Talk:Santo (art)

New Mexico focus
I take issue with this genre of art being identified mostly with New Mexico. It was and continues to be a practice throughout Latin America. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daniel the Monk (talk • contribs) 13:53, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Then improve the article with sourced material. :-)  By the time I got to it, it was almost entirely dominated by Philippines-related content, and still does not cover Latin America.  There's a strong and distinct tradition in Puerto Rico, and at least one in Mexico, that I know of, but I don't have much if any material about either.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  21:58, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

Mexico
I don't know about mainstream use in Mexico, but some research I did for anthropology classes a few years ago suggested that the santero tradition has all but died out in northern Mexico. In central Mexico, however, there still seems to be a strong bastidor tradition, especially among only partially-Hispanized indigenous people, that involves parading around a litter/shrine with a large saint statue, I forget which one, to pray to for crop success, and it also involves giving money to the statue. All this amid dangerously large fireworks going off on the ground, and some very detailed sawdust painting, rather like a giant's version of sand painting, forming a pathway through the village (surely over a mile of it) that got trampled and turned into mush. I know some mainstream Catholics have condemned this ritual as a pagan Indio fertility rite survival, and blatant idolatry, but the locals consider it all properly Catholic. I was privileged, as a gringo, to have been allowed to be there for it. It was followed by a church service (not in Spanish, as I recall), then outside, a "Moorish" dance: a combination of faintly Arabian-inspired costuming (with face veils, and, as in English "Morris" dancing, lots of jingly stuff), but danced in a style and to music that was clearly indigenous. I'm guessing their ancestors saw the Colonial Spanish doing Moorish/Arab-derived dances, and then just ran with the idea without much further input. Anyway, I may have pics of the bastidor on one of my SD cards. I would think most of the RS material about what's going on with these uses of large bultos in Mexico is probably in Spanish sources I'm unaware of. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  21:58, 30 June 2016 (UTC)