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Chapter 29: Estela and La VírgenMiracles happen, lives change when Blessed Mother speaks
Miracles happen daily in an impoverished barrio in South Phoenix where my cousin, Reyes Ruiz, has prayed his family into a life of service to the community and to la Vírgen. The family resisted for years.
One of his sons, state Sen. Armando Ruiz, was more interested in running for Congress than spreading the faith. Another son, Rey Jr., was stoned on a variety of drugs when he wasn't driving an ambulance - and even when he was. Then la Vírgen spoke to Estela, and life has not been the same. It's been miraculously better. Like my Mama's strong faith, Reyes' faith took root in the fertile valley of the Upper Gila River. As a boy, Reyes would watch as his great-grandfather, Teofilo Bejarano, came from the fields to get a dipper of cool Gila River water from a wooden barrel.
Reyes, whose mother, Tita, was my Mama's cousin and special friend as a girl in Virden, N.M., grew up in the knowledge that la Vírgen and the santos were special. So it was natural that, at age 7, he turned to the Blessed Mother for comfort when he lost his father, Ysidoro. Ysidoro, Tita's first husband, died after being struck by a pickup truck one winter morning while walking with fellow campesinos to clean out irrigation ditches for the patrones in Virden. The driver of the truck had cleared a small section of early morning frost from the windshield. He did not see the men walking by the side of the road. The truck plowed into Ysidoro. It was 1940, and Reyes was in first grade at Virden School. ``They came after me,'' says Reyes from his southside Phoenix home, a home whose yard has been converted into a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Americas. His mother and other relatives met up with the young boy who was running toward home after hearing the news about his father. All headed for the doctor's office in Virden. The pickup truck, with Ysidoro in the bed, was leaving, headed for the hospital in Lordsburg. ``It was very painful to see my mother crying. She was very emotional,'' says Reyes. When Ysidoro died, Reyes wanted to be strong for his mother. He wanted to carry the cross in front of the procession leading to the family's cemetery near Tita's and Nana Leonarda's homes. ``I couldn't carry it. I put it down and let somebody else take it. I went and grabbed my Mom's hand. In grabbing her hand and looking for consolation, I saw there was none because she (Tita) was hurting. I was very upset at God. He was the one responsible for taking my father. I was angry at him for a long time. ``In being mad at God, I think that one of the most beautiful things that happened was that I found this beautiful lady that was loved very much by all my family. This beautiful lady was our Blessed Mother. I knew I needed this love. ``I would see my family praying in front of her picture, in front of the altar or just in quietness. By the time I was 13 years of age, I was a young man that was totally in love with her,'' says Reyes. That devotion has spread. La Vírgen has changed Estela and the couple's six children - Isidoro, twins Armando and Fernando, Rey, Rosie and Rebecca. She also has touched a seventh child, Tony, the son of neighbors, who entered the family's home as a toddler and never left. The changes began while Reyes was on a pilgrimage in 1988 to Medjugorje, a farming and sheep-herding village in western Bosnia that is home to mostly Roman Catholic Croatians. Reyes had moved from Safford to Phoenix in 1957 and helped build the metropolis as a bricklayer and later a masonry contractor. After his firm went bankrupt in the mid-1970s during a building recession, Reyes began working for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, bringing God to migrant farmworkers. He ministered in the citrus groves and brought priests to say Mass to the campesinos. He also gave workshops to FBI agents about abuses suffered by undocumented workers, and helped uncover cases of outright slavery in Arizona. On a trip to Boston in the late 1980s to give a report about the plight of the farmworkers to the church's national Office of Hispanic Affairs, Reyes found out that la Vírgen had been appearing in Medjugorje since 1981. His love for her and his hopes to save his family took him to the mountainous hamlet where countless sightings of la Vírgen were reported by pilgrims who traveled from all parts of the world to see her. There, in St. James Church, Reyes prayed for Estela and his children. As he prayed, Reyes says, he was overtaken by a deep sense of peace that could only come from God. He prayed for his family to find God, to truly do God's work and become saints. He prayed for them to escape the worldly trap they were in: * Estela was a devoted wife and mother, who returned to school at Reyes' urging after her children were grown. She received her bachelor's degree and enrolled in a master's program at Northern Arizona University while working for the Murphy School District as director for bilingual education. She was a woman on the move. * Twins Armando and Fernando, both Loyola Marymount University graduates, were concerned only with their careers. Armando had been elected as a state representative in 1982.
