MOSAICS OF MARIAN IDENTITIES

FROM THE BLACK WOMB OF THE EARTH AND FROM THE ENVIRONMENTS OF PAIN

Abstract

The figure of the Virgin Mary, in Catholicism, has mobilized a myriad of symbols and meanings that seek to highlight cultural and affective traits attributed to the mother of Jesus. In this article, I try, in a brief and introductory way, to take a look at two characteristics that mark the Marian identity: the black color of some of her images and the pain that, based on her experience of having a child who died violently, sympathizes with the pain of other women and men who seek in her, Mary, their support. The approach I carry out here does not present theories of race or gender, which I leave to specialists in such theories. My approach transits more through the phenomenon that is expressed in these Marian signs, from a historical approach that aims to understand the phenomenon in its own terms.