Mexico - 2003 and 2005

In November 2003, I was invited to Mexico to act as an interpreter and assisting 4 men who were visiting various religious sites and organizing a future pilgrimage for various catholic boys clubs in the US and Canada. In November 2005, I returned to Mexico to help chaperon and act as an interpreter for a group of 140 American and Canadian youth aged 10 to 16 years old. Below are some of the photos taken during both trips.

View of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, the site of the two basilicas of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Mexico's holiest shrine, its importance derived from a miracle here on December 12, 1531: an Aztec named Juan Diego received from the Virgin a cloak permanently imprinted with her image so he could prove to the priests that he had had a holy vision.

The Antigua Basílica (old basilica), which dates from 1536. The structure has weakened over the years and a new Basilica was built between 1974 and 1976. Each year, millions make the pilgriage to the Basilica of Guadalupe, some crawling on their knees for miles, to pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Pilgrims arrive year-round, but millions flock to the shrine on
December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Tilma, the original cloak containing the image of the Virgin hangs behind a bullet-proof glass above the altar in the new basilica. Juan Diego's tilma, a thin cloth made of cactus fibres, normally decays in 30 to 40 years. But Juan Diego's tilma is still miraculously intactas he wore it in 1531.

This photo was taken on my way to the top of Cerro del Cubilete (literally "Tumbler Hill"), a mountain at elevation 8,460 ft above sea level, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Atop the hill is a temple and a 75 ft tall statue of Christ. The statue was built by the Cristeros as a rebuke to the repressors of religious freedom who sought to quash the Church during the persecution of Christians in Mexico in the first half of the 20th century. One of Mexico's most important religious monuments, it marks the country's geographical center.

View of Cotija de la Paz, the birthplace of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement. Located approximately 130 kilometres south of Guadalajara, Cotija is a quiet, sleepy town and birth place of many religious figures including Saint Rafael Guízar Valencia.

Some of the local children in Cotija wanting their picture taken.

Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihucán, a few kilometres east of Mexico City. View of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun, taken from the Pyramid of the Moon. This archaeological site contains some of the largest pyramidal structures built in pre-Columbian Americas and was, at its zenith in the first half of the first millennium, the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas and one of the largest cities in the world in this period.