Part 1

Transcriber's Note:

With the exception of Figure 26, which forms the frontispiece of this work, the descriptions of individual figures have been shifted to follow their first mention in the text.

Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY PAPER 63

THE PENITENTE MORADAS OF ABIQUIÚ

_Richard E. Ahlborn_

Introduction

Penitente Organization

Origins of the Penitente Movement

The History of Abiquiú

The Architecture of the Moradas

Interior Space and Artifacts

Summary

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. 1968

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1968 0--287-597

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402--Price 75 cents

_Richard E. Ahlborn_

_THE PENITENTE MORADAS OF ABIQUIÚ_

_By the early 19th century, Spanish-speaking residents of villages in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado felt the need for a brotherhood that would preserve their traditional social and religious beliefs. Known as "brothers of light," or _penitentes_, these Spanish-Americans centered their activities in a houselike building, or _morada_, especially equipped for Holy Week ceremonies._

_For the first time, two intact _moradas_ have been fully photographed and described through the cooperation of the _penitente_ brothers of Abiquiú, New Mexico._

THE AUTHOR: _Richard E. Ahlborn is associate curator in the Division of Cultural History in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology._

_Introduction_

This study describes two earthern buildings and their special furnishings--humble but unique documents of Spanish-American culture. The two structures are located in Abiquiú, a rural, Spanish-speaking village in northern New Mexico. Known locally as _moradas_, they serve as meeting houses for members of a flagellant brotherhood, the _penitentes_.

The _penitente_ brotherhood is characteristic of Spanish culture in New Mexico (herein called _Hispano_ to indicate its derivation from Hispanic traditions in Mexico). Although penitential activities occurred in Spain's former colonies--Mexico, Argentina, and the Philippines--the _penitentes_ in the mountainous region that extends north of Albuquerque into southern Colorado are remarkable for their persistence.

After a century and a half of clerical criticism[1] and extracultural pressures against the movement, physical evidence of _penitente_ activity, although scattered and diminished, still survives. As intact, functioning artifacts, the _penitente moradas_ at Abiquiú are valuable records of an autonomous, socio-religious brotherhood and of its place in the troubled history of Spanish-American culture in the Southwest.

This paper maintains that _penitentes_ are not culturally deviant or aberrant but comprise a movement based firmly in Hispanic traditions as shown by their architecture and equipment found at Abiquiú and by previously established religious and social practices. Also, this paper presents in print for the first time a complete, integrated, and functioning group of _penitente_ artifacts documented, in situ, by photographs.

My indebtedness in this study to local residents is immense: first, for inspiration, from Rosenaldo Salazar of Hernández and his son Regino, who introduced me to _penitente_ members at Abiquiú and four times accompanied me to the _moradas_. The singular opportunity to measure and to photograph interiors and individual artifacts is due wholly to the understandably wary but proud, _penitentes_ themselves. The task of identifying religious images in the _moradas_ was expertly done by E. Boyd, Curator of the Spanish-Colonial Department in the Museum of New Mexico at Santa Fe. The final responsibility for accuracy and interpretation of data, of course, is mine alone.

[1] Beginning in 1820 with the report of ecclesiastic visitor Niño de Guevara, the Catholic Church has continued to frown upon _penitente_ activities, A modern critical study by a churchman: FATHER ANGÉLICO CHAVEZ, "The Penitentes of New Mexico," _New Mexico Historical Review_ (April 1954), vol. 22, pp. 97-123.

_Penitente Organization_

_Penitente_ brotherhoods usually are made up of Spanish-speaking Catholic laymen in rural communities. Although the activities and artifacts vary in specific details, the basic structure, ceremonies, and aims of _penitentes_ as a cultural institution may be generalized. Full membership is open only to adult males. Female relatives may serve _penitente_ chapters as auxiliaries who clean, cook, and join in prayer, as do children on occasion, but men hold all offices and make up the membership-at-large.

_Penitente_ membership comprises two strata distinguishable by title and activity. In his study of _Hispano_ institutional values, Monro Edmonson notes that _penitente_ chapters are divided into these two groups: (1) common members or brothers in discipline, _hermanos disciplantes_; and (2) officers, called brothers of light, _hermanos de luz_.

