Neighbors Rebuild After Our Lady Of Guadalupe Altar Vandalized In Little Village
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Neighbors often go to the community altar at 24th and Albany in Little Village to drop off candles and pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, but just days ago, someone destroyed the community altar.
Now neighbors want to know why.
The altar has been there for a very long time. Some believe it has been there for nearly two decades.
One man said he and his friend cleaned up the mess, and they hope it doesn't happen again.
A picture taken over the weekend shows the damage to the altar. Flowers, candles and vases were thrown to the ground.
"This is devastating," said Angela Duffy.
"My blood boils. I'm outraged," said Breanne McWilliams.
"It was a complete mess," said Claudio Gomez.
Gomez lives down the street. He saw a man causing trouble at the altar and called police, but by the time officers got there, that man had already gone.
"I cleaned it up myself," Gomez said. "Me and my guy cleaned it up ourselves. Came out here with the broom and put everything away."
Neighbors described the altar as a special part of Little Village.
"Cars would stop. People would come out, and they put flowers here, light candles up," said Ricardo Vega.
"I do a little prayer here and there and sign the cross. My daughter does, too," said Brenda Lee Padilla.
Padilla walks past the altar every day with her young daughter. She said Our Lady of Guadalupe is everything to her and her family.
"I usually pray to her for miracles. I mean she's one of my miracles having her because I wasn't able to have none. Praying and got pregnant with her," she said of her daughter.
Others feel the same way.
"I have a 7-month-old daughter, and I believe she protects me. She protects her," McWilliams said.
Neighbors know vandals could strike again. They just don't want them to win.
"I hope they feel bad for what they did once they see it's rebuilt and how they see the community will come back and rebuild it stronger," said McWilliams.
Ald. George Cardenas said this doesn't happen often. He did send someone out there Tuesday morning.
