Huehue Dance of Puebla, Mexico

I stumbled across this dance--called The Huehue (or so a bemused resident explained)--on a recent trip to Puebla, Mexico. It said that one of the main characters of this dance is always the devil, as seen here. It is also said that the tradition has its roots in Day of The Dead, and depicts the wise old men--or huehues--who would help the newly widowed women find shelter.

Oh Santo Niño Doctor! A Guest Post by Entomologist in Residence Daisy Tainton

Following is a guest post by our entomologist in residence Daisy Tainton about one of the most enigmatic vernacular saints we encountered in Mexico: the lavishly eyelashed Santo Niño Doctor!

Oh Santo Niño Doctor!
Right my wrongs and
Forgive my sins.

This is the prayer on the back of a pamphlet about St. Dr. Baby that I found in a church in Zacatecas, Mexico.

As I write this, it has not been long since my statuette of Santo Niño Doctor flung himself from a low bookshelf in my bedroom and shattered. Was he sick of me? Was he full of my sins and wrongs, such that I no longer need him? Or should I not have put him in the bedroom, considering his youth and purity level?

During the Morbid Anatomy field trip to Mexico in 2014 for Day of the Dead, many of us noticed and were captivated by an unusual demi-saint in the pantheon. Occasionally nestled among the more typical Jesus and Virgin statues, there was a child with dark hair and wide eyes, usually seated on a particular chair with three rays of light radiating from his head, a cushion under his feet, and a Doctor's white coat.

Juarez Market in Monterey yielded a lovely molded plastic statuette of Doctor Baby, or SDB, with lovely false eyelashes and a wide, caring expression. A man with a buzz cut and tattoos all the way up to his eyeballs sold him to me, after extricating him with incredulity from a case crowded with likenesses of the Virgin, Jesus Malverde and Santa Muerte(the latter two especially beloved by the criminal and marginalized elements to which this market evidently catered). Lots of neck tattoos and thick accents in these parts. An older woman with a bag of bundled herbs asked if my friend and I were scared to be there, but I believe we made it clear that nothing seemed threatening below the surface. She demanded to know why we liked Santa Muerte, and said this saint is bad. SDB on the other hand was a saint she could get behind. She nodded her approval of my little statue.

Santos of this sort, smacking of idolatry, have a long tradition in Mexican Catholicism. This spritely saint is actually an alternate Jesus, as he began as a statue of the holy infant that was taken by a nun to a hospital and eventually, in mascot-like fashion, dressed as a child-doctor. The baby Jesus, robed in white hospital garments and accessorized with a stethoscope and black doctor's bag, became a separate entity known as SDB. The infirm, their relatives and loved ones pray to him for health and swore that he provided results. Eventually a cult-like following sprang up, with a yearly procession and celebration in his honor.

Images:

1.  Cover of Santo Niño Doctor prayer book
2.  Santo Niño Doctor statuette in Mexico
3. Santo Niño Doctor statuette belonging in author's home
4.  Santo Niño Doctor statuette in Mexico City
5. Santo Niño Doctor earrings made by the author

"The Madonna of the Monster" or The Marian Cult of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz”: Morbid Anatomy 2014 Day of the Day Tour Report by Board Member Amy Slonaker

Following is a guest post by Amy Slonaker--Morbid Anatomy Museum Board Member and two-time attendee of the Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead Tour in Mexico. I asked Amy--who is also a bit of a dilettante in the area of religious history--to write a brief report about the phenomenon of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz” as witnessed on our Mexican travels. The information contained in her post, Amy points out, came via the world wide web, so she warmly invites any corrections or addenda; you can email them by clicking here.

The Marian Cult of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz”
The 2014 Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead Tour was another winner that focused on experiencing the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico. It also brought us in touch with the Marian cult of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz.” We had seen her image in a church on last year’s tour but didn’t know her name. Imagine our delight to find this prayer card amongst so many others!

In 2013, while visiting the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, we came across a unique shrine to the Virgin Mary in the Templo de la Compania de Jesus (Temple of Jesuits).



