Personal Project

Religious Collage

Stain glass effect

A religious collage that illustrates the parallel between the Catholic system pantheon of saints and the Yoruba people of Africa’s belief in a high god and intermediaries called orishas. The Yoruba people were brought into colonial Cuba and Puerto Rico as slaves and forced into Christianity. Immediately they recognized the parallel in both religious systems. According to De La Torre, they cloaked their own traditions behind the faces of their masters’ saints, a shrewd move of resistance. Santeria became a way to keep their old culture alive, in a way that did not threaten or create suspicion of their oppressors.

I wanted this collage to appear like stained glass, common in the interiors of Catholic churches.