Latino Catholics Celebrate Feast Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe At Saint Finbar’s [Photos]

On Saturday, December 12, for the first time, I joined the mass and procession at Saint Finbar Roman Catholic Church for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the largest celebrations for Catholic Latinos.

Most years, it is too cold for my children to stay outdoors, particularly at night, but having this almost-spring weather allowed us to enjoy this ancient tradition that recalls the Apparition of the Mother of God during the 16th Century to an indigenous Mexican named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548).

Oral tradition says that the Virgin held four apparitions for Juan Diego and she had brown skin and eyes, drawing many indigenous Mexican people to embrace Catholicism. The final miracle is said to have occurred on December 12th, 1531 on a mountain named Tepeyac, the same place where Mexicans worshiped a female deity named Tonatzin. The Catholic Church re-contextualized both icons, Tonatzin and Holy Mary, into the Virgin of Guadalupe, a sign to many that she was taking care of her sons and daughters in the New World.

Indeed, there is a famous painting of the Apparition currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the 1773 oil from Spanish artist Nicolás Enríquez called “The Virgin of Guadalupe and Four Apparitions,” which is considered a widely venerated sacred image in New Spain. However, a critical look to those events points to the fact that the Catholic Church used a brown-skinned image of the Mother of God to spread the faith and placate the polytheistic cosmology of indigenous peoples in the Americas.

The celebration of the Brown Virgin (Virgen Morena) takes place every December all over Mexico and Latin America with a huge pilgrimage, and in New York, there are several parishes with Latino members that organize a special mass and procession.

In Bensonhurst, Saint Finbar Church has one of the largest Hispanic congregations; they participated in the Columbus Parade in October, and on Saturday, worshipers filled the lower church where a special altar was placed for the Virgin’s image with flowers, religious icons and estandartes.

As a tradition, families may wear indigenous costumes. Little boys dress up as Juan Diego — who was declared Saint in 1990 by Pope John Paul II — with white shirt, pants, and traditional accessories such as palm hats, sandals, cacaxtles (ancient backpacks), mustaches, and morrales — a burlap bag. Girls may wear colorful huipiles (blouses) and refajos (skirts), with braids in their hair and baskets.

For many of us, this event is a lifelong memory that repeats every year. We have pictures of ourselves in indigenous costumes from other centuries and now our children do the same.

The mass was conducted in Spanish by Monsignore Faustino Cordero and there were special offerings, including artisanal clay pots with Mariachi hats and a doll dressed with the Mexican flag colors.

Finally, a group of runners dressed in Virgen de Guadalupe track suits lit an Olympics-style torch to begin the procession. On a bed of roses, the Virgin was marched through streets of Bensonhurst, soon to be honored with traditional Mexican dances and food.