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Sharryl Sosa
Spanish/International Studies

Tania Triana, Mentor

Reading Cultural Hybridity in Mestiza Altars: A Comparative Historical Analysis of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica

The construction and maintenance of religious home altars by women in the borderlands has been imagined as a feminized art form that invokes the traditional domestic roles ascribed to women.  To analyze and deconstruct that cultural myth, this study examines conquest era tendencies relating to gender and the burgeoning cult of saints.  Using insights drawn from contemporary scholars such as Kay Turner and Amalia Mesa-Bains, the study explores the implications of altar creation and maintenance in today’s borderlands.  Also, the study examines the manner in which the spatial context of altar art creates a reversal of the patriarchal hegemony characteristic of traditional gender roles within the domestic sphere, where historically women have been oppressed.  This paper analyzes three different ways in which the reversal of patriarchal hegemony is manifested:  the various uses of altars and their sociopolitical importance, the spatial reclamation exhibited in the placement of home altars and yard shrines, and the motives of devout women who decided to discontinue their attendance in church.