BLOOMINGTON -- St. Mary’s Church celebrated the feast of the Virgen de Guadalupe on Sunday, honoring the image of the Virgin Mary that Catholics believe appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec Christian, in the 16th century near modern-day Mexico City.
A mariachi band played as celebrants, led by Bishop Daniel Jenky, began their procession at the standing-room-only afternoon Mass.
Following the entrance, girls dressed in purple and orange Aztec and feathered headpieces, along with five men also wearing Aztec dress, danced a Chichimeca dance to the beat of a drum. The men carried fur-covered shields and short, sword-like weapons while the young women carried flowers. Their dance took place before a statue of the Virgen de Guadalupe under an arch of white flowers.
“I would like to say how blessed and happy I am that you invited me,” said Jenky leader of Catholics in the Peoria diocese, shortly after the dance ended. “I always love coming to this parish, but especially for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
Alejandro Trujillo, a resident of Bloomington from Zacatecas, Mexico, attended the Mass wearing a dark blue sweatshirt adorned with a white image of the Virgin on the back. He said that the Virgin is “como tu mamá, (like your mom).
Father Gregg Petri, who, along with Jenky officiated at the Spanish language Mass, agreed that Mexico has a childlike devotion to the Virgen de Guadalupe.
“The love that we have in our hearts for our mother is the exact same feeling that Mexico has for the Virgin. She’s the very soul of Mexico. To be Mexican is to be devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe,” he said in an interview before the Mass.
Following the Mass, children of the parish sat in the front of the church in the main aisle and watched as Alicia Ramirez, portraying the Virgin, and Luis Bucio, playing Juan Diego, re-enacted the appearance of the Virgin. After the scene, excited parents took pictures of their children in the arms of Ramirez, dressed in a green mantle.
The celebration continued in the gym of Saint Mary’s school, where attendees ate beef, salsa, rice and refried beans on tables with red, white and green tablecloths to represent the Mexican flag, and the mariachi band entertained the crowd again.
Veronica Hernandez, a Bloomington resident from Mexico City, said that the Virgin “represents people from Mexico.”
Maura Toro-Morn, director of the ISU Latin Studies Department, believes the Virgin becomes more important to Latin Americans who have moved to the United States.
“Frequently Latinos come to the U.S. and she becomes more significant to them because she is part of our connected identity, part of the Latinidad, the identity that Latinos construct. She represents a pan-ethnic identity. She speaks to all Latinos in Latin America because she represents an icon,” Toro-Morn said.
Maria Luisa Zamudio, administrative coordinator of the ISU’s Bilingual Education program, lived in Mexico City, the site of a basilica in honor of the Virgin. She described people crowding the streets days in advance of the Dec. 12 celebration, which is a national holiday in Mexico.
“People would walk for days to visit the Virgin no matter what the weather,” she said.
St. Mary’s parishioners proved that they will brave the freezing rain and icy sidewalks of Bloomington to honor the Virgen de Guadalupe.
