Celebrations in Comonfort
Event Category: Community Events
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Celebrations in Comonfort
Dec. 1 and 2, All Day
Pilgrimage for the Virgin of the Help
The Virgin of Help (Virgen de los Remedios) is a Barbie-sized image of Mary brought to Mexico by the conquistadors. According to legend, one of Cortés’ soldiers, Gonzalo Rodríguez de Villafuerte, was carrying a small image of the Virgin Mary and hid her under one of the maguey plants in order to retrieve and pay homage to her later if he survived. (Hence, she is readily identifiable as the Virgin normally depicted atop a maguey plant.)
During a later battle in this area, the Spanish reported seeing a young girl throwing dirt into the eyes of the Aztecs to help the Spanish. As such this image of the Virgin is considered to be Spanish and a patroness to them and to the indigenous who adopted Spanish ways.
Though, ultimately, the Virgin of Help was on the losing side she still is of great importance in Mexico having a large national park named for her outside of Mexico City. Locally, it is the nearby town of Comonfort, famous for its affordable pots and other garden supplies, that hosts a church to her image alongside the railroad tracts.If you are intrigued by the notion of joining a pilgrimage but are loathe to spend nights sleeping outside after walking, or riding horseback, all day you may enjoy the pilgrimage to the Lady of Help.
Comonfort enjoys several days of indigenous dancing, fireworks and music in honor of the Marian mascot that wasn’t as much help as the Spanish would have liked. But as anyone who has spent as much as a day in San Miguel de Allende knows, it’s a fool’s errand to go against the ever-present Virgin of Guadalupe, the Mother of Mexico.
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Joseph Toone is the Historical Society’s short-story award winning author of the SMA Secrets book series. All books in the series are Amazon bestsellers in Mexican Travel and Holidays. Toone is SMA’s expert and TripAdvisor’s top ranked historical tour guide telling the stories behind what we do in today’s SMA. Visit JosephTooneTours.com, also on FaceBook.
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