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03/03/13 - Miami Herald - Our Lady of Charity inspires art exhibit at Belen Jesuit Prep 

She is the Patroness of Cuba, a symbol of national identity on both sides
of the Florida Straits, venerated for centuries by the troubled and the
downtrodden, the powerful and the powerless. Cuba's fighters for
independence prayed to her, as have the many balseros who have taken to the
treacherous seas on inner tubes in search of freedom.

Now, four centuries after her appearance in the Bay of Nipe, a month-long
art exhibit features works inspired by this most recognizable of Cuban
religious icons, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, affectionately known as
Cachita, a nickname that implies the intimate relationship that Cubans,
regardless of faith, feel for this Madonna.

The installation, Cachita: The infinite lightness of being, exhibited at
the Olga M. and Carlos Saladrigas Gallery at the Ignatian Center for the
Arts, features 18 artists of different styles and different eras, including
pieces by such well-known names as Tomas Sanchez, Jose Bedia and Margarita
Cano and younger up-and-coming stars exemplified by Ariel Cabrera and
Carlos Caballero.

"Each of the artists renders tribute to La Virgen de la Caridad in their
own way," said curator Janet Batet. "But they are also connected by common
cultural ties that go beyond geography or time."

To understand the significance of Our Lady of Charity, it is important to
know a little of her history and how it is inextricably tied to the
island's own. The virgin is said to have first appeared sometime between
1608 and 1612 to three Cubans, brothers Rodrigo and Juan de Hoyos and their
slave, Juan Moreno, as they prayed for salvation when a sudden storm began
to rock their tiny boat off the northern coast of Oriente Province in Cuba.
As the winds calmed, the trio spotted and salvaged a wooden figure atop a
board that had the inscription, "I am the Virgin of Charity." She held a
gold cross and a baby Jesus.

A shrine was built for her in El Cobre, but it wasn't until 1916 that Pope
Benedict XV declared Our Lady of Charity as the Patroness of Cuba at the
request of the veterans of the wars for Cuban independence. Today she is
worshiped both on the island and in exile. In fact, on the 400th
anniversary of her feast day in September 2012, thousands attended a Mass
in her honor at the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami, just a few
miles from La Ermita de la Caridad, her permanent shrine on Biscayne Bay.
A similar celebration took place in Cuba.

"Whether you're a believer or not, in Cuba or elsewhere, La Virgen is a
unifying factor for all of us," said Leo Nuñez, director of the Ignatian
Center for the Arts at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in West Miami-Dade.
"Cachita is Cuba."

Don't expect, however, to find a religious undercurrent in the wide variety
of pieces. "Some," warned Nuñez, pointing to Carlos Caballero's oil that
depicts a man's head with the tattoo of the virgin on his neck, "may even
be considered heretical."

Of course it depends on the definition of heresy. Batet, who selected the
pieces in the exhibit, points out that sometimes the connection of these
works to Our Lady of Charity is very obvious. Nuestra Señora del Cobre,
1986, by the late Eduardo Michaelsen, one of Cuba's most well-known
primitive painters, features the virgin front and center, as does Margarita
Cano's Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, 2009, a mixed media.

Others are more subtle, such as Ruben Torre-Llorca's Protegenos del mercado
de arte, or "Protect us from the art market," a paper on paper piece that
surrounds Our Lady of Charity with other cultural icons, including a boxer,
an astronaut and Alice in Wonderland.

Some of the pieces were loaned by private collectors. Others are owned by
the artists and a few were painted for the exhibit itself. They range from
the small - 10 by 13 inches - mixed media on cardboard, Untitled, 1978, by
Tomas Sanchez to the Glexis Novoa video installation La luz permanente, or
"The permanent light," and the Angel. R. Vapor sculpture, Altar de Mar.

This diversity is exactly what Batet sought. "I didn't want the same vision
of the virgin," she said. "I wanted to find different interpretations
because all Cubans, every one of us, has our very own image that we carry
with us."


Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/03/3261413/our-lady-of-charity-inspires-art.html