We had never seen a representation of the Virgin Mary like this one which included a fantastical monster’s head with a gaping mouth. It wasn’t until the following year, in Mexico City, that we discovered two prayer cards at the religious mall behind The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City featuring the same monster’s head, with the inscription “La Madre SS De La Luz,” “Most Holy Mother of Light.”

Now with a name to guide us, we traced the interesting origin of this image to Palermo, Sicily, in the early years of the 18th century.

The initial account of the creation of this image was written in Palermo in 1733, and then translated and published in Mexico in 1737(1). It goes like this:

A Jesuit priest wished to have a painting of the Virgin Mary to take with him as he preached throughout Sicily. He called upon a woman who was known to have received multiple visitations from the Virgin Mary. The priest asked the woman to consult with Mary as to how Mary would like her image to appear. Sure enough, the Virgin appeared and provided a detailed description of an image that included her saving a soul from the gaping maw of hell.

After a few missteps--including a painter who didn’t know how to follow directions, and a resulting illness/miraculous healing of the woman who received the vision--a second painting was created that successfully included the Virgin’s wish for a hellmouth.

This painting was then brought to the cathedral in Leon, Mexico, in 1732. From here, a healthy cult to the “Most Holy Mother of Light” spread in the region, accounting for the image of "Nuestra Señora de la Luz" we came across in nearby Guanajuato.

But the plot thickens. We found another example of “Santisima de la Luz” on an altar in the Iglesia de San Miguel Archangel in Mexico City, above a wax reliquary for a figure labeled "Santa Rustica." This time, all the aspects of the Virgin’s requested image existed except the Bosch-like, big-mouthed, hell-monster. What happened to the fanciful fiend from which the fellow on the left should be springing?

It turns out that the notion of Mary directly saving souls out of Hell was doctrinally flawed despite being totally in line with what Mary requested during her visitation of the woman in Sicily. Scholars have noted several versions of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz” in which the hellacious beast has been covered over or with its presence omitted in the initial rendering. While some researchers opine this was to rectify any doctrinal fuzziness, another explanation may be that the appearance of the Jesuit-sponsored cult of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz” arrived only shortly before the Jesuits were kicked out of Mexico in 1767 by order of Pope Clement XIV (2). Hence, the Jesuit-promulgated “La Madre Santisima de la Luz” became expunged and replaced with a more generic Virgin.

We look forward to more sightings of images of “La Madre Santisima de la Luz”-- some of which exist in the present-day United States in parts of California and New Mexico. But we can’t help  but hope that the next shrine we see includes a huge monster head.

1. La Devocion de Maria Madre Santissima de la Luz, En Mexico, en la Imprenta Real del superior Gobierno, y del Nuevo Rezado, de Doña Maria de Rivera, en el Empedradillo. Año de 1737.
2. Dominus ac Redemptor is the papal brief promulgated on 21 July 1773 by which Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus.

Bibliography:

• http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/95spring/laluz.htm
• http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-light.html
• http://madonnasofmexico.com/

Sergei Eisenstein's Unfinished Film ¡Que viva México!

In the words of October's Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín:

In 1930, after failing to secure enough backing for his motion picture projects in the US, which would have marked his entrance into Hollywood, Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein decided to go for the second best thing in North America, and headed south to Mexico. There, he shot extensively: about 40 hours worth of film. The idea was to produce a movie celebrating Mexico’s violent and diverse history. The title: ¡Que viva México!

Eisenstein would never finish editing the film. All we are left with is a version from 1979, and a legend.

Above is a wonderful clip from Eisenstein's unfinished ¡Que viva México!, compliments of our friend James Bell.

The Churches and Mummies of Mexico City and Oaxaca: Photos from the Morbid Anatomy Museum Day of the Dead Trip, 2014

The Morbid Anatomy Musuem crew has just returned from our annual Day of the Dead field trip in Mexico. This year, our trip--as always, under the guidance of Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín--took us to Oaxaca and Mexico City, where we saw markets, mummies, churches, skeleton puppet shows, three day of the dead celebrations, and much, much more.

We have just posted a set of photographs--from which the above are drawn--documenting some of the fabulous churches, mummies and street scenes we saw whilst in Mexico; you can see the full set--at much higher quality!--by clicking here.

