This study by an author with intergenerational ties to the Penitentes--the deeply religious group called Hermanos de la Luz (Brothers of the Light)--ties the santero folk art of New Mexico, the Penitente Brotherhood, and the Penitente religious hymns together. (Christian)
The author's personal meditation on his cultural heritage is also a kind of spiritual autobiography of the Hispano people of New Mexico. In evoking this special closeness between the divine and the human, he returns repeatedly to the Penitentes of New MexicoNthe societies of men who scourge themselves and replay the Crucifixion each Holy Week to share the sufferings of their Savior.
Michael Wallis's straightforward text and Craig Varjabedian's unadorned photos capture the deep piety of the Penitente Brotherhood and their complex relationship with their history and the modern world.
As a result, Carroll concludes, Penitente membership facilitated the rise of the modernin New Mexico and--however unintentionally--made it that much easier, after the territory's annexation by the United States, for the Anglo legal system to dispossess Hispanos of their land.
New Mexico's Spanish legacy has informed the cultural traditions of one of the last states to join the union for more than four hundred years, or before the alluring capital of Santa Fe was founded in 1610. The fame the region gained from artist Georgia O'Keefe, writers Lew Wallace and D.H. Lawrence and pistolero Billy the Kid has made New Mexico an international tourist destination. But the Spanish annals also have enriched the Land of Enchantment with the factual stories of a superhero knight, the greatest queen in history, a saintly gent whose coffin periodically rises from the depths of the earth and a mysterious ancient map. Join author Ray John de Aragón as he reveals hidden treasure full of suspense and intrigue.
An insight into the secretive life and history of the Penitentes based on the author's experiences, family journals, interviews, and site visits in Colo. and New Mexico. Numerous photos of Penitentes, their rituals, instruments, and moradas. Personal interviews, actual journals, prayers and songs.