The Black Madonna Phenomenon - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Black Madonna Phenomenon – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Malgorzata Oleskiwicz of the University of Texas – San Antonio researches the concept of personal geography and the role of black Madonnas in Latin American and Eastern European liberation movements.

The brown Virgen of Guadalupe figures into the “Black Madonna” pantheon according to Oleskiwicz.  Filming religious ceremonies of Brazilian descendants of Yoruban slaves from Western Africa (primarily modern-day Nigeria), Oleskiwicz was struck by how similar the iconography and religious practices were between Yoruban and Polish worshipers.

Why so many people are drawn to black Madonnas was discussed by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum of the California Institute for Integral Studies and China Galland of the Graduate Theological Union.  Both emphasized that we must respond to this phenomenon with academic rigor.

Birnbaum happily told the group, “Male geneticists and anthropologists have pinpointed the origin of human life in Africa.  And, migrating Africans took their goddess with them.”

Galland pointed out that despite our common genetic origins, the manifestations of the black Madonna are as different as the cultures within which they develop.

For Galland, the black Madonas beckon us to defend life on Earth.  She stressed that our real enemies are not people, but greed, hatred, delusion, and jealousy.

Galland encouraged participants to have everyday spiritual practices such as prayers, caring for plants, preparing family meals, and outdoor walks to bring love into our lives.  These acts allow us to transform anger and act with compassion and levelheadedness.

The birth of Chicana artist Rosa M’s son prompted her to literally deconstruct the Virgen of Guadalupe down to the bones.  She left only the heart inside a painting of the Virgen, wanting to pass on to her son something that would reflect both their Indian and European heritage.  She left the heart to show that “We mature as individuals, when we sacrifice ourselves for others.

Anne-Marie Sayers, founder of the Costanoan Indian Research Center and chronicler of the persistence of culture offered wise remarks about resilience:  When the ceremonies stop, so does the Earth.”

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Black Madonna Phenomenon - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Black Madonna Phenomenon by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

In addition to reviewing restaurants for the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000 – California’s Central Coast), I also wrote several art reviews and covered the 9^th annual Virgen of Guadalupe Conference organized by Dr. Jennifer Colby of California State University – Monterey Bay.

The conference was held in San Juan Bautista, California and began with an extensive discussion of the Virgen of Guadalupe and led to the topic of Black Madonnas worldwide.

The article I wrote follows with a few edits:

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

The Virgen of Guadalupe’s mythic story has roots that reach back centuries and still moves believers.  It begins when the Indian Juan Diego first sees the Virgen on Tepeyac Hill outside Mexico City, a site sacred to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.

The Virgen asks Juan Diego to have the Catholic bishop build her a shrine.  When the bishop refuses, the Virgen makes Castille roses bloom in December.  Juan Diego takes these to the bishop.

When Juan Diego removes the cloth holding the roses, an image of a finely featured woman with brown skin appears.  She wears a blue mantle decorated with stars.  A golden aureole radiates behind her.

The Virgen of Guadalupe’s influence continues to this day, and her presence radiated throughout the 9^th Annual Virgen conference that Dr. Jennifer Colby organized last weekend in San Juan Bautista, California.

Working in the fields as an activist, Colby witnessed firsthand how the Virgen galvanizes and sustains farmworkers. 

Conference attendee Shirley Flores pointed out that it took the Catholic Church hundreds of years to accept the Virgen of Guadalupe as she is.  Even now, the Virgen of Guadalupe occupies back chapels and is considered as “the other” Madonna.

CSU-Monterey professor Amalia Mesa-Baines summed up why we become attached to images like the Virgen of Guadalupe’s:

The spiritual belongs to us at all moments.  She is everywhere.  But, when we are weak, we need an icon.  The icon is not the spirit, but it calls it up.

Mesa-Baines added that the Virgen functions through geography.  Virgin sightings happen near trees, rivers, and circles of stones.  We make pilgrimages to these sites.  Local shrines are erected where an accident or death occurred.  A picture of the Virgen always decorates these spots.

End of Part 1.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Sampling Mexican Cuisine in San Juan Bautista, California by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sampling Mexican Cuisine in San Juan Bautista by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Every feast of Saint John the Baptist on June 24^th or around it, my family and I would go out to San Juan Bautista for lunch at Les Jardines Restaurant.

The first thing you have to know about driving in San Juan Bautista is that roosters strut around the town and in all the roads.  They are pets.  They will never be coq au vin.

Their owners do watch over them, but you are in the roosters’ town, and you must slow down for the roosters and kids.  That is driving etiquette for adults.

