Los Guadalupanos, a sacred dance group, danced to the beat of their drums down the streets of Avon Park for three months in preparation for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12 at St. Catherine Catholic Church in Sebring.
Around three months before the danza (dance), members of Los Guadalupanos begin practicing steps all along Pine Hill Avenue in Avon Park. They’ve been practicing along this street, taking up the whole block, for over a decade since the group’s inception.
“Yeah, we take most of the street away and usually like there’s only one light that works on that whole street,” chuckled Guadalupe “Lupe” Luevano, captain of Los Guadalupanos. “So, we’ll take like that area where the streetlight is at because it’s so dark because time changes.”
Luevano started the group in 2011 with her family to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe. She was guided by her cousins in Vero Beach who have their own group, Los Misioneros (The Missioners), that started in 2001.
“Seeing my cousins do it and seeing the sacrifice and their motivation, their faith in the Virgin of Guadalupe, that’s what motivated me, motivated me to do this every year and motivate other kids,” Luevano said. “Because the culture and the tradition is fading away and a lot of people are so tied up to the world, work and everything else that they forget about the culture of where we came from.”
The group has grown from Luevano’s family of 10 people to around 40 members – including drummers – and strives to practice two or three times weekly. Most members come from Avon Park, with some from Frostproof.
There are 10 different choreographies for the danza, and they’ve been trying to add more over time. Practice begins with basic steps that members build upon.
Currently, they only practice primarily for the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But they’ve performed at other events like an international food festival at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Avon Park where they represented Mexico.
“The first time, and even till this day, you walk in that church and the first thing all the people hear is a drum and it reminds you, cause she’s our Mother. She’s our Mother of Guadalupe. You can go and ask God for anything, but she’s God’s mother. You can go and she will cover you. She will protect you. You can feel that faith with her that she will protect you.
“And every single time we see, and we hear the drum, it reminds us, well, it reminds me especially, that she covers us. Whenever you were a baby, you hear the heart, the heartbeat. That’s what I hear whenever the drum (beats), the heartbeat, the heartbeat of our faith, our Mother covering us,” Luevano said.
The outfits for Los Guadalupanos are homemade by Luevano and her family that’s been upgraded and added to over the years. Everyone in her family has a “little job” to do making the whole outfit riddled with detail.
Their red chalecos (vests) and naguas (skirts) are strewn with bamboos that have jingle bells and beads affixed to them. An image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is imprinted on the back of their chalecos and the front of their naguas.
They wear red, green and white penachos (feathered headdresses). During the danza, members shake red, bedazzled maracas and draw red, white and green bows and arrows.
For more information on Los Guadalupanos, call 863-214-3563.
