James S. Griffith documents religious art objects and legends, but also analyzes these cultural productions as evidence of a documentary culture that reveals the culture of a period. This book is written in a style that is clear, and consists of an introduction and seven chapters, along with seventy-three photos of religious art objects and three appendices, including a discussion of verbal religious art, descriptions of fifty-one sacred personages, and nearly a dozen saint legends. This book is ideal for courses in Hispanic folklore of the Southwest, religious studies, and research methods in material culture.
Throughout, the book connects to the influence of religion in shaping the values of communities and people in the Southwest. Among Mexicans, O'odham, Yaquis, Mayo, and other indigenous communities, Catholicism's values and beliefs mark their landscapes with roadside shrines, chapels, and churches. Each religious object reveals important aspects of the symbolic life of people living in this region. As artifacts, they are embedded with cultural history, human behaviors, legends, and the construction process; and, they provide evidence of major historical events.
Griffith offers a cultural-landscape history of the Sonoran region, along with the history of Catholicism and of saints’ statues, focusing on their educational function in teaching catechism, prayers, religious hymns, and religious drama, including dialogue, processions, music, and dance. In addition, the influence of the Spanish baroque style saturates these early statues of saints and religious wooden retablos. Most of these religious art objects were mass produced and came from Mexico and Europe, brought by Jesuits and Franciscan priests. It was not until the twentieth century that the local Sonoran artists started producing images that embodied their history, personal lives, and community belief systems.
The other important issue addressed is the role of local artist in the development of religious folk art, both in Sonora and Arizona. Some of the early artists, such as Doña Josefina Ávila, Luz Aguilar Águila, and Pedro Calles Encinas, were formally trained in prestigious Mexican art schools in Mexico City. More contemporary artists were self-taught, and include Felix Lucero, Epifanio Molina, and an artist known as Roby. Their religious art work is described and their locations in Sonora and Arizona are identified.
The major focus of the book is the devotional use of the religious art objects and how people assign different meanings and community-held beliefs to these objects. We are made aware of the strong beliefs and values associated with the different saints during the different saint festivals in the region.
Some of the saints' festivals serve to remind the village people who they are, the history of their community, and the functions of their local patron saint. Some of these festivals can last three days, or a week, or longer, as in the case of the Yaquis and Mayos, whose Lent ceremony lasts the forty days of Lent. These festivals also include non-religious features such as religious art vendors, food vendors, performers, and rodeos.
At another level, we are made aware of the process of sainthood and the different personal behaviors and functions associated with saints. In this section of the book, we get an understanding of the important meanings and emotions people assign to their saints; some people talk, touch, caress, and dress them in delicate and expensive clothes. These religious art objects are attributed with specific powers and if petitioned correctly, they perform miracles that deliver people from a tragic event, sin, or death. The beliefs, values, and miracles associated with these saints are documented with legends that people tell to provide evidence of the power of their saints.
In other instances, these religious folk art objects serve to reveal important moments in the history of people. For example, some of the religious folk art objects conjure up painful memories related to a time when government officials, local police, and socialists led a concerted effort to destroy the influence of Catholicism and eradicate, burn, and destroy the religious art in Sonora. Through legends and personal experiences, we are mindful of how people resisted, survived, performed their religious activities underground, which "resulted in even stronger connection between Sonorans and their images" (99).
Through analyzing these religious folk art objects, legends, and historical records, James S. Griffith provides an "unofficial history" that contests the dominant official history of "la persecución." This book offers a method for studying religious art objects and material culture as historical documents that reveal the meanings, feelings, emotions, and social conditions associated with a cultural region and their people.
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[Review length: 745 words • Review posted on September 17, 2020]