Jose Ramon Rosario spreads his roll of carving tools next to a centuries-old stone wall in Old San Juan and begins to carefully chip away at a block of Puerto Rican mahogany.
Rosario is a santero, a carver of the rustic wooden saints that are so ubiquitous in Puerto Rico, whether you're visiting a tony art museum or a tacky tourist shop. Today, he's working on a favourite theme -- the Three Kings, the wise men who followed the star from the East to the nativity 12 days after the very first Christmas. Like Rosario's trio, the black Balthazar is always flanked by his two bearded colleagues, Caspar and Malchior, bearing gifts and sitting, Puerto Rican-style, astride little wooden horses.
It doesn't take a visitor to Puerto Rico long to discern that, beyond the sandy beaches, swish hotels, gambling houses and cock fights, this is a deeply religious country with a fascinating history that melds native Indian traditions with Spanish maritime exploration, colonialism and slavery. And these little statues -- depicting Christian religious figures from the Virgin Mary to Santa Barbara or the Magi -- can explain a lot of it.
The tradition of worshipping saints is distinctly Catholic, imported to this Caribbean island with the first wave of colonialists after Christopher Columbus landed here and claimed Puerto Rico for Spain in 1493. But before that, the native Tainos people worshipped their own gods, with icons called cemies carved from stone, wood and even gold. Santos carving began hundreds of years ago to give those living in the rural areas of Puerto Rico, far from priests and churches, a way to worship at home.
Families adopted their own personal saints, creating household shrines where they might ask for blessings, favours and advice. A family's carvings were cherished possessions -- both the wooden icons themselves and the tradition of favouring a particular saint, passed down through generations.
But not all Puerto Ricans embraced the Catholicism imposed by their Spanish masters in the early 16th century. In fact, when African slaves arrived on the island around 1510, they took their Yoruba religion -- the root of today's Santeria -- underground, using the Christian santos in place of their own orishas. Today, both religions thrive in Puerto Rico and several saints have dual personalities, depending on where they are worshipped.
But whatever incarnation they represent, it's clear these figurines still play a prominent role in Puerto Rican life. You'll find them in museums and galleries in Old San Juan, in souvenir shops and antique stores. The best examples from revered carvers such as Don Zoilo Cajigas, Florencio Caban and Carmelo Soto are highly collectible works of art. The largest collection of Puerto Rican santos in the world is housed in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and in Old San Juan there is a small but important collection in the Museum of the Americas.
Here you can see devotional santos created by both famous and anonymous carvers, including the Black Virgin of Monserrate and the Virgin del Carmen.
But even in the souvenir shops and galleries of Old San Juan there are vintage and contemporary figurines to admire. And while santos are probably the most popular Puerto Rican souvenir, even rudimentary carvings are not cheap.
