Santos in Oaxaca's Ancient Churches

A study of santos in 16th-century and other churches in Oaxaca, Mexico

By Claire and Richard Stracke
Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation

In Santiago Cuilapan:
Christ Carrying the Cross
Christ on Palm Sunday
Christ Resurrected
Crucifix
Immaculate Heart of Mary
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady of Sorrows 1
Our Lady of Sorrows 2
Our Lady of Sorrows (Soledad)
Our Lady of the Rosary
Sacred Heart of Jesus
St. James the Moorslayer
St. Joseph
St. Michael the Archangel
Unidentified Dominican
Unidentified Saint
Virgin and Child

Other santos not photographed

Santiago Cuilapan

Santiago Cuilapan, or Cuilapan de Guerrero, is in the Central Valley region of Oaxaca State. The 11,000 inhabitants are primarily Mixtec. The famous basilica is designated as a national monument by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Our informant was a young man who gave his name as Miguel Ángel, who was sent to us by the pastor. Our visit will begin with a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows in the north chapel (see note).

Note: On this site, references to the cardinal directions always assume that the main altar is at the east end of the church, the narthex or entry area at the west end, and the two walls of the nave on the north and south. (The nave is the long central section.) Actual orientations may differ.

Photo by Fernando Solís. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the above photo under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.