Zanotto suggested they form a Oaxacan Catholic church group. They found a painting of the Virgin of Soledad, the work of an immigrant artist in Los Angeles. Zanotto knew of the Virgin's importance to Oaxacans.
Four churches had previously declined to display the painting, but it was installed at St. Cecilia's at a December 2001 Mass in her honor. Oaxacans from across Southern California packed the church.
"It's our mother coming to tell you you are not alone here," Zanotto told the congregation that day.
With that, St. Cecilia's became a center for Oaxacan religious life in Los Angeles.
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Zanotto urged others to follow the Oaxacans' lead.
A Guatemalan group at the church commissioned a statue of the Black Christ of Esquipulas. The Black Christ is both a national and religious icon for Guatemala and a symbol for Indians from southern Mexico.
Measuring almost 9 feet tall, the black wooden statue of Jesus on the cross was transported across two borders -- without proper documentation identifying it as a replica. It is now known by congregants as the Cristo Mojado.
"The Christ had no papers," said Guillermo Palencia, an Esquipulas organizer at St. Cecilia's. "Like many of us, it came across illegally."
Salvadoran churchgoers commissioned a statue back home of Salvador del Mundo, patron saint of El Salvador, and arranged to have it shipped to Los Angeles.
"We could have had it made here, but we wanted it to be like us, who came from another country," said Esther Ascencio, a housekeeper and lay leader.
Meanwhile, a community of Igbos, a Nigerian ethnic group, that had been attending the church since 1993, was also flourishing under Zanotto. In 2003, they painted a portrait on a church wall of Iwene Tansi, the first Igbo Catholic priest, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
Each saint was given a side altar, and each group of parishioners organized a monthly Mass. Lay leaders took responsibility for fundraising, and planning confirmation and Easter Mass.
Zanotto "gave the opportunity for the lay leaders to know that it is the people in the church that is the church, not the clergy," said Anthony Ikebudu, an Igbo lay leader.
Zanotto also started a contest for queen of St. Cecilia's annual fair, with the winners raising the most money. November's festival raised $52,000.
With tight budgets, Oaxacans, Guatemalan and Salvadorans remodeled the church's patio, adding tile, new paint, benches and a fountain. Nigerian parishioners paid for the materials.
