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Image / Priest celebrating a wedding, San Basilio de Palenque, 1975

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Title
Priest celebrating a wedding, San Basilio de Palenque, 1975
Creator
Cross, Richard, 1950-1983
Date Created and/or Issued
1975-06
Publication Information
California State University, Northridge
Contributing Institution
California State University, Northridge
Collection
Richard Cross Photographs (Bradley Center)
Rights Information
Use of images from the collections of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center is strictly prohibited by law without prior written consent from the copyright holders. The responsibility for the use of these materials rests exclusively with the user.
The Bradley Center may assist in obtaining copyright/licensing permission to use images from the Richard Cross collection. http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center/contact
Description
A Catholic priest (Father Dionisio) celebrates a wedding in San Basilio de Palenque. He is offering the communion wafer to the bride, dressed with the a white dress, a veil, and a bouquet made of white fabric. The groom, in a suit and with a tie, stands next to her. Men, women, and children are also standing behind the couple (another groom is amongst them). From a very early age, children of the same age group, both male and female, stay and play together in a group (or cuagro), and name female and male leaders. Later, it is traditional that people will marry a person of the same cuagro. San Basilio de Palenque, a town located 31 miles from Cartagena, is considered the first free-slave community of the Americas because on August 23, 1691, the Spanish King Charles II signed a royal charter recognizing the freedom of the runaway slave communities in the María Mountains. Local authorities, however, did not sign a treaty with the communities of free slaves until January of 1714 acknowledging their freedom and ordering the establishment of the town of Palenque San Basilio Magno. Father Isidoro, of the order of Saint Basil the Great, was named the first priest of the community in 1714, and the church was consecrated to St. Michael the Archangel. Colombian anthropologist Nina S. De Friedemann had been studying the Afro-Colombian community of San Basilio de Palenque since 1973 for the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and Richard Cross joined her to do work as a visual anthropologist in June 1975. This image illustrates Cross’s anthropological category: Social organization.
Un sacerdote católico (el padre Dionisio) celebra una boda en San Basilio de Palenque. Está ofreciendo la hostia de comunión a la novia, vestida con un vestido blanco, un velo y un ramo de tela blanca. El novio, de traje y corbata, se para a su lado. Hombres, mujeres y niños también están parados detrás de la pareja (otro novio está entre ellos). Desde una edad muy temprana, los niños del mismo grupo de edad, tanto hombres como mujeres, permanecen y juegan juntos en un grupo (o cuagro), y nombran líderes femeninos y masculinos. Más tarde, es tradicional que las personas se casen con una persona del mismo cuagro. San Basilio de Palenque, un pueblo ubicado a 31 millas de Cartagena, se considera la primera comunidad de esclavos libres de América porque el 23 de agosto de 1691, el rey español Carlos II firmó una cédula real que reconocía la libertad de las comunidades de esclavos fugitivos en el Montañas de María. Sin embargo, las autoridades locales no firmaron un tratado con las comunidades de esclavos libres sino hasta enero de 1714, reconociendo su libertad y ordenando el establecimiento del poblado Palenque San Basilio Magno. El padre Isidoro, de la orden de San Basilio Magno, fue nombrado el primer sacerdote de la comunidad en 1714, y la iglesia fue consagrada a San Miguel Arcángel. La antropóloga colombiana Nina S. de Friedemann había estado estudiando la comunidad afrocolombiana de San Basilio de Palenque desde 1973 para el Instituto Colombiano de Antropología y Richard Cross se unió a ella para trabajar como antropólogo visual en junio de 1975. Esta imagen ilustra la categoría antropológica de Cross: Organización social.
Type
image
Format
Photographs
image/jpeg
black-and-white negatives
Extent
35 mm
Identifier
99.01.RCr.N35.B1.13.01.04
http://digital-collections.csun.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p17169coll1/id/4103
Subject
Documentary photographs
Blacks--Colombia--San Basilio del Palenque
Rites and Ceremonies
Weddings
San Basilio del Palenque (Colombia)--Social conditions
Place
San Basilio del Palenque (Colombia)
Relation
99.01.RCr.N35.B1.13.01.04.tif
Richard Cross Photographs
California State University Northridge. University Library. Special Collections & Archives. Tom & Ethel Bradley Center

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