“The Multiple Meanings of the Señor de los Milagros.” A Reflection by Matthew Casey.

On October 19, 2014, Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gómez celebrated a special mass for el Señor de los Milagros, or the Lord of Miracles, referring to the image as “the patron of Peru”.^[1] In front of the massive crowd in downtown L.A.´s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Gómez went on to speak of the importance of the Lord of Miracles in the “New Evangelization” of the city. The day before, in view of the stunning glass edifice of Christ Cathedral in Orange County, Pervian-Americans ate turrones and applauded the marinera dancers who performed on a stage in front of their image of the Lord of Miracles.^[2] Earlier in the month, in the streets of San Fernando Valley´s Canoga Park, a group of “Aztec” dancers performed as twelve men in purple robes carried el Señor de los Milagros on their shoulders. This religious tradition has followed immigrants from Peru to Southern California, and through their prayers and petitions, believers have shaped to the significance of el Señor de los Milagros while contributing to conversations about race and ethnicity in Los Angeles.

Born of the merging of African and Indigenous Catholicism in Spanish colonial Lima, the Lord of Miracles has always reflected multiple and creolized meanings. In the decades after Peruvian independence (1821), practitioners transformed the sacred image into an unofficial national patron that offered protection against earthquakes. El Señor de los Milagros first arrived in Los Angeles in the form of a painted replica in 1986 as refugees fled the violent internal conflict between Shining Path guerrillas and the Peruvian military. The internal conflict was a period of great crisis for both the Catholic Church and the Peruvian nation. In twenty-first century L.A., the Lord of Miracles offers believers a stake in reconstructing versions of these wounded Catholic and Peruvian identities. Yet the malleability of the Lord of Miracles as a religious symbol opens the door to competition and disagreement as well.

In 2014, Los Angeles area hermandades, or confraternities, hosted over a dozen processions for el Señor de los Milagros spanning the entire month of October. Both because of its longevity (founded in 1986) and its official ties to the Archdiocese, the procession in downtown LA holds an especially prominent position. However, the presence of the politically conservative Archbishop José Gómez as “the spiritual leader” of the downtown festival has ostracized some devotees.^[3] One practitioner noted the lack of cooperation between the downtown L.A. procession and others throughout the region. “That’s fine for me,” he said, “After all, Los Angeles is so big, and Peruvians live all over the city”.^[4] Our research among the other hermandades revealed a much clearer sense of cooperation. The celebrants in Pico Rivera were unable to host a procession at their local parish so they devoted their time and efforts to helping other nearby groups; they were welcomed with open arms in Canoga Park and Orange County.

El Señor de los Milagros has helped create ties between Peruvians and other Latin@ Catholic communities throughout the region. Mexican-American performers drew loud applause for their portrayal of Aztec traditions in several L.A. processions. Non-Peruvians have also taken on leadership roles. A Salvadoran woman has been involved in organizing the Canoga Park celebration for over a decade. In this way, the Lord of Miracles has helped build community, meanwhile taking on new layers of meaning and significance for a wider public. Reflecting on the importance of this new symbolic meaning, a devotee in Miami said, “We Peruvians are only a small minority here…but, thanks to the Lord of Miracles, we have contributed something important to the struggle for the rights of Latinos”.^[5] This cohesion with other immigrant communities stems from the responsiveness of the Lord of Miracles as a popular religious symbol.

In Nicomedes Santa Cruz’s 1957 poem, “Décima a El Señor de los Milagros,” the poet juxtaposes the image of an unresponsive, “deaf” Catholic faith with that of a compassionate Lord of Miracles “who never withholds forgiveness”.^[6] In doing so, Santa Cruz aptly captures the malleability and responsiveness of popular religious symbols, a primary reason for the exceptional longevity and popularity of the international cult of the Lord of Miracles. Catholics throughout Southern California have created new social bonds and shaped their society through devotion to el Señor de los Milagros, a process that should continue to flourish in the coming years.

[1] All data, unless otherwise noted, was collected by the research team during fieldwork in July and October of 2014. All translations by the author.

[2] Turrones are sweet cakes eaten especially associated with the Lord of Miracles. Marinera is a coastal “criollo” dance that mixes Spanish, African, and Indigenous instruments and rhythms.

[3] Archbishop Gómez was ordained as a member of Opus Dei in 1978. Throughout his career, he has been very outspoken against same-sex marriage and abortion. The president of the hermandad of La Placita referred to Gómez as the group’s “líder espiritual”.

[4] Karsten Paerregaard, “In the Footsteps of the Lord of Miracles: The Expatriation of Religious Icons in the Peruvian Diaspora,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies vol 34 no. 7 (Sept 2008), 1077.

[5] Paerregaard (2008), 1085.

[6] Translation by the author.