Thread: We are the undocumented, and the Virgin is she who protects-

http://www.manassasjm.com/servlet/Satel ... path=!news

Pilgrimage honors Hispanic Virgin


By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Tuesday, December 6, 2005


A pilgrimage that began in Mexico City on Oct. 9 reached Prince William County on Monday as runners carried a lighted torch over major thoroughfares in Woodbridge and Manassas in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

But in the climate of the times, the religious nature of the pilgrimage was all but overshadowed by the political debates surrounding the legal status of migrant workers. Even as the participants praised the Virgin -- the Spanish equivalent of the Virgin Mary -- they expressed deep resentment of a U.S. immigration policy that prevents them from returning to their homelands, and keeps them living in fear of deportation.

Lázaro Mendez, a resident of New York, said he has not seen his family in Mexico in five years.

"I'm here to thank the Virgin because I was able to come here legally," he said. "I wish I bring my family in Mexico here. It is the laws of this country that divide our people."

Mendez and the other runners took their faith, hopes and frustrations to U.S. 1 on Monday, where they continued a 3,000-mile, 40-day journey along U.S. 1 to New York City. With a one-squad car escort, participants spread out along the highway to hand off the torch about every quarter of a mile. Some jogged. Some sprinted, pumping their arms and clenching their teeth. At times they ran alone and in groups three or four abreast, dressed in white sweat suits provided by the sponsors, Asociación Tepeyac and Mexicans Without Borders. This is the fourth year the relay has run from Mexico to New York.

The individual participants were a diverse -- if mostly Mexican -- mix. A construction worker. A documentary filmmaker. An accountant. A high school student. They hailed from Virginia, New York and some from as far as Texas, where they joined the procession in October. Almost everyone had a different reason for running.

Rosa Maria Téllez and her husband left their jobs and young daughter in New York to participate in the pilgrimage.

"We are the undocumented, and the Virgin is she who protects us," she said. "This is about protecting ourselves, uniting and telling people that we are here and we want to be able to work legally."

At Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge, Associate Pastor James Tucker drew a parallel between the Virgin Guadalupe's life, and the plight of Mexican immigrants like Téllez.

"She was an immigrant without papers in a foreign country," Tucker said of the Virgin of Guadalupe in a service.

David Aguirre, the chief administrator of the pilgrimage, blamed the U.S. government for the poor conditions in which immigrant workers often subsist.

"The government of the U.S. is hypocritical," he said. "There are more than 20 million Mexican immigrants that clean your houses, serve your tables and they pay taxes. The government knows it, but refuses to recognize them with rights every human being should have."

For some Mexican immigrants, the economic necessity that led them to cross the border into the U.S. remains an open wound. MarÃÂ*a Reina, a resident of Dale City, has cleaned houses for the past 14 years in the U.S.

"There need to be more opportunities for Mexicans to work legally in the U.S," she said. Why? "Because there is no work over there [in Mexico]. If they were, I wouldn't be here."

Martin Luna said he was running for love of the Virgin. He said his religious faith is the most important part of his life, more important than his job installing fiberglass in New York City. But his clothing tells a different story, where he has written in black magic marker: "We are the messengers without voice or vote." Still Luna denied that he was running to protest.

But other participants were less close-mouthed about their grievances in the U.S. Cristina Robinson, a U.S. citizen and Houston resident who has followed the torch for the last two months, met with discrimination as recently as Monday. On a trip to a Wal-Mart, Robinson was accused of stealing merchandise while walking out of the store. She yanked a receipt from the sun visor in her car, waving it angrily "I had a receipt, see, and they accused me of robbing the store!"

The pilgrimage itself has run into problems. Police in South Carolina prohibited the participants from running and hindering traffic on a main road. When the runners persisted, several of them were issued tickets.

Today the procession will reach Washington, D.C., where the runners will make their political agenda explicit. The procession will stop at the White House and the houses of Congress, promoting immigration reform. The Asociación Tepeyac supports a bill proposed by Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to increase the amount of legal immigration into the U.S., while bolstering border security.

Ricardo Juarez, of Mexicans Without Borders, said his organization also favors the McCain-Kennedy bill, but demands legal status for all undocumented workers. He objected to legislation linking illegal immigration to terrorism, saying that "it is not worthy of a Mexican farmer -- who tries to escape from poverty by immigrating and working hard, suffering exploitation -- to be treated like a terrorist."

Dignity for their people is a message the runners want to spread. "Messengers for the dignity of a people divided by the border," read their T-shirts.

Perhaps the Virgin of Guadalupe is a natural rallying figure for Mexican immigrants, as, in the words of Aguirre, "The Virgin is border-less, the mother of all Americas."

"I'm here to thank the Virgin because I was able to come here legally," he said. "I wish I bring my family in Mexico here. It is the laws of this country that divide our people."

This poor man, separated from his family...it's just his bad luck to have chosen to imigrate to a nation that has laws. Unbelievable. Pass the Kleenex please.

RR

This poor man, separated from his family...it's just his bad luck to have chosen to imigrate to a nation that has laws. Unbelievable. Pass the Kleenex please.

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