A Modern Parable : Religion: Actors perform the crucifixion of Jesus in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood. It is called an important lesson for children.

Dressed in a tattered robe and wearing a crown of thorns, Saul Aguilar walked through Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood Friday, playing the lead role in a Passion play dramatizing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

A dozen faithful aimed video cameras at Aguilar as he shouldered a heavy wooden cross and trudged six blocks to a grassy hill behind Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where the Crucifixion was re-enacted.

Aguilar was one of more than 100 amateur actors who observed Good Friday by staging a traditional Mexican Passion play in the Oxnard barrio of La Colonia.

This was the 21st year that the La Colonia parish church has re-enacted the trial and execution of Christ as described in the New Testament.

The Passion play, often performed in towns across Mexico, helps parishioners of the predominantly Latino church preserve their Mexican culture, said Father Roberto Colunga, who founded the La Colonia parish in 1957.

“Maybe it’s because we are an emotional race that we need signs of our faith,” said Colunga, who left his Mexican home of San Luis Potosi and founded Christ the King Church in La Colonia.

In any case, Colunga said, the drama “gives value to human suffering” and is an important lesson to La Colonia children who grow up with poverty, drugs and the influence of gangs.

“Kids grow up in a hostile community here, and there is still a problem of poverty and injustice,” Colunga said.

“Instead of rejecting his suffering, Jesus taught us to accept suffering as a way to a better life.”

Friday’s play began on a stage in front of Christ the King, where Florentino Cabrera, playing Pontius Pilate, ordered the death of Christ before washing his hands of the matter.

Wearing a silver and gold breastplate, Pilate offered to free the prisoner, but the actors shouted instead for the death of Jesus.

“Crucify him! Crucify him!” they shouted in Spanish.

With an estimated 3,000 spectators straining to catch a glimpse, Aguilar made his way slowly down Cooper Road in a scene that resembled a Mexican village. Flanked by Guillermo Hernandez as the Good Thief and Jesus Perez as the Bad Thief, Aguilar passed the shops of La Colonia--the lavanderia, Discoteca Video, the cambio de cheques, Tacos La Pocha, and La Flor de Mayo Panaderia.

Actors dressed like Roman soldiers lashed Aguilar with whips as he walked north on Juanita Avenue past a house where a mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe--Mexico’s patron saint--was painted on a garage.

An elderly woman in the crowd, overcome by the spectacle, called out to the soldiers in Spanish to halt the beating. Sobbing, she cursed them.

Along the way, Father Jesus Vega narrated the pageant over a loudspeaker in a sound truck, frequently drawing parallels between the suffering of Christ and the problems faced by modern people.

And like Pilate, Vega said, the government is washing its hands of the troubles faced by the people.

The Crucifixion site was shaded by trees with spring buds and new leaves. The large crowd stayed until the last scene was played out.

“This is a terrific day that means pride to me,” said Victor Ramirez, 17, who grew up in Oxnard. “Look at all the brown and Mexican people here.”

Yolanda Lopez, whose husband, Ricardo, played a soldier after playing the role of Jesus for two years, said the play is important to the people of La Colonia.

“This is an event we respect,” she said. “The Passion play is a tradition that tells people to respect each other.”