The Cathedral of Our LadyBETTY ALICE HODSON

INTRODUCTIONJust one block from the central plaza

of a small Mexican town, on La Calle deLas Rosas, stands a small Cathedral, builtin 1830 by the hands and the sweat ofpeones who labored on nearby haciendas.It is built of limestone and marble, and isone of the finest Cathedrals in NortheasternMexico, even though it is small, and seenby few but the townspeople. I shall try toshow how it is seen through the eyes ofthree different people.

1. A NativeJuan Pedro Serraz de Onatey Driego

walked slowly up and down La Calle deLas Rosas, in front of La Cathedral deNuestra Senora, waiting for the time forevening prayers to begin. As he walkedtoward the plaza for the second time, hemet Padre Jacobo, priest of the Cathedral.Juan Pedro greeted him cordially, with asmile.

Juan Pedro was a kind, good naturedsort of a young man, with more money thanwas good for him. However, he behavedwell, most of the time, and was well likedby all. Perhaps his best trait was hiskindness to his peones, a trait seldom seenin the rancheros. Like all handsome youngmen, his thoughts were often on the youngladies, and as he strolled up and down, hethought especially of Maria Concepcion, hissweetheart, whom he was soon to marry.Her face could not be called beautiful, butthe light that shown from her eyes madeit seem so. Many times Juan Pedro couldnot get the thought of those luminous, blackvelvet eyes off his mind. And now ashe strolled, they were constantly beforehim.

As the bells of the Cathedral tolled the

time for evening prayers, Juan Pedro re-turned. from his dream, shook himselfslightly, and smiled. He turned towardthe Cathedral just as the last rays of thesetting sun were striking it, bringing outthe pink tones of the limestone and theblue of the marble. Juan Pedro thoughthe had never seen it seem so beautiful.Just before he entered the door, he stoppedto admire the lovely bell towers, with theirbells that had been cast in Old Spain, theperfectly formed columns and arches, andthe well sculptured figures of saints sur-rounding the door. For nearly twenty-twoyears, now, Juan Pedro had entered thatchurch at least twice a day, to offer aprayer to the Virgin. Tonight he wouldoffer prayers to all the saints, in the honorof his Cathedral the divine and holy pieceof architecture which had been his spiritualhome for all these years. Juan Pedro, hashead high, step firm, and eyes bright, enter-ed the Cathedral, and with his sombrero inhis hand, he slowly walked toward thealtar.

2. An American Business Man

James E. Mason, a middle-aged Ameri-can business man, known as "J. E." to hisfriends and business associates, walked, orrather bounded, with forced Americanvitality, up La Calle de Las Rosas. He wasthe president of a large American miningcompany, and he had come to Mexico tosee about buying some large gold mines.Being a typical American, he wore whatall American business men wear when insemi-tropical lands; white flannel trousers,white silk shirt with a brightly-colored silkscarf knotted at the throat, and a cream-colored Panama hat, with a silk band tomatch the scarf. He had another typical

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American trait: he detested. and distrustedall Mexicans and called them unflatteringnames.

It was early morning in the little Mexi.,can town, and most of the townspeoplewere walking slowly toward the littleCathedral that was just ahead. The onlything J. E. could understand about theMexicans was their beautiful women. Buthe could not understand why the youngladies ignored him when he smiled andtipped his hat to them. Neither could heunderstand the black looks that werethrown his way by certain of the youngmen when he did this. He attributed thisto the fact that all Mexicans were hot-headed, and he glanced around furtivly tosee that no one had a knife to stick in hisback, as he had so often heard was done.J. E. could not understand the "laziness" ofthe people; they walked slowly to church,and slowly home, while he rushed aroundall the time. Of course, he had to admitto himself that he didn't seem to get muchdone, but he at least tried.

