EAST LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The 93rd edition of Los Angeles’s oldest religious procession will be held Sunday in East Los Angeles, commemorating the 493rd anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Mexican peasant Juan Diego.
The Procession and Mass honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Solitude Parish then go through the streets of East Los Angeles. Its theme is “Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Eucharist.”
The procession’s lineup includes Guadalupano parish groups, 37 groups of Aztec dancers and 35 “andas,” decorated carts used by students from Catholic schools and representatives of other ministries in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to carry images of the Virgin of Guadalupe during the procession, according to organizers.
The archdiocese’s five auxiliary bishops will also process.
Guadalupano parish groups are groups of men and women who are responsible for promoting devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her title of Guadalupe.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is a Catholic title of Mary, the mother of Jesus, associated with a series of five Marian apparitions to St. Juan Diego and his uncle, Juan Bernardino, that are believed to have occurred in December 1531.
Following the procession, Archbishop José H. Gomez will celebrate a Mass at 1 p.m. at East Los Angeles College Stadium. The Mass, co-celebrated by the auxiliary bishops and priests of the archdiocese, will be preceded by a musical tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Mass will be livestreamed on lacatholics.org/guadalupe.
The celebration was established by Mexican Catholics who fled persecution by the Mexican government during the Cristero War in 1931.
The annual celebration commemorating the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe recalls the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City, in December 1531 when she left her image on his cloak. Her image has been a symbol of unity, peace, compassion and hope for people around the world.
