The annual Fiesta de Santa Fe procession of about 1,000 faithful from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi to the Rosario Chapel about a mile away is pretty impressive, even if you're a Catholic from Santa Fe. One can only imagine the impression it must make on a Baptist from Georgia.

"Oh wow!" exclaimed Paulette Curry as young girls from an area parish walked by, strewing rose petals. Curry and her husband, Cecil, of Conyers, Ga., viewed the event from the corner of San Francisco Street and Don Gaspar Avenue on Sunday afternoon. "When you're a Baptist — a lapsed Baptist — this is a wonderful sight."

During services before the processioners spilled out of the cathedral and onto San Francisco Street, Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan said the fiesta event "marks an historic moment in the life of the church" and the city of Santa Fe.

He said the carrying of the Marian statue known as La Conquistadora from its usual nook in the cathedral to the Rosario Chapel near Guadalupe Street and Paseo de Peralta notes the "peaceful return of the Spanish" to the city in 1692 after their ouster by the Pueblo Indians in 1680.

Sheehan also conducted the rite of knighting and coronation of Don Diego de Vargas, as portrayed by Ernesto Francisco Tafoya, and La Reina de la Fiesta, as portrayed by Victoria Felicea Mora y Sanchez, and their court.

Sheehan said the fiesta and veneration of Mary the mother of Jesus, in the form of the Conquistadora statue, are the fulfillment of a promise made by Spanish conquistador de Vargas to the Blessed Virgin upon the retaking of Santa Fe.

Sunday's procession was a prelude to the main fiesta celebrations in September, when the statue, said to have been brought to Santa Fe by Spanish missionaries in 1625, is returned to the cathedral in another procession.

The nature of the Spanish resettlement of Santa Fe and the reasons for the fiesta have gotten a little murky over the 297 years that the fiesta has been celebrated.

According to the Web site of the New Mexico Office of the State Historian, historians agree that although the circumstances surrounding the retaking of the city by de Vargas in 1692 were remarkable events for the "risk and restraint" on both sides, the Spaniard returned with full military force in 1693 to quell another Indian rebellion.

In an article on the historian's Web site written by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint, this time the Spaniards "had to fight their way into Santa Fe," and when the city had been reconquered, de Vargas ordered that 70 of the Indian men be killed and the "women and children were distributed as servants to the colonialists."

The authors said violence between the Spaniards and Pueblo natives continued until the resistance finally ended in June of 1696.

Sunday's procession proceeded west down San Francisco Street, then north up Guadalupe Street to Paseo de Peralta and the Rosario Cemetery and chapel. The Conquistadora statue was placed in the chapel, which is near what is thought to be the location of de Vargas' encampment before retaking the city in 1692.

The procession was led by Tafoya as de Vargas and the queen and her court, followed by members of the Fiesta Council, cathedral parishioners and other honorees and members of area parishes.

Along the route, processioners said prayers and sang hymns in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

Among them was Rosalina Velasquez, 71, who has participated in the event every year for 65 years, without missing even one.

"This is in honor of the Blessed Mother, and we pray for peace," she said.

Contact Dennis Carroll at 505 986-3091 or dcarroll@sfnewmexican.com.