Mexican Abduction Art
This example of Mexican naive art hangs in my hallway. I had it matted with black velvet and framed in ostentatious gold. It’s an example of a retablo or votive painting that is commissioned when someone wants to thank a particular saint for saving them from disease, accidents, or other misfortune.
Roughly translated with my limited skills, the text reads:
Mr. Gonzalo Salinas Cruz gives thanks to Saint Martin of Porres for saving me from death when a Martian tried to abduct me when I came out of the cantina [bar.] Mr. Fermin Luna Sambrano/ March 9, 1987.
The second name is probably the artist’s. One thing I find interesting and curious are the white dots or lights over Sr. Cruz’ head. Is it an iconographic representation of drunkenness, or does it have some religious meaning? On the right is presumably a portrait of the penitent sinner and a standard representation of the Saint. The “martian” descends in a cone of greenish light. He has the requisite bug eyes, but they’re turned upwards, like teardrops. He’s fairly stocky as well.
If the guy actually did see an alien after getting stinking drunk, I stand corrected in my assumption that no one has ever hallucinated a close encounter under the influence of alcohol. Maybe he was drinking mezcal, which is made from a cactus with hallucinogenic properties. According to some researchers, this might actually give it some legitimacy as a real encounter.
What I’d really like to see is a painting of Saint Martin zapping the alien back to wherever it came from.
P.S. I apologize for the break in posts. I was out of town for a couple of days. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
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Feb 07 2007 
February 8th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Thats great!
February 8th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
There’s something slightly odd about that picture: notice the ‘martian’ seems to be posing his hands in a stylised ’sacred’ manner highly familiar to many Buddhists, not to mention innumerable Pope watchers - is this merely an artistic conceit, or was this the pose the ‘alien’ actually assumed?
But notice also how the cone of ‘green energy’ illuminating the ‘alien’ is matched by a parallel dark green cone, atop which the saint hovers on his own cloud-like ufo.
Even the saint’s cloud’s shape is matched by a similar - though inverted -outline of stars over the cantina doors.
Are these parallels merely coincidences, an attempt by the artist to covertly subvert the penitent’s view of the ‘martian’ as hostile, or indicative the artist has hit the old mezcal once too often himself, with similar but more pronouncedly spiritual results?
February 9th, 2007 at 10:24 am
alan,
I haven’t mentioned this before, but my degree is in Art History, of all things, and in my opinion your analysis is excellent!
It’s almost as if the two areas of the painting should be labeled “incorrect” and “correct.”
The retablo adheres the to standard iconography (from wikipedia):
An ex-voto requires certain elements in order to be considered part of the votive tradition. They are made as a way thanking the gods for protection in precarious situations. These situations could be returning a lost family pet or overcoming an illness. It is a physical way of thanking them for a miracle or an act of kindness. They must display humans physically doing something. They must include divine images, like saints or spirits. They must also have an explanation of events that occurred. The explanation must include the date and location that the event occurred.