Ser Guadalupano

My favorite Marian holy day is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This is quite possibly heavily influenced by the fact that it occurs the day after my birthday and my mother prayed for her intercession during labor with me.  I feel a special connection to this brown-skinned, pregnant patroness of the Americas, who left her imprint on a simple tilma and upon the hearts of many.  I have two t-shirts with her image that I wear proudly.  I have other little items here and there graced with her lovely face and have even been mistakenly identified as Mexican because of my devotion.  Granted, I've been told to go "back to Mexico" without any Guadalupan markers, but this person was confused why I would care so much about her.

Although Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared specifically in Mexico, she is a mother for all of the Americas.  She came as one of the people, in their skin, speaking their language and appearing to Juan Diego.  Honor and veneration to her has spread across the continent.  I asked my mother to explain to me how she came into our family's life in Nicaragua.  Though this is not directly a part of Nordia's personal story, it does help with understanding the environment she grew up in.

In Nicaragua, a greater emphasis is places on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, on December 8. (Interestingly, this was the due-date I was suppose to be born.)  It is celebrated there somewhat similarly to Halloween in the United States.  Houses that want to participate decorate outside with an altar to the Virgin.  Children go from house to house singing songs to Our Lady and collect fruits and candies from the homes they visited.  No tricks, just treats and nothing scary, only joyful singing.  My family celebrated with this tradition every December.  Then one year when my mother was very young my grandfather, Juan Fernando Gonzalez Molina, took a trip with his brothers to Mexico.  They unintentionally happened to be there during the Guadalupan festivities.  He was so impressed by all the "peregrinos"and the great devotion of the Mexican people.  Deeply touched by what he saw, he wanted to bring this back to share with his family in Estelí.

What he ended up doing was loosely adapting their "Purísma" customs into a "Guadalupana" one.  They stopped setting-up on the 8th to prepare to host on the 12th.  The display was moved inside and he invited the whole neighborhood, with crowds growing into the hundreds eventually.  My grandmother would lead the prayer, ending the novena that day with the people gathered.  Prayers turned to songs and the sweets would be distributed.  In the early days, the fruits and candies would be passed out individually at internals, then eventually they started putting everything together in little buckets to give.  My grandfather observed this every year until he died and then my grandmother continued the practice.  Now my uncle upholds the tradition in her memory.

I personally find it fascinating that my grandfather could travel off to Mexico, fall in love with Our Lady of Guadalupe and build up such an ongoing, lasting devotion, celebration and tradition in their small town in Nicaragua.  My mother says she was around 5 or 7 years old, which makes Nordia two years younger.  This tells me that my aunt was raised with the same respect and honor to Our Lady.  It makes me happy to know that my Tía Nordia was probably a Guadalupana as well.  And to be Guadalupano, es algo escencial.