How One Student Ignited a Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a Week-Long Saint Mary’s Tradition

On the evening of December 2, 2022, Gaels past and present gathered on the Chapel Green, bundled in winter wear, some having driven three or four hours to be present. Surrounding a framed icon of the Virgen de Guadalupe, the crowd soon joined a mariachi-led procession around campus, pausing for recitations and song. They made their way through the archways and beneath the arcades, into the dining center where students and staff beamed with appreciation, and into the chapel. After the traditional Mass, the night culminated with a fiesta in the Soda Center, where Saint Mary’s Ballet Folklórico team whipped and whirled their Jalisco dresses and the mariachi band’s brassy brilliance lit up the room.

While the attendees of Saint Mary’s annual Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration may not walk for days to get to Moraga—like the millions who make the pilgrimage to Mexico City each year—they still come from far and wide.  Saint Mary’s week of celebration comes a bit earlier than the global feast day, December 12, so students can join in before the semester’s end.

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This year marks the twelfth anniversary of the College’s celebration, the largest student-run event on campus. At this point, the Saint Mary’s community is well-versed in the tale of Juan Diego, the Indigenous Aztec nomad to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in 1531. Speaking in Diego’s native Nahuatl language, Mary charged the devout Diego to “erect a temple quickly”; Diego repeatedly went before the Spanish-born Archbishop of Mexico City to relay the Virgin Mother’s message. Today, the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico is one of the world's most-visited Catholic sites, and the Virgen de Guadalupe remains a powerful symbol throughout the Americas. 

What is less well-known, however, is the story of how Our Lady of Guadalupe week became a Saint Mary’s tradition. According to Karin McClelland, Director of the Mission and Ministry Center, the celebration might not exist at all if it weren’t for the efforts—and familia—of one determined student: Yadira Guerrero-Garcia ’15.

A Piece of Home

Guerrero-Garcia always has a dizzying number of plates spinning in the air. When we spoke recently, she was on a lunchtime walk between meetings; since 2020, she has worked as a Communicable Disease Investigator for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. But she always makes time for Our Lady of Guadalupe, she tells me; the stories and traditions are integral to her identity. “As a Mexican American, this is who I am.”

Guerrero-Garcia is used to making journeys for Our Lady of Guadalupe: Each December 12, her family would walk from their East San Jose home to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. So in 2010, when her cousin Jose Ruiz-Garcia ’11, then-president of La Hermandad club, invited her to Saint Mary’s to perform a traditional Ballet Folklórico dance for a small Guadalupe party, it was a no-brainer. 

“They made the magic happen from the ground up.”

A high school senior, Guerrero-Garcia was invigorated by the experience. When it came time to apply to college, she eagerly sent off her application to Saint Mary’s. During her first semester in 2011, she joined the planning committee for Our Lady of Guadalupe and was taken aback, she says, by the lack of centralized support. At that time, La Hermandad was partnering with other clubs to host the event and asking various college offices for funds. The resulting event, while meaningful, was sparsely attended. 

“We’re going to a Catholic institution, there are a lot of Latinx members at Saint Mary’s,” she recalls thinking. “Why isn't this an institutional event?"

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For the next four years, Guerrero-Garcia poured her energy into that goal. She envisioned a weeklong series of events where people of all backgrounds could “come together as a community and learn and participate.” She founded Saint Mary’s Ballet Folklórico Guadalopano team in order to have in-house dancers for the celebration. She made connections with the Sodexo dining services workers, many of them Latinx, who would cater the event and bring along their families, too. The Christian Brothers pitched in, too; Brother Michael Avila helped sew the Folklórico dresses. 

During Guerrero-Garcia’s second year, she secured an institutional home: the Mission and Ministry Center, with Karin McClelland. McClelland recalls Guerrero-Garcia and her team taking over the office lounge for hours on end, planning, researching mariachi musicians, and fashioning decorations. “They made the magic happen from the ground up,” she says. 

The first few years were challenging, Guerrero-Garcia admits. Even with institutional and student support, much of the planning fell on her shoulders. She was a full-time Theology student, after all, in addition to working part-time and running Ballet Folklórico. 

The power of Our Lady of Guadalupe week, according to Yadira Guerrero-Garcia: “People are able to see that St. Mary's can become a home to them, because their identity is being recognized.”

She credits her family with helping her bear the load. “I invited my siblings to perform as Folklórico dancers, and my mom would be in San Jose, and she’d send me pictures and be like, ‘Oh, is this something that you're looking for?’” she says. “I couldn't have done this without the support of my mom, my dad, and my brothers and sisters.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Guerrero-Garcia: letting go. In 2015, she graduated from Saint Mary’s. She had to trust the College—and those who had embraced the celebration—would keep the tradition going without her. “It was hard not to get involved,” she says. “But I was hopeful.”

We Are the Juan Diegos

She needn’t have worried. Since 2015, Saint Mary’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Week has flourished and grown. At its biggest, McClelland says, the culminating procession, Mass, and fiesta have drawn over 800 people. “It's one of those few events where we get to be with our colleagues across campus, where students bring their parents and family members, and alumni come back.”

In 2022, after two years impacted by COVID-19, the celebration returned full force, and with an unprecedented boost: a new service-learning course taught by Anthony Suárez-Abraham, a professor of Theology and Religious Studies. Students in the class get credit for planning the week of events. McClelland calls the partnership a “dream come true.”

“We have a responsibility to make the world a more just, sustainable, and humane place. It must be us.”

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 In addition to helping the students prepare, Suárez-Abraham teaches his students about the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe—theologically, culturally, and historically. He sees poignancy in the fact that Saint Mary’s tradition exists because students like Guerrero-Garcia pushed for it to happen. “It fits perfectly with the tradition of Guadalupe, an indigenous Aztec person whose culture was completely colonized and destroyed, chosen by Guadalupe to speak truth to the centers of power.”

It also aligns with something Suárez-Abraham tells his students: “We have a responsibility to make the world a more just, sustainable, and humane place. It must be you, Guadalupe tells Juan Diego. And it must be us. We are the Juan Diegos.”

For more than a decade, Guerrero-Garcia has not missed a single celebration week. She has met students who applied to Saint Mary’s specifically because of the event. That would include her own younger siblings. It’s surprising, she says, but gratifying. “​​People are able to see that Saint Mary's can become a home to them, because their identity is being recognized.”

Guerrero-Garcia pushed for Our Lady of Guadalupe Week because she wanted Saint Mary’s to feel like home. She succeeded—for herself, and for generations to come.

Hear more from Yadira Guerrero-Garcia and about the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe on campus.

Want to support events like Our Lady of Guadalupe? Consider making a gift.

Hayden Royster is a staff writer with the Office of Marketing and Communications. Write him.