There are actually three restaurants that I like in San Juan Bautista: Dona Esther, Les Jardines, and a Basque restaurant that has changed names over the years depending on which family member owns it at the time.

We usually went to Dona Esther when Florence was little, because children, parents, and grandparents usually eat there.  There is a lot of good, warm food; wandering mariachi bands on Sunday; and children can practice their “nice manners” here.  Children at Dona Esther do not play video games.  They talk with their families and learn how to speak with people of all ages, including grandparents.

Les Jardines is a more adult affair, which makes Tex-Mex food, but serves it European style.  I like Les Jardines, because I can get menudo soup everyday of the week here instead of just on Sunday like I do at El Rancho in Marina, California.

Menudo is a Mexican tripe soup with spicy chicken-tomato-pepper broth.  It comes steaming hot with dry parsley and a lime-like citrus fruit from Mexico called a citron.

You squeeze the citron juice into the menudo and put parsley in it.  Menudo is supposed to be a cure for hangovers, but I just like the flavors.  There are a lot of nutrients in this soup and something like zero calories.

For people who are squeamish about eating tripe, they should remember that one of the specialties of French cuisine is tripe a la Caen.  The French travel to that city to specifically eat this dish, buy Calvados (apple brandy), and visit the tomb of William the Conqueror.

Laurent usually orders a carne-asada platter (thin-cut, grilled steak), which arrives with a mound of stewed, black beans, sour cream, torn iceberg lettuce with California black olives; Spanish rice; and soft, corn tortillas.

Les Jardines does not stint on the soft, corn tortillas.  You get about six to make carne asada meat into a quesadilla-like fold over full of the ingredients that I just mentioned.

I like cheese or chicken enchiladas with chile verde sauce made from tomatillos (Mexican green tomatoes) and various green peppers.  The chile verde sauce can probably be made spicier upon request.  Peppers contain Vitamin C, which is good for fighting colds.  I especially like somewhat spicy peppers, because they help clean your sinuses, which fights colds, too.

I like refried beans, Spanish rice, and shredded lettuce with California black olives and a dollop of sour cream on top along with Spanish rice.  European olives are lovely, but many people do not like how salty they are.  California olives do not clash with the salsa flavor wise either.  I also like promoting American agricultural products and not putting Americans out of work.

Chipotle knows people in the suburbs like this, too.  That is why McDonalds created this chain for people, who are afraid of going into inner-cities for food.

When I go to Les Jardines, I always get Negra Modelo amber beer.  It has a flavor like light molasses, but is not as strong as Guiness.

And, you must get flan at Les Jardines for dessert that floats in a pool of warm, caramel sauce.

After dinner, we would walk around the garden and look at all the cactus plants.  They had several ducks in the garden behind chicken wire that would quack at the roosters, who could roam freely.  Florence would quack at the ducks and chase the roosters away from the “cute” ducks.

Florence knew all about Saint John the Baptist from Catholic School Bible classes.

I told her that many people in France had the tradition of jumping over a bonfire to celebrate Saint John’s Day.

“That is an unsafe and stupid tradition.  Do not do it, even if it is said to be very authentic by the French.  You can shove someone into a fire very easily, if they are jumping over it,” I said.

“Mom’s word of wisdom for the day,” Florence remarked and laughed.

I always tried to think up a didactic lesson for an after-dinner lagniappe in San Juan Bautista. 

Laurent ate mints and tried to look like Hitchcock.  (A major scene from Psycho  was filmed at the Mission in San Juan Bautista.)

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Teaching Everyday Alchemy to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in San Juan Bautista (California) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Teaching Everyday Alchemy to Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget in San Juan Bautista (California) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One day I received an invitation to attend an exhibit opening, lecture, and poem readings by artist Marsha Connell at the Galeria Tonantzin in San Juan Bautista, California and decided to take my young daughter Florence along.  Connell was working in collage at the time, which I thought might interest a young girl.

When we arrived, we admired the collages, which were devoted to various goddesses representing the sacred feminine.  We sipped glasses of orange juice amongst the wine drinkers around us.  I thought it was hard to deal with the sacred feminine when you are limited to photographs of models from fashion magazines.  Connell worked around this constraint by using travel photos as counterpoints and supplements to fashion magazine photos. 

“The travel photos are antidotes,” I thought to myself.

The gallery manager invited us to take seats and the lecture began on the alchemy of creation.  Connell talked about how she made new combinations of ordinary objects such as photos to create art objects.  She said she used this method for collage as well as poetry. 

