Police asked motorists to be careful driving around the countless pilgrimages underway this weekend as the faithful carry out a time-honored Guadalupe-Reyes tradition.
The Marion Sanctuary in Valladolid was one of several gathering spots in Yucatán where the faithful are gathering today.
Antorchistas, or Guadalupano torch runners, are honoring a promise they made to the patron saint of Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Church volunteers bring coffee and cakes to welcome them.
Driving around today, you’re likely to spot pickup trucks, or larger vehicles, packed with people who’ve made room for an altar honoring the Virgin, as she is also known. As a roadside runner approaches with a lit torch, another grabs it, jumps out of the truck, and continues down the road.
Some runners have a short route, while others — including one spotted today in Valladolid — came from a thousand miles away in central Mexico.
Sunday’s Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe marks the 1531 appearance in Mexico of the brown-skinned virgin to St. Juan Diego, an Indigenous man, on a hill in Tepeyac.