Edmonson names each officer and lists his duties:

The head of the chapter is the _hermano mayor_. He is assisted in administrative duties by the warden (_celador_) and the collector (_mandatario_), and in ceremonial duties by an assistant (_coadjutor_), reader (_secretario_), blood-letter (_sangredor_) and flutist (_pitero_). An official called the nurse (_enfermero_) attends the flagellants, and a master of novices (_maestro de novios_) supervises the training of new members.[2]

In an early and apparently biased account of the _penitentes_, Reverend Alexandar Darley,[3] a Presbyterian missionary in southern Colorado, provides additional terms for three officers: _picador_ (the blood-letter), _regador_ or _rezador_ (a tenth officer, who led prayers) and _mayordomo de la muerte_ (literally "steward of death"). As host for meetings between _penitente_ chapters, the _mayordomo_ may be a late 19th-century innovation that bears the political overtones of a local leader.[4]

Having less influence than individual officers are the _penitente_ members-at-large, numbering between thirty and fifty in each chapter. Through the _Hispano_ family system of extended bilateral kinship, however, much of the village population is represented in each local _penitente_ group.

Edmonson's study in the Rimrock district demonstrates the deep sense of social responsibility felt by _penitentes_ for members and their extended family circles. "Special assistants were appointed from time to time to visit the sick or perform other community services which the brotherhood may undertake."[5] At other times of need, especially in sickness and death, the general _penitente_ membership renders invaluable service to the afflicted family. In addition, _penitente_ welfare efforts include spiritual as well as physical comfort such as wakes, prayers and rosaries, and the singing of funereal chants (_alabados_). At Española in November of 1965, I witnessed _penitentes_ contributing such help to respected nonmembers: grave digging, financial aid, and a rosary service with _alabados_.

These spiritual services, however, are peripheral to the principal religious activity of _penitentes_--the Lenten observance of the Passion and death of Jesus. During Holy Week, prayer meetings, rosaries, and _via crucis_ processions with religious images are held at the _morada_ and at a site representing Calvary (_calvario_), usually the local cemetery. On Good Friday, vigils are kept and the _morada_ is darkened for a service known as _las tinieblas_. The ceremony of "the darkenings" consists of silent prayer broken by violent noise making. Metal sheets and chains, wooden blocks and rattles are manipulated to suggest natural disturbances at the moment of Jesus' death on the cross. This emphatic portrayal of His last hours is recalled also by acts of contrition and flagellation in _penitente_ initiation rites, punishments, and Holy Week processions.

_Penitentes_ use physical discipline and mortification as a dramatic means to intensify their imitation of Jesus' suffering.[6] Heavy timber crosses (_maderos_) and cactus whips (_disciplinas_) are used in processions that often include a figure of death in a cart (_la carreta de la muerte_). Disciplinary and initiatory mortification in the _morada_ makes use of flint or glass blood-letting devices (_padernales_).[7]

[2] MONRO S. EDMONSON, _Los Manitos: A Study of Institutional Values_ (Publ. 25, Middle American Research Institute; New Orleans: Tulane University, 1950), p. 43.

[3] ALEXANDER M. DARLEY, _The Passionists of the Southwest_ (Pueblo, _1893_).

[4] E. BOYD, Curator of the Spanish-Colonial Department, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, states that Jesús Trujjillo in 1947 furnished information on other _penitente_ officers, including one man who uses the _matraca_ and one who acts as a sergeant at arms.

[5] EDMONSON, loc. cit.

[6] GEORGE WHARTON JAMES, _New Mexico: Land of the Delight Makers_ (Boston, 1920), lists concisely the Biblical and historical references to religious mortification practiced by New Mexican _penitentes_.

[7] DARLEY (op. cit., pp. 8 ff.) gives an exhaustive list of methods of mortification said to be used by _penitentes_.

_Origins of the Penitente Movement_

By 1833, bodily penance practiced in lay brotherhoods of _Hispano_ Catholics attracted criticism from the Church in New Mexico and resulted in the pejorative name _penitentes_.[8] Historically, however, within the traditional framework of Hispanic Catholicism, the _penitentes_ had precedents for their religious practices, including flagellation.

