La Immaculada Church celebrates one hundredth anniversary
While New Year’s is always a time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past, this December thirty-first, the members of the La Immaculada Church in Orange Walk will have a century’s worth of memories to celebrate. To mark the occasion, volunteers have been breathing new life into this holy space, which has such meaning for the people who worship there. Janelle Chanona reports from Orange Walk.
Maria Gonzalez, Parishioner
“I feel good about it and I’m looking forward to seeing it finished; I can’t wait. Every two days I come and check to see the improvement and I think it’s coming on just fine.”
Janelle Chanona
“Try to imagine La Immaculada in the early 1900s… a high beaded dome ceiling supporting eight crystal cut chandeliers, stained glass windows, black slate flooring and of course, a magnificent wooden altar. That splendor can never be completely revived but a few determined Orange Walkqueños are going to restore the church they grew up in.”
Ena Martinez, Publicity Chairperson
“It has touched many lives. Many people have been baptized, have been confirmed, have married, have even had funerals for people, our dearly departed people.”
The work has been tedious: washing down the century of cobwebs in the ceilings, sounding out walls for loose plastering and painting the nooks and crannies. But it was something the parishioners wanted to see happen.
Fred Martinez, Restoration Committee
“The suggestion box was over full with pleas from parishioners, please let us do something for the church; let us try to put back something of what was there before.”
But the dream of what once was has a high price tag. Since June of this year, parishioners have been working to collect donations and pledges to earn their restoration budget of one hundred thousand dollars and even now when it seems that amount might not be enough, they are confident they’ll get the money they need.
Jaime Brieñco, Restoration Committee
“Every now and again, something happens and we decide we need to do this so we touch a zinc that needs to be replaced and then we find more that needs to be replaced, so we find the cost has been going up. But early on we set a budget of a hundred thousand dollars and we set up a strategy that we hope will enable everyone to contribute to this project.”
Ena Martinez
“Even Orange Walkqueños who live throughout the country of Belize as well as Orange Walkqueños who have left and have gone abroad to live, we are appealing to all of them to contribute, not necessarily a big amount but whatever they contribute towards this restoration is more than welcome.”
The project will be complete in June, 2000 but come January first, La Immaculada Church will bear some semblance to its former self.
Fred Martinez
“For the thirty-first of December, we hope to have all the painting inside done, all the lateral windows in, all the lights changed because obviously we need to improve the lighting in the church, the pews all sanded and re-varnished and that will be phase one.” (laughs)
Phase one also includes the restoration of the some of the original religious artifacts that have survived the years. Artist Emil Alvarez has been painstakingly giving new life to the Stations of the Cross, imported from Italy in the 1900s. The work has been a labor of love and gratitude.
Emil Alvarez, Artist
“It has played a great part in the role of my life and I think that I am giving back, not the church, but my community and God something that He has given to me, which is the talent.
I think people see the church in different ways. Some devouts may see it in a religious sense. I see it in an artistic sense and I think it’s good that these aspects are fusioning, coming together and that people are responding and they see the necessity of the church coming back to what it was like.”
Reina Villar, Parishioner
“I see a very big difference. It brightens up even the spirit of a person.”
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
Anyone wishing to make a donation or pledge for the restoration can do so through any of the committee members. Organizers anticipate over five thousand parishioners will attend the anniversary mass, at ten p.m. on December thirty-first at the church grounds. After the service the Orange Walk Town Board has arranged a New Year’s party, complete with fireworks.
