El Día de Guadalupe

Millions in Mexico City, 50,000 last night at Dallas' Catedral Santuario, and many, many more are marking the 475th anniversary of the Americas' patronal feast all over the continent, north and south.

A report from today's San Antonio paper says that the Anglos are getting Guadalupe spirit, an LA piece on La Virgen's impact quotes Fr Greg Boyle (the priest who works with former gang members) recounting the time when "There was a kid coming to get his gang tattoos removed. But there was a big Virgen de Guadalupe tattoo on his back - and that wasn't going anywhere."

And, from Arizona, a series of testimonies -- from workmen, clerics, the faithful:

"This is the festivity we do for her. We don't know how to repay her but to come here," David said.

According to the Nican Mopohua, a document written in Nahuatl that records the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she came to deliver the message that "she is the true Mother of the true God for whom we live for," Lopez said.

"For me the Virgin has been, in my life, a protector, a mother, a friend," Lopez said. "She helps me to surpass many things within the priesthood, she's a security."

For Lopez, the image signifies the "real presence of the Mother of God" — not a photograph, not a painting. Her presence comes to give hope to the Mexican people, he said.

¡Buena fiesta a todos!


PHOTOS: Reuters/Tomas Bravo

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