_Penitente_ rites were derived from Catholic services already common in colonial New Mexico. Prayers and rosaries said before altars comprised an important part of _Hispano_ religious observances, and processions of Catholics and _penitentes_ alike were announced by bell, drum, and rifle in _Hispano_ villages. In particular, _penitentes_ used _via crucis_ processions to dramatize the Passion, portrayed in every Catholic church by the fourteen Stations of the Cross. _Penitentes_ also maintained Catholic Lenten practices by holding _tenebrae_ services, the _tinieblas_ rites mentioned above, and by flagellation.

These parallels between Catholic and _penitente_ religious observances caused Edmonson to theorize that "the autonomous movement originated within the Church."[9] Variations, however, between the two religious traditions led Edmonson to discover "an important thread of religious independence and even apostasy in New Mexican history."[10] Edmonson's study of 1950 has established the persistence of _penitente_ activity in _Hispano_ culture.

Three and a half centuries earlier, in 1598, Spanish settlers made a courageous thrust into the inhospitable environment of New Mexico. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, Spanish settlement along the upper Rio Grande was a tenuous thread unraveled from a stronger fabric in Mexico. Aridity and extremes in temperatures marked New Mexico's climate. Arable land was scarce and could be extended back from streams only by careful upkeep of the irrigation ditches. Plateaus rose from 1500 to more than 2500 meters in altitude. Building timbers were hard to obtain without roads or navigable rivers.

Finally, distance itself was a challenge, sometimes insurmountable for the supply caravans from Mexico. Outfitted over a thousand miles to the south of Santa Fe, the Mexican caravans brought _presidio_ and mission supplies, but few goods for the common settler. By the end of the 18th century, Spanish authorities thought of the northern colonies (_provincias internas_) primarily as missionary fields and military buffer zones.[11]

Cultural traditions and an insecure environment caused Spanish colonists to turn to religion for comfort. Again, however, a supply problem arose. Individual _ranchos_ were too scattered for clerical visits, and even settlements that were grouped for greater security, _poblaciones_ or _plazas_, became _visitas_ on little more than an annual basis, sharing two dozen Franciscan clergy with missions assigned to Indian _pueblos_ and Spanish villages. Before 1800, a shortage of friars prompted the Bishop in Durango to send secular clergy into the Franciscan enclave of New Mexico. In 1821 the Mexican Revolution formalized secularization with a new constitution. In brief, the traditional religious patterns of the _Hispanos_ were threatened. They needed reinforcement if they were to survive.

By 1850, other conditions in New Mexico endangered the status quo of the Spanish-speaking residents. With the growing dominance of Anglo-Americans in the commercial, military, political, and social matters of Santa Fe, _Hispanos_ recognized the threat of Anglo culture to their own traditional way of life. This cultural challenge turned many _Hispanos_ back in upon themselves for physical and social security and for spiritual comfort. By the second quarter of the 19th century, _penitentes_ were common in _Hispano_ villages such as Abiquiú.[12] The immediate origins of penitentism were clearly present in early 19th-century New Mexico.

Despite this evidence, historians of the Spanish Southwest have suggested geographically and culturally remote sources for the _penitentes_. Dorothy Woodward has pointed out similarities between New Mexican _penitentes_ and Spanish brotherhoods (_cofradías_) of laymen.[13] _Cofradías_ were not full church orders like the Franciscan Third Order, but they did conduct Lenten processions with flagellation.

Somewhat nearer in miles but culturally more distant from _Hispano penitente_ experience was mortification practiced by Indians in New Spain. In the 16th century, Spanish chroniclers reported incidents ranging from sanguinary ceremonies of central Mexican tribes to whippings witnessed in the northern provinces of Sonora and New Mexico. While of peripheral interest to this study, these activities of American Indians had no direct bearing on _Hispano_ cultural needs in early 19th-century New Mexico.

