At Las Vegas’ Saint Anne Catholic Church, hundreds attended a noon Mass Friday celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a holiday that commemorates a 16th-century vision of the Virgin Mary near Mexico City that has become a symbol of Latino pride and holy protection. 

More people attended this year than previous years, church leaders told The Nevada Independent. 

The image of the Lady of Guadalupe stands out as a symbol of the faith binding together many Latino religious communities and of Mexican identity in particular.

Roughly 80 percent of Saint Anne parishioners are Mexican, estimated liturgical director Fatima Lopez, making the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe a particularly important day for the church.  

This year’s celebrations were unique because of rising concerns around immigration in Nevada’s Latino communities, according to Miguel Corral, the church’s pastor. 

“Immigration is a hot topic right now,” Corral said to The Nevada Independent. “I told [parishioners] to put everything in God’s hands through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” 

The Friday Mass was part of multiple days’ worth of celebrations, including the performance of indigenous songs and dances, services throughout the weekend in English and Spanish, and a nine-day prayer ritual known as the rosary novena. Approximately 1,350 people attended a Mass late last Thursday that included the singing of Las Mañanitas, a traditional birthday serenade.

“She’s our mother. We’re Mexican. She’s our queen,” said Jehnny Martinez, who was born and raised in Mexico before moving to Las Vegas in 1999 with her mother and sister. She and her sister have attended Saint Anne for years and were the musicians at Friday’s Mass. 

“It’s just something you feel inside of you,” Martinez said as she attempted to describe what celebrating Guadalupe meant to her. “I cannot explain it with words.”

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe marks the first papal-approved sighting of the Virgin Mary in the New World and her first Indigenous apparition.

According to tradition, an indigenous man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin saw the Lady of Guadalupe on two separate occasions in December 1531. 

In the first vision, Mary told Juan Diego to ask the archbishop to build a church on the hill of Tepeyac, located in today’s Mexico City. After witnessing his second vision of the Virgin Mary in the presence of a bishop, that church was built. 

The resulting Basilica de Guadalupe is one of the most visited Catholic sites in the world and sees pilgrimages from millions of people during the Guadalupe celebrations every year.

At Saint Anne, emotional praise for a holy figure 

In his sermon, Corral also called for “peace for leaders of all nations” and an “end to all wars.” 

The mass saw parishioners singing along with traditional hymns, receiving communion and being led in prayer for the ends of poverty, violence and other social ills. A group of young parishioners also performed an original indigenous dance for the crowd. Following the Mass, many parishioners had the chance to pray alone at a shrine to the Virgin Mary.

Multiple parishioners told The Nevada Independent that they celebrated the Lady of Guadalupe because she is a protective force for Mexicans, guarding them with her watchful eye. 

Garcia Espinoza teared up as she spoke about the holiday. 

“She has suffered so much for us, always, always, always around,” Espinoza said in Spanish. 

Espinoza has attended services at Saint Anne for years and said that she believes the growing attendance at the Guadalupe celebrations show how the influence of the Virgin Mary has spread in Espinoza’s own lifetime.

“Every year she becomes bigger in all the towns, in every home, everywhere,” she said. “Before, it was only in Mexico, but now she is everywhere.”