The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorates what believers say was the day in 1531 that the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian peasant, near Mexico City. The vision is captured in an artist’s rendering of the Virgin Mary known as Guadalupe, and is one of the most important symbols of Catholicism in Mexico.
The feast is a holiday in Mexico, but not in New York, home to an estimated 500,000 people of Mexican heritage. Now the Tepeyac Association is hoping to convince the City Council to approve a recognized day off of work for Mexicans in New York City every Dec. 12. The organization, which provides services to Mexican immigrants, plans to hold a rally after this year’s holiday mass to bring attention to the cause.
The Tepeyac Association is named after the hill near Mexico City where Saint Juan Diego’s sighting believed to have taken place.
