Season 5 Episode 22: Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero and The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Welcome to this BONUS EPISODE of the Vicars’ Crossing. This episode is being released on The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe - December 12. Mary is the Patron Saint of Mexico and Patroness of the Americas. Every year, thousands of people from all over the country make a pilgrimage to the Basilica in Mexico City. The day commemorates the apparition of our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego in the hills of Tepeyac in 1531. She appeared as an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language She asked him to go to the bishop and tell him that the Ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, sent him to ask for a church to be built atop Tepeyac hill.Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary—and the God who sent her—accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for the indigenous population. Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.In celebration of today's feast, we welcome The Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero. Dr. Chao is "Asian-Latino," and has been a professor of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA since 2005.  Robert is also an attorney having studied at Berkeley.  Romero has published 15 academic books and articles on issues of race, immigration, history, education, and religion, and received the Latina/o Studies book award from the international Latin American Studies Association. Robert is an ordained pastor.  Together with his wife Erica, he is the co-founder of Jesus 4 Revolutionaries, a Christian ministry to activists, as well as the co-chair of the Matthew 25 Movement in Southern California.This podcast was recorded on November 16th, 2021.