* Rosie was in banking. * Becky was an educator. * Isidoro, also a Loyola Marymount graduate, works for the Los Angeles County judicial system. * Rey was an ambulance driver, drug addict and drug pusher who toyed with death. He was living la vida loca, haunted by the devil. While Reyes was in Medjugorje, climbing hills and praying for his family, Estela was happy for the respite from her ``holy roller'' husband. She had grown tired of him trying to persuade her to go to Mass, receive the Holy Eucharist and pray the rosary daily. But Estela only thought she was free of Reyes' pestering. On her way to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee early one morning, Estela had to pass through the living room, which Reyes had converted into a shrine to la Vírgen de Guadalupe. As she passed a picture of la Vírgen, she heard a voice - a woman's voice. ``Good morning, daughter.'' She decided not to believe her ears. Days later, it happened again. ``Good morning, daughter.'' This time Estela answered. ``Good morning, Blessed Mother.'' Now she was stuck. There was no way to take back the words. Reyes is crazy, she thought, and now it's her turn. She kept it her little secret. When Reyes returned to South Phoenix in September 1988, Estela noticed a change in her husband. There was an aura about him. He was rejuvenated by his trip, and the family couldn't help but listen when he spoke about the Croatian village and his sense of God's profound peace and the presence of la Vírgen. The family began gathering to pray the rosary, and Estela found herself accompanying her husband to daily Mass. In December, la Vírgen appeared to Estela as she prayed the rosary in her bedroom, along with her husband, her son Fernando, and Fernando's wife, Leticia. ``The beautiful lady'' with piercing blue eyes appeared and told Estela she would take care of her children. Days later, la Vírgen appeared to Estela in the living room of her home and asked her to be her messenger. Estela accepted the call. Since then, la Vírgen has appeared to Estela hundreds of times, giving her messages of love from God. The messages are simple and easily summed up in the manner Jesus does in the gospels: Love God and love one another; all else will take care of itself. At first, the Ruiz family kept the apparitions to themselves. ``That first year was pure enjoyment with her,'' says Estela. ``She was all ours. But, of course, that was when she was working with us. She was knocking sense into our heads because of our muleheadedness.'' Daughter Rebecca says: ``We prayed, and she gave us many blessings. Family members would cry and say, `I saw her.' We would call her appearances candy kisses.'' ``It was during this time that she was winning our hearts over,'' Estela says. Son Rey, the gangbanger with the drug-crazed lifestyle, said he gave a message to la Vírgen: ``Well, you take me the way I am, or leave me alone.''
``After I was told that, it was basically my choice to say yes or no. Once I said yes, that's when the change started. Our Lady was the inspiration in changing my life, and many other people who were on drugs, too.'' Son Armando believed his mother. He thought the apparitions were wonderful. ``That was my first response. My second response was, `I'm up for re-election. How is this going to impact me?' '' he says, belting out a contagious laugh. Armando served from 1982 to 1990 in the House, and then two more years as a state senator. He worried that his mother's spirituality would interfere with his public life. ``Even though God inspires you, you still have those things of the world. You are still grounded in the world, and I had a very natural reaction. Are people going to think my mom's nuts? Are they going to think I'm nuts? Will they still vote for me?'' The voters didn't seem to mind. Armando was re-elected, and in 1992 he had his sights set on Congress. The state Senate had a Democratic majority, and he wanted to draw himself a Democratic congressional seat through redistricting. But first he went on a junket to Mexico City with other state officials. The group toured the Basilica de la Vírgen de Guadalupe. Armando recalls standing on the conveyor belt that took him to the image of the Blessed Mother on the tilma that Juan Diego wore centuries ago. He stepped off the conveyor to pray before the image. ``I was in front of her for at least five minutes. I felt very much her presence, and I felt her stirring in my heart. I walked away from there convinced that I was meant to run for Congress. She was calling me to greater power, to enjoy the fruits of the world,'' he says. ``I came back and started to put the exploratory committee together. I started to carve out the congressional district that I wanted.'' But something nagged at Armando. ``It was during Lent, and I continued to pray. One evening, I remember telling my wife, `Maybe God is calling me to something very, very different. Maybe I've really missed the boat with this. Maybe God is asking me to leave this, not because politics is bad, but because politics was my god.' '' ``It came first before everything else. I lost several families because of it,'' says Armando, who is in his third marriage. Armando decided not to run. ``I called the people who were helping me and said, `I love politics. I enjoy it. I think it's a wonderful thing that people can do. But God is calling me on a different road right now.' '' ``People were just shocked. They were shocked that I would walk away from the hustle and bustle of politics for something obscure, something about God.''
