With Aztec dancers, mariachi music, artists and a mass celebrated by the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, José H. Gómez, hundreds of parishioners celebrated “Las Mañanitas a la Virgen de Guadalupe.”
In the Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles, the tribute to the so-called “Morenita del Tepeyac” attracted the faithful from all corners of Latin America and the Philippines, who visited the niche of the Virgin of Guadalupe and inside the sacred precinct. .
“The Virgin of Guadalupe is the Mother of God and is the Mother of all the children of God: your mother and my mother,” said Archbishop Gómez. “The Virgin reminds us that beyond the color of our skin or the country where we come from, we are all brothers.”
The faithful participated with devotion in the 493rd anniversary of the four appearances of the Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas, to the Macehual Indian, Juan Diego, between December 9 and 12, 1531, on the Tepeyac hill, in the city from Mexico.
“For us, the Virgin is not only for Mexicans. “She belongs to all Latin Americans,” said Moris Valle, a Salvadoran born in Usulután, who was accompanied by his wife Ivette and their two children: María Fernanda, 3 years old, and their baby, Alessandro José, two months old, who were dressed of inditos.
Moris Valle, an MTA bus driver, said that, since childhood, his mother, María, instilled in him a love for the Virgin of Guadalupe.
“My love for her cannot be explained in words; I just know that you feel at peace,” he added. “His love feels like the same love as my mother.”
Historically, after the fall of Great Tenochtitlán, in 1521, a decade later the Marian apparitions occurred that marked the encounter between two opposing cultures: the pre-Hispanic of Mexico and the European.
The narration of the Guadalupe miracle is found in Nahuatl, in the document Nican Mopohua (Here it is narrated), written in 1556 by Juan Valeriano, who was a collaborator of the Franciscan friars who arrived in Mexico for evangelization. The document was published until 1649.
“I have been to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico three times,” said José Guerrero, a 76-year-old Filipino, who visited the chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles.
There, guarded by the Knights of Columbus, the only relic of a piece of the tilma of Saint Juan Diego is exhibited. The tilma or ayate is the maguey cloth on which the image of the Guadalupana was miraculously printed, when the Indian spread his mantle full of Castilian roses before Bishop Fray Juan de Zumárraga.
“The Virgin of Guadalupe has guided my life and I have always asked her for my health and with her intercession before God, she protects me,” added the older man.
The popular festival began in the afternoon in the Cathedral Square where numerous groups of Aztec dancers and folk groups of Mexican immigrants paraded, while the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and red roses were reflected on the walls of the church. .
Inside the cathedral, “Expressions of Faith” is presented, an art exhibition by Los Angeles artists and painters Lalo García, Rico Ortega, Laura Vázquez Rodríguez, and J. Michael Walker.
“They did not believe Juan Diego about the apparitions of the virgin; They rejected him, but with his faith, humility, perseverance and service he managed to be attended to and the doors were opened to see Fray Juan de Zumárraga,” said Lalo García.
“Today the doors are also closed to us in this country, but we must have faith and hope, and we all unite, and as we ranchers say, Juan Diego did not give up. Sometimes Juan Diego is left aside, but he is the other half of the virgin’s story.”
The artist points out that through the paintings that make up the Guadalupana exhibition with joy, imagination and fervor, the four artists share their meditations on the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego, offering visitors new and profound perspectives that bring parishioners closer. even more towards Guadalupe veneration.
The exhibition will be open to the public from December 20 to January 24, 2025.