Pilgrimage for people with disabilities to the Virgen de los Ángeles in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, devotion to his employer, Our Lady of Los Angeles, knows no limits. Every year, a very special walk of faithful to Carthage is organized: a faith route designed for people with disabilities, especially those who mobilize in a wheelchair.

Every August 2, the country celebrates the Virgen de los Ángeles, also known as “La Negrita”, one of the most entrenched religious festivities in Costa Rican identity. That day, thousands of people arrive on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Los Angeles, in Carthage.

However, there are those who cannot participate due to physical limitations or the lack of accompaniment. For this reason, the Astú-Jaime family impulse for two decades an initiative that allows people with different disabilities to join this manifestation of faith.

It also summons solidarity volunteers who wish to help those who require support to reach the feet of the Virgin.

This year the event will be on July 27, leaving at 9:00 am from the Hall of the Taras Development Association, in San Nicolás de Cartago.

An aid to fulfill a promise

In an interview with ACI Press, Mr. José Alexis Astúa Guzmán, the main organizer of the event, shared that the idea of the pilgrimage was born approximately two decades ago, but its close relationship with people with disabilities began much earlier, in the 1970s, when a transformative experience with the elderly led him to open the doors of a small hotel of which he owned.

Together with his wife, Nubia Jaime Bravo, every year they took dozens of people with disabilities to their hotel on the southern beach of the city in which, he remembers, “my children, my wife and I took them and we gave them everything. The food, the sleeping one; everything ran for us.”

The idea of the pilgrimage, as such, emerged later, driven by his youngest son. According to Don José, “the first time we did it almost 20 years ago with eight people.” Before the pandemic, the number of participants had grown until reaching 226 people.

Today, this walk includes people with visual or auditory disabilities, older adults and committed volunteers.

Don José explained that they do not obtain any benefit for this work, since both for him and for his family, “we are interested in faith”, and that is why they commit to help who requests it.

“A person who needs or wants to fulfill a promise (to the Virgin), we promise that we look for volunteers to push her to the house of (Our Lady of Los Angeles).”

Promoted only with the support of his family, Don José says that the pilgrimage has been growing over the years and that, at present, “there is great enthusiasm, it is very nice, it is precious. I cannot describe what it feels like. I have seen people leave crying,” he says.

Although participation is expected to increase every year, Don José insists that the objective “is not by quantity, but by faith and the desire to fulfill that purpose of going to visit the Virgin.” “If one comes, we go with one. And if none comes, I go on foot alone,” he adds.

People interested in attending, either as participants or as volunteers, can directly communicate with Don José Alexis Astúa Guzmán to the number +506 8821-8738. The registration deadline is July 23.