Terry Rey (Temple University) Alex Stepick (Florida International University)
Abstract
Religious images, especially the Virgin Mary and Saint James the Greater, dominate the resplendent visual culture of Haiti and its diaspora.1 Whether in the mountains of Haiti or the streets of Miami’s Little Haiti, however, their meanings vary and are contested among Haitian believers. For Catholics, the Virgin Mary and Saint James the Greater are, respectively, Christ’s mother and one of his apostles. For practitioners of Vodou, they might represent instead Ezili and Ogun, spirits originally from the Africa of their enslaved ancestors. And for Protestants, , they might represent the idolatry causing Haiti’s many and grave social ills. For all religious Haitians these images are deeply invested with meaning, however divergent their interpretations may be.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Migration and Development. in its series Working Papers with number
339.