Ramona Arroyo has a hard time talking about Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine without crying.
“It has changed my life,” she said.
The massive building is made up of large, gray stones, lined with stained glass windows depicting the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Inside, rows of pews lead up to the altar, adorned with statues and paintings of religious figures.
Another statue of Our Lady stands outside, painted in all white and surrounded by flowers.
Over a century old, the shrine stands tall in Kansas City’s historic Westside, its spire rising across the tree line — you can even see it across Southwest Boulevard from certain angles. In a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, it’s a lasting landmark for a vibrant Latino community that’s been here for generations.
But these days, the shrine is falling apart: The stairs are crumbling, paint is peeling from the walls, and water damage is visible across the ceiling.
Without repairs, the shrine could become unsafe for visitors and be forced to close — unless Arroyo and the congregation can save it.
John Fierro, chair of the Finance Committee, estimates that renovations to the shrine will cost up to $900,000.
The project has been split up into three parts, the first of which prioritized fixing the stairs, ceiling, and some exterior stones. That work was completed this summer.
Fierro says the next phrase will focus on the shrine’s interior — like repairing the flooring and repainting the walls — and the last phase will tackle aging and crumbling stones outside of the shrine.
The shrine first opened as Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in 1922. Arroyo says it was the first Mexican Catholic church in Kansas City. The Lady of Guadalupe, or the Virgin Mary, is the patron saint of Mexico and a central figure for Mexican Catholics. (She's also the namesake for Kansas City's Guadalupe Centers, which formed in the Westside around the same time.)
Arroyo grew up right by the parish, and now she’s the director of religious education at the Parish. She didn’t expect she would end up working at her childhood church.
“I really wasn’t actively involved in the church," Arroyo says. "My sister and my mother were."
In 1990, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City threatened to close Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish due to dwindling congregation numbers.
Arroyo’s sister urged her to return to help. “She said, ‘I never ask you for anything. But I’m asking you now, promise me, you won’t ever close that church,” Arroyo says.
Eventually, Arroyo and the congregation convinced the Diocese to rededicate the church as a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1991, while merging religious operations with the Sacred Heart Parish, another church in the area.
While mass is still occasionally held at the shrine, the Sacred Heart Guadalupe Church on Madison Avenue now serves as the main building for the congregation and staff.
The effort to repair the shrine has a sort of homecoming for some, like construction manager Cesar Cea, who grew up across the street.
“(The shrine) was practically my front yard,” Cea said. “My parents actually still live across the street. So it’s been a neat project for me to be a part of because I go … oversee things, and then I go have lunch with my parents.”
Cea’s family settled in the Westside after immigrating to the United States from El Salvador.
In 2000, 70% of residents in Westside identified as Latino. Today, that number is less than 50%. Million-dollar townhomes are raising property taxes, driving many long-time homeowners to areas like Wyandotte County or the Northeast.
Cea says he views the project to repair the shrine as a show of the community’s resilience.
“Most of the people who have been very engaged in the project, they’ve been in the neighborhood for many years,” he said. “To revitalize this structure shows that our culture is still there, the people are still there.”
The parish is relying on individual donations for the repairs. Most of the contributions have been from within the congregation itself, and they’re still raising money to pursue the final two phases of the project.
For Arroyo, it doesn’t matter how dramatically their neighborhood or the congregation changes. She views the shrine as a home for the thousands of Latinos who have immigrated to Kansas City over the decades.
“It’s our history," Arroyo says. "It’s our legend… This is where we started from. We can’t ever forget.”
