Black Christ of Esquipulas

Description

The Black Christ of Esquipulas is a wooden image of Christ now housed in the Cathedral Basilica of Esquipulas in Esquipulas, Guatemala, 222 kilometres (138 mi) from the city of Guatemala. It is one of the Cristos Negros of Central America and Mexico.

The image is known as “black” because Spanish missionaries wished to convert the natives who worshiped Ek-Kampulá. Ek-Kampulá was a deity worshiped by the natives of Equipulas, Guatemala, they believed he moved the clouds. Although such a name is relatively recent – in the 17th century it was also known as the “Miraculous Lord of Esquipulas” or the “Miraculous Crucifix venerated in the town called Esquipulas”. Esquipulas holds its patronal festival on 15 January, when the largest number of pilgrims come from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and other Central American countries. The festival is also celebrated in the United States of America in some cities and states, such as Los Angeles (California), New Jersey, Kansas, and New York with a high Central American populations. El Santuario de Chimayó, in Chimayó, New Mexico, also honors the Black Christ of Esquipulas.

There are few early sources on the development of the religious veneration of the image and pilgrimage to its site. According to tradition, the image was found in a cave and had healing power. According to scholarly work, the image was sculpted by a Portuguese artist in 1594. It blackened over the years due to soot from candles. In the late nineteenth century, the cult was buffeted by the political conflicts between conservatives who supported the Catholic Church and Guatemalan liberals, who were anticlerical, seeking to diminish the power of the Church. The Catholic hierarchy in Guatemala sought to increase its reach and to reinforce ideas that it symbolized a stance against leftists Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Árbenz in the late 1940s and early 1950s who were considered socialists or communists. The color of the image was not highlighted during this era, but rather the focus was on the importance to Catholicism. However, “the color of the image would become its defining characteristic by the 1980s, when it became a site where the war-ravaged nation could seek peace and justice.”