Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration 2011

The Diocese of Phoenix sponsored its annual celebration honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. The choirs of St. Patrick’s and St. Augustine parishes were chosen to provide the music for the con-celebrated Mass. St. Pat’s used a couple of buses from the Notre Dame Preparatory school to shuttle our music ministry members and other attendees from the Church to downtown Phoenix.

The event was held outdoors in front of the Diocesan Pastoral Center next to St. Mary’s Basilica, a 19th century Church still in use.

It was a cold day for Phoenix (in the 50’s), cloudy, but thankfully no rain on the parade. The event started at 10:30am with a parade. I was surprised at the number of groups participating and their costumes. I found out later that the ceremony had an official name: Matachines (read about Matachines below photo album)

The first float was dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. As a sponsoring Church, St. Pat’s float came next. That was followed by groups from numerous parishes. After the parade it was time for the celebration of the Mass. The altar servers started off the entrance procession followed by the con-celebrants and then Bishop Olmsted.

St. Patrick’s pastor, Fr. Eric Tellez had the honor of giving the homily at the celebration, half in English and half in Spanish. The celebration ended with another review of the parade participants passing in front of the main platform.

Photos and article by parishioner Alex Cudzewicz

From Wikipedia: Matachines (Spanish matachín, or religious dancer) are bands of Mexican mummers who wander from village to village or from house to house dancing and hosting several Roman Catholic celebrations. They are found in northern Mexico. They are also very popular in Northern New Mexico and around the Rio Grande, specifically in the border cities of El Paso, Texas, Juarez, Chihuahua (Mexico) and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Even though they dance and host celebrations throughout the year, their most important performing season is Advent (mostly because the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls in that season. The dancers are known for playing in rough-and-ready style a set drama based on the history of Montezuma. Even though the dances are based on this story, people who join the Matachines do it for a deeper religious purpose, since most of them join to venerate either Mother Mary.

Dressed in fantastic Indian costumes, the chief characters are El Monarca the monarch (Montezuma), the captains (usually consist of 2-4 and are Montezuma’s main generals), La Malinche, or Malintzin, the Indian mistress of Hernán Cortés; El Toro, the bull, the malevolent comic man of the play (also symbolizes Satan), dressed in buffalo skin with the animal’s horns on his head (which can also be dressed differently but always as a bad character, wearing monstrous masks with ragged clothing); Abuelo, the grandfather, and Abuela, grandmother. With the help of a chorus of dancers they portray the desertion of his people by Montezuma, the luring of him back by the wiles and smiles of La Malinche, the final reunion of king and people and the killing of El Toro, who is supposed to have made all the mischief. Much symbolism is seen in these groups. The most basic symbol of the dance is good vs. evil, with good prevailing. Montezuma and la Malinche represent good, and the bull who represents mischief, Hernán Cortés, represents Satan or evil. The Indian costumes, the rattles, the arch and the bow are all blessed by a priest, and as he blesses the equipment of that group, it signifies that the priest has agreed to adopt the specific dancing group for that specific church.”