Catholics across the world celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which brings together faith, family, and culture.

In the Rio Grande Valley, the day was marked with a special mass on Friday at the Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Shrine 

“It’s a call to feel the maternal love and the maternal gaze of our blessed mother,” Basilica Director Father Jorge Gomez said.

According to Gomez, the day is also about fulfilling a promise made to the Virgin of Guadalupe for her intercession.

“There are a lot of people who promise things to our lady, asking for a favor — a manda — a miracle and then this is the day when they come to fulfill or to pay the manda,” Gomez said. “It's been part of the Catholic tradition of bringing candles, praying to our lady, asking for her intercession.”

One of those fulfilling a promise this year is Nadia Gonzales from Donna, a matachín from Danza La Reina Guadalupana.

“We started dancing in 2012 here in Donna,” Gonzales said. “It's my whole family, we wanted to do it because we wanted to bring the traditions of Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, Mexico here to the Valley."

The matachines' dance has been passed down for generations. It's a way of showing gratitude and honoring God and the virgin through music, dance, and carefully-made costumes.

“Everything on the costume symbolizes something, like the flowers,” Gonzales said. “The flowers symbolize the flowers of the Virgin of Guadalupe, where she appeared. The cup is the holy sacrament. This is the rosary, the rosary of the Virgin of Guadalupe."

The group visited around six homes in Donna and Alamo on Friday.

During her dance, Gonzales honors the promise she made when her mom got sick, a manda she said she now carries from home to home.

Gonzales said she asked for a manda in honor of her mother, whose lung was punctured when she had a catheter inserted.

“Right now she's still on dialysis, but thank God everything else has been healed,” Gonzales said. “This year we are walking with more faith, with more gratitude, to thank him for the health he gave my mother."

Gonzales said she is committed to showing her thanks, and keeping the tradition alive by passing it on to the next generation.

“We are already tired, completely exhausted, but we don't feel the fatigue because we are giving ourselves to God,” Gonzales said. “Above all, thanking him for everything he has given us."

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