For more, you can see Day of the Dead celebration photos here, and photos from our visit to Enriqueta Vargas' Tultitlan-based Santa Muerte Shrine by clicking here. If you would like to be put on the wait list for the 2015 Day of the Dead trip, you can email Salvador at info [at] borderlineprojects.com or sign up for the Morbid Anatomy Mailing List (and thus receive an alert when it is announced) by clicking here.

And thanks so much to the forty or so folks who joined us on our trip this year, from such far-flung locales as New Orleans, London, Oakland, Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Virginia, San Francisco, and New York City! Hope you had a great time, and hope to see you again next year.

Santa Muerte Shrine, Tultitlan, Mexico

Santa Muerte--literally "Holy Death" or "Saint Death"--is the sacred figure of death personified as a woman. She is venerated by an ever growing number of people in Mexico and beyond, and is especially popular with disenfranchised members of society such as criminals, prostitutes, transvestites, homosexuals, prisoners, the very poor, and other people for whom conventional Catholicism has not provided a better or a safer life. The phenomenon is thought to have its roots in a syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

We at Morbid Anatomy have long been fascinated by the phenomenon of Santa Muerte (on which more here) and, whilst in Mexico last week for the Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead field trip, we had the very good fortune--thanks to our good friend Dr. Andrew Chesnut--to visit to the epic Santa Muerte shrine in Tultitlan, Mexico. Founded in 2007 by Jonathan Legaria Vargas (aka “Comandante Pantera"), the shrine--marked by a 75 foot tall figure of "The Skinny Lady"--consists of a series of small pavilions devoted to Santa Muertes wearing different colored gowns, and thus bearing different powers; Red, for example, is love; Gold is money; and black is protection). Each pavilion is stuffed with candles, drawings, flowers, stuffed animals, liquor, cigarettes, incense and other offerings; one pavilion is even devoted to healing broken Santa Muertes!

In 2008,“Comandante Pantera" was killed by gunfire. Since then, the shrine has been lovingly run by his mother, Enriqueta Vargas. In a very touching way, this shrine to Saint Death also seems to act as a memorial for her lost son.

Above are a few photographs of the shrine. You can see a full photoset by clicking here.

Thanks so much to the lovely Señora Vargas the rest of her crew, who were incredibly gracious and welcoming to us all. We also invite you to stop by The Morbid Anatomy Library to see some of the artifacts we acquired in the shrine's most excellent giftshop. To learn more the history of the shrine and the Santa Muerte phenomenon in general, check out the Most Holy Death website by clicking here. You can learn more about Enriqueta Vargas and her shrine by clicking here.

October is "Death in Mexico" Month at Morbid Anatomy with Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín

This October, the majority of the programming at the Morbid Anatomy Museum will be devoted to the unique cultural practices around death in Mexico under the tutelage of Mexico-born scholar in residence Salvador Olguín, a writer and researcher with an MA in Humanities and Social Thought from NYU who has worked extensively with cultural artifacts connected to the representation of Death. 

Over the course of the month, Olguín will seek to explore--via lectures, screenings, workshops, a reading group, field trips and a party--the historical background behind some of Mexico's most intriguing cultural practices and artifacts such as Day of the Dead and Santa Muerte (see above). Offerings include a reading group exploring ways in which the theme of human sacrifice has haunted the Mexican nation ever since the Spaniards first learned about this practice among the Aztecs, and will culminate in our second annual Field Trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca for Day of the Dead. The month's activities are co-sponsored by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.

Following is a full list of events taking place as part of Olguín's residency. To learn more about him, click here. Hope to see you at one or more of these terrific events!

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“La Santa Muerte (Saint Death)” A Screening of the Documentary with Director Eva Aridjis
Date: Friday, October 3rd
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (tickets here)

Tonight, join us and director Eva Aridjis for a film about the rapidly growing cult of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. This female grim reaper, considered a saint by followers but Satanic by the Catholic Church, is worshiped by people whose lives are filled with danger and/or violence- criminals, gang members, transvestites, sick people, drug addicts, and families living in rough neighborhoods.

More here.

