UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Of Gratitude and Sorrow: A Visual History of Everyday Mexican Spirituality, 1700-2013 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2s64g7z0 Author Novak, Kinga Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Of Gratitude and Sorrow: A Visual History of Everyday Mexican Spirituality, 1700-2013 By Kinga Judith Novak A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Margaret Chowning, Chair Professor William B. Taylor Professor Todd Olson Professor Carolyn Dean Fall 2013 Of Gratitude and Sorrow: A Visual History of Everyday Mexican Spirituality, 1700-2013 © 2013 Kinga Judith Novak Abstract Of Gratitude and Sorrow: A Visual History of Everyday Mexican Spirituality, 1700-2013 by Kinga Judith Novak Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Margaret Chowning, Chair This dissertation is a study of Mexican devotional images and their importance in the society that produced them. I trace the changes and continuities in the ways that Mexicans experienced the sacred over a long arc of history, with a focus on the nineteenth century, a time when Mexico transitioned from a colonial society into a modern republic. The study encompasses devotional practices such as pilgrimages and processions, but focuses especially on the material culture of popular piety. Specifically, it examines two art forms—ex-votos and children’s funerary portraits—to show how devotional practice shaped relationships to the institutional church both before and after independence, as well as to the emergent liberal state in the nineteenth century. I use these images to explore the worldviews of people who left little in the way of written records, but whose visual output was both prolific and expressive of their perceptions about the relationship between humans and the divine. Through the study of the material culture of devotion, I demonstrate not only the continued centrality of Catholic holy beings to Mexican mentalities after independence, but also explore a changing world, one that we can loosely characterize as “modernizing.” “Modernizing” was evident in several spheres: in the urban landscape, in transportation, in politics, the economy, in technology, and in the institutional church. In this context it is easy to imagine that forms of religious expression might also change, but traditional religiosity—with its processions, pilgrimages, and other saint-oriented devotional practices—not only survived but flourished in the nineteenth century. This particularly Catholic accommodation with modernity is most visible in an increase in ex-votos left at shrines, but also in the augmented negotiations over the proper role of religion in public life. I explore the reasons for these phenomena and conclude that despite the apparent paradox of continuing and increased “traditional” religious practices in a secularizing world, affirmations of traditional Catholicism were in fact a way of assimilating the modern world for both the institutional church and for laypeople. Finally, I address the complex negotiations between the church and the state as political institutions from the colonial period to the mid-twentieth century, and the ways that their ideologies and actions both shaped and were shaped by popular culture. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s model of circularity for describing the interactions between elite and popular cultures, I look beyond simple dichotomies and suggest how the transmission of culture and ideas is 1 multidirectional and multidimensional. I use visual cultural production—especially ex-voto paintings—as a barometer of religious mentalities, and, by extension, as a measure of the intersections between religion and politics in a period of important historical changes. 2 For my mother, Judith Némethy In memory of George Némethy and Inés Sánchez Novak i Table of Contents List of Figures iii List of Tables viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter One 24 Colonial Ex-votos Chapter Two 62 The Persistence of Divine Intervention: Religious Culture in Mexico from Independence to the Reforma Chapter Three 98 “In These Impious Times”: The Aftermath of the Reforma and the Porfiriato, 1876-1912 Chapter Four 138 Ex-votos and Popular Spirituality, 1880-2013 Chapter Five 187 Angelitos: Posthumous Portraits of Children Conclusion 223 Bibliography 232 ii List of Figures Figure 1.1 Ex-voto offered to the Señor de los Rayos 1 Figure 1.2 Offering to San Francisco de Asís, Church of San Francisco de 6 Asís, San Luis Potosí, 1996 Figure 1.3 Wedding dresses, soccer jerseys, and other offerings at the 6 Basílica de Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco