home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- BUSINESS, Page 53Business NotesTOURISMHey, Look at The Pilgrims!
-
-
- For the past 170 years, thousands of devout Hispanic Roman
- Catholics have spent Good Friday tramping along roads that lead
- to Chimayo, a sleepy New Mexico village known for the sacred
- earth upon which the Santuario de Chimayo sits. Many of the
- pilgrims carry crosses on their journey, but this year they may
- feel inclined to brandish signs that say TOURISTS GO HOME! The
- source of their ire: New Mexico's tourism department, which is
- hyping the local shrine as the "Lourdes of America" in full-page
- ads in a dozen slick magazines, including Travel & Leisure,
- Holiday and Southern Living.
-
- Worshipers are signing a petition condemning the ads,
- which tout the chapel and its indigenous liturgy as "just one
- of the many wonders . . . waiting for you," along with shopping
- for local weavings. Tourism official Marsha Adams acknowledges
- that the state should have consulted the Archdiocese of Santa
- Fe before launching the ad campaign, which probably will never
- run again. Meanwhile, in another manifestation of their
- protest, pilgrims say they will bar tourists from photographing
- their procession.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-