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'Cuerpo Presente': Mourning and Cultural Representations of Death in Mexico, Featuring a Collection of Postmortem Photographs from Rural Mexico: An Illustrated lecture with Salvador Olguín
Date: Tuesday, October 7th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (tickets here)

This illustrated lecture will present a series of postmortem photographs taken between the 1930’s and the 1950’s, when the tradition of celebrating a person’s departure with a last photo was very much alive in small towns and villages in Mexico.

More here.
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Halloween/Day of the Dead Flea Market with multiple vendors selling taxidermy galore, mexican folk art, unusual antiques, obscure books, and assorted curiosities
Date: Sunday, October 12th
Time: 12pm to 6pm
Admission: FREE

Halloween/Day of the Dead Flea Market with your favorite artists, makers and antique peddlers, including Rebeca Olguin and Day of the Dead folk art; Daisy Tainton with her insect shadowboxes and mourning rings; Invisible Gallery and with his taxidermilogical curiosities; Elizabeth New and her abject housewares; Deadly Chocolate by Curious Candies; and many more!

More here.

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Screening of ¡Que Viva Mexico! by Sergei Eisenstein
Date: Sunday, October 12th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (tickets here)In 1930, after failing to secure enough backing for his motion picture projects in the US, Russian filmmaker Serguéi Eisenstein headed south to Mexico, where he shot about 40 hours worth of film. The idea was to produce a movie celebrating Mexico’s violent and diverse history. The title: ¡Que viva México! Join us to watch this film in our large screen, and for a conversation with writer Salvador Olguín afterwards.
More here.

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Human Sacrifice in Theory and History: Mexico and Beyond: Reading and discussion group led by Salvador Olguín
Dates: Three Mondays, October 13th, 20th and 27th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $28 (tickets here)

In this guided reading group, writer and Morbid Anatomy Museum scholar in residence Salvador Olguín will introduce attendees to texts, testimonials, and images dealing with the themes of human sacrifice and decapitation, in an attempt to understand the symbolic nature of current events and events in history. The class will touch on George Bataille's Acéphale society, which strove to, via a literal human sacrifice, save the world from catastrophe. It will also explore the ways in which the theme of human sacrifice has haunted the Mexican nation ever since the Spaniards first learned about this practice among the Aztecs.

More here.

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Field trip to Santa Muerte Shrine in Queens; save the date!
Date: October 18; More soon!

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Death and the Idea of Mexico: An Illustrated Lecture by Claudio Lomnitz, Director of the Center for Mexican Studies at Columbia University and author of Death and the Idea of Mexico
Date: Tuesday, October 21st
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 (tickets here)

In this lecture, professor Lomnitz will provide us with a glance into said past. The lecture is based on Lomnitz’s book (available for sale and signing at the Museum) Death and the Idea of Mexico, the first social, cultural, and political history of death in a nation that has made death its tutelary sign.

More here.

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Annual Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Party
Featuring an illustrated Lecture by Dr. Andrew Chestnut, Music, Costumes, Calavera Makeup, Tequila, Traditional Altar, Sugar Skulls, Death Piñata, and more!
Date: Friday, October 24th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $25 - $15 for Morbid Anatomy Museum Members (tickets here)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Borderline Projects

Please join us on Friday, October 24 for our annual Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos costume party! Featuting a mini-lecture by Dr. Andrew Chestnut, author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, The Skeleton Saint," Calavera Makeup by Jane Rose, tequila, music, sugar skulls, our beloved La Catrina, exotic tunes by DJ in Residence Friese Undine, a Day of the Dead Altar honoring the late film director Luis Bunuel, a Mexican Food Truck and, as always, an opportunity to strike a mortal blow to our beautiful piñata of Lady Death herself!

More here.

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Papel Picado (Day of the Dead Cut Paper Decoration) workshop with Rebeca Olguín
Date: Sunday, October 26th
Time: 1pm to 6pm
Admission: $100 (tickets here)

During this workshop the participants will make their own papel picado creations withdrawing inspiration from the traditional techniques and motives of the art of papel picado in Mexico

More here.

