Feliz Pascua
Happy Easter, Fellow Gringos! I spent the last few days in Cordoba, Argentina which has turned out to be quite a nice place. Good Friday was a difficult day because of a friend’s health problem, but I went on a tour, appropriately enough, of the local Jesuit properties from the 17th and 18th centuries. We visited three different estancias where the Jesuits farmed and ranched in order to pay for their evengelical missions. Apparently, they were quite successful and made enemies with the Spanish royal family who eventually shut them down. I learned about why one of the popes started the Jesuit Society (politically active to counteract the Lutheran movement), why they were shut down and then restarted. It was fairly interesting, but I can’t say it was the most exciting day of the trip. I was quite astounded (I’m not sure why hypocrisy astounds me any longer) to learn that they based their Latin American operations (Mexico, Brazil or Peru, Paraguay and Argentina) on slave laborers. The more I read about the history of Christianity, the more I struggle with why there are still members of the churches.
The highlight of the day was driving through a town where 5000 100 year old sycamore-like trees were planted on each side of the road over a seven kilometer stretch. They towered above the road and formed a tunnel in the shape of a cathedral roof rather than a squat cylinder like you see with much less impressive tree tunnels. I’ll be looking for a more impressive showing during my travels, but this one will be hard to beat. When I got back to Cordoba Good Friday evening, I found a procession. A couple of hundred people were participating and they had a phenomenally gaudy Virgin Mary statue hoisted and in front of her they had an equally amazingly bloody Jesus on a cross lifted. There were a lot more people participating in the parade than were watching. They were headed towards San Martin Plaza so I walked ahead. I found the square quite active with people doing anything other than church activities. I went into the cathedral and it was packed. Whew! Finally, I have found a really packed church. When that mass started to wind down, I headed out not seeing the procession and went by another church. I ducked in there for a few minutes to enjoy the architecture and artwork. Night masses on Good Friday seem to be quite popular although a lot more people were in the streets not participating.
Yesterday I went on a trek in the hills where granite canyons were left by glaciers and rivers have cut through. We saw a lot of birds including parakeets, hawks, eagles and condors. The hiking was pretty rugged, but the pace was fairly low-key. We left at 7 AM. The night had been filled with lots of partying around town and you cannot believe the number of people on the streets at 6:30 AM just finishing up with their night out. We did not get back until almost 10 PM so I was not too interested in doing much even though a concert was going to start outside of the cathedral. I was going to call it a night, but hunger drove me to a parrilla. That’s a restaurant where they strap the “victim” to a metal frame and cook it over a fire. I use “victim” because the term parrilla also refers to a method of torture where the human “victim” is attached to a similar metal frame and then shocked. I’m not so sure the use of the term for a restaurant is so humorous. Yesterday was a big parrilla night all over the country and on our drive back I saw one place with at least two dozen lambs on the metal racks over two pits of hot coals. The smell permeated the van and did not leave for a few minutes. They were obviously planning on a few hundred people or maybe a hundred Argentinians to scoff up that much meat. I left the restaurant at 11:30 AM paralyzed from the day of hiking and the “small” steak that I ate and families were still arriving for their dinners. I get the idea of people leaving a bar and getting some grub, but familes with kids going out for dinner around midnight?!?
I woke up too late today to go on another hike with the same company which was fine with me. I went out to take photos of the city and see what was going on at the churches. I knew I would have a good opportunity to see them in good sunlight. They are usually not open for the public/tourists. Today was one of the most glorious days weatherwise that I have seen on this trip. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the sky was a deep, deep blue and it was nice and warm. A perfect springtime Easter day could never be as nice as this perfect autumn Easter day. The first church was surprisingly empty with only about a third of the seats filled. The next church was about the same. I finally found a lot of people at the cathedral, but I noticed most of them were elderly. At the fourth church, I got there near the beginning of the mass and stayed until the end. It moved along pretty quickly for which I and probably everyone else was thankful. It, too, was mostly made up of elderly folks. I noticed stairs at the side of the altar and people were going up and down and it looked like there was seating above the altar. So for entertainment I went up the stairs and discovered that the seating above was basically empty. I was able to walk up to the front and look down at the whole church from above the altar. How odd! Plus, I was not alone. The phenomenally gaudy pure white Mary with baby Jesus on her arm was next to me encased in a glass house. It dawned on me that she was very special to this church and she probably only came out for Semana Santa processions. I was overlooking the church with Mary and I felt something on the back of my neck. I reached back and grabbed a spider. My reaction was purely automatic and I tossed the spider in front of me. Uh oh! That meant that I just tossed the spider at the whole church and down to the altar. I looked out at the crowd and of course there were a lot of people looking at me. Oops! They probably just noticed that I did a little freak out next to their beloved ivory doll and didn’t know that I tossed an evil spider upon them. At the end of mass, a lot of people came upstairs and did a lot of praying in front of Mary. They were falling over themselves to touch her glass case. I was bothered. I think that although I appreciate the art idols in the Catholic churches, I have a leaning towards the idol-less Protestant churches. I know this was Mary, but it certainly seems to border on a false idol to me.
So I survived Semana Santa in South America. It has been on my mind for a couple of months knowing what a big holiday it is and mainly I was concerned with travel logistics during it. There is a topic I have been waiting to discuss in order to see how much participation occurred this week religion-wise. I believe the Catholic church is fading out very quickly. Although I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I do not mean to offend anyone, but my observations have led me to conclude that the Catholic church does not have an active large following in Latin America. And if it is losing active participation here (North America and Europe is well-documented), how will it be around in another generation? I have seen empty churches one Sunday after another. I see cultures that do not seem very attached to Catholic practices. I see churches closed and others that have to charge admission in order to stay open. In Cusco, I was told that only a few years ago 100% of the residents were Catholic and I heard current statistics between 25 and 60%. I see churches with elderly attendees and very few people under fifty years old. Of the hundreds of priests at their mass on Holy Thursday (thanks for the info, Terry), I only saw maybe a dozen that were under forty years of age. None of the nuns in attendance were under sixty. Although I did see some attendance today, this was the holiest day of the year and if this is the best they can get then it seems the train is off their track. The Vatican reports budget problems and I guess I can see why.
Tags: argentina, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
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