While Mother Nature has been going gangbusters to replenish Lake Chapala, expect common folk to thank Mother Mary for the rainy season bounty.
Faith in divine powers to protect Mexico’s largest lake will be manifested by thousands of pilgrims who will accompany the Virgin of Zapopan on Sunday, July 13 during her customary summer trek to lakeside.
A throng of devout followers will congregate at the north end of Chapala’s Avenida Madero at 11 a.m. to welcome the revered icon at the start of a colorful parade running the full length of the main thoroughfare. She will ride aboard an elaborate float, passing through arches decked out with floral arrangements and festive sky blue and white street decorations. Her entourage will include ceremonial dancers decked out in splendid native costumes, a huge honor guard outfitted in neat navy and white uniforms, a drum and bugle corps and police escorts.
The procession ends at the steps of the San Francisco church where Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega, the archbishop of Guadalajara, will officiate at an outdoor Mass, starting noon.
The Virgin’s visit will mark the fifth anniversary of her coronation as La Reina del Lago (Queen of the Lake). The royal title was bestowed in recognition of the widely accepted conviction that the divine intervention of the Virgin Mary – as represented by La Zapopana – brought on miraculous recoveries of the lake in 1955 and 2003.
The royal moniker is the latest of many honorary titles that the tiny image of the Virgin of Expectation has accrued over four and a half centuries as Jalisco’s reigning religious patroness and protector against strife, plagues and natural disasters. She is also known as La Generala and La Pacificadora for the legendary role she is said to have played in ending the War of Mixtón, a bloody native rebellion against the Spanish Conquistadores who were taking control of Nueva Galicia in the middle of the 16th century.
Immediately after Sunday’s midday service, the Virgin will be toted to the waterfront for a blessing over the lake. She will then be ensconced inside the church to remain for an overnight vigil. The religious festivities will be complemented by a program of cultural events to be held outside the church, from 4 to 10 p.m.
Weather permitting, local residents will gather at the Chapala pier on Monday, July 12, 9:30 a.m., to accompany the Lake Queen on a nautical jaunt to the Isla de los Alacranes. Once back on land, the beloved image will be carried back to the church for a 1 p.m. service dedicated to the infirm, and a farewell Mass, 3 p.m., preceding her departure for Zapopan.