Dr. Omar Ali Published on Afro-Peru in ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America

Posted on September 19, 2014

Dr. Omar Ali’s piece, “Afro-Peru: A Legacy of Black Labor and Culture” was published in ReVista: Havard Review of Latin America.

For over three centuries, streams of people, the smoke of incense, and the sounds of horns, bells and hymns have filled the streets of Lima in late October. Each year tens of thousands of Peruvians pay homage to a fresco of a crucified Christ painted by a 17th-century Angolan slave.

Local tradition tells how the painting survived several powerful earthquakes, including one in 1687 that left all but the fresco and the altar beneath it standing. Each year the faithful, many wearing purple-colored robes, or habits, like those of the Nazarene nuns charged with taking care of the painting, follow a replica of El Señor de los Milagros (“The Lord of the Miracles”) through the streets of Lima in what is the largest religious procession in all of Latin America.

Among the masses was my abuelita, a skilled doll-maker and a devout Catholic. Donning her purple dress, white veil, and carrying a small copy of El Señor de los Milagros, my grandmother Carmela would join the flow of Peruvians of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds trailing the “Black Christ”—as the painting is also known.

And while the name of the 17th-century painter of El Señor de los Milagros has long been forgotten, his creation stands as a testament to his life and to those of his countrymen and women who survived the centuries-long devastation of the transatlantic slave trade.

In English