Religion & Railyards

For 100 years, the residents of William Street and the surrounding South Broadway neighborhood have celebrated the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commemorating an event that happened nearly 500 years ago in Mexico. The fiesta began with families that moved to the South Broadway area from the town of La Barca, Mexico in the early 1900s to find work in the rail yards and to escape the turmoil that would eventually lead to the Mexican Revolution. The celebration, honoring the Virgin Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego, an Aztec peasant, near Mexico City in 1531, had long been a staple in Mexico, and its presence here — starting in 1924 — served to unite and preserve a community that had been traumatically uprooted from family and tradition.
“The Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe: A Century of Veneration,” a new documentary for One Albuquerque Media from filmmakers Anthony DellaFlora and Charles “Bazz” McClain tells the story of how the long-running celebration originated and what it means to the participants.

You may also like the following events from South Broadway Cultural Center:

• Next Friday, 15th August, 07:00 pm, UNBOUND: A Performance Ritual in Albuquerque
• Next Saturday, 16th August, 07:00 pm, UNBOUND: A Performance Ritual in Albuquerque