Esquipulas
Esquipulas
Esquipulas, city in Guatemala and the destination of religious pilgrims—Indian and Ladino—throughout Central America. Famous since the late sixteenth century as the site of the venerable Black Christ, the town is located in the department of Chiquimula in southeastern Guatemala. The Guatemalan sculptor Quirio Cataño (d. 1620) carved the dark brown statue from wood in 1594, and miracles were soon attributed to it. The beautiful church that houses the statue was founded in 1737 and declared a basilica in 1961 by Pope John XXIII. Those devoted to the cult of the Black Christ arrive every day of the year, but on 15 January, the day of the Christ of Esquipulas, the town is in full celebration. Pilgrims arrive to attend mass, to burn candles or incense in front of images of the saints, to obtain edible white clay tablets said to harbor curative powers, or to contemplate the Black Christ. The Black Christ of Esquipulas has long served as a religious symbol for Central America in much the same way as the Virgin of Guadalupe has served for Mexico. Esquipulas was also the site and name given to 1987 regional Central American peace accords.
See alsoEsquipulas II .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Juan Paz Solórzano, Historia del Señor Crucificado de Esquipulas, 2 vols. (1914–1916).
José Luís García Acietuna, Esquipulas: Reseña histórica del culto del Señor Crucificado que se venera en este santuario; origen de la imagen y las romerías; crónicas, leyendas y tradiciones: documentación histórica desde los tiempos de la colonia hasta nuestros días (1940).
Vitalino Fernández Marroquín, Remembranzas de Esquipulas (1972).
Additional Bibliography
Crumrine, N. Ross, and E. Alan Morinis. Pilgrimage in Latin America. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
FLASCO and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Esquipulas, el camino de la paz. Guatemala: FLACSO-Guatemala: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1990.
Horst, Oscar H., and Terry Bond. Hace cuatro siglos: Las romerías y tradiciones de Esquipulas. Guatemala: s.n., 1995.
Michael F. Fry