The purest flower in the fields: images of Mary in gaucho nativist songs

Abstract

The article aims to contribute to the understanding and recognition of a process of Christian inculturation, historically established in the dialogue with the characteristics of each people, recognizing in this same people a theological locus established in its journey in the search for a meaning for his existence on earth. Therefore, we assume the theological task of decoding the religious symbolic field in artistic and cultural productions, analyzing a set of regionalist songs from Rio Grande do Sul. As a more specific approach, this study discusses how the figure of Mary is approached in the chosen songs and which theological-cultural dialogues are possible to glimpse in these productions. To do so, we briefly discuss the origin and characteristics of the gaucho as a human type from the Pampas region and present the musical scene of the cycle of nativist festivals in Rio Grande do Sul, thus contextualizing the analyzed songs. In examining the songs, we discussed the content of the lyrics in the light of popular Catholicism and Latin American theology, seeking in the correlations between religion and culture the understanding of the great human existential searches in that context.