The following is a transcript of an interview of Panita by John Burnett of NPR.  It is the early morning of October 21, 2000 and the major October fiesta of El Niño Fidencio is over.  People are packing up and leaving for their homes.  Dr. Tony Zavaleta and his group from University of Texas at Brownsville along with NPR journalist John Burnett and Peter Breslow his producer from Washington D.C. enter Panita's home.  Panita is seated at her kitchen table and there are three other women cleaning and making breakfast.  Panita greets “Zavalete” as she calls the Dr. and welcomes the group in.  Dr. Zavaleta explains who they are and asks for a brief interview.  Panita is in good health and spirits and agrees.

Panita: About the Niño, I have had his will, and I appreciate that and the visit he made to this place.

Burnett: What do you think is going to happen with the Fidencism after you pass away?

Panita: Well, God is the only one who could say if this is going to finish ever.  Our faith is based on him (el Niño Fidencio) because he was chosen by our Lord, because he was a child who didn't learn how to read or write, a man like you or me.  He was pure and very human.  Because of that, I decided to join his mission in 1935 when I came to him.  I saw him sincere since the very first time, so humble too.  Then I came back to home thinking that if I was about to be chosen to be enlightened, I would ask God not to have any children because I would rather have a great love for his followers and all the people coming in faith.

Burnett: For those in the audience who don't have any knowledge about Fidencism, many of them in the U.S. , how would you explain to them Fidencism.

Panita: I would ask them to appreciate what  the Niño means, because since the beginning, when we met him, he spoke to us to lets us know he was the Saint Spirit.  He warned us about the time this will take, but they did not recognized this. He always was saying he wanted to be taken to the “Pirul” (a tree) after his departure (his death) so, he could remain there for three days so, people could see what he was.   But they didn't do it.   I wasn't present , but people said that by the third day, a doctor came, cut his vein and  his blood break out as if he was alive.  Therefore, he was not death for real.  He was in alive, he was just in trance  (state of mystical absorption, resting.) Those days, he was saying “by the day I am gone, many niños Fidencios will come.”  But I say that any of them will be ever as he was.  They are not comparable in any way. We are too many, but also too many different things have resulted.  As he used to say, “some could do things but without God's license.”  He never ambitioned anything, absolutely nothing.  His only ambition was to serve the humanity and to God with all his heart.

Burnett: What spirit is more powerful, the Niño, Jesus Christ, or the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Panita: Now, Jesus Christ is reigning, then the Virgin of Guadalupe, and at the end him in that order, is not him but his spirit.  Because you have to understand what the Niño is all about.  There is a time when he can enter in other person's life to allow him/her to help other people in sadness.  How he does that? He used to say “I don't know How I am able to do it but I save them,” and he could help them out on everything but their whims.  I would like all this people coming to appreciate what he is worth, what he is teaching us .  We have a lot world of people who don't understand.  We can't do that because because we maintain ourselves telling each other “you do this, or that,” there is no agreement among us , Why?  Well it is because of our ambition.  He never was ambitious about anything.  His love was pure to extend his charity to human kind. He wasn't ambitious at all.

Burnett: Doña Panita, how do you respond to Catholic church authorities who say the Niño Fidencio's believers are heretic?

Panita: Well, in that regard, the Niño has taught to us we should attend to the church and follow all its regulations, and be respectful.  By the way, we have a priest with us by these days, we get along with him because we have found in him a shelter and good will.  He wants to be that way because it comes from his aspirations to perform his job.  We are getting close to him because we want him to get closer to the Niño.  It has been a while since we have been approaching the priests; we have approached the bishop of Saltillo.  We have talked to them about us and they have listened.  They are with us but what they don't like is what other persons are doing against him, because that kind of thing is not legal.  But, What we can do about it?  It is like, for instance, when a peer of your team came apart you will say: Hey, come to the right path with us!  You make him/her subject to your will.  They say they also can do it, but I am praying and asking my God and the Niño Santo to make them understand how they should feel love toward their fellows, because that is the most important.  The Niño gives us food and dress.  At least to me, he is my doctor, my lawyer, he gives me everything in behave of God our Lord.  We always rely on him.  When he was alive, we fed ourselves with tortillas an a jar of medicine we used to prepare here in a saucepan.  Our faith has been great all the time.

Burnett: Panita, do you remember for how many days you had to walk by those days?

Panita: Eight days and a half.  We had to eat tortillas, water, or whatever they gave to us.  Nevertheless, we always arrived joyful.  He was always glad and welcomed us because he wanted to do so.  Nowadays, we are surrounded by people who do other type of jobs while invoking his saint name. We can't be with them precisely because of that.  Because those who say: “we are with him on this” are too many.  There is too many people practicing some other kind of jobs on behave of his name.  That is too hard for us to take.  They are coming from some other places only for celebration days.  We give them some reprimands, but they argue that they are also helping him, that they have people who is leading them.  I am sad because the Niño didn't teach me that way of doing things.  He taught me about humbleness, and love.  Thanks God and him, and all his people, now I have a home.  People who come and give to us something, what is given to them by God.  We live out of charity, and that is the true.  But we have to extend that charity to mother people because we should not be selfish.  He told us to talk to other people this way: “Behave yourselves, see the people kindly.”  This faith in the Niño is something from what we should not get any profit.  People always respond, "You should not question them," "Learn and practice praying," "Learn on how to ask God for things," "Learn to make penitence," "Learn abstinence from food on behalf of other persons." That is the way we can help those persons and we can say:  “I am going to make this sacrifice – because it  is a sacrifice, but only if it come from your heart.  You should not just pretend to do so. You should have the will to be able to have the power.  What are we offering to the Niño?  Nothing? Just talking as we are doing now?  We must feel love for our fellows, truthfully.  What did Jesus do? What did he ask to his Father?  All the sacrifice he made was for the people, as Niño Fidencio also did.  We must pray to help him so, our God may help all those persons.   If you are in prison, lets pray to God, truthfully.  That is the way we must pray.

Burnett: Thank You very much and please forgive us because of our brief visit.  It is an honor having meeting you.

Panita: God bless you!