This story is part of KNAU’s series Unmapped Route 66, which chronicles the people and places of the Mother Road’s past and present during its centennial year.
A hundred years ago, as the section of Route 66 through Flagstaff was being paved, another local institution was also under construction.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel on the city’s southside was Flagstaff’s first — and only — primarily Mexican-American church. While community members say it was born out of racial division, it created a vibrant community that still thrives today in its centennial year.
Parishioners Lupe Woodson, Lydia Anaya and Val Craft gather around well-worn photo albums in the church’s basement. They turn pages of sepia-toned photographs, pointing out family, friends and ancestors. They’re members of the church’s fundraising society, “Guadalupanas.” They carefully place faded photos on foam display boards for upcoming centennial celebrations.
Also alongside them is Jesse Dominguez. He served as a choirboy here in the 1950s. Dominguez would cross Route 66 — now Mike’s Pike — to unlock the hand-hewn ponderosa pine doors and fire-up the furnace an hour before mass.
He didn’t connect the two before.
"Can you imagine a brand-new highway and a brand-new church built within a block from each other?” Dominguez said.
“I just knew this was my church. And now we have the celebration of Route 66, which I've lived all my life a block away from. How lucky am I?"
However, it wasn’t good fortune that led to Guadalupe’s founding. According to those gathered in the basement and the stories they’ve heard from their ancestors, it was racism.
"When the Mexicans started attending mass there, those white people told them, 'You don't belong here,’” Johnny Anaya said.
Anaya’s family first came to Flagstaff in the 1920s to work at the lumbermills. His great-grandfather painted the first image of the Virgin Mary to hang in the chapel.
Anaya recounted how his and other families weren’t welcome at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Flagstaff's first Catholic church, constructed in 1888.
“On the pews they had little name tags. When the Mexicans started showing up, they'd tell ‘em, 'See that name? Is that your name?'”
Anaya remembers how the Mexicans would say, “No,” and were told they “don't belong here."
Nativity was located only a half-mile from Guadalupe but were worlds apart.
Frank Garcia's parents were also told they didn't belong. He spoke about their experiences in a 2006 archival oral history project with Los Recuerdos del Barrio en Flagstaff.
“I remember my parents talking about how you couldn’t go into Nativity Church when they were kids,” Garcia said. “And the only thing these guys from Guadalupe Church went up to Nativity for was to get holy water and they wouldn’t even let them in for that.
In 1925, the Mexican-American community raised funds for their very own church. Parishioners built and designed the church themselves.
In the 1920s, Guadalupe’s founders couldn't buy professional building products. They had to rummage construction site refuse for suitable material and used horses and wagons to haul volcanic basalt from as far away as Lake Mary.
"Have you noticed the outside of the building? It's built out of rocks, collected by human hands,” Dominguez said as he marveled at the church’s solid walls. “Every one of those rocks was touched by human hands and then laid to make this building.” he said as he waved his outstretched arm with pride at the chapel.
Our Lady of Guadalupe was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Even the State of Arizona’s Historic Property Inventory references the unique material used in the chapel’s construction., listing “rubble” alongside intricate stained glass windows.
‘Under the same roof’
Regular masses haven’t been held at Guadalupe since 2003 when Flagstaff’s three Catholic churches were consolidated under San Francisco de Asís.
Nowadays, it serves mainly as a community center. And 100 years after its construction, local church officials now acknowledge the troubled history.
When asked about the history, Father Daniel Connealy with Flagstaff’s San Francisco de Asís told KNAU he’s grateful for the progress.
"While the divisions of the past deeply sadden us, we are grateful that our Catholic community is a parish where English and Spanish speakers worship God under the same roof.
‘Aquí estamos’
Back in the chapel’s basement, the focus is solidly on the community, the faith, work and perseverance that built Guadalupe.
"Aquí estamos — we're still here,” Anaya said. “They didn't want us back in history, but history has seen fit that we are still here with our little church here. We're very proud of it. It's something that became part of not only our family history, but the entire community."
Our Lady of Guadalupe will celebrate the centennial with a Feast Day Procession on December 5 and a Spanish-language mass on December 12.
