Posted by Anthony Ferro on March 09, 192003 at 17:00:46:
Los Pastores
Here again, as in all our readings, music and text are strong elements of the work. Though the offerings of tamales to the Christ child place us in the region of Mexico, the structure of the work is inherited from the European Passion plays of the Baroque period, so much so, that I find it difficult to recognize any other real indigenous elements and/or indigenous undermining threat. At this point in the 1800’s, the transformation to colonial ideology seems to be successful. European evangelical rhetoric prevails.
I would like to highlight some specific inner workings of the play that I found most interesting.
· Lucifer’s curse was ambition
· Man is just a handful of dead clay
· “How” to build and “what” to have inside a proper church
· Lucifer will “Tear thy heart out”
· Mary - the flower of Spain
· Rosary introduced
· Letter riddles, L-leave it, P - put in, S-sustain, T-Thee, P-pluck the scales from sinner’s eyes, S-save, T-take all
· Farewell, Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe… Dear Jesus, I give Thee my heart...I give Thee my soul.
What struck me as most profound in the last few lines of the play was the notion of disjointing body from soul while servicing one’s creator. In our readings prior to Los Pastores, I did not have a sense of this separation. The former indigenous cosmology was somehow reinforced with a sensitive, heightened self-awareness and knowledge of being a vital participant in fulfilling the the will of an all god. In Catholicism, does one give of oneself separately? What are the repercussions of this affirmation?