Arte mariano en Latinoamérica: La iconografía religiosa como mecanismo de control y sello de identidad durante la Conquista

Abstract

From antique times, art has been used to communicate both beliefs and aesthetic values of societies and as a mechanism of control of the ruling class. This article aims to analyze the Marian Art in Latin America during the first decades after the Castile Crown conquest, the symbolic struggle that took place over that “Conquest of the imaginary” period and the emergence of a proper identity expression through triangle-shaped mestizo virgins such as Virgen del Cerro de Potosí, the Inmaculada Concepción and Virgen de Luján. During the first years of the conquest, the faithful, far from leaving their old cults behind, added the new Marian miracles situated in hills (previous places of pre-Columbian worship to Pachamama), leading a syncretism among religions. The old virgins were not fully imposed but adapted by using domestic manufacture and indigenous features. As a result, a Marian art would arise as a reflection of a new stage in the continent with new meanings and mestizo iconographies following negotiations and cultural tensions. In pursuit of the miraculous virgins favor, pilgrimages have become the trigger of local economies and have consolidated the power of the church until today.