75 minutos | Virgen de la Cabeza

Reporters will provide firsthand accounts of the pilgrimage to Cerro del Cabezo on foot, alongside pilgrims from Lopera, Castillo de Locubín, and Andújar itself. They will witness the "flag ceremony" and the blessing of more than 300 horses and carriages through the city streets, and capture the pilgrims' emotions once they reach the Virgin's shrine. The documentary program "75 Minutes" arrives in Jaén this Thursday (10:25 PM) to report firsthand on how the province, and especially Andújar, prepares for the celebration of the Pilgrimage of the Virgin of the Head. This marks the start of the extensive special programming that Canal Sur Radio and Television is dedicating to the oldest Marian pilgrimage in Spain. Reporters will provide firsthand accounts of the pilgrimage to Cerro del Cabezo on foot, alongside pilgrims from Lopera, Castillo de Locubín, and Andújar itself. They will attend the "flag-raising ceremony" and the blessing of more than 300 horses and carriages through the city streets, and will share the emotion of the pilgrims once they reach the Virgin's shrine, which they say offers one of the closest views to the image. At 7:00 a.m., Bea Díaz awaits the pilgrims arriving at the Hermitage of San Ginés. Hot coffee, ring-shaped pastries, and muffins await them at the various tables that the brotherhoods have set up to serve breakfast to their members. Some of them come from Castillo de Locubín, where in the days leading up to the pilgrimage, no one wanted to miss this climb to the hill. They belong to the brotherhood "Entre olivos y Pinares" (Between Olive Groves and Pine Forests), as do those from Lopera and the residents of Andilurgi. "How many times have you made the journey so far this year?" Bea Díaz asks Manuel Luna, from the Alba Pilgrims Association. “About 60,” she replies, before reaching Lugar Nuevo. Seven hours of walking and 18 kilometers later, the reward. The bells of the Sanctuary greet the pilgrims. Today there is a Mass dedicated especially to the pilgrims from Alcaudete and Castillo de Locubín. A few meters below the road, they continue the Mass in Lopera's house. Mariloli is the older sister this year, and it so happens that it was her grandfather Pedro who, exactly 30 years ago, founded the Brotherhood of the Virgin of the Head in Lopera. Blankets, pillows, food, cups, plates… the cars begin to unload everything they will need for the coming weekend. They expect that in this house, one of the nearly 200 already on the hill, more than 100 people will sleep and live for three days. Mariloli says she doesn't know how they are going to manage. But something else catches the reporter's eye: the tattoo of the Virgin that both she and her sister have on their bodies, a daily reminder of "La Morenita" (the Dark-Skinned One). A few kilometers down the road, an elderly couple appears at their front door. We are in San José de Escobar, a small hamlet near Andújar, through which the "convite de banderas" (banner procession) passes every year, one of the most popular events leading up to the main celebrations in the city during this time. The same is true in the surrounding hamlets. This couple reminisces about the many times they made the pilgrimage to the hill, "even by truck," they say, as they watch the intricate procession of raising the flags at the church entrance. The "convite de banderas" or "blessing of the flags" brings the city of Andújar to life for two weekends. At the doors of the Sagrada Familia church, after having entered the Parish of the Divina Pastora, an emotional Irma Soriano accompanies the procession with her mother. “They stopped right where my father, Juanito Soriano, used to work,” she continues, unable to hold back her tears. In 1999, Irma became the first woman to deliver the proclamation for the Virgin and “surprised everyone with her proclamation, which is still remembered,” notes Father Domingo, the Trinitarian rector who watches over the image in the Sanctuary. Paqui, her caretaker, also does so in her own way. “If they ask me to die for her, I’ll die. She’s my mother,” she affirms. It’s going to be a very special pilgrimage for Raquel. This year she will attend as president of the Los Romeros Equestrian Club, but first she must fulfill another tradition… Carrying her club’s banner on the back of a mare named Bulerías through the town of Andújar. Along with her, nearly three hundred other horses await a blessing that has become a tradition in Andújar over the past eight years. These are just some of the hundreds of horses that have come from different parts of Andalusia and will go up to the Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Head next weekend.