nicaragua miami immigration catholic feast virgin mary.

Hundreds of Nicaraguans caroled the Virgin Mary at flower-and-light-filled altars set up in church parking lots as well as the back of vehicles on the streets of Miami to mark the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The exuberant early December celebration called “gritería” is especially poignant this year during the ongoing crackdowns on religion groups in Nicaragua as well as on immigrant communities in the United States. Many of the people who set up altars, and those who visited, say they did so as a promise to the Virgin, to express gratitude or to ask for protection both in the United States and for their families in Nicaragua.