Using Latinx Theology’s Lo Cotidiano to Decolonialize Oller’s El Velorio

This article explores the theological valences of Francisco Oller y Cestero’s El Velorio (ca. 1893), his interpretation of the child’s funerary wake called bakiné in Puerto Rico, using the Latinx theological concept of lo cotidiano and its decolonializing force. In contrast to Oller’s elitist and co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rios, Héctor Manuel Varela (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie 2021
In: Journal for religion, film and media
Year: 2021, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, Pages: 87-106
Further subjects:B Theology
B Puerto Rico
B Decolonial
B Oller
B Latinx
B El Velorio
B lo cotidiano
B Species
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Description
Summary:This article explores the theological valences of Francisco Oller y Cestero’s El Velorio (ca. 1893), his interpretation of the child’s funerary wake called bakiné in Puerto Rico, using the Latinx theological concept of lo cotidiano and its decolonializing force. In contrast to Oller’s elitist and colonialized view of bakiné as "brutish" and "superstition", a decolonial cotidiano approach valorizes its nuanced expression of Puerto Rican popular religion, identity, and culture among everyday belief and practice. This approach construes bakiné as a celebration of life, orthodox in light of Catholic doctrine, and representative of the reality of many Puerto Ricans to this day, a life in which redemption triumphs over sin and creativity over chaos even when rife with suffering and oppression. Indeed, El Velorio evinces a popular hermeneutic, a quotidian relationality, and a creative faith that has larger theological implications about the complexities of being human, being religious-in-community, and being created, and about the relationship between theology, art, and human.
ISSN:2617-3697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.25364/05.7:2021.2.5