|
Article Excerpt
On Saturday, May 19, 1999, we were chatting with Padre Guillermo Coronado, parish priest of Ures, Sonora. Padre Coronado remarked that if one encountered an elaborate (and therefore expensive) roadside chapel or shrine containing both the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Jude, it was in his opinion likely to have been erected by los narcotraficantes, or those in the drug-running business. This piqued our interest, and we started paying more attention to these common features of Sonoran roadscapes.
Immediately on crossing the border from Arizona into Sonora, Mexico, one is confronted by a wide variety of roadside religious art. Crosses, tiny shrines, chapels, paintings of the Virgin on cement slabs and road cuts--all these add a human touch to the roadscape and remind one of Mexico's traditional status as a Catholic nation. The monuments for the most part serve either as death markers or as thanks offerings resulting from a vow (manda). (1) All of the free-standing crosses and nichitos, or miniature chapels, fall into the former category, along with a few of the larger chapels. Monuments intended as death memorials, be they crosses or buildings large or small, may be identified by the fact that they have the name and dates of the deceased marked somewhere on them. The majority of the chapels, along with the murals, occupy the second category--that of thanks offerings for perceived miracles. It is the chapels (capillas) that are the subject of this paper.
The situation is rendered slightly more confusing by the fact that there does not seem to be a consistent local nomenclature for the buildings. Some Sonorans (and Chihuahuans) have told Griffith that if it looks like a chapel, no matter what its size, it is called a capilla. However, Griffith has also been told that the miniature buildings are called nichos or nichitos, and the smaller, phone-booth-sized buildings are called oratorios, while the term capilla should be reserved for buildings large enough to say mass in. Personally, we tend to use nicho for the tiny structures, and capilla or chapel for those buildings that are large enough for a person to enter.
The chapels discussed in this paper are roadside chapels--that is, they are situated beside public roads of some sort and are open to public access. Admittedly, there is a fine line between public and private chapels. If the road is bounded by a stock fence, and a chapel is inside that fence, do we still have a "roadside chapel? In this study, we have for the most part examined only those chapels that are easily accessible from public roads. The only exception is the San Martin chapel in a field near Trincheras, which will be discussed later in the paper.
THE CHAPELS
The typical capilla as defined in this study is a rectangular building with a door at one end (or on one side in the case of a square building) and an altar at the other. The roof may be flat, gabled, or vaulted. The facade roofline may be flat, peaked, or stepped, or it may have one central and two corner peaks. Very occasionally one or more towers may be added to the front corners of the building. These usually appear to be purely decorative and seldom support bells, as would a church tower. The side walls may be pierced for windows, and occasionally there may be a roofed porch before the door. The building is usually built on a slab, sometimes with a step leading up to the door. Inside the chapel, an altar stands against the rear wall, opposite the door. The saint to whom the chapel is dedicated occupies a prominent, central place on or above the altar. Candles are often placed on or in front of the altar. In cases where the chapel door is not locked, many passersby may have left their candles (and the prayers associated with those candles) for the saint's consideration and possible action. Representations of other saints and members of the Holy Trinity and Holy Family may be present in the chapel as well as the primary saint. These may have been left by people other than the original builders.
We have collected data on forty-five chapels along Sonora's roads and highways. Our selection has been slightly arbitrary; we have not included in our listing those chapels that are separated from the road by a fence and therefore seem to be private or ranch chapels, rather than true roadside ones. Of these forty-five buildings, thirteen are dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, (2) and ten to San Judas Tadeo (St. Jude). (3) Four "belong" to the reclining San Francisco Xavier, informal patron of the region; (4) three to St. Martin of Porres; (5) two each to Jesus Malverde (6) and the Holy Child of Atocha; (7) and one each to St. Nicolas, (8) St. Hedwig, (9) Our Lady of Fatima, (10) el Senor de los Afligidos (The Lord of the Afflicted, or Christ resting on the road to Calvary), St. Martin of Tours, (11) and St. Raymond. (12) One is marked "Perdon y Amor" (Pardon and Love), and three are dedicated to la Santisima Muerte (Most Holy Death), an individual with whom we shall deal later. Two are death memorials.
This presents a fairly representative catalogue of the saints who are most popular in this region of northwest Mexico. The Virgin of Guadalupe, patroness and Mother of all Mexicans, leads the procession, closely followed by St. Jude, patron of impossible causes, who has become extremely popular within the last twenty years. St. Martin of Porres, another saint with a deep interest in the underdogs of society, was popular in the 1950s and 1960s,...
|