It is more significant that _Hispanos_ already knew a lay religious institution that very easily could have served as a model for the _penitente_ brotherhood--the Third Order of St. Francis. Established in 13th-century Italy and carried to Spain by the Gray Friars, the Order is recorded in contemporary histories of New Mexico before 1700. Materials in the archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe also document the presence of the Franciscan Third Order in New Mexico and suggest to me its influence on _penitente_ activity.[14]

In March 1776, Fray Domínguez, an ecclesiastic visitor, recorded Lenten "exercises" of the Third Order under the supervision of the resident priest at Santa Cruz and, two weeks later, in April, Domínguez visited Abiquiú, where he commended the Franciscan friar, Fray Sebastian Angel Fernández, for "feasts of Our Lady, rosary with the father in church. Fridays of Lent, _Via Crucis_ with the father, and later, after dark, discipline attended by those who came voluntarily."[15] Domínguez, however, described the priest as "not at all obedient to rule"[16] when Father Fernández, acting in an independent manner, proceeded to build missions at Picuris and Sandia without authorization. But in 1777, he again praised Fray Fernández for special _Via Crucis_ devotions and "scourging by the resident missionary and some of the faithful."[17] Domínguez thus documented flagellant practices and _tinieblas_ services at Abiquiú and his approval, as an official Church representative, of these activities.

Father Chavez, O.F.M., protests the theory of _penitente_ origins in the Third Order of St. Francis and counters with the idea that "penitentism" was imported directly from Mexico in the early 1800s.[18] I note, however, that the bishops seated in Santa Fe after 1848 recognized the strength of this lay socio-religious movement and tried to deal with it in terms of the Order. At a synod in 1888, Archbishop Salpointe pleaded for _penitentes_ "to return" to the Third Order. Some degree of direct influence of the Third Order on "penitentism" seems fairly certain.

[8] ANGÉLICO CHAVEZ, _Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1900_ (Washington, 1957): "Books of Patentes," 1833: books xi, xii, xix, lxxiii, and lxxxii. (Original documents from archives noted hereinafter as AASF.)

[9] EDMONSON, p. 33.

[10] Ibid., p. 18.

[11] H. E. BOLTON, "The Spanish Borderlands and the Mission as a Frontier Institution," _American Historical Review_ (Santa Fe, 1917), vol. 23, pp. 42-61, indicates that this policy was developed after 1765 by Charles III of Spain in an attempt to reorganize the administration of his vast colonial empire.

[12] AASF, Patentes, book lxxiii, box 6.

[13] "The Penitentes of the Southwest" (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1935).

[14] CHAVEZ, _Archives_, p. 3 (ftn.).

[15] FRAY FRANCISCO ATANASIO DOMÍNGUEZ, _The Missions of New Mexico, 1776_, transl. and annot. Eleanor B. Adams and Fray Angelico Chavez (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1956), p. 124.

[16] DOMÍNGUEZ, ms., from Biblioteca Nacional de Méjico, leg. 10, no. 46, p. 300.

[17] Ibid., no. 43, p. 321.

[18] CHAVEZ, "Penitentes," p. 100.

_The History of Abiquiú_

About three generations before the first _morada_ was built at Abiquiú, the conditions of settlement mentioned earlier and subsequent historical events resulted in an environment conducive to the development of _penitente_ activity. Shortly after 1740, civil authorities in Santa Fe attempted to settle colonists along the Chama River in order to create a buffer zone between marauding Indians to the northwest and Spanish and Pueblo villages on the Rio Grande (Figure 1). This constant threat of annihilation produced self-reliant and independent-minded settlers.

Unorthodoxy appeared early in the religious history of Abiquiú. By 1744, settlers had installed Santa Rosa de Lima as their patroness in a little riverside plaza near modern Abiquiú. After a decade, several colonists from Santa Rosa were moved to the hilltop plaza of Abiquiú, where the mission of Santo Tomás Apostol had been established. In his 1776 visit to Abiquiú, Domínguez noted, however, a continuing allegiance to the earlier patroness: "... settlers use the name of Santa Rosa, as the lost mission was called in the old days. Therefore, they celebrate the feast of this female saint [August 30th] and not of that masculine saint [St. Thomas the Apostle, December 21]."[19] Loyalty to Saint Rose survived this official protest, and village festivals have persisted in honoring Santa Rosa to this day. It is, therefore, not surprising to find her image in the earlier east _morada_ of Abiquiú.

