Among many Mexicans, a most beloved santo is El Santo Niño de Atocha. Who cannot be charmed by El Niñito? There he sits on a throne, this adorable Christ Child, royally dressed in an elegant cape and gown, a plumed, floppy hat atop his curly hair, with common, dusty, worn sandals on his feet. The sandals are important because they identify him as a wanderer, a pilgrim, with ties to the humble and poor. In his left hand the Child holds a crooked staff, a water gourd hanging from the crook, and in his right he grips a straw basket, most often empty but at times containing ordinary peasant food such as nuts or cherries. A small scallop shell, the traditional sign of St. James, highlights the right side of the cape, symbolically linking El Niño to Spain’s most revered saint. As with all such religious icons, of course, details...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Book Review|
August 01 2011
Crossing Borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha
Crossing Borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha.
By Pescador, Juan Javier. Albuquerque
: University of New Mexico Press
, 2009
. Photographs. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index
. xxiv, 256
pp. Cloth
, $34.95.Hispanic American Historical Review (2011) 91 (3): 574–576.
Citation
Paul J. Vanderwood; Crossing Borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 August 2011; 91 (3): 574–576. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-1300642
Download citation file:
Advertisement
20
Views