by Tim Chávez
“Am I not here, I who am your mother? Are you not in my shadow, under my protection? Am I not the fountain of your joy? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in my crossed arms? Is there anything else you need?”
— Our Lady of Guadalupe, in speaking to St. Juan Diego, Dec. 11, 1531 About a couple of months ago, Vita Hernández Chávez sent a check for $3,000 to benefit a Nashville church she would never see. The place of worship, however, was named for someone who had always been a central part of her life and those of her three sisters — and the Mexican people for almost five centuries.
Vita was married in Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Topeka, Kan., in a barrio called “The Bottoms.” It was located next to the John Morrell meatpacking plant and the maintenance yard for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. In her neighborhood lived the hardest workers who received the least wages.
The church was a refuge of respect and protection from a mainstream society that denigrated the Hispanic presence needed to feed Topeka’s and the nation’s prosperity. That same history is being repeated in present-day Nashville, this time under the scourge of the heinous 287(g) deportation program.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Nashville opened last fall as a new refuge for the mushrooming Hispanic population in this Southern city and the oppression levied by local politicians seeking re-election.
A month ago, Our Lady’s was in danger of closing. The debt amassed to open the church and a depressed economy that stifled expected donations put Our Lady’s on the fiscal edge with an approaching June 30 deadline.
So from her bed, Vita Chavez got involved. Her gift and her story spurred an incredible response. Two churches in an adjacent, politically conservative county contributed $125,000. The nuns at the local Dominican campus gave $500. And a six-year-old named Elizabeth gave everything — $7 from her piggybank, money she had saved from the tooth fairy and tasks like cleaning the family car. Elizabeth said she gave because it was something God would like, and she wanted her friend from school to still have a place to go to church.
Miracles continue to happen. The latest came in the early morning hours of June 7. In her sleep, Vita Hernández Chávez passed from this world to the next, reunited with her sisters Rita, Paulina and María and their mother Luz Olmos Hernández, who died in 1960. The eulogy at Vita’s funeral invoked the following truth: much good for this nation still comes from Mexico.
Two of the sisters had three children and two had four. Together, the sisters are a model for the new wave of Hispanic immigrant women. Family needs came first. But once their children were old enough, two sisters headed into professional careers. Vita, the first of her family to graduate from high school, became a medical office administrator at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Rita was a librarian for the Alamogordo School District in New Mexico. They brought extra income into the family to send their children to college.
Paulina and María had dropped out of high school to support their younger sisters and brothers. That still happens in Latino families. The dropout rate is highest in this nation for Latinas. Somehow, we must convince parents to keep their daughters in high school. We’ll be working on that miracle in the coming months at Our Lady’s in Nashville.
In December 1531, in her only appearance in this hemisphere, Our Lady of Guadalupe told an Aztec Indian named Juan Diego to build a church to recognize her love for the suffering indigenous people. They had just survived three years of butchery from the Spanish conquest. The hilltop where she appeared was a wasteland five miles north of Mexico City.
The four sisters from Topeka would tell you that if not for the protection of the Holy Mother, they could not have survived the bigotry and poverty of their childhoods.
These women are our martyrs. That’s why we adore them so, why churches dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe exist across this country. Her presence assures us that good ultimately will prevail.
A memorial to the four sisters will be established inside Our Lady’s of Nashville as a place of inspiration for Hispanic women and teens. In gratitude to the Holy Mother, another $7,000 is being donated in Vita’s name to Our Lady’s to address its debt. Still, the church will have to take out a loan from the diocese, with monthly payments burdening the working-poor congregation.
Her white high school classmates didn’t expect much from a Mexican girl from “The Bottoms.” But she raised a family, had a long professional career, sent her children to college and into teaching careers in step with her beloved husband, Natalio, and encouraged her youngest child, that’s me, into a writing career.
Vita was very political and blunt. Honest, humorous, inspirational and giving to the end, she left everyone feeling special. In her new beginning, our loss is heaven’s gain. And four extraordinary sisters – under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe — have made it home. Hispanic Link.
(Tim Chávez is a regular contributing columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. He publishes a political blog at www.politicalsalsa.com. Contact him at timchavez787@yahoo.com to contribute to Our Lady’s in Nashville). ©2008
