Introduction
"Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe"
Carmina Eliason, December 12, 2004
An Ethnographic Case Study of the Pilgrimage Rituals Manifested by a Mexican Immigrant Community
This ethnographic case study documents the public religious rituals and symbols as manifested by the Mexican immigrant population to venerate the Virgin of Guadalupe at Pinto Lake, in the City of Watsonville, California. An immigrant population of mixed Mexican identity has been making pilgrimages to the site since 1992, when an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was reported to be seen in the bark of a tree at the edge of the lake. In order to document the public veneration rituals at the shrine, information has been collected through participant observation, photography, interviews, video and audio recordings, interviews, as well as historical context research using local newspapers and key informants. The research demonstrates that the pilgrims visit the shrine in order to petition the image for divine intervention, referred to by informants as “milagros.” The fact that “milagros” (miracles) do occur, as far as the participants are concerned, is evident in the offerings or “ofrendas” that are left behind. The research process started December 12, 2004 and data collection occurred between May and December 2005.
|
