Monday evening, Rosa Vasquez stood in the back of the Little Flower Basilica in full costume, eagerly awaiting her first time dancing for the serenata a la Virgen de Guadalupe, the opening celebration of the two-day Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Westside church.
Vasquez joined the Danza Nueva Vida troupe in October, based at Christ the King Catholic Church, at the behest of her 17-year-old daughter Esmerelda, who also dances with the group. The mother and daughter were there to pay homage to the Virgencita, as the patron saint of the Latin American Catholic diaspora is commonly known, for a very specific reason.
Vasquez had been unable to conceive and prayed to the Virgen de Guadalupe for intercession.
“I prayed and I lit a candle, I cried out to her. And she’s the saint that did the miracle, letting me have a baby,” Vasquez said. “Now, 17 years later, we’re here dancing, honoring her and loving her.”
The apparitions
Inside, a congregation of 200 parishioners prayed and sang along to hymns praising the Virgin Mary, who on Dec. 9, 1531, first visited peasant Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on Tepeyac Hill.
The Virgen appeared as a morena — a Spanish term for a woman with dark hair and dark skin — to Juan Diego in a series of apparitions over four days.
As explained by Father Gregory Ross, pastor and rector of the Little Flower Basilica, Juan Diego saw a light and heard the twittering of birds. The Virgen appeared and instructed him to visit the local archbishop to say “that she is the ever-virgin Mother of God and she wishes that a shrine be built there, where her children can draw near to her and she can show her motherly love and help and support” to the Indigenous community.
The archbishop was unconvinced that Mary would visit a mere peasant, but after several more apparitions and miracles including a healing, the appearance of Castilian roses freshly growing atop a hill in Mexico in December and the Virgen’s visage imprinted upon Juan Diego’s garment, the church leader was finally convinced and agreed to have the shrine built.
That history is now played out on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe each year in Mexico City and throughout Latin America and Latino communities in the U.S., with dancers known as matachines paying homage to Aztec heritage through costumes, drum rhythms and chants of praise and devotion.
A small miracle
Paulette Gerhart and Lorenda Nerison danced for the second time this year, as members of Holy Trinity Matachines. Gerhart said she dances for two reasons, “I love to dance and I love to pray, and that’s what this is, it’s a combination of both.”
Nerison has visited the Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico City and seen Juan Diego’s cloak, called the tilma, imprinted with the Virgen’s image. She said the Virgencita sometimes intercedes with even small miracles.
On Juan Diego’s Dec. 9 feast day, the troupe enacted a procession from Mission San Juan to Mission Espada, their pristine white satin costumes taking on the stains of dirt and sweat from the unusually warm Saturday. Nerison’s washing machine at home had been on the fritz, but she prayed to the Virgen, and it worked perfectly, cleaning her costume in time for the Monday serenata. “It came out beautiful, spotless,” she said.
When her husband, relieved that the machine wouldn’t require fixing, tried to use it for another load, it no longer worked.
Nerison and Gerhart were among two dozen white-clad matachines who opened the serenata with vigorous dancing prayer, drums echoing throughout the basilica.
Ave Maria
Following the dance and readings of the apparitions from an ancient Nahuatl text, the lone voice of a young boy resounded from the rear balcony.
Nine-year-old Caleb Escobedo, an altar boy for the church, sang the “Ave Maria.” His mother, Lucinda Escobedo, said her son was drawn powerfully to the basilica named for St. Thérèse, called the Little Flower for her promise to shower the earth with roses as a symbol of love.
Roses figure prominently in the stories of both St. Thérèse and the Virgencita. Silvia De Hoyos, the Little Flower Basilica’s administrative secretary, handed out single white roses to visitors prior to the serenata and saw to it that the sanctuary was properly festooned with overflowing bouquets of roses for the feast day.
Earlier in the day, the Danza Del Tepeyac matachines troupe danced in the mostly empty church for a Telemundo live broadcast. Their exuberant drumming reverberated loudly enough that Father Gregory worried the plaster might fall from the basilica’s aging interior walls.
After the dance, Rodolfo Meza stood outside sipping a hot chocolate. He said he’s celebrated the feast day for as long as he can remember.
“For me, it’s a tradition, ever since I was a little kid.” Growing up in Dallas, he and his mother would watch the celebration on television if they couldn’t visit a church. The festivities are fun and the hot chocolate and tamales are comforts, Meza said, but for him, the tradition is about being religious and honoring the Virgen who appeared to his ancestors to share the joy of faith.
“She’s the Virgin Mary, just in a different shade of skin,” he said. After the serenata, Meza said, “You go home and it’s all about happiness. It kind of makes all the bad stuff go away.”
After the day of prayer and dancing, the congregation stood as one to sing along to the traditional “Las Mañanitas a la Virgen de Guadalupe” closing song that honors the Virgencita as “Mother of all the Mexican people.”
And despite the booming of many drums rising to a thunderous rumble throughout the day, the plaster did not fall.
Celebrations of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Little Flower Basilica continue throughout Tuesday, with a bilingual mass at 6 p.m.
