"The Continuous Creation of the Virgin in Early Colonial Lima" with Ximena A. Gómez, Ph.D.

This talk examines Lima’s Virgin of Copacabana (1588) to think about the ways that Indigenous devotees shaped their sacred images in the colonial world. While the statue was made by Spanish artists, placing it in visual dialog with the art, architecture, and cultural histories of the Ychsma and Chachapoya people who were devoted to the image reveals that even when interacting with a “European-looking” object, through Catholic ritual, and under colonial rule, Indigenous histories and beliefs had space to flourish. Far more than just a colonial sculpture, Lima’s Virgin of Copacabana was continuously created as it was maneuvered by its Indigenous community to operate within the fluid religious context of sixteenth and seventeenth century Lima.