Tomas H. Vega, front row far right, stands at attention while being honored with other veterans during the 2017 Flagstaff Summertime Tardeada.Tomas H. Vega during World War II.
FLAGSTAFF — Members of Flagstaff Nuestras Raíces would like to remember the contributions of Tomas H. Vega, a Flagstaff native, who passed away on March 14 at the age of 96. Mr. Vega was a regular at many of the group’s functions, including the annual Summertime Tardeada at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and the annual Celebraciones de la Gente at the Museum of Northern Arizona.
He was a part of America’s “Greatest Generation,” landing on Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion in June 1944.
He will be honored, along with other Hispanic veterans, during the 2018 Armed Forces Day Parade in downtown Flagstaff.
For more on his remarkable life, please visit the Arizona Daily Sun story HERE.
FLAGSTAFF — The annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration begins at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11 with a procession from Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel, 224 S. Kendrick St., to San Francisco de Asis Catholic Church, 1600 E. Route 66.
After a brief stop for a hot food and drink potluck at the Flagstaff Fire Department Station No. 2, the procession will proceed up the hill along Ponderosa Parkway to San Francisco de Asis Catholic Church for a Mass at 7 p.m.
Festivities will begin the next day at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 12 with a Rosary, Mananitas at 6:30, Mass at 7, followed by Café y pan at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church.
The church will be encircled by an estimated 300 luminarias, placed there by members of Flagstaff Nuestras Raíces.
Activities will conclude with a community potluck at 8 a.m, Dec. 12 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church Cultural Center “The Basement.”
“Monday evening is the vigil of the celebration of the patron saint of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe,” wrote Father Patrick Mower in the parish’s Dec. 10 bulletin. “There is a beautiful celebration and procession from OLG Chapel up to our church on the mesa. We stop at the fire station (at the bottom of the hill” for a short rest with refreshments before we head up the hill. There are dancers, songs and prayers as we honor our Lady. Although many may thing this to be a “Hispanic” event, our Lady is the patron of all the Americas, not just Mexico and Central America. How nice would that be if the crowd doubled in size and race as we all walk in procession to celebrate Mass in honor of Mary together as a Church, the people of God, not divided but united in Christ. There is a bus that will leave here at 5:15 p.m. to take people down to OLG so that your cars will be here waiting for you after the Mass. We start the procession at 5:30 p.m. The whole trip is only 2.2 miles. Hope to see you there. God’s blessing on you all, you are loved.”
Remembering Our Culture & History 