Never try to take a cab in downtown Lima,Peru’s capital, on October 18! You will be stuck for the rest of the day because of the millions of people who fill up the streets to celebrate the Lord of the Miracles, the most popular religious icon in the country. No other event can mobilize so many people; not even national soccer matches or political elections. It has even been claimed that the procession of the Lord of the Miracles is the religious event inLatin Americathat gathers the largest number of people on the streets. The icon kept inLima’s Nazarenas church is worshiped by a multitude of people united by a common hope that the Lord will protect and give them strength in their daily lives.
The Lord of the Miracles is an image that represents a drawing of Jesus Christ believed to have been the object of the Savior’s disclosure. The painting made by an African slave in the 17th century has become known as the Cristo Moreno (Colored Christ) because Jesus Christ was portrayed as an Afro-Peruvian. The widespread faith in this image incarnates fear over the earthquakes that periodically hit Limaand the rest of Peruand respect for the powers that control these natural forces. The adoration also symbolizes the country’s long history of cultural hybridity and reflects a collective consciousness of the process of mestizaje (ethnic mixture) that shapes Peruvian history and society. Thus the legend of the Savior who reveals himself in a drawing of a Colored Christ made by an African slave contains a religious message to millions of Peruvians and other Latin Americans of mixed racial heritage to whom conventional images of Jesus Christ and other Christian icons are difficult to identify with.
Peruvians’ belief in the image can be traced back to the first Africans that the Spaniards brought to Peru in the 16th century to work in the plantations on the Peruvian coast. The slaves rapidly learned Spanish, converted to Christianity and, inspired by the Spaniards, formed their own religious brotherhoods. The newcomers fromAfricawere also influenced by the indigenous population on the Peruvian coast who taught them to make mural paintings believed to please the spiritual forces that control the earthquakes. However, instead of painting images of local Andean gods, the Africans made murals of Christ. In 1655 an earthquake hitLimacreating panic among its citizens and causing extensive physical damages. Yet according to history, the wall with the mural of the image of the Lord painted by an Afro-Peruvian slave remained intact. Later and stronger earthquakes in 1687 and 1746 laid large parts ofLimain ruins and prompted a growing number of mestizos and Spaniards to join the African slaves’ deification of the image.
Initially, the Catholic church regarded this adoration with great mistrust but when it ordered the murals to be erased in 1671, the icon revealed its godly power once again and resisted the attempts to destroy it. In the aftermath of the event, Lima’s citizens began to make processions carrying the icon around the streets of the city to ask for protection against the terrible quakes. It was eventually recognized by the ecclesiastical authorities in Lima and the hermitage of Pachacamilla where African slaves had painted the image of Cristo Moreno and where the Lord’s miraculous revelation had occurred was turned into a convent. African-Peruvians formed their first hermandad (religious brotherhood) in 1540 as a branch of a local Spanish religious institution.
The Procession
Since the 18th century a religious brotherhood has arranged annual processions in the honor of the Lord of the Miracles on October 18, during which male devotees organized in squads (cuadrillas) carry the icon through the streets of central Lima. Currently, there exist 20 such cuadrillas in Lima. Female devotees also participate as sahumadoras (women carrying the thuribles) and cantadoras (women who sing).Together with the cargadores they are organized in a brotherhood called Hermandad de Cargadores y Sahumadoras established in 1878. Other devotees participate as martilleros (male devotees ringing the bell to direct the march of the carriers) and capataces and subcapataces (male devotees directing the cuadrillas). In 1996 the brotherhood decided to extend the processions to other parts of the city in response to the growing attention which the icon had received among the city’s inhabitants during the past three decades.
The Social Implications
The massive participation is proof of the tremendous popularity that the image has gained amongPeru’s urban poor including many migrants from the country’s Andean hinterland.
This conflation of religious faith and national identity has been further spurred by the massive exodus of Peruvians in the past 30 years. Today,Peru’s fast growing Diaspora covers four continents with immigrant communities in several major cities in the industrialized world and constitutes a highly differentiated population. Despite geographical dispersion and social heterogeneity, however, migrants share a common interest in forming religious brotherhoods and participating in annual processions to honor the Lord of the Miracles. Currently, there exist more than 50 such brotherhoods in theUnited States,Canada,Argentina,Spain,Italy,Japan,Chile,ColumbiaandVenezuela, the countries with major concentrations of Peruvian migrants.
During the late 1970s and early ‘80s migrants in the New York Cityarea established a number of similar institutions to honor other Catholic saints or icons. These include brotherhoods honoring San Martín de Porres and Santa Rosa de Lima. While San Martín de Porres and the Lord of the Miracles both are images of male mulattos (mulattos), Santa Rosa de Lima represents a mestizo woman of Limeño origin who lived in extreme austerity but also strongly committed to her faith to God. and today approximately eight religious institutions celebrating the Lord of the Miracles exist in this country.
The Expatriation of the Lord of the Miracles
The first religious brotherhood honoring the Lord of Miracles, was formed in 1971 by Peruvians inNew York City.
These processions now form the larger gatherings of Peruvians outsidePeru. This interest in adoring Peru’s famous Lord of the Miracles among migrant in New York and other parts of the northeastern United States in the 1970s was wherever we are.”, their faith in the Lord of the Miracles reflects a wish to create alternative meanings of being immigrants in North American societies receive the bulk of the country’s immigrants. TheUSAhas been a multicultural society for a long time. Thus in New York City Peruvians organize processions in honor of the Lord of the Miracles along with other ethnic minorities celebrating their religious saints or national holidays such as the Irish (Saint Patrick’s Day) and the Puerto Ricans (the Puerto Rican Parade).
This attempt by migrants to localize the belief in Peruvian images in their everyday lives is evident in the growing number of brotherhoods in the United States that design their own home pages on the internety, Peruvians have formed independent brotherhoods in Fort Lauderdale, Broward and Dade County, Tampa, , Saratoga, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Austin, Arizona, LA, Pasadena, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Baltimore, and Toronto, Canada. In recent years migrant communities in other parts of the world have also created religious brotherhoods. In 1988 Peruvians inBuenos Airesestablished the first brotherhood in honor of the Lord of the Miracles inArgentina. Likewise, religious institutions were formed by Peruvians inSpainin the early 1990s. The first was created inMadrid(which then broke up into two independent brotherhoods) and later another one saw the light of the day inBarcelona. InItalya similar process happened. First migrants formed a brotherhood inRome, then inMilanand, finally, inTurinand Genova, the four cities with major concentrations of Peruvians in the country. Finally, Peruvians inJapanalso started to form brotherhoods and today approximately eight religious institutions celebrating the Lord of the Miracles exist in this country.
Throughout the world Peruvians create migrant associations, organize football matches, arrange folklore shows, and engage in collective activities (such as the collection of economic support for their fellow countrymen in Peru after the Niño disaster in 1998) that evoke memories of their past lives in Peru and produce a notion of shared cultural identity. However, no other activity is considered more emblematic of being Peruvian than arranging processions in honor of the Lord of the Miracles and bringing the icon to the streets in foreign countries. Wherever Peruvians go, the Lord of the Miracles follows them. Or as one Peruvian inLos Angelestold me, ‘El Señor always accompany us. We just have to bring his image with us and take it to the streets wherever we are.”, their faith in the Lord of the Miracles reflects a wish to create alternative meanings of being immigrants in North American societies.
