Scene from the 2023 Guadalupan Torch Run, arriving in South Carolina. / Credit: Courtesy of Guadalupan Torch Run
Houston, Texas, Oct 28, 2025 / 18:45 pm (CNA).
The Carrera Antorcha Guadalupana (the "Guadalupan Torch Run") is an annual pilgrimage where runners honor the Blessed Mother and pray for immigrants as they carry a torch from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.
Pilgrim runners began their journey on Aug. 30 in Mexico City and so far have carried it through nine Mexican states and over 30 cities. Altogether, they will pass through 14 U.S. states as they journey over 3,000 miles before arriving in New York on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As they pass through each town, the runners are joined by locals, who accompany them for a portion of the route.
The running pilgrims arrived in San Antonio, Texas, on Oct. 27, where they will remain for three days. Catholics at several parishes there are organizing Masses and celebrations, which will include Indigenous Mexican dancers known as "Matachines," who have performed traditional dances in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe for hundreds of years.
The torch, known as the Torchana Guadalupana, is lit from the flame at the basilica and is never extinguished during the journey. It "represents the light of faith and the spirit of resilience among immigrants," according to the group's San Antonio organizer, Luis Garcia.
Garcia, who is an immigrant himself and has benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program established by President Barack Obama in 2012, started running in the pilgrimage as a high schooler in 2009. He became a leader five years ago.
Garcia said it brings "religious hope to those who need it, both in the U.S. and Mexico, and it shows them that Mother Mary is looking out for her children here and in Mexico."
He told CNA the pilgrimage, organized by a New York-based group called Asociación Tepeyac, began in 2002 as a memorial Mass and run to honor Hispanics who died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. Its purpose evolved over the years into two themes: honoring the Virgin Mary and praying for human rights and justice for immigrants.
In the first years of the pilgrimage, then-Archbishop Edward Egan of New York provided logistical and spiritual backing to Asociación Tepeyac, even suggesting it begin a pilgrimage that would start in Mexico and end in New York.
The pilgrimage has come to symbolize "the enduring bond between the Mexican and American communities," according to Garcia, and the "lit torch is a symbol of faith, hope, and unity" among Christians and between families who are separated by the border.
San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said in a statement to CNA that the Guadalupan Torch run "carries the flame of faith with devotion, honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. In our pilgrimage on this earth, she shows us that salvation is not a reward for our own merits but a free gift of God's love."
"May this torch continue to light our path, bringing us ever closer to her Son, who is our savior and who brings us to our final destination, which is his glory with the Father," the archbishop concluded.
As an undocumented immigrant who was brought here as a child and who hopes to become a citizen eventually, Garcia said he is "a little worried" for himself, but he is still pushing through and hoping to bring faith, hope, and awareness to people.
Because he is undocumented, he cannot travel to Mexico to visit the basilica. He said that through the pilgrimage, however "a little piece of Mexico comes over."
"I can travel with the Virgin and, through her intercession, can pray for all of these people who don't have a true home."
Recent immigration raids have led to dwindling numbers of participants, Garcia said, but 8,000 runners' hands will still have touched the torch by the time it reaches St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The torch is made of galvanized metal, he said, and by the end of the journey, the bottom of it becomes shiny from wear.
"That so many hands have touched this torch," Garcia said, "is powerful. Families that participated in Mexico and are divided from their family here by the border have that connection: 'I held the torch and I know my family in the U.S. has touched it, too. We held something together.'"
