Young, Old Join Oxnard Passion Play : Traditions: Thousands of the faithful jam the streets of La Colonia for the 23rd annual outdoor pageant, which re-enacts the crucifixion of Christ.

It is a pilgrimage that Regina Perez says demonstrates her faith.

As she has on Good Friday for the past 23 years, the 92-year-old left her home in Oxnard’s La Colonia barrio shortly before noon and shuffled five blocks to a neighborhood church.

There--as amateur actors prepared to perform the annual Passion Play dramatizing the trial, torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ--Perez slid rosary beads between her fingers and spoke of the meaning behind her loyal attendance.

“This is for people who have faith in Christ,” she said as street vendors buzzed around her selling balloons and frozen fruit bars. “It gives me faith. It fills me with something precious.”

Thousands of the faithful jammed the streets of La Colonia for the outdoor pageant. The event keeps alive a tradition played out in towns across Mexico and started in Oxnard 23 years ago.

Peddlers hawked fruit cups and cotton candy and giant banana-shaped balloons. Youngsters scrambled onto rooftops and teetered atop concrete walls and old wooden fences to get a better view.

And as Saul Aguilar, a 31-year-old farm worker who for the third year in a row played the lead role of Christ, was condemned to die, the crowd booed and hissed on cue.

Dressed in black and wearing a lace veil, 74-year-old Rosario Corona Sanchez leaned over a trio of youngsters and explained what was going on.

“This is to remind us that Jesus Christ died for us,” she told the children. “This is to remind us that God is alive and that he blesses us.”

Then the crowd surged through the streets--past the $1 store and the public housing projects--following Aguilar as he shouldered a wooden cross on a six-block march to a grassy knoll behind Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

Aguilar--bloody and staggering and wearing a crown of thorns--stumbled and fell to the ground several times, as told in the Bible story.

“Here is your God!” shouted the Roman soldiers as they pretended to kick and whip Aguilar.

Raquel Mendez wept as she watched the street play unfold, though she knew all along that Christ would be put to death.

“He gave up so much for us,” said the Saticoy resident before being pushed on by the wave of bodies surging through the streets. “And still, we continue to do the things we should not do.”

All the while, Father Jose Luis Ortega used a loudspeaker to keep a running commentary that drew parallels between the plight of Jesus and modern-day social ills.

“The struggle of Jesus Christ is much like the struggle that happens every day in our community,” Ortega said. “It is a struggle for justice and a struggle for peace.”

Finally, Aguilar made it to the grassy hill that doubles as a playground for Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School. Aguilar was placed on a cross and taunted by the soldiers.

Then they cast lots for his garments and pierced his side with a spear when he died.

Clara Ramos watched the final moments of the pageant in the shadow of a concrete wall that separates new two-story houses from the old La Colonia district.

The 38-year-old Oxnard resident performed in the Passion Play as a child. And for the past 10 years she has helped stage the street play. She said she is amazed each year that thousands of people turn out to watch the event.

“Honestly, people are looking for something to believe in,” she said. “This reminds us of our own mortality and where we came from.”

As the crowd thinned, the street vendors moved in. They again peddled ice cream and cotton candy. But despite the carnival atmosphere that surrounds the pageant, event organizers say the Passion Play’s meaning is as valid today as it was when the first production was staged.

“Without faith this is just a show,” Father Ortega said. “Faith is the difference. Faith is the force that can move more than we imagine. Most people who come here do so because they are moved by their faith.”