Last Tuesday, I went with my friend Blas to an art museum in downtown LaPaz. Blas is an art student here. He is really good. The art museum was not huge, but with Blas there to explain things, it was amazing. Ive never had such an enlightening time at an art museum.
I dont know where to start with the art museum. Theres too much to tell about to keep your attention through a blog post, so Im going to have to cut it extremely short.
"Heaven is my throne, and the earth is muy footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?" These are the words of the prophet Isaiah in the last chapter of his book and also the last words of Stephen before he is stoned by the Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria before the Sanhedrin. Stephen essentially says the Jews have been, and still are, a rebelous nation bent on worshiping idols. He even goes so far as to say that the Holy Temple is an idol created by man in rebellion against the God who cannot be contained by a building.
In South America, Catholicism is quite a different animal. When the conquistadors came to South America, they evangelized the indigenous people, but their efforts ran a slightly destructive route. In their attempt to bring the people the one true God, they were unable to draw away from the deeply-rooted idolatry already formed in the indigenous religion. The ancient religions still live on today, but with different faces of saints and apostles and angels. The ancient mother-earth god Pachamama is portrayed as Mary with the moon at her feet and the stars at her head. El Tio is the ancient god of the underworld who has become the diablo or devil. Before they set off for work, miners still offer sacrifices to the devil the same way they offered sacrifices to el tio in ancient times. Catholics at many churches will have formal processions where they put money into the clothes of different statues of saints.
The art shows evident traces of this. Most of the art is done by indigenous artists but with strong European influences, so it doesnt look like any sort of tribal artwork or anything, but mixed in with the strong Christian symbolism are things that seem slightly askew. There are some paintings portraying three Christs crowning Mary. These paintings were deemed heretical by the Catholic church for representing God as three identical persons. Its interesting to see that where there is not extreme cultural tension between the old ways and the new, there is extreme synchrotism acting as a sort of peacemaker. I wonder what would happen if Stephen were here to give his anti-temple speech today?
This is already too long. I was going to write about my adventure to Lake Titicaca with the South Africans, but this post is long enough. I leave you with pictures to see of the trip. Ask me about it when I get home.
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