During the Season of Lent (40 days prior to Easter Sunday), most Catholic churches hold Mission Services. Though I haven’t attended a Mission Service for years due to my music commitments (I entertain 5 nights a week), I still have fond memories of the ones I attended in the past.  Most often, churches invite priests, laymen, or laywomen who are gifted in speaking and knowledgeable of our Catholic Doctrine to rejuvenate our faith, plus remind us of the suffering Christ endured prior to his crucifixion.

Though my parish has mostly English speaking worshippers, we also have in the last few years welcomed a segment of parishioners who only speak, and I assume, read Spanish.  Thus, in the last few years our parish has hosted Mission Services in Spanish.

I’m an early riser and for as long as I can remember I have always enjoyed going to mass early.  I have found through the years that there are fewer young mothers with their babies who attend early masses. And though I love children, they are, to me anyway, a distraction when they cry and I’m trying to focus on the gospel homily delivered by the celebrant priest or deacon). Giving me another reason to attend the 8:30 AM English mass at St. Paul’s.

This past Sunday, I couldn’t help but noticed a guitar case in the rear of the church when I entered. Knowing that our church employs the services of a lady who is talented in playing the piano and has a beautiful voice to lead the congregation in hymns of worship, the guitar case aroused my curiosity.

During the course of the mass, Father Tom, our pastor, introduced a couple and two young men to the congregation.  The lady introduced was carrying a guitar.  Father Tom then announced that the group was from Mexico and they were going to perform at the Spanish Mission Services and would like for the congregation to listen to them.  Shortly, during the communion service, the group began to sing with terrific harmonies a beautiful hymn in Spanish as the lady accompanied them with her beautiful Spanish guitar style.  The Spanish hymn in question related to love for God and family.  Needless to say I was overwhelmed with inner joy and seem to have gotten a jolt of spiritual wakefulness.  Then I realized that most of the parishioners could not comprehend what the beautiful words in Spanish meant and what a terrible loss it was for them.  Suddenly I questioned the many battles I’ve engaged in with my writings, plus my many debates with proponents of Spanish who support bilingual education, bilingual ballots, etc.  I then posed myself this question, “I wonder what my wonderful grandfather, Luis Vazquez, who so loved his former country, Mexico, and who spent untold hours reading to me in Spanish many beautiful stories about his country would think about me?” I also had flashbacks of the many times my grandfather would take me to the Marine Theater (now the Rose Theater) in North Fort Worth to see his favorite Mexican actors:  Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, and “El Gallo Giro” Luis Aguilar, and how much we both enjoyed listening to the beautiful Mexican Rancheras (country Mexican songs) the actors would sing.  As I held back my tears while listening to the beautiful Spanish hymns, I was torn up in my heart and in my mind.

Near the end of the services, the lead singer and husband of the guitarist lady addressed the congregation briefly in Spanish and more so in English. I was taken aback by his commanding use of English.  He told the congregation that he and his family were from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. There, he stated, he and his wife along with their two sons performed for years in luxury yachts, and cruise boat tours.  However, after one of his sons was afflicted with a life threatening illness and later over came it, the family decided to dedicate their talents to spreading the Gospel through song in gratitude for their son’s recovery.

I met with the father of the music group after mass and told him that I played guitar and was at one time choir director at a predominately Hispanic parish.  I told him that our choir sung mostly in English, but after we were constantly hired to play at weddings, quinceaneras (a girl’s 15 year birthday celebration), and anniversary masses, I taught the choir love ballads in Spanish, which were well received by Spanish speaking parishioners throughout Fort Worth.  I then asked him what motivated him to learn English.  “James, most of the folks who hired us to perform on cruise boats and luxury yachts were Americans.  Though some spoke some Spanish many didn’t.  Then, there were their cruise travelers who in most part were Americans, again some spoke little to no Spanish,” he stated.  “That James, prompted me to take English lessons which worked exceptionally well for me. After learning to speak English, I found it very profitable in terms of my negotiating with my American employers and their clientele,” he concluded. He went on to tell me that his group also learned some popular English tunes for their cruise customers who didn’t like Spanish music.

Though I had earlier been torn between my Hispanic Spanish speaking culture and the English language of my Country, this wonderful Mexican troubadour quickly set my priorities straight.  Though I’m proud to be able to speak, write, and sing in Spanish, English my friends,  allowed me to attain well-paying jobs as a typesetter, engineer illustrator, bookkeeper, and heavy equipment operator.  Spanish is beautiful, but English, has helped me feed, clothe, educate, and shelter my family exceptionally well.  SORRY GRANDDAD!

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