Armando was proud of some things he had done in office. He helped reverse the state's English-only act. He worked on neighborhood revitalization projects, worked with troubled barrio youths. But now he is doing more, and none of it for political gain. In December, as Armando talked to me about his new calling, about 100 people from around the world were at the family home, attending Mary's Ministries 11th Annual Retreat, a spiritual rejuvenation gathering for evangelical lay workers, priests and nuns. They came for spiritual rejuvenation before the shrine to Our Lady of the Americas that the Virgin asked Reyes to build 12 years ago. Strangers flock daily to the spacious yard landscaped with grass, trees and vibrant red, yellow and purple flowers. Reyes has sculpted life-size statues, including Jesus Christ on the cross. The wood came from a tree at the Perryville prison. Christ's head of hair comes from a woman and child who lost it during cancer treatments, and the beard once belonged to Reyes. For years, when la Vírgen gave public messages through Estela, hundreds crowded into the yard to hear. Now, la Vírgen gives only personal messages to the family. The messages give them strength and direction to do God's work, says Estela. All have been changed. Rey walked away from dealing and using drugs. Armando left politics. Fernando, Isidoro, Rebecca, Rosie and Tony all began praying for answers and working for God. The family has become nationally known. ``For the Soul of the Family,'' a book written by Thomas W. Petrisko, tells the story of the apparitions to Estela. Reyes and Estela have appeared on ``Geraldo,'' ``The Joan Rivers Show,'' NBC's ``Prophecies'' and ``The Sally Jessy Raphael Show.'' Reyes and Estela traveled for 10 years evangelizing. Now nearly all their children have taken up the calling. The family founded an evangelical school. ``We have a community of people that work with us, and they go out all over the world,'' says Estela. While evangelizing in Peru last year, Rey picked up a virus that caused him to lose his eyesight. He is slowly regaining it, and as soon as he can, Rey plans to hit the road again as God's warrior. In 1994, the family opened a charter school, adjacent to Estela and Reyes' home. It offers a college preparatory curriculum. It has an enrollment of nearly 700 students in preschool through high school. ``The reason we started it was because of what was going on here in our community. The kids were killing each other. Kids had no respect for anybody. I was disenchanted,'' recalls Estela. Now the youth of South Phoenix are learning respect and values, along with reading, writing and arithmetic, Estela says. In 1996, the school was awarded $1 million by the National Football League. The money bought 35 computers, a radio station and a television station, classrooms and a multipurpose room. A second charter school has opened in the Gila River Valley, in Safford. Relatives who saw what the Ruiz family had done in South Phoenix work at the school. The family also is involved in neighborhood development. Espíritu is a non-profit agency with a $5 million annual budget that operates the programs. It also helps families buy their own homes and improve their neighborhoods. Armando is the chief executive officer. Mary's Ministeries is the second non-profit group and deals with worldwide evangelization and spiritual leadership development, says Armando. Its annual budget is $200,000. ``God gives you talent as a community of people. God moves you in your heart to take the talents he's given you and make a contribution to the world. I really am happy. God gives you peace. He gives you purpose,'' says Armando, his face radiating. I ask cousin Reyes and Estela: ``Anyone in your family become a saint yet?'' Both look at each other and break out in laughter. ``It's a lifetime work,'' says Estela. Reyes pauses: ``I believe that some of my ancestors are saints. Their prayers were very, very powerful.'' Those are my ancestors as well. Perhaps the santos are closer than I thought.
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Ch. 1: Field of death
Ch. 18: The New Deal
Ch. 24: Cotton pickers and copper miners Ch. 27: The family doubles its size
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