Sara Colonia Zambrano or better known as Sarita Colonia was born on March 1, 1914 in Huaraz (Ancash) , city in which she spent the first years of her life. She is the daughter of Amadeo Colonia Flores and Rosalía Zambrano. Her family life developed in the midst of acute economic hardship, accentuated by the poor health of her mother, and within an environment charged with religiosity. Her family had to migrate to Lima; Sarita Colonia and her sister Esther de Ella were admitted to the Santa Teresa school, run by the nuns of Santa Luisa de Marillac. After spending three years in Lima, they returned to Huaraz due to the seriousness of Doña Rosalía, who died shortly after. They returned to Lima, living in Barrios Altos and on Avenida Argentina del Callao, always in the midst of economic difficulties. Sarita Colonia substituted for her mother in her domestic chores and did not return to school, frustrating her desire to be a nun . She worked as a fish seller in the central market, as a domestic, laundress, fruit seller and in other trades; she never missed an opportunity to instill in her brothers and acquaintances gratitude to God and how good it was to share with others. she died at the Bellavista hospital on December 20, 1940 at the age of 26 she, a victim of pernicious malaria, according to the official version, and of natural death, according to her relatives. She was buried in the common grave of the Baquíjano cemetery in Callao.
Cult of Sarita Colonia
The difficult circumstances of his life, as well as his exemplary behavior, led to the cult of his memory that began immediately after his death, parallel to other similar devotions of the time, such as those of the little unknown soldier and of Fray Ceferino, among which he ended imposing the cult to the young huaracin. Although at the beginning the devotion to her memory was only part of her family and friends, little by little it spread to marginalized, impoverished and unemployed social groups, in short to the less privileged strata of Peruvian society. . Around the 1970s, the cult became much more popular, growing in a notorious and alarming way for those who do not accept popular religiosity. The numerous believers came to avoid the leveling of the land of the mass grave by the authorities and, despite the protests of the Church, they built a little chapel there to centralize the cult, whose days of greatest popular concentration are the March 1 and December 20, dates of his birth and death , respectively, giving bread to visitors in memory of her. The walls of the chapel are full of plaques expressing the gratitude of her devotees for the miracles and favors granted; and the multiple objects that recall her name and her image (key chains, amulets and stamps) are sold daily among the attendees.
Sarita Colonia was a humble worker who lovingly cared for the sick and the hungry; According to her devotees, she always had a pure and innocent soul, despite which the Catholic Church has not recognized this devotion that is practiced informally until today. The administrators of her chapel, however, are determined to process the cause of her beatification, with the distrust of the ecclesiastical authorities who see a business around her cult. The devotion to Sarita Colonia must be understood as an aspect of the irruption of popular Peru that has gained a place at all social, economic, political and cultural levels of the country, against the old elitist criteria of official Peru.
Currently the Peruvian Church is promoting ten causes of beatification corresponding to four foreigners and six Peruvians, among which Sarita Colonia is not included; Only Father Pedro Urraca, the Jesuit Francisco del Castillo, Francisco Camacho, Nicolás Ayllón, Luisa de la Torre Rojas, Melchorita Saravia Tasayco, Rafaela de la Pasión Veintimilla, Luis Tezza, Teresa de la Cruz Candamo and Octavio Ortiz Arrieta appear.
The image of Sarita Colonia can be found in transport vehicles, among the carts of street vendors, in stalls with a fixed location, in restaurants, in the rooms of domestic workers, even in brothels .