Abstract
Healing is the basis of belief in San Lázaro, a popular saint among Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and other Latinx peoples. Stories about healing, received through faith in San Lázaro, are typically passed on through family members, rendering them genealogical narratives of healing. In this photo essay, the author draws on her maternal grandmother’s devotion to San Lázaro and explores how other devotees of this saint create genealogical narratives of healing that are passed down from generation to generation. These genealogical narratives of healing function as testaments to the efficaciousness of San Lázaro’s healing abilities and act as familial avenues through which younger generations inherit belief in the saint. Using interview excerpts and ethnographic observations conducted at Rincón de San Lázaro church in Hialeah, Florida, the author locates registers of lo cotidiano, the everyday practices of the mundane required for daily functions and survival, and employs arts-based methods such as photography, narrative inquiry, and thematic poetic coding to show how the stories that believers tell about San Lázaro, and their experiences of healing through faith in the saint, constitute both genealogical narratives of healing and genealogical healing narratives where testimonies become a type of narrative medicine.
Highlights
Living through a global pandemic gave me pause and cause to reflect on the importance of faith, family, and community in my life
Using ethnographic and interview information gathered during fieldwork I conducted at Rincón de San Lázaro church in Hialeah, Florida, during the summer of 2016, I apply narrative inquiry and thematic poetic coding to my interview and observation notes in order to draw out how the stories told about San Lázaro constitute genealogical narratives of healing
Contrary to official Catholic doctrine on saint veneration, devotees who mainly identify as Catholic often pray directly to San Lázaro, establishing a relationship of reciprocity through their familial practices of offerings and promises in exchange for healings
Summary
Living through a global pandemic gave me pause and cause to reflect on the importance of faith, family, and community in my life. Whether we practice Catholicism, Santería/Lucumí, Espiritismo, Curanderismo, or other religious traditions, we often arrive at religion through familial ties and ancestors While this is arguably not exclusive to Latinx communities, the stories that make up our personal canons of religious narratives are by and large rooted in our genealogies. Devotion to saints, both popular and canonized, demonstrates how genealogical narratives— about healing in the broadest conception of the term—are passed down from generation to generation These genealogical narratives of healing provide individuals with familial evidence of the efficacy of faith. They are instructive since their telling often includes a recounting of ritual practices and effective divine reception as confirmed by the experience of healing received by the story’s protagonist. These stories can ease suffering caused by physical, emotional, or psychological illness, and through their optimistic outcomes, can provide hope for the afflicted
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