Experiencing the Known

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There are more Latinos in America than any other ethnic groups (Piar/Stone, xiii). As we experience in our daily lives, there are Latino people most of the places we go to. The major Latino groups in the United States are respectively from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba (Piar/Stone, xiii). Their main religion is Roman Catholicism (Piar/Stone, xiii). Latinos in our today’s community are not seen as white, and still do look like an outsider in America because most of them are new generation immigrants who seek an opportunity to improve their life style. The site visit of the Saint Finbar Catholic Church reflected the theme of the symbol of Virgin Mary and Popular Religiosity introduced in the essays “Theological Significance,” “India,” and “Mestizaje as a Locus of Theological Reflection (1983),” written by Jeanette Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez, and Virgilio Elizondo, in the Piar/Stone volumes.
In the essay, “Guadalupe: Symbol of God’s Unconditional Love,” Jeanette Rodriguez states, “The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the churches must be accessible and within reach, so that devotees may touch it or rub their hands across the frame or touch the candles before the picture” (Piar/Stone, 42). In the front of the Saint Finbar Church, there was the statue of the Virgin Marry under the shades of the garden. The statue was very interesting since it represented the Latino’s symbol of belief, the representation of the “God’s unconditional love” (Piar/Stone, 42). There were a lot of fresh beautiful flowers and religious candles with the picture of the Virgin Mary printed on them located in front of the statue, which represented Latinos’ traditional beliefs; the beliefs that flowers are the symbols of Virgin Mary. Based on the article, “The Virgin Mary,” in the Piar/Stone volumes, “Up to within recent years, it was the custom in every home to adorn with flowers of the field and

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