A small group from Atlixco, Puebla, arrived at the Villa on December 11 after walking eighty miles in three days. “We awoke at 5:00 and walked until midnight,” said Brigida Mexquititla Cuatlayotl. “My legs hurt but it is worth it.” They slept along the road, and when I asked if she had been afraid, she said, “We are not afraid because we come with faith. It is important to have faith to continue.” During the pilgrimage, she carried a banner she had embroidered with an image of the Virgin; it had taken her a year to finish it. “I usually worked every day for three hours,” she said. “It is another way to give thanks, to show our faith and love for her.”
Just inside the entrance to the Villa stood three young women, each carrying on her back a large statue of the Virgin. They and their group had walked all the way from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, ninety miles from Mexico City. The journey had taken four days. Each day they walked for about fifteen hours, each member of their group carrying the statues for about three hours. “I did it to show the great faith I have in the Virgin,” Beatriz Arce Montes told me. “I come to worship her, to show my love.” They, too, had slept rough along the way. I pointed out that Mexico can be a dangerous place for travelers. “I have no fear,” she said, “because faith is much bigger than fear.”
