Syncretic Traditions in Latin America

I came home today after a very long day (car decided to stop working, had to do some errands about town) to find a dead cat in my driveway. I was upset by this. My parents say it was probably the dogs that killed it because it trespassed into their territory. I mean, it wasn´t bleeding or anything. Just seems the dogs...I don´t know.

Anyhow, I had to dispose of the carcass. I felt a mix of grossness and sadness. I´m a cat person and I can´t imagine my own cat, Luna, ending up like that. Just really upsetting all around. Anyhoo, my mother told me to dispose of the carcass and then wash my hands and then do her a favor. What she asked me to do was to go upstairs to her room and wash my hands and face with some holy water kept in a flask in the shape of the Virgin Mary. I ask why. She said to just do it and then she´ll tell me. So I do this, and then ask her why I had to do that. She said that it was to protect me against any evil spirit or force that might harm me. Like from the cat or something.

A normal person would be skeptical about this, but I´ve seen my fair share of scary spirits to really not appreciate the extra protection (I´ve seen a shadow person and a ghost). Also, there´s something about growing up here that made that request and the logic behind it not seem weird. But it did get me thinking about how much of local folklore and practices really are mixed in with Catholicism in an interesting way here in Ecuador.

The first thing that comes to mind is the process of a "limpia" which is a ritual done by a Priest/Shaman (yeah, a Priest who is also a Shaman...you read that correctly) that basically cleanses your spirit. I´ve had one. I´m not supposed to reveal what goes on there. But suffice to say that it is WEIRD, but that it works. Weird shit happens during that.

Weirder still, my Great Aunt (who is a nun) had one done too and had a discussion with the mother superior at her convent because she felt it conflicted with her belief in God. The Mother Superior said something along the lines of "there are forces out there that we are not meant to understand".

Then there is the fact that my mother and my aunts lighted white candles and went about praying the rosary in my room when I saw the Shadow Man there. Surprisingly enough, I never had any more paranormal activity in there. Ever.

Or the mysterious family ritual I had done when I was 13 and go my first pimples. It is supposed to drag pimples away from your face. Can´t reveal the ritual, but it has to do Catholicism. I rarely get pimples on my face. My brother, who refused to have it done, gets tons.

All this stuff seems part of normal life here. And it dawned on me earlier today as I washed my face with holy water that maybe it is slightly peculiar.

Inneresting.

Categories: daoism, religion