Excited, some with tears in their eyes and almost all with noticeable smiles despite the protective masks for the coronavirus, more than 660 couples formalized their love this Monday, February 14, in a collective wedding in a populous suburb of Mexico City.
The massive ceremony, which the municipality of Nezahualcoyotl City ─east of the Mexican capital─ organized every year since 2013, it is an opportunity for thousands of couples to regularize their unions and gain access to various legal benefits.
Although the massive wedding subtracts intimacy at the moment, it grants in exchange some facilities such as receiving their marriage certificates at no cost, explains María Darinka Rendón, secretary of the municipality of that municipality.
“gather to 661 families (It has been) quite a challenge but above all the commitment that each one has in some cases to renew (the votes) and in others to commit themselves,” the official told AFP.
Rendón points out that mass marriage is “a very emotional event, for the spouses, for the families themselves and for us who are going to witness” the union.
One of the oldest and most excited couples with the commitment is the one made up of Francisco Calvo, a 74-year-old merchant, and Rosalba Silva, a 67-year-old housewife, two widowers who met five years ago and decided to become engaged in 2021.
“I thought that there was no other opportunity for me, but love came because love came,” says Rosalba, smiling and sitting next to her new husband.
For Jonathan García, 40 years old and united for a decade with the mother of his son, getting married in the mass wedding is almost a cabal.
In “my family there are already two of my sisters who have married like this and we saw them very happy so we said: we are going to continue the tradition,” he says.
