For Virginia's communities of Mexican immigrants, the winter holidays kicked off on Monday with processions celebrating the Lady of Guadalupe. In Charlottesville, this began at two o'clock in the morning.
Amid Christmas lights and the glow of their smartphones, hundreds of Latino immigrants gathered in a tidy trailer park out the outskirts of Charlottesville and prepared to walk over seven miles together to a Catholic church on the other side of town.
The occasion was the annual celebration of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Mexican Catholics believe that in 1537, the Virgin Mary mother of Jesus made a series of miraculous appearances in Villa de Guadalupe that led to the mass conversion of native Mexicans to Catholicism.
Organizer Juan Rodriguez credits the appearance of the lady of Guadalupe to Mexico becoming monotheistic.
“From that time this is a huge miracle because it was a huge conversion of people. In that time, the people believe in many gods. Sun god, moon god. With our lady of Guadalupe we came to believe in just one god.”
The lady of Guadalupe became a powerful symbol of faith and national unity to the people of Mexico.
“For all people in Mexico this is a tradition. I started when I was around six years old.”
The most recent census tallied around 330,000 Latinos in Virginia. Celebration of the lady of Guadalupe is traditionally unique to Mexico, but Catholic immigrants from other Spanish-speaking countries often adopt the practice in the US.
Flashlights illuminated a priest from Charlottesville's Church of the Incarnation as he read a blessing beside a seven foot tall statue of Mary.
Four men lifted the statue in the air and the procession began amid prayers and songs.