New Folklore Society Voices

"In a country where the official church was often identified with an oppressive colonial government, santos—and the domestic devotions associated with them—allowed their owners to bypass the church in their dealings with the sacred world."

NOTE: The New York Folklore Society Newsletter and New York Folklore Journal were replaced by Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore which debuted December, 2000.

New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org

Spring/Summer 1999

SPRING/SUMMER 1999 VOICES MAIN PAGE

Santos

Santos are hand-carved wooden images of saints or biblical themes. Scholars suggest that the first carvers in the Caribbean were sixteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan priests. It is difficult to say when the first santos were carved by local Puerto Rican artisans. Some scholars feel that the tradition may date to the early 1700s. Written records verify that the custom of keeping santos in private homes was widespread by the 1800s. This was especially true in the isolated, rural mountain regions of the country’s interior where surviving Taíno and enslaved Africans escaped to safety. Devotions associated with the santos tradition reflect both Spanish folk Catholicism, which linked the religion with the workings of the natural world, and similar African beliefs. Saints were seen as protectors from all types of natural disaster and disease. In a country where the official church was often identified with an oppressive colonial government, santos—and the domestic devotions associated with them—allowed their owners to bypass the church in their dealings with the sacred world. Santero Ramón Estrada-Vega recalls the impact santos had on him growing up in Puerto Rico.

Three Kings with traditional instruments by Domingo Orta, 1990

As a boy growing up in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, I often stayed with an aunt who had a home altar with many santos. I would fall asleep at night watching the shadows of the saints dancing on the walls and ceiling. The candles on the altar made the shadows flicker and dance—they looked so big! This is my earliest memory of santos.

Years later, I carved my first saint after watching artist Pablo Rinaldi work at a crafts festival. For many years, I visited the old santeros living in the island’s interior each summer. To me, santos are an art that defines Puerto Rico as a nation. They were first made by isolated villagers expressing their own sense of creativity and beauty—not imitating someone else’s art.
—Ramón Estrada-Vega
Buffalo, NY

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