On The Motive for and Accuracy of Religious Depictions

This image was captured at a Mexican restaurant down 9th avenue. These portraits are individual cards of Lotería Mexicana (Mexican Lottery).   The game is a type of bingo, but instead of calling out numbers, the name of the card is said followed by its appropriate riddle. For example, if they were to call out the first card, instead of saying “four” the caller would say “La Dama: Puliendo el paso, por toda la calle real” (The Lady: Polishing as she steps, all along the royal street). On this picture, there is religious icon on card number eight (4th from left to right, bottom row). The original card deck does not contain a depiction of La Virgen de Guadalupe so she was deliberately added onto this motif.

I was not surprised to see a depiction of the Virgin. Many Mexican establishments, or most of the ones I have frequented, display an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. As we read in class Mexicans are very devout to the Virgin of Guadalupe. One can argue about how appropriate it is to use religious icons for such purposes or depict them through this artistic medium and nonreligious theme (Mexican Lotería). I did not feel this was added in order to make the restaurant seem more authentic or simply because it fit the thematic as, for example, certain Asian restaurant do with the figure of the Buddha. The original card deck depicts icons of Mexican popular culture. Perhaps the person responsible for this particular depiction must have felt that the colorful deck was incomplete without this cultural and religious cornerstone of Mexican culture and life. Furthermore, I thought about how religion influences how we interpret and live life. Art is a form of expression and a way to represent said life. Bearing this in mind, it is inevitable that religion as a theme would make an appearance in artforms. 

How was this depiction any different than the ones we find in a church? Because of the reasons these icons are depicted, I thought there was no difference. I consider these depictions are done in order to be reproduce and distributed so people can know them. Sometimes things do not become tangible until one sees them. This led me to wonder about the very first time these icons were illustrated and how faithful these modern depictions still are. 

I know, for instance, that Saint Jude is depicted with a club in either his right or left hand. How important is accuracy in the representation of religious icons? In the case of St. Jude, is it not a faithful representation either way? Piracy was apparently responsible for this anomaly. The church claims the original print posed the icon with a club on the right hand. Forgers copied the image using a method that inverted it and thus St. Jude ended up with the club on his left hand. It is said that this version is actually preferred by delinquents. Apparently accuracy is of great importance then. This led me to yet another tangent regarding how and what these individuals prayed for before their illicit activities: “protect me and may my prowl be bountiful?” More than that, how does this idea reconcile with religion’s message of salvation? I answered my own query with the fact that the one thing we might all agree on is that religion can be an individual experience and it is thus personal. Who am I to judge what an individual believes God and the saints will or will not help them with? 

This depiction of La Virgen de Guadalupe was faithful, I thought. Although she was drawn in a cartoonish style and with cartoonish colors and thus not faithful to the norm, you could clearly and quickly distinguish her figure. It was simple and humble and respectful. This, to me, made for a faithful representation.