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 News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
Image of Virgin of Guadalupe on US Tour Among Families
 Associated Press
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Waco, Texas - She has a rock star's following among Mexicans worldwide, and her tour schedule in Waco is booked solid through 2009.
But there's no comparing Our Lady of Guadalupe to Mick Jagger or Madonna.
The brown-skinned saint is Mexico's version of the Virgin Mary. She is arguably the most venerated image among Mexican Catholics, and her influence carries well into the United States.
In Waco, a couple of Mexican-American women started exchanging a framed image of Guadalupe among friends and family in 2001 in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A tradition that began with nine days and nine families has expanded into a yearlong pilgrimage of the image among more than 100 families. Dozens more crowd an ever-growing waiting list.
"We've been to homes where people weep because they feel an emptiness when the Virgin leaves their home to go to the next one," said list keeper Acasia Diaz.
The idea began when Waco resident Amelia Vega woke up to the nightmarish images on her television Sept. 11, 2001. She said she was overwhelmed with a fear that lingered into late autumn, as the season celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe approached.
"I started thinking how the Virgin helps protect us," Vega said.
Vega called Maria Hernandez, a fellow parishioner at St. Francis on the Brazos Catholic Church. She proposed an idea: What if they passed around an image of the Lady of Guadalupe, as is traditional in some parts of Mexico?
Vega, 45, and Hernandez, 69, are from the same neighborhood in a small town in the central Mexican state of San Luis PotosÃ.
"I never hesitated, not for one moment," Hernandez said. "In the same instant she pitched the idea, I said, 'Of course. When do we begin?'"
That day they borrowed a picture of Guadalupe that hung in Hernandez's daughter's home.
Vega called other Hispanic households and asked if they'd like to host the Virgin.
For nine days Guadalupe toured the homes of nine Waco families, ending on Dec. 12, the annual day of celebration for the Mexican patron saint.
The next year, Guadalupe toured for 46 days before the December celebration _ one day for each of the stars on her robe.
That year, the women were recognized by the Rev. Fernando Hernandez at St. Francis, who received them at the church with a special blessing for the image and their efforts.
Later, Hernandez surprised the women with a replica of the Guadalupe image in the Mexico City basilica built in her honor. The replica is encased in glass and surrounded by a gold frame.
"He said, 'I want this image to be on a yearlong pilgrimage throughout the community. I don't want her shut up in the church,'" Hernandez said.
The priest intended that the families who received her would make a tradition of saying the rosary together, Hernandez said.
The people of Mexico, whose mixture of Spanish and indigenous ancestry is termed mestizo, closely identify with Our Lady of Guadalupe, said the Rev. Roman Burgos, who currently heads St. Francis.
"Her image is that of an indigenous woman. She represents the mixing of the indigenous and the Spanish cultures, something exceedingly important to the Mexican people," he said.
Guadalupe is said to have appeared before a poor indigenous man in 1531 with a request to have a temple built in her honor.
Critics of Guadalupe allege she was created by the Catholic hierarchy to convert the indigenous people of Mexico to Christianity.
The basilica in Mexico City, which is visited by some 20 million people each year, is the reported site of her miraculous appearance nearly five centuries ago.
In Waco, word has spread quickly about Guadalupe's visits.
"We would take her to one house and someone visiting the household would say, 'We want her,'" Diaz said.
"Now we find people in the church, or on the street, at work, (and they say) 'Hey, you're the one with the list.' So I take down their information and see what days we can accommodate them."
Announcements about the image also are made at church.
Leafing through the notebook-size calendar Diaz keeps in her purse, she acknowledges that all of 2008 is booked with weekly home visits, and about two dozen families are on a waiting list for 2009.
"We wish the year would have more days to meet the need," Diaz said.
The image has traveled beyond the Waco city limits, going to McGregor, Bellmead, Lacy-Lakeview and China Spring.
She is welcomed with song and prayer in the company of both the family who last hosted her and the one receiving her. Some families go out of their way to show their adoration.
The Guerrero family of Waco welcomed Guadalupe with dancers normally reserved for the December celebration.
"It was my dream," mother Luisa Guerrero said. "I wanted to pay her a special tribute."
Guerrero, who waited one year to welcome the Virgin to her home, said she has Guadalupe to thank for helping resolve an argument she had with her daughter. For a time, Guerrero said her daughter wouldn't let her see her grandchildren, but the family has since been reunited.
The group of organizers surrounding Waco's traveling Guadalupe has grown to about 15 people.
Diaz said juggling the responsibility on top of work and family is tough at times. No matter, she says, because every time she accompanies Guadalupe to a new home and sees young children participate in the singing and prayer she knows the tradition has grown beyond its founders.
"It's something that is being inherited by our children despite our being far from Mexico," she said.
"It's a great satisfaction because it shows that our faith as Hispanics is very strong." |
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