Religion and immigration

Abstract

A documentary focused on the cult of the Crucified Christ, known to a Peruvian community living in Italy as the “Lord of the Miracles.” History of this devotion stretches back to 1651, in the outskirts of Lima (known as La Ciudad de los Reyes –“the city of kings”– in viceregal Peru).
 Today this image of the Christ –originally painted by an Angolan slave– is venerated throughout October in Peru as well as in every nation where Peruvian immigrant communities have formed around the so-called “Brotherhood of the Lord of the Miracles.” Rome’s is considered the most significant such community because of its presence in the Eternal City and its proximity to Saint Peter’s successors.
 The video documentary presents the history, religious ways and lived anthropology of an immigrant community in diaspora. We seek to express the meaning the cult holds among the faithful, according to what its prominent members have described and lived. We observe the religious observances’ character, their various key moments and the social as well as symbolic importance they hold for Peruvian immigrant communities in Italy’s capital city.