As soon as Isidro Piña stepped out of the taxi, he made his way towards the woman selling candles on the sidewalk. He asked how much they cost – 25 Mexican pesos each, or $1.50 – and took out his wallet. He wanted three: one for himself and one for each of the friends who had accompanied him to the Basilica of Santa Maria de Guadalupe, officially known as the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As they walked through the main nave, Piña said to the group, “I get goosebumps when I’m here,” describing the sensation of having chills.
In a way, Piña, Mario Morales, and Daniel Núñez blended in with the crowd. They were dressed casually – jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers – and kneeled alongside hundreds of worshipers. But they were slightly bigger than most. The three are professional baseball players for the Olmecas de Tabasco, a team in the Mexican Baseball League, who had come to the capital to play against the Diablos Rojos del México.
Instead of hanging out at the team hotel or going shopping the morning before a recent night game, they followed an unofficial tradition among professional baseball players in this predominantly Catholic country: a pilgrimage to one of the most visited religious sites in the world, with approximately 20 million people coming annually, home to the figure known as the Queen of Mexico and Empress of America.
After Brazil, no other country has more Catholics than Mexico. The colorful iconography of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe is ubiquitous throughout the country: in taxi stands, hospitals, parks, restaurants, homes, and even in people’s wallets. December 12th, which commemorates when Catholics believe Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to an indigenous man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531, is considered almost a national holiday. And Mexicans of all backgrounds and occupations, including professional baseball players, try to visit the shrine as often as possible.
So, whenever a Mexican League team is in town to play against the Diablos Rojos, they make their own trip. When the Bravos de León were in Mexico City a month ago, a group consisting of the team owner, his family, the general manager, and eight players went the morning before a game. A week later, the Olmecas did the same.
“Here in Mexico, it’s all about the Virgin of Guadalupe,” said Piña, 34, adding, “It’s like visiting your mom.”
The recent effort by the Olmecas was led by Piña, a veteran catcher on a team that had the third-best record in the league this year and started its postseason on Tuesday. Piña visited the basilica for the first time when he was 18 years old in 2007, his first year with the Sultanes de Monterrey, after his older teammates organized the outing. He has returned almost every year since then. And in 2010, while his wife was pregnant with their first daughter and he prayed for everything to go well, he made a promise at the basilica that whenever he was in Mexico City, he would visit.
“When I come here, I feel a sense of peace and tranquility, like it helps me let go of everything,” he said. “That’s why I like coming.”
Over the years, Piña has brought teammates from other countries, including players from the Dominican Republic and the United States. But most of the visitors are Mexicans because, he said, they also grew up understanding the religious and cultural importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
So, weeks before the Olmecas flew to Mexico City for the three-game series against the Diablos Rojos, Piña was recruiting teammates for the visit to the basilica. They planned for the group to be larger than it ended up being, but one player was traded to another team, and another was sick. Morales and Núñez, both Mexicans, instantly said yes.
“My first time was with my family when I was around 10 years old,” said Morales, 29, a pitcher born in California, who noted how his faith and devotion to the Virgin were passed down to him by his mother, who is from a place near Guadalajara. “It was something very beautiful, and I’ve always had that idea of going back.”
Núñez, 20, a pitcher from Yucatan, in southeastern Mexico, visited the domains of the Virgin of Guadalupe for the first time with his mother when he was 12 years old while being part of a national team training in Mexico City, but he never entered the main church. So, when Núñez recently walked through it, his eyes remained wide open. After the three players admired the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging above the altar and took pictures with their cell phones, Núñez noted the significance for him.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” he said. “I want to bring my family next year.”
Religion plays a broader role in Latin American sports culture.
Several teams in the Mexican League have small altars in their stadiums. The Diablos Rojos have a niche on the wall leading from the locker rooms to the dugout, adorned with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, saint figurines, crosses, and candles. There is also an altar to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the tunnel leading to the field at Estadio Azteca, a football stadium in Mexico City that is one of the most iconic in the world.
Atlas, a Mexican soccer club, won a championship last year and took its trophy to the cathedral in Guadalajara for a mass. Before this season, the Olmecas had a priest officiate a mass at their new stadium. Some teams pray together before games. In the locker room in León, the Bravos have reserved a locker for Jesus, along with a shirt bearing his name and the number 33.
“In Latin America,” said Víctor Bojórquez, manager of the Diablos Rojos, “people are very devout.”
Morales mentioned that his faith and the visit to the basilica helped calm him during the ups and downs of the season. After undergoing shoulder surgery in 2021, he prayed to avoid future injuries. Núñez said he has a spiritual ritual before games: pray and remember his grandfather, a former baseball player who, on his deathbed, made him promise that he would one day become a professional player.
“I fulfilled it,” said Núñez, who before starting to pitch in a game writes “his name on the mound.”
Outside the main nave, the players did what many other worshipers were doing: they lit their candles, closed their eyes to ask for something special, and placed them in the receptacle. Then, they headed to the other chapels of the shrine, including the original basilica, which is 300 years old. Piña acted as their guide.
Easily climbing the stairs to the Capilla del Cerrito in Tepeyac, where it is believed the Virgin first appeared to Juan Diego, the players joked that their profession allowed them to handle the altitude of Mexico City. Around them, foreign tourists, Mexican families, and even people carrying suitcases struggled to climb.
Standing at the top, the athletes asked a passerby to take a photo of them and admired the view of the metropolis below.
“Can you imagine how crowded it would be on December 12th?” Piña asked.
Before heading back, the baseball players stopped at the numerous markets surrounding the basilica. Piña bought some religious items, including a half-meter statue. Núñez picked up six keychains with Guadalupe motifs for his family. Morales acquired a magnet for his mother’s collection, which grows with his travels. And due to the warm and sunny weather, they bought drinks – horchata and fruit juices – for the 43-minute car journey through heavy Mexico City traffic to the team hotel.
Their taxi arrived just before 2 p.m. The bus that would take them to the stadium would leave in two hours. The 7 p.m. game awaited them.
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