Sabanero, Angela (Week 3)

Growing up, I remember that the image of la Virgen de Guadalupe played a greater role in my life than it does now. When my siblings and I were younger, some of our summer break was spent vacationing with my family in Mexico. My grandparent's home had lots of images of la Virgen de Guadalupe along with little statues or necklaces with her image on them. Not only did I see her image in my grandparents home but also in little shops nearby and in the homes of our family friends. It seemed that every home/location we visited had some type of image or jewelry of la Virgen de Guadalupe. However, as we all grew up and got busier, we stopped taking yearly trips to Mexico. This greatly impacted how often I saw the image of la Virgen de Guadalupe. While my mom still keeps images around, it is not nearly enough as I used to experience before. This may be due to the fact that many of the people living around me now are not Hispanic and do not practice the Catholic religion. Additionally, I remember that growing up my mom made sure that I understood who la Virgen de Guadalupe was and her significance in the Catholic faith. She told me of la Virgen de Guadalupe's story because she thought it was important as preparation for Sunday School. Being enrolled in Sunday School also increased the amount of times I saw the image of la Virgen de Guadalupe. However, I feel that in Sunday school, while she was still important, she did not play as big of a role as she had when I would visit Mexico. I believe this also may have been due to the fact that my Sunday school classes were not in a predominantly Hispanic area but I am not sure.