Gabriel Ayala, a Tucson resident and Native American Artist of the Year, will be in Rome this weekend when the Vatican elevates a 17th-century indigenous American woman to sainthood.
Ayala, a guitarist and member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, will be part of a contingent from the Kateri Center of Chicago making the pilgrimage to Rome for the canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. The Kateri Center is a ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago and serves American Indian Catholics.
The group will have a general audience with Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, confirmed Michael Renszler, the center's administrative assistant and catechist.
"What an honor. It is like meeting the Dalai Lama," said Ayala.
Since the group has a general audience with the pope and not a private one, Renszler said he's not certain whether Ayala will be allowed to play for the pontiff. If he is allowed to play, Ayala says he will play something from his "Shades of Blue" album, likely "Inhaipsi," which means "My heart."
Ayala has been on the Kateri Center's radar since doing a benefit performance in Chicago earlier this year. He was asked to arrange a song that one of the center's community members wrote.
Ayala, who won artist of the year at the 2011 Native American Music Awards, is harmonizing the song for a chorus of voices, plus guitar and Native American flute. He expects it to be recorded in the spring.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was a Mohawk Indian orphan from what is now New York state who converted to Catholicism. Since her death at age 24, she has earned a reputation as a miracle healer among Catholics who have prayed to her.
Ayala has played at venues including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Museum for the American Indian. This week, he says, he received an invitation to perform at the presidential inaugural ball in January. And it doesn't matter who wins. He'll be performing either way.
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@azstarnet.com or 573-4134.
1 comment:
I am completely not feeling this roamin catholic saint thing. The very political structure that defined colonialism of Turtle Island and Africa through the Doctrine of Discovery and the immoral papal bulls now bestows sainthood on a Native America woman and that's supposed to be an honor? This doesn't add up for me. And this guitarist has the right to feel any way he wants to, but I have to question why any of us, Native American, African or otherwise, would accept what feels like an insult to injury from the roamin catholic church. Their program is STILL about the destruction of indigenous spiritual traditions and supplanting them with christianity. Evangelization is a predatory process and this canonization is being done by a predatory, colonial political structure, the vatican and its church.
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