3""H /S8I At®. ~7S~$o IMAGE AND IDENTITY AT EL SANTUARIO DE CHIMAYO IN CHIMAYO, NEW MEXICO THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Dana Engstrom DeLoach, B.A. Denton, Texas May, 1999 Dana Engstrom DeLoach, Image and Identity at El Santuario de Chimayo m Chimayo, New Mexico. Master of Arts, (Art History), May 1999, 94pp., 74 titles. El Santuario de Chimayo is a small community shrine that combines both native Tewa Indian and Christian traditions. This study focuses on the interaction between traditions through analysis of the shrine's two major artworks: a crucifix devoted to El Senor de Esquipulas (Christ of Esquipulas) and a statue of the Santo Nino (Holy Child). The shrine and its two primary artworks are expressions of the dynamic interaction between native and European cultures in New Mexico at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They frame the discussion of native and Christian cultural exchange about the relationships between religious images, how they function, and how they are interpreted. 3""H /S8I At®. ~7S~$o IMAGE AND IDENTITY AT EL SANTUARIO DE CHIMAYO IN CHIMAYO, NEW MEXICO THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Dana Engstrom DeLoach, B.A. Denton, Texas May, 1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. CHIMAYO AS A SITE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE 17 3. THE DISCOVERY OF THE IMAGES OF EL SANTUARIO DE CHIMAYO 37 4. THE NAMING OF EL SENOR DE ESQUIPULAS AND SANTO NINO 51 5 THE ROLE OF EL SENOR DE ESQUIPULAS AND SANTO NINO AT EL SANTUARIO DE CHIMAYO 61 6. CONCLUSIONS 74 APPENDIX 86 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 111 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Approximately 25 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the small village of Chimayo lies peacefully in the high desert valley of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Tucked into this mountain valley are small rivers surrounded by agricultural plots of land, where a variety of peoples have lived, worked the land, and worshipped various deities for hundreds of years. From the time before European knowledge of the Western hemisphere, native cultures considered the Chimayo valley to have many sacred sites that defined their cosmological and geographical borders. After the conquest, first of Mexico and later of the land that is present day New Mexico, the Spanish created their own Christian holy places, displacing the native religious beliefs, often by placing Catholic mission churches directly over shrines of native importance.1 El Santuario de Chimayo is a small community shrine that combines both native and Christian traditions. Members of the community, numerous tourists, and faithful pilgrims come to the shrine seeking solace, devotion, salvation, and healing. Drawn by its interesting and rich legends, mystical origins, ancient and modern holy traditions, or the possibility of witnessing or participating in a miraculous event, each visitor to El 1 Patrick J. Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994), 164. The placement of churches over sites of native importance was standard practice as far back as the sixth century and Augustine of Canterbury's mission to Great Britian. Santuario de Chimayo comes to experience the mysticism that the church and its images suggest. Yet, little is written about El Santuario, and what literature exists surveys the history of the area, the miraculous founding of the Christian shrine, and the religious cults associated with it. However, the literature does not offer clear reasons why the church was built at Chimayo and how it functions within the community. The Chimayo valley is strewn with many sacred sites that date from the inhabitation of Pueblo Indians around 1100 to 1400 A.D. Studies into the origin of the name of Chimayo, which is commonly thought to be Spanish, show that it stems from several Tewa Indian words. Tzimmayo, or "place where big stones stand" describes one prominent physical feature of the area, while Tsimajo has been interpreted to mean "flaking stone of superior quality." Tewa Indian religious myth notes that during the time of the Ancient Ones, great geysers of hot water were located at Chimayo. When the Tewa twin war gods killed a giant, fire erupted and dried the healing springs at Black Mesa, Obuhegi, and Tsimmayo into mud.2 The mud surrounding the sacred Indian shrines was thought to have healing qualities and to have been used in native rituals. When the Spanish first began to settle in the valley, it is thought that neighboring Pueblo Indians visited the area as a shrine or sacred space.3 With the blending of Indian and Spanish culture, local legends about the sacred nature of the area and its healing mud most likely became known to the Spanish. 