Abstract
In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Santo Domingo archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo (s. 1767–1788) issued a decree officializing the day of the cult for the Virgin of Altagracia as January 21 and made it a feast of three crosses for the villa of Salvaleón de Higüey and its jurisdiction, meaning all races (free and enslaved) were allowed to join the celebrations in church. Unrelated to the issuance of this decree and approximately during this time (c. 1760–1778), a series of painted panels depicting miracles performed by the Virgin of Altagracia was produced for her sanctuary of San Dionisio in Higüey, in all likelihood commissioned by a close succession of parish priests to the maestro painter Diego José Hilaris Holt. Painted in the coarse style of popular votive panels, they gave the cult a unifying core foundation of miracles. This essay discusses the significance of the black bodies pictured in four of the panels within the project’s implicit effort to institutionalize the regional cult and vis-à-vis the archbishop’s encouragement of non-segregated celebrations for her feast day. As January 21 was associated with a renowned Spanish creole battle against the French, this essay locates these black bodies within the cult’s newfound patriotic charisma. I examine the process by which people of color were incorporated into this community of faith as part of a two-step ritual that involved seeing images while performing difference. Through contrapuntal analysis of the archbishop’s decree, I argue the images helped model black piety and community membership within a hierarchical socioracial order.
Highlights
In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Santo Domingo archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo (s. 1767–1788) issued a decree officializing the day of the cult for the Virgin of Altagracia as January 21 and made it a feast of three crosses for the villa of Salvaleón de Higüey and its jurisdiction, meaning all races were allowed to join the celebrations in church
The lanceros from cattle ranching regions, many allegedly from the villa of Salvaleón de Higüey in the eastern-most edge of the island, and who fought at la Limonade under Antonio Miniel, Captain of the Militias, appropriated the battle as a victory they had themselves effected through the help of the Virgin of Altagracia, a miraculous painted icon with her home sanctuary in Higüey
The turning point for the definitive attribution of the victory came in the second half of the eighteenth century via a decree drafted by Santo Domingo archbishop Isidoro Rodríguez Lorenzo (s. 1767–1788), in which he officially declares the Day of the Virgin of Altagracia to be 21 January
Summary
It is during the third quarter of the eighteenth century, between 1760 and 1778 as attributed by Eugenio Pérez Montás, that a series of painted panels were produced for the sanctuary of San Dionisio in the villa of Salvaleón de Higüey depicting miracles performed by the Virgin of Altagracia. the earliest date they appear in sanctuary inventories is on 8 November 1861 as “twenty-seven retablos of oval shape, representing the miracles, all with golden fr . . . and adornments, except four that have them ar . . . ” (veinte y siete retablos de forma ovalada, representando los milagros, todos con marc . . . y adornos dorados, menos cuatro que los tienen ar . . . ) signed by Fr. In this regard it makes sense that the Altagracia medallions did not picture free-flowing apparition images of the Virgin on billowing clouds She is shown as a painted icon, firmly secured on the sanctuary altar in a retablo, expressing a restraint in visionary iconography that aligned with sermons from Hispaniola creole and Jesuit priest and lawyer Antonio Sánchez Valverde (1729–c.1791). The largest Altagracia medallion which reproduces one of the earliest and perhaps the foundational miracle (the “Empty Chest” legend) operates in a dual royalist and creole framework (Figure 5) It depicts the time when the icon was being transported to the Santo Domingo cathedral and it disappeared from the chest to return to its home sanctuary in Higüey.
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