A disturbing influence in the religious life of Abiquiú were semi-Christianized servants _(genízaros)_, who had been ransomed from the Indians by Spaniards.[20] Often used to establish frontier settlements, _genízaros_ came to be a threat to the cultural stability of Abiquiú. For example, in 1762, two _genízaros_ accused of witchcraft were taken to Santa Cruz for judicial action. After the trial, Governor Cachupín sent a detachment from Santa Fe to Abiquiú to destroy an inscribed stone said to be a relic of black magic.[21] Similar incidents with _genízaros_ during the next generation prolonged the unstable religious pattern at Abiquiú. In 1766, an Indian girl accused a _genízaro_ couple of killing the resident priest, Fray Felix Ordoñez y Machado, by witchcraft.[22] And again in 1782 and 1786, charges of apostasy were entered against Abiquiú _genízaros_.[23]

Another disturbing element in the religious history of Abiquiú was the disinterest of her settlers in the building and furnishing of Santo Tomás Mission. Although the structure was completed in the first generation of settlement at Abiquiú, 1755 to 1776, Domínguez could report only two contributions from colonists, both loans: "In this room [sacristy] there is an ordinary table with a drawer and key ... a loan from a settler called Juan Pablo Martin ... the chalice is in three pieces, and one of them, for it is a loan by the settlers, is used for a little shrine they have."[24] All mission equipment was supplied by royal funds (_sínodos_) except some religious articles provided by the resident missionary, Fray Fernández, who finished the structure raised half way by his predecessor, Fray Juan José Toledo. Both Franciscans found settlers busy with everyday problems of survival and resentful when called on to labor for the mission. The settlers not only failed to supply any objects, but when they were required to work at the mission, all tools and equipment had to be supplied to them.[25]

Despite these detrimental influences, the mission at Abiquiú continued to grow. Between 1760 and 1793, the population increased from 733 to 1,363, making Abiquiú the third largest settlement in colonial New Mexico north of Paso del Norte [Ciudad Juarez].[26] (Only Santa Cruz with 1,650 and Santa Fe with 2,419 persons were larger.) In 1795, the pueblo had maintained its size at 1,558, with Indians representing less than 10 percent of the population.[27]

The increase in size brought the mission at Abiquiú more important and longer-term resident missionaries: Fathers José de la Prada, from 1789 to 1806, and Teodoro Alcina de la Borda, from 1806 to 1823. Both men were elected directors (_custoses_) of the Franciscan mission field in New Mexico, "The Custody of the Conversion of St. Paul." _Custoses_ Prada and Borda backed the Franciscans, who were fighting for a missionary field that they had long considered their own. Official directives (_patentes_) issued by _Custos_ Prada at Abiquiú warned all settlers against "new ideas of liberty" and asked each friar for his personal concept of governmental rights.[28] In 1802, Fray Prada also complained to the new _Custos_, Father Sanchez Vergara, about missions that had been neglected under the secular clergy.[29] In this period, Abiquiú's mission was a center of clerical reaction to the revolutionary political ideas and clerical secularization that had resulted from Mexico's recent independence from Spain.

In the year 1820, the strained relations between religious authorities and the laity at Abiquiú clearly reflected the unstable conditions in New Mexico. Eventually, charges of manipulating mission funds and neglect of clerical duties were brought against Father Alcina de la Borda by the citizens of Abiquiú.[30] At the same time, Governor Melgares informed the _Alcalde Mayor_, Santiago Salazar, that these funds (_sínodos_) had been reduced and that an oath of loyalty to the Spanish crown would be required.[31] This situation produced a strong reaction in Abiquiú's next generation, which sought to preserve its traditional cultural patterns in the _penitente_ brotherhoods.

The great-grandsons of Abiquiú's first settlers witnessed a significant change in organization of their mission--its secularization in 1826. For three years, Father Borda had shared his mission duties with Franciscans from San Juan and Santa Clara _pueblos_, giving way in 1823 to the last member of the Order to serve Santo Tomás, Fray Sanchez Vergara. Santo Tomás Mission received its first secular priest in 1823, Cura Leyva y Rosas, who returned to Abiquiú in 1832. Officially the mission at Abiquiú was secularized in 1826, along with those at Belén and Taos.[32]