I changed the art above my fireplace for Easter. I placed an 18th century Guatemalan wooden corpus above the mantle for Holy Week and Easter. I think I’ll keep him there for the summer.
A closer look. “He browses among the lilies.” - Song of Songs
(And no, Senator Keeley and his wife are not coming for dinner.)
Pictured: Miss Mexico contestant, Rosa Maria Ojeda, in her Miss Universe “ethnic” dress.
From what I understand, the Mexican Church is upset The contestant representing Mexico in the Miss Universe pageant is wearing a designer gown representing the religious history of Catholic Mexico. She is draped in “relicarios” consisting of scapulars, rosaries and medals, with a skirt illustrating “ex-votos” of Mexican piety, including the Madonna of Guadalupe, as well as prints of the Mexican martyrs from the 1920’s persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico.
“Mexican Catholics are outraged over a floor-length dress adorned with crosses and scapulars as well as images of the executions of 1920s Cristero martyrs that the country’s Miss Universe contestant had planned to wear.
The Toronto Star reports that Miss Mexico is toning down her Miss Universe pageant dress - not because it’s too slinky or low-cut, but because its bullet-studded belt and images of hangings from the Cristero uprising have outraged Mexicans.
The floor-length dress is accented with crosses, scapulars and a sketch of a man facing a firing squad. Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries argued it represented the nation’s culture and history, especially since Mexico City is hosting the pageant in May.” - CathNews
Without knowing the politics of the contestant, I will venture to guess this is not an anti-Catholic statement on the part of this woman or her designer. Churchmen are saying it is irreverent and anti-Church, pandering to the anti-Catholic sentiments left over from the earlier persecutions, I find that hard to believe. For one thing, earlier anti-Catholic forces would surely not appreciate anyone celebrating the martyrs they created in any expression of art, even if it happens to be an innocuous expression of ethnic dress, albeit, an expression of piety that has fallen by the wayside.
A little bit of history repeating…
“In the New World, travelers and soldiers going into battle wore these precious devotional jewels for protection. Missionaries proselytizing Natives used them as teaching instruments, and gave them as special presents to converts. Relicarios comforted men and women religious in the solace of their cloisters and indicate their hagiographic affiliations. Lay persons of fashion wore bejeweled relicarios as displays of their piety as well as in an evasion of the Crown’s Sumptuary Laws, which forbade the wearing of ostentatious jewelry.” -Relicarios
Historically, it was customary for Hispanic women to adorn themselves with religious relicarios, rosaries, and medallions. Even the ex-votos covering sacred images and statues reflect the custom. In time, save for in the small hamlets of the provinces in the early 20th century, this custom was abandoned, nevertheless it had been a part of Hispanic culture and tradition, as well as fashion - like it or not.
Painting: by Vicente Alban, “Important Woman” wearing relicarios. In this case the tableau the woman wears is rather modest, in other photographic examples, that I do not have net access to, women are draped in relicarios.
My understanding is the costume Miss Mexico had chosen to wear, was a choice which represented her heritage for that portion of the contest wherein traditional costumes, or those representative of one’s ethnicity and culture, are worn during the pageant. I don’t think it was meant to be a slam against the Church, quite the contrary.
Nevertheless, the contestant toned down her dress due to the Catholic protest. Seems to me the Mexican Catholics have more to worry about than what a beauty pageant contestant is wearing, although it obviously doesn’t bother them that she wears next to nothing in the swimsuit competition.
As I always say, especially to churchmen, choose your battles - not everything is an attack against the Church. Don’t forget that American Catholics run around with t-shirts and sweatshirts sreenprinted with pious images.
[An excellent book on the subject of relicarios is "Relicarios" by Martha J. Egan.]
Nice work NBC News - and all the other networks for that matter. Release Cho’s tapes and give him the fame he desired. NBC’s ratings and market share for their broadcast was off the charts - leaving poor Katie Couric in the dust. Talk about irresponsible journalism and tabloid TV.
“Fame, nien! its mine! is just his line
To bind your time, it drives you to, crime
Fame (fame)” - David Bowie
33 dead at Virginia Tech - 200 dead in Bagdad yesterday - who got the news? A psychotic killer and his video tapes. (Oh, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, pissing and moaning that the country is going backwards because of the Court’s decision concerning partial birth abortion.)
Weird values in this country…really weird.
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