http://www.lilibernard.com/Pages/CaridadCo... It is a popular cultural more (mo-ray) to name your children after the patron saint of the Hispanic country you are born in.
Santeria arose from a merging of the African religion, known as Yoruba, and Catholicism, which was imposed upon the slaves and the Cuban natives by the reigning Spaniards. Slaves, imported to Cuba from Africa, clandestinely practiced their Yoruba faith by disguising the names of the Orisha behind masks of Catholic Saint names. Ochun, being the Orisha of love, matrimony and motherhood was syncronistically paired with La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. For a more detailed explanation of Ochun and Santeria, please see my painting, "Ochun Sees Birth."
It is relevant to the history of Cuba’s cyclical suffrage, that its patron Saint (La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre) came to the world through the eyes of a young slave boy and two indigenous Cuban brothers. In most of the paintings that I have seen of the apparition of La Caridad, the slave boy is portrayed as a grown black man and the two indigenous brothers as Caucasians, sometimes with blond or orange hair. In my painting of Caridad, I wanted there to be no doubt, that Caridad was made visible to a nine or ten year old slave boy and two indigenous Cuban brothers. It was therefore that I made the slave boy bear-breasted in chains with the initials JG branded on his chest. The initials JG are referenced in another painting of mine. For further information on the branding of slaves in Cuba with regard to the initials JG,
Posted By: Marta Fernandez
Monday, August 1st 2011 at 2:19PM
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