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Abstract
Each year on December 17 the Cuban American community of Hialeah, Florida celebrates the feast of San Lázaro with the veneration of statues, dramatic rites of incarnation and mortification, and grand processions through the streets. San Lázaro is a figure of intersection among a variety of religious histories and interests. His devotion materially juxtaposes African, European, Catholic, and Spiritist aspirations and meanings in an evolving iconography and practice. And his veneration in embodied rites involves direct confrontation with frightening powers of disease, decomposition and death. This essay explores the many San Lázaros expressed in his statuary, his ritual garments, and embodied rituals.
Notes
1 Rincón is a difficult idiom to translate. It means “corner” in the sense of a “place” or “spot.”
2 I am indebted to Katherine Hagedorn (Citation2002) for the proper word “virgule” for the slash that both connects and separates San Lázaro and Babalú Ayé.
3 http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/exile/miami-dade-08.htm; http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/cuban-immigrants-united-states.
5 Father Augustín Román’s words to me in an interview in 1979.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joseph M. Murphy
Joseph M. Murphy is Tagliabue Professor of Interfaith Studies and Dialogue in the Theology Department of Georgetown University. He is the author of many works on Caribbean religions including Santería: An African Religion in America, Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the African Diaspora, Botánicas: Sacred Spaces of Healing and Devotion in Urban America, and Osun Across the Waters: A Yoruba Goddess in Africa and the Americas edited with Mei Mei Sanford. His interests lie at the intersection of cultural mixture, ritual symbolism and religious experience.