The second part of my MA's final project is a series of illustrations about the syncretism of Aztec cults/religions and the Christianism brought by Spanish conquers to the Americas in approx. 1512.
The arrival of the Spaniards was a prophecy in the Maya’s cosmology; mistaken as divine beings, their aggressive arrival was not only welcomed by the natives, but also several indigenous peoples like the Totonacs, Otomis and Nahuas made alliance with Hernan Cortes troops to take advances in war against the Empire of the Aztecs.
There were many religions amongst the natives, but all of them have common points such as the worship of the nature, the God Sun, the Mother Earth, and the promised saviour (Quetzalcoatl) who was born from Coatlicue, the Virgin mother of Gods.
So, there was no bigger coincidence that the Christians have the same triad, and this is how the acceptance of Christianity was understandable amongst the natives, which the majority were the faithful indigenous in the bottom of the hierarchy or classes.
La Virgen de Guadalupe is nothing but the syncretism of Virgin Mary and Coatlicue, the virgin Aztec Godess; discovered by the indigenous Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531.
My illustration 'Mutter' depicts this union with symbolisms of both virgins (Aztec and Christian) in a modern representation with the tattoos and 'chola' style.
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| Mutter, graphite on grey paper by Salas, E. (2020) |
Father, Christ, Quetzalcoatl, the Fear and the Superiority are the ingredients of this syncretism of the cult to the Lord in the Latin-American Catholic practices.
The next character it's ‘the Prophet’, in which I illustrate Jesus Christ in a modern fashion, with tattoos of ‘Quetzalcoatl’, his equivalent in the Aztec myth, holding an iPod tablet on his left hand, and his right hand doing the gesture of ‘blessing’.
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| Father, graphite on grey paper by Salas, E. (2020) |
“God is dead”, a quote by F. Nietzsche is far from being truth. God is a personal statement. Is it black? Is it blonde? Is it a woman? We pray to something and to nothing. Religion is not about the image itself, but what it represents: an idea (you have a purpose that has been decided by a divine being), a belief (your personal Jesus will hear you now) and faith (God is not dead).
Perhaps, as we believe in something divine, we validate ourselves in this world as having a purpose. To me, knowing my roots is what validates my art and as an immigrant woman in the ‘old continent’, but this is another theme and other series of illustrations.
Over and out.
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