|
|
/ARTS WEEKLY/ CULTURE-VENEZUELA: Statue of Iconic Goddess Needs New Home
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Dec 13, 2003 (IPS) - María Lionza, goddess of the second leading religion in
Venezuela, has emerged from the depths of the forests and waters that she
has protected since the era of the Spanish Conquest, according to her
followers, to end up smack in the middle of a bitter cultural debate.
An estimated two million Venezuelans, of a total population of 24 million,
are followers of María Lionza, but most also identify themselves as Roman
Catholic, the faith of the vast majority in this country.
For the past half a century, a cement statue of this goddess, protector of
nature has dominated a stretch of grass along the main highway of Caracas.
María Lionza is depicted nude and muscular, astride a tapir and lifting a
pelvis bone - symbol of fertility - to the heavens.
But Freddy Bernal, mayor of the municipality of Libertador, which covers
two-thirds of the Caracas metropolitan area, has accepted a request from
culutral institutions and decided that the statue, in danger of irreversible
deterioriation, will be moved next year to the central Plaza Venezuela, some
500 metres from its current location.
The sculpture stands three metres tall, plus two metres of pedestal. Over
the decades it has received the offerings of believers, who place wreaths
and bouquets of flowers at its base late at night, when there is less
traffic on the highway lanes around its "island".
But in the past 50 years, the daily movement of tens of thousands of cars,
trucks and buses has caused stains, scratches and cracks in the pedastal and
in the statue itself, and the entire structure is on the verge of collapse.
"We have decided to prevent the further deterioration of this emblematic
icon, to restore and relocate it. It will be moved to a new pedestal over a
fountain in the Plaza Venezuela," announced Bernal, a supporter of President
Hugo Chávez and a favourite target for criticism from the political
opposition.
Influential architects and urban designers, such as Hannia Gómez and William
Niño have spoken out against the relocation, arguiing that the statue of
María Lionza "has become an integral part of the highway landscape, the site
of veneration belongs to the urban spirit and to its devotees. In its new
location, it would be exposed to the informality that surrounds the Plaza
Venezuela."
In Caracas, "a game of chess has been played with the statues," observed
writer José Pulido, while humourist Claudio Nazoa has created an inventory
of all of the relocations of sculptures here in the past 20 years,
concluding that the capital is "a city where statues walk."
"The current location (of María Lionza), the mere result of chance, is as
undesireable as the Plaza Venezuela, a city hub (where several routes of
intense traffic converge) that the authorities treat with total disregard,"
Marco Negrón, former dean of the Central University's School of
Architecture, told IPS.
Negrón said that at the meetings of experts that took place in September,
"no one questioned that it would be a good idea to relocate the sculpture,
but no one even challenged the choice of the Plaza Venezuela."
In his opinion, the plaza is in need of redesign and restructuring to better
coordinate the intense subway and surface traffic, and the operations of the
offices and restaurants, as well as the formal and informal commerce that
takes place there.
The monument to María Lionza is the work of the late sculptor Alejandro
Colina, created the statue for the celebration of the "Bolivarian" Games (of
the Andean region) in 1951 at the university campus in Caracas. But the city
authorities at the time moved it off campus, to the highway that runs along
one side of the Central University.
"What is vital is that the statue be saved. If it is not restored soon, it
will collapse. It is in a comatose state. The relocation is a mission of
salvation," says sociologist Carlos Colina, grandson of the sculptor and
head of the Alejandro Colina Foundation.
The sculpture "unites three dimensions: it is a work of art, an icon of the
city, and a religious monument. Artists, urbanists and certain sectors of
society each see it in only one dimension, but we must see the statue from
an integral perspective, as a positive appropriation, both collective and
individual, of this cultural object," he said in a conversation with IPS.
The government's Institute of National Heritage and two experts form the
association Restorers Without Borders - Anne Béndele-Gerard of France and
Juan Carlos Bermejo of Spain - back the move, that is, if a replica of the
statue is erected at its current site.
Mount Sorte, 300 km west of Caracas, is considered the birthplace of the
goddess and draws thousands of believers each weekend, and tens of thousands
during the Roman Catholic Holy Week.
But María Lionza's followers are divided on what should be done with the
monument.
"The statue should be moved. If it stays by the highway it's going to
topple, and in the Plaza Venezuela those of us who worship her can do so
without much risk," says Eva Suárez, a priestess of the María Lionza sect.
But Juana de Dios, another priestess in Sorte, believes that if the statue
is moved, "it is going to collapse, and if that happens in Venezuela, a
tragedy could occur, something worse than what is happening now."
María Lionza is the principal deity of a Venezuelan syncretic cult governed
by an ethnic trilogy of spirits, including her companions Guaicaipuro,
leader of the indigenous resistance in the Caracas region in the 16th
century, and the hero Pedro Camejo, also known as "Negro Primero", a much
feared spear-thrower in the War of Independence.
According to anthropologist Angelina Pollak, the myth of María Lionza is
best understood as an amalgam of different images and stories.
One of the most popular is that an Arawak Nivar Indian chief, shortly before
the Spanish Conquest, had a daughter with light-coloured eyes, and thought
this would bring bad luck on his people, so he decided to hide her near a
lake. The anaconda snake that owned the lake fell in love with the girl, but
when she rejected him, he devoured her.
According to this version, as punishment the gods made the snake grow until
it exploded and created an immense lagoon, which since then has been the
dominion of the goddess María Lionza.
During the colonial period, she was venerated under Catholicism as the
Virgin Mary "de la Onza del Prado de la Talavera (surnames of Conquistadors)
de Nivar", and was considered the protector of nature.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the sect expanded and incorporated
"courts" presided by the spirits of historic celebrities like South American
liberator Simón Bolívar and doctor José Gregorio Hernández, as well as the
worship of Afro-American deities such as Yemanyá, Shangó and Obatalá,
explains Pollak.
The statue of the goddess, from her vantage point on the highway, looks to
the west, over the poorer districts of the capital and in the direction of
her Sorte sanctuary. If she is relocated to the Plaza Venezuela, it is not
known which direction her gaze will follow.
But mayor Bernal says she will be moved. "There is no going back."
(END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
