The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe

by Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba

"In Mexico, the Latino United States, Poland, and Brazil, the Black Madonna, manifested in the figures of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Matka Boska Czestochowska, and Nossa Senhora Aparecida/Iemanja, has been a symbol of identity and resistance against oppression, and the subject of curious iconographic transformations. These often conflict with the official control of church and state. Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines this complex figure from a comparative, cross-cultural, and dynamic perspective in four areas, going beyond the Spanish-speaking world. By encompassing and comparing Spanish American/Indian, Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean, east-central European, and Mexican American traditions, this book addresses fundamental questions of culture, such as interaction at the borderlands and parallel developments in distant locations. It examines these topics in the light of the theories of transculturation and syncretism, concluding with an analysis of contemporary uses of the Black