The town of Tiagua continues to celebrate its festivities in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and on this Sunday afternoon, at the proposal of neighbor Juana López, a simple but emotional posthumous recognition was carried out for María Parrilla Fajardo, who took over the reins of the church in the 1950s.
María Parrilla was born in Güime and was a very cultured woman who, without having attended university, worked as a teacher. She loved to read and write, belonged to a well-to-do, very religious family, and married Daniel López, a native of Tiagua, from which union Irene, Teresita de Jesús, and María de la Fe were born.
According to Juana López, the López Parrilla family's house became an attractive park for the girls of Tiagua, where they went to play with the daughters of the marriage, because they had many toys such as Parcheesi, the Game of Goose, stories, dolls, and, most importantly, a large space to play quietly.
A woman to whom Tiagua "owes a lot"
Very excited to see herself so supported by the neighbors who gathered at the El Molino Sociocultural Center, Juana López stated that the town of Tiagua owes a lot to María Parrilla, because in the 1950s she took over the reins of the church and integrated all the girls into her environment, distributing some of the tasks such as ringing the bells, sweeping the church, or asking the neighbors for flowers to keep the temple always well arranged. In addition, when the month of May arrived, she prepared them for the novenas and to recite the verses to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and, as the town lacked electricity in those years, the mothers accompanied them, lighting their way with a lantern.
With the arrival of the month of September, María Parrilla was also in charge of giving work to the men and young people so that they would take care of cleaning up the surroundings of the church and whitewashing its walls with lime, pruning the leaves of the palm trees to make the arches, and placing the paper flags.
María Parrilla also prepared the young women to begin carrying out some plays, eventually forming almost a theatrical company that, with the passage of time, allowed them to travel to the nearest towns carrying their works. Everything they raised was used to restore the church, which had suffered a fire.
Delivery of a commemorative plaque to the family
During the act this Sunday, Juana López did not tire of praising María Parrilla for all the good done, stating that she was like a teacher from whom they learned a lot, not only to do theater, but also to respect each other, become responsible, and help each other. Juana concluded her speech by expressing her feeling and gratitude to all those elders of the town, who were the teachers who taught them to respect others.
Two of María Parrilla's daughters were present at the event, and it was one of them, Irene, who was in charge of going on stage and receiving a commemorative plaque, conveying the gratitude on behalf of the family for such an emotional recognition.
