The names of the cities are like small coffins of memory. They survive the founders, the border changes and even the languages in which they were first pronounced. In America, several urban names retain a reference to the Virgin Mary, although some have been shortened or transformed over the centuries.

On the occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption, ACI Prensa gathered seven cases. In contrast to municipal documentation, there is also a valuable teaching: the history of a name can have variants and debates. Devotion deserves to be counted with love, but also with precision.

1. Asunción: a city born on August 15

The Paraguayan capital was born as a strong house on August 15, 1537. The documentation of the Municipality of Asunción retains its extensive name: "The Very Noble and Leal City of Our Lady Santa Maria de la Asunción." The date and name were joined in such a way that each solemnity of the Assumption is also the memory of the city.

2. Buenos Aires and Our Lady of Bonaria

Buenos Aires retains the mark of Our Lady of Bonaria - or of the Good Air -, a venerated vocation in Cagliari, Sardinia, and linked from ancient to the navigators. The first settlement of Pedro de Mendoza was known as the Real of Santa María del Buen Aire. In the final foundation of 1580, Juan de Garay called the city Trinidad and kept Santa María de los Buenos Aires for the port. In the end, it was the Marian name that beat time and was left on the lips of the world.

3. Bogotá: a public tradition that must be nuanced

The relationship spread by ACI Prensa indicates that the settlement was initially called Our Lady of Hope and then that of Santa Fe. However, the history published by the Alcaldía de Bogotá states that there is no foundational act and it is a tradition that the village was called Santa Fe; Bogotá comes from the indigenous name of the region. In respect of the historical truth, it is not appropriate to present this case with the same documentary certainty as Asunción or Los Angeles.

4. New Guatemala de la Asunción

After the earthquakes that damaged the old capital, the new city was named after New Guatemala de la Asunción in the 18th century. Although in the daily conversation it is simply said Guatemala City, the full denomination retains Mary raised to heaven as part of the historical identity of the capital.

5. Panama and the Feast of the Assumption

The Spanish foundation of Panama took place on 15 August 1519. The historical tradition collected by ACI Prensa links that date to the name of Our Lady of the Assumption of Panama. The modern city changed its location after the destruction of Old Panama, but the memory of the Marian day remains at its birth.

6. Our Lady of Peace

The seat of the Bolivian Government was founded in 1548 under the name of Our Lady of La Paz, in memory of the pacification following the civil wars of the Virreinate of Peru. He then moved to the valley of Chuquiago Marka. His name thus gathers three realities: the ancient Andean land, the civil desire for peace and the maternal invocation of Mary.

7. Los Angeles: an immense name abbreviated by love

The city of Los Angeles itself explains that in 1781 forty-four inhabitants, from indigenous, African and European backgrounds, established an agricultural community called "The People of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula." The exact form of the long name has variants in the documents, but its Marian core is strongly accredited. Los Angeles is today a world metropolis; in her two words the Queen of Angels remains hidden.

The silent catechesis of a map

These names do not make an entire city a believer or replace personal faith. They are, rather, vestiges of the hope with which other peoples went through seas, raised houses and called for protection. Every time someone says Asunción, Buenos Aires, La Paz or Los Angeles, an ancient Marian memory is breathing again, even when the person who pronounces the name does not know its origin.

Perhaps that is the most beautiful anecdote: Mary remains discreetly in everyday language. He does not claim a leading role; he accompanies. His name is next to stations, schools, letters, homes and road signs, like a mother who stays close.