New Mexico’s long Hispanic and Roman Catholic history has created a cultural legacy of unique proportions. A surviving element has been the religious organization known as Los Hermanos Penitentes. Progressively more secretive in the face of Protestant opposition and ridicule, this Hispanic confraternity became not only a religious remnant of earlier faith, but also a closely-knit fellowship dedicated to preservation of values associated with a bygone era.
This edition comprising three accounts of New Mexico penitente history brings together the best known early information concerning this active socio-political group. Presbyterian minister Darley writing The Passionists of the Southwest in 1893 was negative and critical of “barbarian” Lenten observances which included highly realistic recreations of Christ’s suffering. Henderson, the sympathetic and romantic writer of Brothers of Light (1937), takes the opposite view. She saw beauty and primitive faith reflected in ceremonial practices which she viewed as positive and beneficial. Woodward, whose Yale doctoral dissertation is reproduced as a new contribution, wrote a carefully compiled study on the possible origins and history of the penitente brotherhood. Based on a superb understanding of Hispanic culture, the work is well documented, extensive, and is worth reading even though recent scholarship has superseded Professor Woodward’s efforts.
