Catholic Celebrities are more fun than gun shows

So this weekend there was a giant Catholic music festival in Mesquite, and a bunch of people from my parish (including me, as you've probably gathered) went to volunteer there.

At the site of the venue, there were two events:  our giant hispanic Catholic music thing, and also across the street a gun show.  I was a greeter/hostess/smile-and-wave-er during the morning, so I got to meet lots of people coming to both shows.  It was pretty funny; big families with lots of kids would come by, speaking rapidly in Spanish, and then we'd get the occasional confused pair of slow-talking Southern guys looking for the gun show (often sporting giant hunting rifles).  I always informed the gun-show gents that our Jesus music show was probably more interesting and they should come inside—even if they wouldn't understand anything, at least it'd be exciting!  They all politely declined.  (Drat!)

The event was a huge success.  About thirty artists played music that day, I think (although at some point I lost count).  And I got to meet quite a few of them—including Jon Carlo, a fairly famous Dominican Republican singer.  I am still learning about the hispanic Catholic music scene, so this was super exciting for me.  (I know that sounds like a very specific genre of music, but it's actually really popular and pretty widespread.)  I especially liked helping out backstage and handing artists their awards onstage.

Our very own Padre was one of the leaders of the event—it turns out he's something of a rockstar in the North Texas Catholic community.  (Not literally; I don't think he plays rock music.  Unlike some other priests I might know back in MD.)

I also got to meet Evelyn Matias, a miracle story.  She's a Catholic artist who has multiple sclerosis or some other type of degenerative disease, and she has persevered as a singer despite all the odds against her.  Yesterday, she needed to be carried onto and off of the stage, but she was smiling the whole time, and she was so excited to sing to God.  A few years ago, she was pregnant, and the doctors told her that both she and the baby would die so she should get an abortion.  She refused to abort her child, and as it turns out, her daughter is quite healthy—and very talkative!  Evelyn's daughter tried to teach me a hand game, but about halfway through, I realized she might have been just making it up as she went.

Also, while Priscila Ángel was singing, one woman had a vision of the Virgin Mary onstage, and she took a video of it with her phone.  I did not have the vision (especially because I was backstage at the time), but I did see the phone video.  It was pretty amazing!  Priscila is really holy—she used to be a secular artist, but then she had a conversion experience of some kind and decided to dedicate her work to the Lord.  

(By the way, my callada (quiet) girl friend was the one responsible for most of my celebrity pictures.  She'd ask me if I wanted a picture with someone, and when I asked who it was, she'd say she didn't know—someone famous, a singer!  Let's go meet them!  So me and Callada got lots of pictures with celebrities whose names I learned AFTER the pictures.)

At first glance, the music festival looked pretty secular—people getting photos with their favorite artists (and sometimes with artists they didn't know), and plenty of venders selling CDs, t-shirts, rosaries, jewelry, tacos.  There was even a clown.  But the whole event was dedicated to Jesus!  Okey, maybe the tacos were secular (until we said grace before eating).  But even the clown directed all his conversations to Christ—when my friends and I got a picture with him, he asked us what face we would make if Jesus showed up at our door, and that was the picture.  And after each song, the artists directed the applause to God, giving glory to Him instead of to themselves.

Fun fact:  I think I am getting better and better at convincing people that I'm not a gringa.  I think I was the only non-native Spanish speaker at the event (besides the arena workers), and one of my friends said that when I don't stutter or make stupid grammar mistakes, I actually sound pretty natural.  I did a little victory dance when he said that.

In other news, today I might learn how to play mariachi music on my violin after church.

Gracias, Dios, for such a crazy fun weekend, and for teaching me to give glory to You always, even when I'm talking to a clown!