The pagan and the mundane: retaining spirit despite oppression
About this Event
A cumbia singer who died too young and posthumously granted miracles to her fans.
A female saint of death, and a dead woman whose miraculous breast continued to feed her baby.
Gilda, San La Muerte and La Difunta Correa are just three saints of the people that are recognised in Argentina and surrounding countries.
They all have shrines and rituals dedicated to them, and people who report miracles emanating from them, but they are not recognised by the Catholic church.
Mariana Enriquez is an internationally celebrated writer from Argentina and her work is described as ‘gothic and horror-infused’.
While she explains that ‘disgust can be beautiful’, in many instances this label merely describes a language of horror she uses to interpret the context of many of her stories.
In her early life she lived under one of history’s most oppressive regimes.
At home, her family could discuss the atrocities and the desaparecidos, the ‘disappeared’ - an estimated 30 000 people were tortured and executed by the regime.
But such was the oppression that she knew that she could not talk about this at school.
Yet, her uncle would take a pagan saint hidden in the palm of his hand for communion, and the pagan saints still flourish.
Who are these saints and what is their magic? Hear Mariana explain this at the free talk.
Mariana Enriquez is a leading voice in Latin American literature, and a journalist. Her work been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and in 2019 she won the Premio Herralde for her novel Nuestra Parte de Noche (Our Share of Night). She has won many other prizes, and her most recent book to be translated to English is Somebody is Walking On Your Grave: My cemetery journeys. Netflix has announced a miniseries based on her short stories.
This talk is part of the All the fires come alive exhibition events program.
Image: Supplied, Nora Lezano
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