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Torch run links Mexico City, New York City

By Annie Correal | Special to amNewYork

June 13, 2007

Every year, runners pass a torch for 4,000 miles during the Guadalupan Torch Run, which begins at the Basilica de Tepeyac in Mexico City in October and ends at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on December 12th, the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The race takes more than 7,000 runners clad in white through 14 U.S. States and nine Mexican states, and its end is marked by an indigenous dance in Central Park and a special mass.

The Virgin of Guadalupe was said to have appeared to a Spanish friar, along with a grove of Spanish roses, though it was the middle of winter, in the 16th century.

The Virgin of Guadalupe - or "Lupita," as she is affectionately known in Mexico - became a popular nationalist symbol during Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain.

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