A Show of Faith in a Saint : Catholicism: Nearly 7,000 people march in annual Eastside procession. In the Valley, a blighted neighborhood that prayed for improvement celebrates some success.

Celebrating their Mexican heritage and a commitment to Catholicism, nearly 7,000 people paraded down Brooklyn Avenue on Los Angeles’ Eastside on Sunday to honor Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Young and old parishioners, some in baby strollers and wheelchairs, came from more than 100 churches in the Los Angeles archdiocese to stroll with mariachi bands and parochial school cheerleaders down a mile-long stretch of Brooklyn Avenue, waving Mexican flags and carrying pictures of the Virgin.

The annual procession, which began nearly 50 years ago, commemorates Dec. 9 and 12, the dates in 1531 when Catholicism holds that the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor pagan farmer near Mexico City, thus solidifying Catholicism in Mexico, 10 years after the Spanish conquest.

On Sunday, a little girl re-creating the scene of Mary’s appearance stood in blue silk robes in the bed of a pickup that rolled along the route. Kneeling in front of the girl was a young boy playing Juan Diego, the farmer.

“We come to pay homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe who gives us strength,” said Vicky Carrera of the Eastside. “I feel good coming.”

Father Diosdado Martin of Asuncion Church wore a T-shirt depicting La Guadalupana in the Mexican tricolors over his black cassock. He led parishioners in the procession, which he called a “testimony of faith.”

“All of us here today are proud to be Latino and Catholic. I think too many people turn their back on their roots,” Martin said. “But you are what you are, so be proud.”

The procession ended at the stadium of East Los Angeles Community College, where Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said an outdoor Mass.

In Panorama City on Sunday, about 250 Blythe Street residents celebrated an anniversary: a year since they prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe to rid their street of gangs, drugs and poverty.

In the year since, conditions have improved in what has been called the “single worst block” in the San Fernando Valley. Last April, the city won an injunction prohibiting gang members from certain otherwise legal behaviors in the neighborhood without the owners’ written permission. In August, city officials broke ground for a $7-million, low-income housing project, the first new residence on the street in decades.

Preparing for Sunday’s celebration--a Mass and First Communion in the courtyard of one apartment building--”we even had gang members out there cleaning the streets last night,” said Genny Alberts, who founded a nonprofit group to help revitalize the neighborhood.

Times special correspondent Scott Glover contributed to this story.