J. E., much to his chagrin, was goingto have to go to church with these people.It was Sunday morning, and even thoughhe was not a Catholic, he considered it his"duty" to attend some church, and LaCathedral de Nuestra Senora was the onlyone for miles around. Before he enteredthe door, he stopped to gaze at the edifice,as it was bathed in the early morninglight. Suddenly, as the bells began to toll,three white doves flew out from the tower,and soared against the rose-colored sky.J. E. wasn't thinking of the beauty of thebutlding, nor of the religious purpose itserved. To himself he said "Whew, what ajob! Must've taken a lot of money." Hedidn't even see the sculptured saints sur-rounding the door. As he started in thedoor, he glanced toward the altar, and sawthe lithe young men and women kneelgracefully before it. With a slightly red-

dened face, he took off his Panama, andrespectfully walked toward the altar.

4. A Good NeighborMarian Hawley had just graduated

from a large university in NortheasternTexas. She had majored in Spanish, andstudied about the people of Mexico andtheir customs. Now that she was inMexico,she found good use for these studies. Itwas still rather a puzzle to her how shehad ever been sent to this little town. Shehad a job with a travel agency, and shehad been sent to look over this town, andto get information concerning its interest-ing places. She had arrived two days ago,and she thought that those two days hadbeen the most interesting of her life. Whenshe arrived, she went to the home of Senorade Lareda y Alvarez, a widow with whomshe was to stay while in town. DonaAlvarez had two sons, who were two andthree years younger than Marian. Theypromised to show her around, and theyhad shown her everything.

On the first day she had visited manylittle shops, where they made and soldhand-made articles - jewelry, lace, em-broidered goods, felt sombreros ornament-ed with silver and mother of pearl, boots,shoes, tooled leather goods, and pottery.In most of the shops, as she was leaving,the craftsman would give her somethinghe had made, and would grin bashfullywhen she profusely thanked him. In oneof the shops, as she was explaining thepurpose of her trip to a leather worker,she noticed a nice-looking middle-agedman talking in low tones to the elder of theAlvarez boys. Later the boy told herthat she had been invited to attend a wed-ding fiesta at the man's rancho.

Marian didn't awaken until aftereleven o'clock the next morning, and theboys awoke just in time to dress for lunch.After lunch, they visited the home of themayor, who showed Marian some articles

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of furniture which his ancestors hadbrought from Old Spain in 1797. Since theboys had said they had one more place toshow her before siesta time, they soon left,after Marian had promised to dine withthe mayor and his wife that night.

As they walked around the plaza to-ward La Calle de Las Rosas, the boys toldMarian the history of La Cathedral deNuestra Senora. She was intensly interest-ed in it before she saw it, and when shedid see it, she could do nothing but standand stare. With the bright afternoon sunshining on it, the Cathedral looked allpink and gold, and showed all the carving

in detail. Marian slowly walked throughthe doorway, and in the quiet of the littleCathedral she hardly dared to breathe, forfear of disturbing the saints. She walkedslowly up to the altar, stood for a fewminutes looking at the carved figures ofMary and Jesus, and slowly knelt to pray.As she neared the end of her prayer she

said, more as a question to herself than a

plea to the Virgin, "Why can't all people

be like these in this little town? If it were

possible, greed and wars would be unheard

of, and the world would be more as He

intended it to be."

AmericanismHERBERT EATON

Americanism. This is not a new wordto me; in fact, it is one with which I havebeen familiar for several years. Yet it hasnot been long since I have come really tounderstand and appreciate it. "American-ism," to me, is the one word which symbo-lizes all of the ideals of a great nation. Itsignifies the ideals of which we are veryproud, the ideals which our ancestors setup and struggled and fought to maintain,the ideals which we are fighting to preserveagainst our enemies today. It is the loveof our churches and the free establishmentthereof regardless of our religious creed.It stands for the principles and rights of afree people, the freedom of speech and of

the press, the freedom of opportunity andof enterprize, the right of the individual toseek the kind of employment he chooses,the right of the individual to sell his pro-ducts to anyone at any time, the right ofthe individual to use the proceeds of suchsales as he sees fit, the right of the indivi-dual to own private property, the freedomof election and assembly. All this isAmericanism - the one word which sym-bolizes all of the ideals of a great nationwhich today, by the preservation of theseideals, stands as a guiding star for the con-quered peoples of the world, leading themfrom the pit-falls of barbarism onto th~road of peace, hope, and happiness.

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