2 Alfonso Ortiz, The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society, (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1969), 107. 3 Elizabeth Kay, Chimayo Valley Traditions, (Santa Fe: Ancient City Press, 1987), 17. In the spring of 1810, a spiritual event took place that firmly melded Chimayo as both a native and Christian spiritual center. A resident of El Potrero, the small community adjoining Chimayo (now a part of the town) claimed to have found a crucifix buried in the sand on the banks of the river flowing through his land. The resident, Bernardo Abeyta, quickly informed the clergy and a procession was organized to remove the crucifix and deposit it in the church in neighboring Santa Cruz, as neither Chimayo nor El Potrero had a proper church in which to house the miraculous discovery. The next day, the crucifix disappeared, only to be found in its original location on Abeyta's land. It disappeared from Santa Cruz twice more and was found on the banks of the river in Chimayo. After three miraculous journeys from the church in Santa Cruz to Abeyta's land, Abeyta built a private chapel at the site for the crucifix. He petitioned the church in 1813 to build a chapel for the village; for the crucifix, like other miraculous images and relics, proved that it chose the location by disappearing from the church in Santa Cruz and reappearing at the site of its discovery. That chapel, built in 1816, became the present El Santuario de Esquipulas. Abeyta's small santuario (chapel) housed not only the original crucifix found at the site, but also a larger altar crucifix commissioned by Abeyta. The large crucifix, along with an altarpiece and painted reredos (wall paintings), was executed by a local santero (saintmaker) known as Molleno. Both crucifixes are dedicated to El Senor de Esquipulas (Our Lord of Esquipulas). The larger crucifix forms the centerpiece of the altarpiece in the small church and the small crucifix is placed in a small room off the sanctuary with a well of dirt. The depiction of the crucified Christ is directly associated with the cult of Our Lord of Esquipulas of Guatemala, which developed as a result of the Spanish contact with native Maya Indians. The crucifix of El Senor de Esquipulas in Chimayo is iconographically similar to the original crucifix in Guatemala. Another similarity exists between the churches in Guatemala and Chimayo. Soon after the crucifix was placed into the church in Guatemala, miracles began to be credited to the crucifix, which led to official church recognition of those miracles in 1737.4 The area around the new village was also known for the healing properties of nearby hot springs, where pilgrims flocking to the area would participate in geophagy, or "earth eating."5 The tradition of earth eating at a religious shrine is also affiliated with El Santuario de Chimayo, but it is not found in any other villages in New Mexico where the cult appears.6 A small well, or pit, sits in a small room off the sacristy of El Santuario, and earth is taken by pilgrims who call it tierra bandita, or blessed earth. By some accounts, this well of sacred earth, called El Posito, is placed where Bernardo Abeyta's chapel devoted to the Chimayo crucifix once stood.7 At an undocumented date after the discovery of the crucifix in 1810 and the building of the shrine in 1816, miracles that were effected at the site of El Santuario de Chimayo began to be credited to the crucifix known as El Senor de Esquipulas rather than the mud. After Abeyta's death in 1856, the original meaning behind the shrine of 4 Stephen F. DeBorhegyi, "The Cult of Our Lord of Esquipulas in Middle America and New Mexico," El Palacio 61 (December 1954), 393. 5 DeBorhegyi, 1954, 387. 6 DeBorhegyi, 1953, 87. Esquipulas was lost and the healing power of El Senor de Esquipulas was subsumed by the cult of Santo Nino de Atocha The Santo Nino is a holy image of the Christ Child who wanders the earth at night and brings solace to the sick and suffering. Familial politics may be at the root of the shift in devotion. A rival family in Chimayo, led by Severino Medina, built a private chapel near the Santuario in 1857 and placed a statue of the Santo Nino inside their chapel. The cult of the Santo Nino began to grow in the area around Chimayo and quickly began to be credited for the miracles previously attributed to El Senor de Esquipulas. The loss of popularity for the Abeyta family's church may have also led to a loss of financial income, and the family procured their own Santo Nino statue, placing El Santuario in direct religious and monetary competition with the smaller Medina chapel.