By Delia Ruelas
In a religious ceremony, the Chapel of the Sea at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, was blessed and inaugurated on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 29.
The event was attended by members of the community and friends of Hugo Eduardo Torres (Chabert), who was celebrating his 88th birthday.
The ceremony was led by Father Francisco Landa, who blessed the image of the Virgin, brought from Pichátaro, Michoacán, and offered a prayer and reflection.
He encouraged attendees to keep their faith strong in all moments of life and trust in God, even in the face of adversity. Father Landa also praised the Hugo Antonio Torres (Ramírez), president of the hotel’s board of directors, for building a chapel where guests, hotel staff, and the community can have a peaceful space for prayer by the sea.
During the ceremony, Hugo Antonio Torres explained that the chapel was built to honor the memory of victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the military members who died during a training exercise in open waters near Ensenada, the women who have been tragically murdered, and all those who have gone missing due to violence.
He shared that the chapel was constructed using wood from portions of the hotel’s pier, which were destroyed in a fierce storm.
“The sea and God are so powerful that all the wood from the pier washed ashore right at this corner of the hotel,” he said.
“We knew something magnificent had to be built here, which is why the beams, benches, everything in this chapel is made from the Douglas Fir wood that the sea returned to us,” he explained.
He expressed his gratitude to his classmates from Colegio Instituto México, noting that Father Francisco Landa was one of them.
He invited his former schoolmates Laura Orozco, Miguel Angel Enriquez, Armando Lara, and Isaac Name to come forward and recite Psalm 23, which speaks of God’s protection and guidance.
The ceremony concluded with a performance of “Ave Maria” by soprano Maryam Malak, followed by the local youth group “Luces y Sombras” singing “Las Mañanitas” to celebrate Hugo Eduardo Torres Chabert’s birthday.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially inaugurated the chapel.
Attendees were surprised to learn that the exact time of the ribbon-cutting was 12:12pm, aligning with the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Dec. 12.