Neto's Tucson: A sacred promise to a mother and to La Virgen

For as long as retired Tucson educator Dora Martinez can remember, family and friends gathered at her family’s south-side home to venerate La Virgen de Guadalupe on her Dec. 12 feast day.

It was a tradition begun by Martinez’s late mother, Juanita Martinez, a devoted believer in the Virgin of Guadalupe, considered the patroness saint of Mexico and the Americas.

In April, Dora Martinez left for Japan to begin a one-year job teaching English. It was difficult to leave her family, especially her widower father, Alejandro Martinez.

And as the Japanese spring turned to summer then to fall, Martinez thought of the nine-year-old anniversary of her mother’s death which would be followed by the annual Dec. 12 festivities at the Martinez home warmed by the mariachi and cariño of everyone there.

This would be the first year that she would not be present. She told friends and family that she would not return.

But on Tuesday, in the Martinez home in the back room that doubles as a chapel, Dora Martinez sat near her father as they and their guests prayed the rosary and sang “Las Mañanitas,” the traditional birthday song sung to La Virgen.

“I didn’t want my papi to be alone,” Martinez said. “This is very important to me.”

Family bonds, tradition and the clarion call of her late mother and la Virgen Morena, as she is often called by Mexican Catholics, brought Dora Martinez back home to share in the love and connections created by her family for more than 50 years in their Mission Manor Park neighborhood.

“I needed to go home,” she said.

In many homes and churches in Tucson, across the state, the Southwest, and the rest of the country, and throughout Mexico and other Latin American countries, the faithful gathered on Monday and Tuesday nights to honor the Virgin, who is said to have appeared miraculously to Juan Diego near present-day Mexico City in 1531. They prayed and processed, and they sang and shared food.

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While the Virgin of Guadalupe has evolved to become an ubiquitous popular cultural icon — her image appears on shopping bags, memes, curtains, t-shirts and countless other items — she continues to be a powerful religious and even social-political force. People invoke her name. They ask for her intercession. Even the secular are attached to her.

“I’m not a religious person,” said Dora, “but I see la Virgen de Guadalupe as a very strong cultural connection.”

The Martinez family began their annual night of devotion as soon as they moved into their home. Dora Martinez said her mother specifically chose the street to live on because of its name — Santa Maria. Over the years as the gatherings attracted more people, Alejandro Martinez, a construction worker and a World War II combat infantryman who was awarded the Bronze Star, added one room to accommodate people, then later enclosed an outside patio to create a larger space.

Tuesday night the room was full with nearly 50 people. “That’s the way I like it,” said Dora.

A string of colorful holiday lights ringed the ceiling and a strand of lights draped in the window behind the altar. Atop the altar, covered with a white table cloth, stood images of the Virgin, other religious figures, vases filled with flowers, a small crucifix and a large photo of Juanita Martinez holding one of her granddaughters. A larger image of la Virgen, a replica of the original that is enshrined in a Mexico City basilica, stands off to the side.

Before Juanita Martinez’s death the family took down the altar after December 12. Now it remains year round.

And throughout the house are numerous religious images on walls, on the fireplace mantle, on tables, including 64 images of the Virgin. There are secular images as well, including more than a dozen framed posters of the Tucson Mariachi Conference. Mariachi music is a close second to the Virgin. Dora’s older brother, Roberto Martinez, was a longtime member of Tucson-born Mariachi Cobre based in Florida.

Tuesday night may have been devoted to the Virgin but it was also a night to remember Juanita Martinez’s selflessness. Dora said her mother never failed to help others. She was tireless, Dora Martinez said of her mother. “She was a superwoman.”

When death neared, Juanita Martinez asked her family to continue the devotion to the Virgin. But it was more than a dying wish, said Dora. Her mother asked that they promise.

So when Dora stepped onto that home-bound plane, she embarked on a personal pilgrimage. She was fulfilling her promesa to her mother and to La Virgen de Guadalupe.