Michelle Vanderwist on the Motherly Virgin Mary: Catholicism in Santiago, Chile

By: Michelle Vanderwist

November 5, 2009

I've been in Chile for almost four entire months now, and only a week ago I just went to visit one of the most well-known sites in Chile. Atop the enormous and sprawling Cerro San Crístobal (San Crístobal Hill), which offers an amazing vantage point for panoramic views of the valley city and the Andes Mountains beyond, I stood at the base of the most enormous statue I've ever seen, staring up at a 72-foot-tall white Virgin Mary, arms outspread as if to embrace Santiago. Catholicism was introduced by priests who came to Santiago with the Spanish colonialists in the sixteenth century. Most of the native population in the northern and central regions was evangelized by 1650. Over 70 percent of the city is Catholic (or identifies as Catholic), but in reality a very small fraction actually practice the religion (for example, going to church and taking part in religious activities). Despite the fact that so few people actively participate in their religion, the Catholicism in Santiago is still very apparent in the daily city life. Many of their holidays are taken from the Catholic calendar, and Catholic churches can be found on nearly every other block walking around the city. Other churches and places of worship can be found if you search, but Catholicism is by far the dominant denomination in Santiago. I myself am a Greek Orthodox Christian and have been to the nearby Eastern Orthodox Church with my host mother.

The unique characteristic of Catholicism in Santiago, however, is the focus placed on the Virgin Mary. I'm somewhat familiar with Catholicism in the United States, but here the focus on Mary is much more intense than the focus back in the United States. My culture professor has explained this is related to their focus on the mother-figure in the family, which is perhaps the biggest way in which my Chilean family differs from my North American one. During orientation, the program directors warned us with a laugh that Chilean mamas are …muy mamá. In other words, they're very motherly. In the family, the mother does all the washing, cooking, cleaning, and daily household maintenance. It is not unusual for her children to live at home all through college and into their thirties,… sometimes even after getting married! My host brothers are 22 and 26 years old, and my host mother still gathers all their laundry, makes their beds, and organizes their rooms every single day. Here, this is the norm. The mothers do this as a way to show their love; their family is their livelihood and their job. This job eventually gets passed on to the wife, who takes care of her husband much the same way that his mother did. For example, my 22-year-old host brother has a serious long-term girlfriend, who is always over at our house helping with the cooking and cleaning, and at first I was almost shocked by how much she seemed to baby him. She cleans up his dishes, makes his sandwiches for him, and even wipes his eye boogers out randomly at the dinner table.

No one bats an eye at this because this is the order of the family here. It's the role of the mother and the wife, and this connects back to the importance they place on the Virgin in their society. The Virgin Mary is perhaps the most famous mother figure of all time, and as my professor explained it to us, she comes to represent a mother for the Chileans who, for whatever reason, have lost theirs somehow. Many Christian holidays not acknowledged by the US government are government-recognized holidays in Chile (for example, the Feast of the Immaculate Consumption and the Feast of the Assumption). On the Chilean Independence Day (September 18), I saw countless colorful dances meant to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary.

There are about 11 million Catholics in Chile, and even though many of them do not actively practice their religion, the underlying effects of Catholicism are apparent in everyday life. From the festivals to the focus on motherly nature, and from the numerous churches to the giant Virgin Mary who watches over Santiago, the impact that the Catholic church—in particular, the Virgin Mary—has on Chilean culture is undeniable.

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