Crafting Devotions

Book excerpt: This first serious study of contemporary santeros working in northern New Mexico is amply illustrated throughout with beautiful color photographs. Laurie Beth Kalb examines the role and meaning of tradition in the work of a number of artists, both living and deceased, including Luis Tapia, Patrocinio Barela, Marco and Patricia Oviedo, Enrique Rendon, and many others. For each of these artists, the meaning of tradition varies, and the issues of self-representation, cultural expression, preservation, innovation, and market demands are all complex, powerful, and delicate. It is both troublesome and rewarding to be able to support a family on the sales of religious images to Anglo buyers. The mainstream fine art world, tourism, religion, and ethnic politics all play roles in the creation of traditional works in a contemporary world. For all the santeros, the tangle of religious, commercial, political, and aesthetic forces requires complicated choices far beyond the basic relationships between themselves and their saints. Laurie Beth Kalb tells a fascinating and revealing story about a unique art form and its significance.