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With Our Lady of Guadalupe, a California priest brings hope to farmworkers amid Covid-19

"I can't put in words the emotion that I'm feeling," said farmworker Yolanda Camacho. "I never thought that the Virgin of Guadalupe would ever come visit me at work."
Farmworkers in Moorpark, California, say they feel spared in the COVID-19 crisis: blessed that no one has been sick, and that they still have work, crediting their devotion to \"La Virgencita\" on Oct. 22, 2020.
Images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and San Juan Diego arrived, accompanied by mariachi, to visit the field workers in Moorpark.Telemundo / Telemundo Los Angeles

Yolanda Camacho, a farmworker who has worked in the fields of California for five years, would normally go to church pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe. But she hasn't been able to do so since many churches closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But Camacho and other farmworkers in Moorpark were able to reconnect with the Virgin of Guadalupe Friday thanks to Father Juan Ochoa, from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Father Ochoa told NBC Los Angeles that he wanted to thank farmworkers for the nonstop labor they've been doing during the pandemic.

To show his gratitude, he brought an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe blessed by late Pope John Paul II and gifted to the Archdiocese two decades ago. The Virgin of Guadalupe paraded the fields of Moorpark alongside mariachis singing "Madre Mía De Guadalupe" and another religious image depicting San Juan Diego, the first Catholic Indigenous saint from the Americas.

"On this day we bring these images outside the churches to thank these farmers who are feeding us," Father Ochoa told farmworkers.

"I can't put in words the emotion that I'm feeling," Camacho told NBC Los Angeles in Spanish. "I never thought that the Virgin of Guadalupe would ever come visit me at work."

Maria Tinajero, who has been a farmworker since she arrived to the U.S. from Mexico more than ten years ago, considers this visit a privilege.

"This means a lot because we are here, and we cannot visit her in the chapel," Tinajero told NBC Los Angeles.

Farmworkers like Camacho and Tinajero thanked the Virgin of Guadalupe for protecting them during this pandemic.

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