Thousands March Through Valley For ‘Lady Of Guadalupe Pilgrimage’
Thousands of people honored the matriarch of the Christian faith — The Virgin of Guadalupe — on Monday, walking the streets to show their faith and appreciation.
According to the Catholic faith, Juan Diego, a recently converted Aztec peasant, had a vision of a young woman who asked him to build a church exactly on the spot where they were standing.
To prove to a local bishop what he saw was real, she told Diego to go to a mountain top, where he found Castillian roses, which could not bloom during the winter. When he returned to the bishop, an imprint of the Virgin Mary appeared on the apron he used to carry them.
Today, Catholics celebrate the vision each year on December 12.
For the Coachella Valley, this is the 10th year residents have participated in a local march, which started at the Our Lady Of Solitude Chruch in Palm Springs and ends in Coachella later in the evening.
The faithful turned out before dawn carrying paintings or images of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
They also took their own personal items to pray for their family, friends and even themselves.
Last year, the march brought together about 16,000 people, and this year they expect about the same.
Around 4 p.m., Pueblo Unido, a non-profit organization that works with families of farm workers and lower-income residents, will hold a separate pilgrimage and vigil, which starts at 69455 Pierce St. and ends at 88855 Avenue 70, in Thermal.
“This march represents the citizens’ voices and their concerns about the lack of critical infrastructure, the government’s low prioritization of abating and cleaning toxic dump sites and improving transportation, and the discriminatory housing regulations and legislation that create barriers to improving the quality of life of farm workers and low-income families,” Pueblo Unido Executive Director Sergio Carranza said.
The Pueblo Unido pilgrimage is part of the Eastern Coachella Valley Environmental Justice Public Campaign, a movement “geared to raising public awareness, and protecting and improving the environmental health conditions of these rural communities,” Carranza said.