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Muerte en Mexico: A Special Field Trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca for for Day of the Dead to Visit Sites Important to the History of Death in Mexico
Dates: October 31 – November 4 2014 (**Must reserve by July 15)
 $675.00 USD (includes all hotels in double-rooms, luxury ground transportation, museum admissions, guided visits, and breakfasts; airfares not included); email info@borderlineprojects.com to reserve a space. Please send payments via PayPal to: info@borderlineprojects.com.  SOLD OUT


A 4-day trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca for Day of the Dead; curated, organized and guided by Mexican writer and scholar Salvador Olguín for Borderline Projects, and Morbid Anatomy. Includes day of the dead celebrations, markets, churches, luxury bus travel, hotels, tickets to museums and breakfasts.

More here.

Photo: Santa Muerte shrine, Mexico City.

Oaxaca: A Decapitated Native American Princess and Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead Trip : A Guest Post by Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín

Following is a guest post by Morbid Anatomy Library scholar in residence--and guide of the Morbid Anatomy annual Mexican Day of the Dead trip--Salvador Olguín. This year's trip will be take us to Mexico City and Oaxaca where we will visit Day of the Dead celebrations, epic churches, museums, markets, and much more. Oaxaca is famous for hosting some of the most lavish and unusual Day of the Dead altars, so this is sure to be a very special trip. We very much hope you'll consider joining us!

The 2014 Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead trip runs from October 31 through November 4th, and the deadline for registering is July 15. You can find out more about it the trip--and secure yourself a spot!--by clicking here. You can see photos from last year's trip by clicking here.

Oaxaca: A Decapitated Native American Princess

Oaxaca de Juárez, located in Mexico’s southern State of Oaxaca, is, in fact, a very ancient city. Humans have been present in the area since at least 7,500 BC, and some of its most prominent megalithic structures date from ca. 500 BC. The city’s official coat of arms features the image of the head of a decapitated woman, and is based on a legend from the Colonial era. Donají was a Zapotec princess who, according to legend, fell in love with Nucano, a prince from the rival Mixtec people. Mixtecs and Zapotecs had been fighting over the territory that is now Oaxaca way before it was conquered by the Aztecs and, subsequently, the Spaniards, and fighting continued well into the first decades of the Viceroyalty of the New Spain –i.e. Colonial Mexico, created in 1519 after the fall of the Aztec Empire. During one of these numerous confrontations, Donají was taken captive, converted to Christianity by recently baptized Mixtecs, and was finally decapitated. Her legend is still reenacted today during the festival of La Guelaguetza in Oaxaca.

A place of legend, Oaxaca has also played a key role in Mexico’s modern history. It was the birthplace of Benito Juarez, a Zapotec lawyer and liberal politician who went on to become one of the first Native American presidents in the American continent. He also famously overthrew an Imperial government, dubbed the Second Mexican Empire, imposed by Mexico’s Conservative Party on the back of a full-scale French invasion of the country. Juarez succeeded in his task after seeking weapons and support from Mexican Americans living in California, nicknamed Californios, and after being backed by a US government that had just come out of the American Civil War, and which imposed an 1866 naval blockade preventing further French troops to arrive in Mexico.

Today, the traces of Oaxaca’s violent history can still be felt, as well as the heritage of the many indigenous peoples that have lived, and still live in the city. This heritage can be specially felt during the celebration of the Days of the Dead, which take a prominent role in the lives of its citizens during the month of November. If you want to experience Oaxaca personally, this year I will be organizing a Special Tour to celebrate Day of the Dead in Mexico, together with the Morbid Anatomy Museum. You can find more information about the tour here.

Image: Day of the Dead in Oaxaca by Boris Spider; found here.

Museum of Mexican Medicine (Museo de la Medicina Mexicana), Palace of the Inquisition, Mexico City

On our recent trip to Mexico, we stopped in at the Museum of Mexican Medicine (Museo de la Medicina Mexicana) located at the Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico City. On the Sunday we went, it was so completely mobbed that we could barely even push our way up through all the families taking cell phone photos of the amazing moulages to see much of them ourselves. It was lovely to see such a museum so popular on any day, let alone a Sunday.

You can see some of the photos from the trip above; click here to see a more complete set. You can find out more about the museum by clicking here.

Happy Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos, Mexico City Style!

Happy Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos! Above are some photos of the decorations and festivities we saw in Mexico City ramping up to the big day. To see a full collection of photos, click here. More soon!