Daywatch: A Chicago man’s journey to honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe
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Good morning, Chicago.
It’s easy to fall back into a life surrounded by gangs, drugs and violence in the streets of Chicago after being released from prison, Juan Romero wrote in an essay from the four walls of his cell as he tried to understand how he landed there and how he could find his way out.
“It’s the only way of life we know,” said Romero, 36, now a free man.
Last week, a little over four years after serving his sentence, he adorned the hood of the semi-truck he drives for work with an image of ‘La Guadalupana’ — the Virgin Mary — to partake in the annual procession of truckers from Chicago’s South Side to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines.
The convoy celebrates their faith and gratitude for answered prayers throughout the year.
Since he was released from prison in October 2019, Romero commemorates the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe every December with hundreds of other truckers in a pilgrimage the weekend preceding the holiday, on Dec 12. They join thousands of devotees who visit the shrine walking, running, biking and horse riding, making the Midwest celebration the second largest one after Mexico City and the Des Plaines shrine the most visited monument of its kind in the U.S.
This year, the Archdiocese of Chicago expects 400,000 people to visit the shrine, which houses the first replica of the sacred tilma — cloak — with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Before it was brought to the Chicago area, the Des Plaines icon was touched to the original image and blessed at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Laura Rodríguez Presa.
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