She said she looks at the world around her and wrote poetry about the sacred feminine.  You have to know a little bit about California to understand the sacred feminine, especially if you have only been exposed to American feminist thought and interpretations of art.  When I arrived in California I quickly learned that you are either a feminist or goddess here.  I would add alchemist or poet to that selection of choices, too.

The sacred feminine is religious, taking in all faiths of women.  Religious women contrary to what many people think are well educated and teach children to read and do arithmetic.  They practice and perpetuate many art forms that the non-religious pay top dollar for in galleries.  Many poets in California have been inspired by the artistry of religious women and trace its origins back to the origins of time to goddess worship or the era when god when was a woman.  Both Marija Gimbutas and Elinor Gadon have researched and written about the sacred feminine for further research.

Connell read her poems about the sacred feminine and feminine strength to grand applause.  I thought to myself, “You have to be strong to cook every night after work.”  I agreed with her wholeheartedly about feminine strength.

After the lecture, I showed Florence one of the collages I liked.

“Miss Connell put the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in this collage,” I remarked.

“Artemis is the goddess, who loves wilderness,” Florence said.

I laughed at how her vegetarian Waldorf School had changed Artemis the hunter into a wilderness lover and no doubt a tree hugger.

“Artemis was athletic.  She liked walking and hiking.  She’s a perfect goddess for California.  Would you like this collage if I bought it for you?” I asked.

“I might.  I’d like to check the other collages before we get it,” Florence said.

I told the gallery manager we would like to buy the collage, but we wanted to look at the other collages before making a final purchase.  Florence finally said she wanted the Artemis collage.

Marsha Connell came to speak with us.  “Every girl needs a goddess picture,” I said to Marsha Connell.

“It will encourage you to exercise,” Connell said.

“I love it.  It’s going up in my bedroom,” Florence said.

“I’ll give some examples of alchemy on the way out,” I joked with Connell.

That was Florence’s first question when we left the gallery.  “I’m still not sure what alchemy is,” she said.

“Well, for starters, you’ll hear people use that word all the time in California to describe their poetry writing, sculpting, painting, drawing, and so on.  Let’s do an Artemis walk to the ice cream store, and I’ll explain more,” I said.

“People have always been trying to make gold.  In the Middle Ages, they tried to change cheap lead into gold.  The people who did it were called alchemists.  Alchemy split into two parts. The scientists became chemists.  The failed gold makers became artists, who still produced things of value just not gold.  You do alchemy at your Waldorf School everyday,” I said.

“Like what.  I’ve never heard that word before,” Florence said.

“First you have done things in textile arts that would qualify as alchemy.  You have knit and crocheted carrier bags for your recorders.  You took a single piece of yarn and used your knowledge and skill to change it into a lovely and useful item to protect a musical instrument,” I said.

“I am beginning to get it,” Florence said.

“Another alchemical thing you do at school is woodworking.  You made you own knitting needles by sanding down the ends to a point.  Then, you put beeswax on the other ends in balls to make them pretty,” I said.

“What other alchemical things do we do at school?” Florence asked.

“You’ve made beeswax candles in a mold from lump beeswax,” I said.  I smiled thinking of the French people making German crafts.  The candles did smell good when they burned, but they irritated my eyes.

“Basically, when you make something that takes on a different shape or form from what you started with or create something where there was nothing before is alchemy.  Those haiku poems that you write with your Japanese teacher are alchemy, too,” I said.

“Give me some more examples,” Florence said.

“Okay.  The artist Picasso took a bicycle seat and handlebars and put them together to look like a bull’s head.  That’s the kind of alchemy Marsha Connell does with her collages,” I said.

“I do alchemy, too,” I ventured.

“No, you don’t,” Florence said.

“I can take a bowl of heavy cream, add a little sugar, and mix it with a blender to make whipped cream,” I said.

“That’s cooking.  That’s not art,” Florence remarked.

“The French consider cooking alchemy and an art,” I said.

“I like ice cream alchemy,” Florence said as we arrived at the ice cream shop

While we ate our double scoop ice creams outside, I continued with the alchemy lecture. 

“Another form of cooking alchemy is taking hard popcorn kernals and letting them pop in hot oil.  You get popcorn that is soft from doing that,” I said.

“Making an omelet from an egg is alchemy,” I said.

“I get it now,” Florence said.

“One last thing.  Making things nice for the holidays is alchemy.  You turn everyday life into art by cooking nice meals, decorating, and putting gifts together for the holidays.  The best alchemy of all is turning your life into art,” I said.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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