Pope Francis' visit: From across Latin America, 2 million converge on Mexico City

• Mexico is the world's second-largest Catholic country
• Pope expected to mix pastoral and political messages during his trip
• Many Latinos from U.S. expected to make pilgrimage across the border

MEXICO CITY — Worshippers have been gathering here for days from all over Latin America, anticipating Friday night's arrival of the first Hispanic pope, Pope Francis, to the world's second-largest Catholic country.

Olga Estrada, 52, came two hours by bus from Puebla to Mexico City. The nun has a ticket to see the pope celebrate Mass at the Basilica de Guadalupe but she said she wasn't sure if she would be able to get in because some people will be sleeping outside many hours beforehand and there may not be enough room.

If not, she will be thrilled just to be in the pope's presence.

"We are his eyes and he is our guide, and he needs to know that the church is alive and well in Mexico under the shawl of the Virgin of Guadalupe who is our mother," Estrada said as she waited Thursday night at the Benito Juarez International Airport for another nun from Colombia to arrive.

Others have been traveling from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica as well as from all over Mexico, said Alberto Martinez, 42, a shuttle driver in Mexico City. A large contingent is also traveling from the United States, including 45 traveling by bus from Phoenix.

In all, more than 2 million people are expected to turn out to see the pope here.

Gates have already been erected along the route the pope will take from the airport to the Vatican's diplomatic mission in anticipation of the huge crowds expected to line the route.

The city government has posted signs at bus stops that say, "Bienvenidos Papa. Mexico es tu casa." Welcome Pope. Mexico is your home.

"It's going to be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful," said 73-year-old Paz Escalante Vazquez, who lives in Mexico City.

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Pope Francis' plans

Those who don't have tickets to attend one of the pope's official events during his five-day visit will line streets for miles in hopes of catching a glimpse of the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

He is expected to mix pastoral and political messages during his visit, praising the poor and marginalized while condemning drug trafficking, cartel brutality and violence against women. He will use Mexico City as a base to travel to multiple areas of the country, where about 81 percent of its 123 million people identify as Catholic.

Organizers have asked worshippers on Friday night to illuminate the 12-mile route from Mexico City's airport to the Vatican's diplomatic headquarters with the lights from their cellphones as Pope Francis drives by in his Popemobile.

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On Saturday, the route leading to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most sacred sites in Mexico, where Pope Francis will officiate a Mass, is also expected to be lined with worshippers.

The route passes along Paseo de la Reforma, a major boulevard that runs through the heart of Mexico City.

Escalante Vazquez, who is Catholic, hopes to dash out from the hotel where she works just a block from Reforma to catch a glimpse of the pope as he passes by.

"How fantastic would it be if as he was driving by (he) said, 'Stop. I am going to get out here,' " Escalante Vazquez said. "I would be the most fortunate person in the world."

Earlier Saturday, the pope will be greeted at the National Palace by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and then will meet with Catholic bishops in the city's cathedral.

On Sunday, the pope will fly by helicopter to celebrate Mass in Ecatepec, a densely populated working-class suburb in the state of Mexico just outside Mexico City.

At least 39 women have been killed in Ecatepec since the government issued a "gender violence alert" last July to warn the public that women were being systematically murdered there, according to Proceso, a Mexican newsmagazine. Similar alerts have been issued in 11 municipalities around the country.

The pope will fly to the state of Chiapas on Monday and will celebrate Mass at a sports center in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Chiapas has the largest indigenous population of any state in Mexico and is where the armed Zapatista uprising took place in 1994 demanding indigenous rights.

It is also the least Catholic state, as a result of indigenous people leaving Catholicism and proselytizing by evangelical protestants, said Andrew Chesnut, a religion professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"If there is any one sector that has been abandoning Catholicism, it’s been the indigenous," Chesnut said.

Chiapas is also Mexico's poorest state. It is also the main entry point for migrants fleeing poverty and violence in the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras trying to reach the United States. The Mexican government has been cracking down on Central American migrants, arresting them and sending them back, drawing criticism from human-rights organizations.

The pope will also travel on Tuesday to Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, which in recent years has become the epicenter of the country's drug wars.

On his final day, he will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he will celebrate an open-air Mass on Wednesday in Benito Juarez Stadium in Juarez across from El Paso.

Juarez is also infamous for drug-cartel violence. The pope reportedly will say a prayer near the banks of the Rio Grande, the river that separates Mexico and the United States, for the thousands of migrants who have perished along the border while trying to cross illegally.

Mexican government officials reportedly have said they will deploy more than 10,000 police officers to protect the pope, who is expected to continue his practice of walking into the masses to shake hands with worshippers.

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Traveling from Phoenix to Mexico City

Paula Zazueta, who is traveling from Phoenix to see the pope, said she is not worried for his safety because he will be surrounded by pilgrims who will make sure nothing happens to him.

"I believe he will be well taken care of," Zazueta said.

She is one of 45 Catholics, all of them Mexican-Americans, who left Wednesday for Mexico City by chartered bus from Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in central Phoenix. The group is made up of Catholics from at least seven Catholic churches in the Phoenix area, including Immaculate Heart and St. Anthony's in Phoenix, St. Louis the King in Glendale, Queen of Peace in Mesa and St. Mary's in Chandler.

Before leaving, Zazueta opened a photo on her cellphone showing one of the tickets all 45 members of the group received to hear the pope celebrate Mass on Sunday morning in Ecatepec.

On Saturday, the group also plans to line up along the pope's route on his way to the Basilica of Guadalupe.

This will be the third time Zazueta sees a pope. In 2012, she traveled to Mexico to see Pope Benedict XVI in Leon, in the state of Guanajuato. While living in Mexico City in 1979, she also saw Pope John Paul II.

But she said she is most excited about seeing Pope Francis because, as an Argentine, he is the first pope from Latin America.

"He speaks our language," Zazueta, a native of Sonora, said in Spanish at her home in south Phoenix. "He also has our heart and shares our values."

Al and Anna Gallardo of Tucson were flying to Mexico City on Thursday to see the pope, along with their 17-year-old son, John, and 20-year-old niece, Kristina Dunscomve.

The couple plan to get up before dawn on Saturday to head over to the basilica in hopes of seeing the pope before he celebrates Mass that evening. They are hoping to get as close as they can so the pope can bless their wedding bands.

"We probably will try and rough it, an 18-hour day start to finish," said Anna Gallardo, 43, noting that she and her husband credit their Catholic faith for sustaining their marriage of 20 years.

Al Gallardo, 47, said the priest at his church in Tucson, St. Joseph's, has asked him to consider becoming a deacon. He has been praying for an answer.

The trip, he said, "will definitely help me decide."

But for Mexicans like Escalante Vazquez, the pope's visit to their country is about so much more than its impact on an individual soul.

She said she is hoping Pope Francis brings "spiritual and physical peace" to Mexico, which has suffered a decade of drug-cartel violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

"Mexico is a beautiful country," full of hardworking people and "mothers who care deeply for their children," she said. "It deserves it."