The Weight of the Cross: Tricks, Sorrows, and Triumphs af a Brazilian Pilgrim

• Autores: Rubem César Fernandes
• Localización: Journal of Latin American Anthropology, ISSN 1085-7052, Vol. 4, Nº. 2, 1999, págs. 32-59
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A brave Catholic believer dragged a long and heavy cross from his hometown to the shrine of Good Jesus of Pirapora, in São Paulo. The cross linked his body to his world. Photographs and written words inscribed in the cross spoke of his family, neighbors, and city. For 11 years his was the largest and heaviest cross to arrive in Pirapora on Good Friday. He is a nobody, but thanks to television, in pilgrimmage he became a hero. The essay describes his journey, step by step, following the structure of a Passion ritual. The pilgrim falls three times, exposing the fragile and painful condition of a Brazilian male, husband, and father. Yet he recovers the lost terrain and does arrive in triumph in Pirapora in good time. Internally divided between his mundane and sacred roles, crossing the distance between his hometown and the shrine, the pilgrim dramatizes in space the paradox of priesthood