Dressed in full feathered headdresses and sequined regalia, a group of Mexican folk dancers gathered last week inside a church gymnasium in Willard, a small town in northern Ohio.
To the beat of pounding drums, they stomped and kicked out their feet, the beads on their outfits jingling with every move.
“This comes from our ancestors,” said Liby Cuevas, one of the group’s leaders. “It's something that's been passed down since way, way back.”
They were getting ready to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe — the holiday commemorates an event that dates back centuries, when the Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous man in what’s now Mexico.
Cuevas says back then, those indigenous ancestors danced in order to be close to God, and that noise makers were used to scare away evil spirits.
When the Spaniards came to their land, they tried to abolish the practice.
“But the tradition was too strong, and they couldn't,” Cuevas said. “So what they did is they included it into a Catholic belief. So now, [when] we dance … it's actually a prayer. We pray with our feet and it's the way that we show reverence to Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe
As the story goes, on a December morning in 1531, Juan Diego, a humble indigenous man, was walking to church when the Virgin Mary appeared to him. She told him, in his native language, to visit the bishop and build a chapel on that spot.
“But the bishop didn’t believe him,” said Sandra Iracheta, the Hispanic coordinator for St. Francis Xavier Church in Willard. She told the story with Father Aaron Moreno, a visiting priest from Mexico.
“The bishop asked him for proof of the apparition of Our Lady,” Father Moreno said, in Spanish.
So Juan Diego went back to the site and the Virgin Mary appeared again. This time, she told him to go to the top of the hill and pick roses.
“At that time, there were no roses. It wasn't the season,” Iracheta said.
But lo and behold, he found some. He collected them in his cloak, or tilma, and when he opened it to give the flowers to the Bishop, the cloak was miraculously imprinted with an image of the Virgin Mary.
“After Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared, it was a big conversion of the indigenous people,” Father Moreno said. “They were able to identify themselves with Our Lady.”
Today’s celebrations
Today, Catholic communities all over the continent celebrate this event, including in Huron County, where the Hispanic population has grown so much, St. Francis Xavier Church started holding services in Spanish.
“We started with one Mass a month, then two Masses, one every other week, and now we have it every week,” Iracheta said.
Recognizing the need, the Diocese of Toledo brought Father Moreno in to minister to the local Latino community.
On Saturday, St. Francis Xavier Church is hosting a diocesan celebration for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. People from all over the region will gather for the festivities, starting with a procession of danzantes — Mexican folk dancers — who will travel from Willard’s downtown to the Catholic church, dancing all the while.
Cuevas says it’s an essential part of the holiday.
“We've all grown up with this,” she said. “I don't remember any feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that had no dancers. So when we came here … we started one here too.”
Now, they’re teaching their kids to keep the tradition alive. Nine-year-old Camila Rosales Cuevas demonstrated her favorite move.
“We jump this way and we go down and it's like we're kneeling to God,” she said.
Following Saturday’s procession, kids like her will offer roses to Lady Guadalupe at the altar, much like Juan Diego did to the bishop all those years ago. Then, after Mass, they’ll celebrate with homemade Mexican food and more dancing.
“This celebration reminds us that just as Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in a time of suffering and uncertainty, God continues to draw near to his people, especially the humble, the poor and the marginalized,” Iracheta said. “The songs, the roses, the dances and the Mass become a living prayer, a reminder that we are not alone.”
