La Romeria

I watch the news every morning with my breakfast and I kept noticing all these pictures of people walking on the highway. It was like some Costa Rican Walk-a-Thon, but I never saw Jerry Lewis asking for money, so I was kind of confused. Then I noticed the newscasters were talking about the Camino de Fe,(The Road of Faith), and using the word Romeria.

I asked my friend Jorge, who I meet with twice a week to help him with his English and me with my Spanish. He explained that we are very close to the Fiesta de Los Angeles where people celebrate the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Negrita, or the Black Virgin.

The story goes that a statue of a black madonna was found in the jungle. It had been carved by hand out of black rock, presumably by the indigenous people. The statue was taken to the church and put on display. The next day the statue was gone. It was later found in the same part of the jungle it came from. They took it back to the church, and once again it disappeared to reappear at the same place in the jungle. The third time, they decided to build a church at the site where they found the statue.

La Negrita is said to have powers much like La Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico has. Jorge explained that people ask La Negrita to heal them, or help them with a problem, and they promise that if she does that they will go on a romeria to the basilica in Cartago where the statue is to "pagar la promesa", to keep their promise. It can be a very long journey, and it was to be done on foot, when they get to the basilica, some people approach the altar on their knees, much like they do in Mexico to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Juanito

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