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Friday, December 31, 1999

Mexican villagers expect a fiery end to the world today
Professor studying group likens its beliefs to general fear over Y2K bug
By Mary Lee Grant
Caller-Times

The inhabitants of Nueva Jerusalen, a small village in Mexico, expect the world to end today or Saturday.
   Miguel Leatham, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville who is studying the group, said that their fears aren't that different from those who fear that Y2K will bring a technological disaster.
   Leatham said he sees Y2K fears as part of the general millennium fervor.
   "People have been expecting the world to end in 2000 for hundreds of years, and some people who aren't as religious are putting those fears off on Y2K,'' he said.
   Apocalyptic thinking is nothing new, he said. Terror of the end of the world was much more widespread as 1000 approached, when many thought the second coming of Christ was imminent.
   Joan Moore, a former Colorado resident who has been living in Nueva Jerusalen since the 1970s, said that she thinks there is a good chance that the world will end in 2000.
   "Once the earthquakes begin and the atomic bombs come, Y2K will be overshadowed by all the catastrophes,'' she said. But she and other members of her group believe that they will escape the world's fiery end by being taken up to heaven.
   Antichrist expected
   Residents of this Catholic offshoot colony in Michoacan, Mexico, expect a fiery trench to appear around their village and people from around the world to try to enter the village by jumping the trench. But by then, it may be too late, they say. They expect the Antichristto arrive in the colony and to be killed in front of the government building. Then the Virgin Mary will appear and will lift the holy people of the colony up to heaven.
   Leatham said that the group is just one of many making dire predictions for 2000. But the colony, where people have gathered to await the world's end since the 70s, also is softening its predictions as 2000 approaches to maintain credibility in case the world doesn't end as predicted, Leatham said.
   Deadline changing
   The group originally thought the world would end before 2000, and have recently been extending the dates, Leatham said.
   "As the millennium approaches, they are starting to fudge,'' he said. "The way they look at it, by praying and fasting, and by their holiness, they are staving off the end of the world. So if it doesn't end in 2000, it means they are doing a good job.''
   Leatham accompanied a crew from "48 Hours'' to the village earlier this month. His book "Where Our Mother Is: Peasant Recruitment to Nueva Jerusalen,'' is being published by the University of New Mexico Press.
   Moore, who moved to the colony from Fort Collins, Colo., more than 20 years ago, said that those at Nueva Jerusalen compare themselves to Noah building the ark. Some may think they are foolish, but they know that what they are doing is necessary.
   "This is a safe place,'' she said. "Our Blessed Mother said that anyone who lives here will be protected from the overall chastisement, meaning we have a better chance. But if we are usurers and adulterers, no place is safe.''
   Some tire of waiting
   Those who come take vows of chastity and poverty, listen to sermons several times daily, pray almost constantly, and dress in robes resembling traditional images of the Virgin Mary, she said.
   "A lot of people come and go,'' she said. ''They get tired of waiting.''
   Leatham said the community of Nueva Jerusalen began in 1973 after a peasant woman named Gabina Romero saw a vision of the Virgin, who told her the world was about to end.
   The Virgin gave the woman a drink from her gourd as a pact, Leatham said, and told her that she wanted the faith of the Holy Rosary to be established there because the world was about to be destroyed. The parish priest, Nobor Cardenas, heard the story, and decided to implement the Virgin's wishes, Leatham said. By 1974, the two had established a colony. In 1975, Cardenas was suspended as a Catholic priest. He continued his work as a priest anyway.
   "Romero saw no more apparitions, but the Virgin began to speak through her,'' Leatham said. "She became a seer.''
   Transformed into painting
   In 1974, villagers say they saw a flash of light, which they believe was the Virgin turning herself into a painting of the Assumption that is about four feet high and is not based on any traditional image of the Virgin, Leatham said
   "She has steely eyes, pursed lips, a brown tunic, and a light blue mantle, and her right hand is underneath her mantle, which represents her holding back punishments,'' Leatham said "It is a stern millenarian painting in which the Virgin is seen as vengeful. The people believe she actually lives in the painting, except in the afternoon, when she goes to visit other images of the Virgin at their shrine to bring them to live in the colony. They believe the Virgin of Guadalupe has abandoned the shrine at the Basilica outside Mexico City, and has come to live there.''
   Romero died in 1981, but her spirit is still believed to live in the colony, Leatham said.
   Cut off from society
   Although thousand of pilgrims visit the colony by busload annually, and as many as 8,000 have lived there permanently, Nueva Jerusalen is more than just a pilgrimage site, Leatham said.
   "They believe the Virgin lives there,'' he said. "She has reversed her assumption and there is a hole in the sky where the angels and saints come and go. It is not just any apocalyptic colony, but a piece of heaven on earth.''
   As the group prepares for the end of the world, its members have become more cut off from modern society and its conveniences, Leatham said.
   "They cannot have modern things like cassette players and televisions, and the men cannot go into town to drink," he said.
   "They aren't a democracy, they are world savers,'' he said. "They see themselves as an empire of the Virgin.''
   Normal Catholic life
   Moore said the group isn't planning anything out of the ordinary for New Year's 2000, unless, of course, the world ends.
   "We are a millennium group, but we will just pray and live a normal Catholic life,'' she said. "We hope we can make the world go on a lot longer. We are going to have a Mass at midnight, and many pilgrims from all over Mexico will come. There will be a lot of folk dancing, no mixed groups, and a feast day.
   We are hoping if the village does the best we can, the world will have more time.
   "If it doesn't end, we are glad we are helping to keep it at bay.''


Staff writer Mary Lee Grant can be reached at 886-3752 or by e-mail at grantm@caller.com

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