, who celebrated Catholicism's holiest matriarch Sunday afternoon at an outdoor Mass in Cobb County. During the weekend, cathedrals and churches across metro Atlanta and in other areas with large Latino populations honored the Virgin of Guadalupe, the brown-skinned patroness of Mexico who is said to have appeared in an apparition there 474 years ago and has since become a national emblem.

That fervor has reached Cobb County, where possibly metro Atlanta's largest Guadalupe celebration takes place yearly. There were three Masses, a six-member mariachi band serenaded all day, cooks sold homemade tamales and mothers dressed their children according to peasant custom. The fiesta was to continue until 3 a.m. today.

St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Smyrna organized the event and held the three Masses at Jim R. Miller Park in Marietta, drawing thousands of Mexicans all day. The evening was scheduled to climax with an extravagant Mass, traditional dances, mariachis and a procession, including a Living Rosary, in which people line up as the rosary beads, recite Hail Marys and light the candles.

All this for one woman who worshippers say reached Mexico's soul.

"We do not worship her; we venerate her," said Sarah "Sarita" Davila, a volunteer and longtime member of the congregation.

It took six weeks for volunteers to prepare for Sunday's activities, which reflected a gradual but dramatic transformation of one parish's demographics since 1998, when the church held one Spanish-language Mass every three weeks. Now, half of the 4,000 church members are Hispanic, Davila said.

Legend has it that the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on Dec. 12, 1531, to a peasant, Juan Diego, in northern Mexico and left her image on his cloak. Dec. 12 is celebrated in Mexico with large pilgrimages and fireworks. Streets are filled with people, riding bicycles, sleeping on sidewalks and flocking to the plaza and basilica erected in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the site where she is said to have appeared.

On Sunday, the equestrian ring in Jim R. Miller Park became a makeshift church, with hundreds of folding chairs and a shrine of handmade sacred artwork. The podium displayed a massive portrait of the virgin on the hill where she appeared, and handmade cactuses and eucalyptuses dotted the stage. In the middle of the ring was a rocky hill, 15 feet tall and peppered with leafy saplings made with paper and fancy painting skills.

The celebration continues today, when St. Thomas will bless mothers and children and workers as well as their tools.

A Reminder of Home
[Source: The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), December 12, 2005]

As a young girl, Adriana Johnson worshiped with thousands of people who sang, danced and prayed together in the plaza outside the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Her family lived near the basilica, but many others had walked across miles of countryside to pay homage to the Virgin Mary in a religious event known in Mexico as the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The holiday takes place today.

When Johnson moved to Columbus in the 1980s, she longed to celebrate the traditions that were so popular among Roman Catholics in her homeland.

"I was feeling pretty lonely," she said. "I swear, I cried for a year. I'd say, 'Why am I here?'"

Church was one of few places that felt familiar.

A growing number of Catholic churches in central Ohio have recognized the need to serve Spanish-speaking parishioners. Johnson, who now works at St. Stephen the Martyr Church on the West Side, is among those welcoming them.

The Ohio Hispanic Coalition estimates that 60,000 to 80,000 Latino immigrants live in Franklin County.

At least three Columbus parishes have offered weekly Masses and programs in Spanish for many years, but the idea wasn't explored until recently in surrounding cities such as Delaware and Newark.

About 75 people typically attend the Mass celebrated in Spanish once a month at St. Mary Church in Delaware, Sister Cecilia Taphorn said.

"We have a lot of resources here in Delaware for the Hispanics, but to get the church word out isn't easy," Taphorn said. "If we had Mass every Sunday, I'm sure we'd have more people."

She works with those who do attend, and is taking Spanish classes at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Joining St. Mary Church helped Soraya Castaline feel part of the community when her husband's job at Bank One transferred her family from Tampa, Fla., to Delaware three years ago.

Castaline, a native of Nicaragua, said she tries to encourage other Spanish-speaking locals to attend.

"When you are far from home, (church) gives you comfort and gives you strength," she said.

Leaders of the Diocese of Columbus have noticed a higher demand for bilingual clergy members and are working to recruit priests from Central and South America, said Tom Berg Jr., a deacon and assistant chancellor of the diocese.

The majority of immigrants who settle here are from Mexico, where roughly 90 percent of the population is Catholic.

"We have a duty and responsibility to meet their spiritual needs and also feel we have a duty to meet their social needs," Berg said.

At St. Francis De Sales in Newark, that includes offering tutoring in English on Sunday mornings. Those who attend are welcomed to stay for Mass, and some do.

When immigrants arrive here, many wish they could attend Mass celebrated in their native language, said the Rev. Larry Herrera of the Pontifical College Josephinum. "I think it's very important and fair that they do."

Herrera has celebrated Mass in Spanish at churches across central Ohio.

"There's a pull in both directions, in that parents want their traditions. At the same time, they want their kids to grow up and ... to speak English and fit in the culture, too."

These days, Johnson devotes much of her time to planning celebrations that mirror the spiritual gatherings in Mexico.

"Most of my friends are from church," she said. "We have Dominicans, people from Peru, El Salvador, Honduras, from Colombia. ... "Before it was from Mexico, but now it's from everywhere."

Her latest event took place yesterday, when she and other members of her congregation walked through the streets of their neighborhood proudly waving flags symbolic of their native countries.

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