Having Faith at the Racetrack

The racehorses strut and settle in their stalls as the sun sinks over Santa Anita Park. Nearby, the grooms who brush and care for them file into the Oak Tree Recreation Center for an early Ash Wednesday service. More than religious ritual, the Mass offers spiritual escape from the straw and sweat that overrun their lives.

About 1,500 grooms work here--mostly Latino, rising before dawn, working till sunset, feeding, rubbing and massaging four horses each, walking them around the muddy track, stirring up dander and shaking out straw, earning $150 to $300 a week. Most live in cramped cabins beside the stables and lack cars to travel to nearby churches, so each week the Los Angeles archdiocese Office of Hispanic Ministry brings weekly services to them, converting the racetrack recreation room into a spiritual sanctuary.

Races are generally scheduled Wednesday through Sunday, so weekly services take place Tuesday nights. This week, that meant getting a day’s jump on the start of Lent.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season, the 40 days of fasting and penitence culminating on Easter Sunday. Christians commemorate the holy day by receiving ashes in the sign of a cross on their forehead--a ritual intended to convey sacrifice and renewal. The practice has roots in Hebrew Scripture in which those who sinned did penance by putting on ashes and wearing dirty clothes.

Inside the Santa Anita recreation room, a wooden table set beside the race cards was draped with a purple cover, votive candles and a crucifix to create a makeshift altar where Father Antonio Medina celebrated Mass. Medina, normally a priest in Guadalajara, is in Los Angeles for a year, ministering to Latino Catholics. Green plastic chairs used on movie nights were arranged in rows like church pews, and a guitar player strummed the hymns as the congregation sang.

Leonel Aguilar stood in line to receive ashes along with more than 80 racetrack grooms and employees.

“There are many moments of sadness here,” Aguilar, 23, said after Mass. “There are moments when we feel trapped with the horses. This is the one moment each week when we feel happy and at peace.”

Wearing a cowboy hat to guard his sunburned face, Manuel Miranda, 54, said the service in all its simplicity was important because it brought the grooms together.

“We gather as brothers and sisters to hear the word of God and feel united. It moves us,” Miranda said.

Humberto Ramos, associate director of the Hispanic ministry office, said the services at Santa Anita began about five years ago when the Most Rev. Gabino Zavala, auxiliary bishop for the San Gabriel region, expressed interest in starting a ministry for the Latino grooms. Zavala knew there was a need. His father had worked there, Ramos said.

Before blessing the ashes at the racetrack service, Medina asked the congregation in his homily to put their past behind them and consider changing their lives. As an example, he suggested taking a vow of sobriety for 40 days or making a promise to show more love to their family.

“We don’t get ashes and hope that it gives us good luck, or hope that we don’t die this year,” he joked. “It’s time to make a personal change in our lives. This should be the beginning of a new life.”

For most, their current life is a lonely one. Cruz Abril, 45, is one of many who have left their families to earn money at the racetrack. His wife and four children have been in Guatemala while he has worked at the racetrack for 13 years, spending his nights dreaming of his return. The Tuesday night ministry soothes the longing for his family that often grips his soul, he said.

“This is one of the most important things I have. Little else matters when you have faith,” he said. “I miss my family but I feel better after the Mass. The church is more than a building. The church is the people. It’s us.”

Clementina Coloma, a 61-year-old newcomer to the racetrack who is still adjusting to the life, said that without the ministry her life would be lost.

“It really doesn’t matter where we are. We could be under a tree, so long as we can all hear God’s word,” she said.

After listening to confessions following the service, Medina explained that he enjoys bringing the ministry to the racetrack because the people offer him lessons in the meaning of true faith.

“Some of them are poor. They don’t have cars. They don’t have security. But still they are devoted and respectful of God,” he said. “They teach me what it means to have profound faith.”