MIAMI — A vibrant scene unfolded in Miami as hundreds of Nicaraguans gathered to honor the Virgin Mary in a festival of lights and flowers. The celebrations took place at altars both in church parking lots and from the backs of vehicles, all in tribute to the Dec. 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception.

This year’s “gritería” holds special significance amid the ongoing religious crackdowns in Nicaragua and challenges faced by immigrant communities in the United States.

“We’re committed to celebrating, regardless of circumstances,” said Neri Flores, who journeyed from Chicago to join his parents in setting up an altar for Sunday night’s vigil. “This is about tradition, family, supporting the community, and maintaining faith and optimism.”

In the back of a spacious rental SUV, parked near a local Catholic church, the family placed a cherished painting of the Immaculate Conception at the heart of their altar. Flores’ mother had carried this painting across the U.S.-Mexican border while pregnant with him in the early 1980s.

Nearby, another family displayed a more elaborate altar featuring half a dozen statues of the Virgin Mary, with four generations coming together to partake in the festivities.

“All the blessings that we have are thanks to her,” said Michael Garcia, who was born in Miami but whose grandmother brought one of the statues when she fled Nicaragua. “For the Virgin, there is no impossible.”

Nicaragua’s ongoing crackdown on religion

A mid-19th century Vatican proclamation of the dogma that Mary was conceived free from original sin, which the Catholic faith teaches all humans carry, gave new popularity to the feast day worldwide. In Nicaragua, there’s a special tradition for families to create home altars and then go visit others, singing, from house to house.

But those celebrations have been either stifled or co-opted by the Nicaraguan government in an intensifying persecution of religion that human rights advocates, exiled priests and the U.S. government say is one of the most severe in the world.

Like several Latin American governments tracing their roots back to socialist revolutions, Nicaragua’s copresidents Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, have had an uneven relationship with faith leaders for decades.

But since violently repressing civic protests in 2018 and the unfolding human rights crisis, the government has gone after Catholic priests and nuns, whom they accuse of supporting unrest. Clergy and lay observers say the church has become the only voice resisting state violence and aiding its victims.

Hundreds of Christian clergy and lay people have been imprisoned and exiled, many religious festivities have been barred, and many of the remaining faithful say they’re under strict surveillance.

In the United States, the Trump administration has sought to end expanded and temporary legal protections for around 430,000 migrants from Nicaragua, as well as from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti. It’s part of an ongoing crackdown on migrants across the country that has spread fear in many communities.

But at Miami’s St. John Bosco Catholic Parish — where most of the 3,000 member families are from Nicaragua and Honduras, and many are undocumented — more than a thousand people lined up Sunday evening to sing and pray by altars set up in the parking lot and the major thoroughfare in front of the church.

“Today’s event is all about a gesture of trust,” said the Rev. Yader Centeno, the pastor, who’s also from Nicaragua. “For the people who are here, it’s a moment to strengthen their faith. And to share a message with those back in Nicaragua that here, we are free.”

Crowds gather around altars in Miami

Some altars had elaborate balloon arches, twinkling strings of lights and massive sound systems, while others had just a small statue of the Virgin framed by fresh palm fronds in the cars’ hatchbacks.

As visitors reached each altar, they erupted in the traditional “grito” or cry that many also had emblazoned on T-shirts — with Spanish for “Who causes so much joy? Mary’s conception!”

Then they sang traditional hymns to the Virgin as the families and other groups that created the altars donated toys, traditional food like yucca and chicharrones, and small religious souvenirs like rosaries — a big show of community support since most had planned to serve at least 500 people.

“I’m super happy. To have this tradition outside of my country is something grand,” said Scarlet Desbas as her husband finished setting up their hatchback altar by plugging lights into the car battery. “Our ancestors inculcated in us this faith.”

Many said they undertook the expensive task as a promise to the Virgin, to express gratitude, and to ask for protection both in the United States and for their families in Nicaragua.

Claudia Fuertes, who came to the U.S. nearly two decades ago, set up a giant white-and-blue balloon arch — traditional colors for the feast day and also Nicaragua’s flag — to frame the altar on the back of a pickup next to St John Bosco’s sanctuary.

“I have faith that Nicaragua one day will be free,” Fuertes added.

Praying for peace in Nicaragua and the US

On the outskirts of Miami, hundreds attended St. Agatha Catholic Parish for Sunday’s Mass — and others watched the livestream. The Rev. Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, urged them to speak out against those who use faith to oppress the vulnerable and those to bow before worldly powers.

“The Virgin is not going to forget our people and one day, Nicaragua will be free,” said Báez before leading the congregation in the traditional “grito” to Mary.

Báez left Nicaragua in 2019 because the late Pope Francis told him he should do so, to save his life. In the last few months, with Pope Leo XIV ’s papacy, Báez has started delivering again powerful and blunt sermons at Miami Masses.

St. Agatha’s pastor, the Rev. Marcos Somarriba — who came from Nicaragua as a teen, decades ago — said the situation for the faithful in Nicaragua remains dire. He said people there must have the government’s permission to set up altars and certain traditional colors are forbidden.

But he said President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with their experience in Florida, should understand how dire the conditions are for those persecuted in countries like Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela — and should ensure U.S. immigration policies reflect that.

“The U.S. government should take clear measures to protect the peoples, the Nicaraguans, who have come here because they have lost their homeland,” Somarriba said.

Back near St. John Bosco’s, Oscar Carballo was doing the rounds by the altars, singing to the Virgin, after winning over relatives who hesitated to come out because of rumors on social media about immigration enforcement.

He stopped at the Flores family’s altar.

“Here you feel like in the patio of your home,” he said, gesturing toward an image of the Virgin Mary. “The only thing I ask her is that we can stay here, and that there might be peace. Everywhere.”

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