Figure 1.4 Shrine of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Naucalpan, 2001 7 Figure 1.5 Milagros from Colonia, Uruguay, Church of San Benito, 2008 8 Figure 1.6 Milagros Gallery, San Antonio, Texas 9 Figure 1.7 The Attack of Enrique Gallardo, Museum of the Order of 11 Augustinians, Shrine of Chalma Figure 2.1 The Spanish Galleon Nuestra Sra. del Guía’s Journey from the 24 Phillipines to Acapulco Figure 2.2 Ex–voto Painting Honoring the Virgin of Tulantongo, 1651 34 Figure 2.3 Ex-voto to St. Michael Archangel 35 Figure 2.4 Ex-voto to the Virgin of Guadalupe, etching by Samuel 38 Stradanus, 1615 Figure 2.5 Eighteenth Century Copy of Child Being Thrown From Horse 39 Figure 2.6 Man Escaping Injury 40 Figure 2.7 Miraculous Lighting of Candles 40 Figure 2.8 Promising of a Silver Milagro 41 Figure 2.9 Caught at Sea During a Storm 45 Figure 2.10 Countess and Count of Mora 46 Figure 2.11 Virgin of Solitude Ex-voto 47 Figure 2.12 Our Lady of Tulantongo Child Birth Ex-voto 49 iii Figure 2.13 Woman Lying on Her Deathbed 51 Figure 2.14 Jacinta Camacho’s Deathbed, 1783 52 Figure 2.15 The Uncontrollable Hemorrhaging of the Administrator at the 53 Convent of St. Clara de Jesús, 1711 Figure 2.16 Performative Ex–voto Painting 54 Figure 2.17 St. Michael of the Miracle Ex-voto 57 Figure 2.18 Cayetano Cabrera Quintero’s Account of the Virgin of 59 Guadalupe Figure 3.1 Accident at the Procession Honoring the Virgin of Zapopan 71 Figure 3.2 Apprehension by dragones and the Invocation of the Virgin of 72 Guadalupe Figure 3.3 Ex–votos to Tepatitlán’s Lord of Mercy 78 Figure 3.4 Religious Flyer Invoking the Virgin of Remedies 85 Figure 3.5 Ex–voto to Tepatitlán’s Señor de la Misericordia 88 Figure 3.6 Ex–voto of Manuel Rajel 89 Figure 3.7 Ex–voto to Señor de la Misericordia of Tepatitlán 90 Figure 3.8 Firing Squad Scene, 1875 91 Figure 3.9 Giving Thanks to Our Lady of Sorrows after a Lightning Attack 93 Figure 3.10 Ex–voto Commissioned by José Agustín Domínguez, 1858 95 Figure 4.1 Justina López Aguado’s Traffic Accident 98 Figure 4.2 Esteban Marchena’s Appeal to the Lord of Chalma and the 99 Virgin of the Remedies Figure 4.3 Images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 115 Figure 4.4 Posada Broadside, 1912 123 Figure 4.5 Religious Announcement of the Miraculous Celebration of the 128 Virgin of Guadalupe, 1894 iv Figure 5.1 Ramón Ramírez’s Invocation of the Virgin of Guadalupe 138 Figure 5.2 Ex-voto to San Francisco de Asís, Real de Catorce, San Luis 143 Potosí, 1990-91 Figure 5.3 Ex-voto to San Francisco de Asís, Real de Catorce, San Luis 144 Potosí, 1986 Figure 5.4 Niño de los Atribulados #1, Guanajuato 148 Figure 5.5 Niño de los Atribulados #2, Guanajuato 148 Figure 5.6 Prayer Ribbons Dedicated to San Charbel, Cathedral of Veracruz 152 Figure 5.7 Niño Jesús Sculpture, side altar, Chalma 153 Figure 5.8 Félix Medina and María R.’s Donation to the Virgin of San Juan 160 de los Lagos, 1886 Figure 5.9 Tomás Cabrera’s Gift to the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos 161 Figure 5.10 Ex-voto to the Niño de los Atribulados, Guanajuato 163 Figure 5.11 Doña Lucía Torres’ Invocation to the Señor de los Rayos 165 Figure 5.12 Elías Medina’s Medical Intervention 166 Figure 5.13 Ex-voto of Zenón Parra by Hermenegildo Bustos 169 Figure 5.14 Pedro de la Rosa’s Promise, 1863 171 Figure 5.15 Ex–voto to the Señor de los Rayos, 1893 172 Figure 5.16 Ana María de Salado’s Invocation to the Virgin of Soledad 176 Figure 5.17 Ex-voto to the Niño Salvador de Morelia 177 Figure 5.18 Ex-voto to the Virgin of Soledad, 1886 178 Figure 5.19 Ex-voto to the Señor de los Rayos 179 Figure 5.20 Sebastián Contreras’s Invocation to the Señor de los Rayos 180 Figure 5.21 Anonymous ex-voto to the Señor de la Misericordia 181 v Figure 5.22 Anonymous ex-voto to the Señor de la Humildad, Parroquia del 182 Perpetuo Socorro, Guanajuato Figure 5.23 Ex-voto to the Señor de la Humildad, Parroquia del Perpetuo 183 Socorro, Guanajuato Figure 5.24 Don Francisco Delgado’s Ex–voto to the Señor de los Rayos 185 Figure 6.1 Posthumous Infant 187 Figure 6.2 El Velorio by Francisco Oller, 1893 193 Figure 6.3 Retratos by Romualdo García 195 Figure 6.4 Mexican Shrines 196 Figure 6.5 Infant Jesus Sculpture 197 Figure 6.6 El Señor del Santo Entierro, Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango 197 Figure 6.7 Santo Entierro 198 Figure 6.8 Funerary Portrait of María Josefa de Aldaco y Fagoaga, 1746 199 Figure 6.9 Anonymous portrait of José Manuel Cervantes y Velasco, 1805 200 Figure 6.10 Anonyomous portrait of Domingo Francisco Jabier Emigdio de 201 Jesús Padilla, 1846 Figure 6.11 Romualdo García, from the series Men Alone—Full-body, c.