The Virgin of the Macana and the Pueblo Revolution

 The Virgin of the Macana and the Pueblo Revolt

Very few paintings of the Virgin of the Macana exist and they all date to the late 18th century. The virgin of the Macana is a recreation of the Virgin of Toledo that came about after the Pueblo Revolution. The Pueblo Revolution was the first revolution on American soil as well as the first successful Indigenous peoples armed rebellion. The goal of the Pueblo revolution was to expel Spanish colonial forces. Christianized and non-christianized Indigenous people formed this rebellion. Casualties included 21 Franciscan missionaries and 400 Spanish colonists. Many of the expressions in this painting appeal to Spanish colonial forces and their right of passage rather than the suffrage of the indigenous people, such as Mary's wounded head, blamed on the hanging native, and the few natives submitting to christian conquest.

 

A specifically interesting version of the Virgin of the Macana lives at the New Mexico History Museum. This painting shows the Virgin Mary as a large statue that encompasses almost the entire composition. She is surrounded by the events and cultural distinction of the European and indigenous peoples involved in the Pueblo Revolution. Mary is identifiable as a statue due to a pedestal beneath her and no sense of a body under her clothes that travel down to create a pyramid shape. There are many figures on either side of her: Spaniards on her left and Puebloans on her right. Two versions of the indigenouse peoples are shown. Some Indigenous peoples were displayed as violent, savage barbarians and some people were displayed as converted Christians kneeling before Mary. A Franciscan missionary is shown to memorialize the missionaries killed in the revolt. The devil is also shown on the left in a tree holding the rope of a hanging Puebloan. The hanging man is supposed to represent the man who struck the Virgin Mary with a macana. A macana is a wooden weapon, with exposed obsidian blades commonly used by the people of Central Mexico, not the pueblo people in New Mexico. The weapon was a means to identify the Indigenous people as uncivilized barbarians, historical accuracy was less important than the justification of Spanish Colonial forces.

Images of the Macana were intended to enforce the Franciscan mission of converting Indigenous peoples to christianity. The Virgin of Macana served specifically the Franciscan agenda. This painting is designed to credit the Franciscans with dying for their faith. At the top of the painting the God and the Holy Spirit are blessing the scene and pictorializing the Franciscan Missionaries divine destiny. 

Overall this painting is religiously and culturally biased. It is used to make Indigenous people look uncivilized and savage, as well as display Christian triumph. The painting was used to make the Indigenous peoples uprising seem trivial and seen as an unreasonable act.  

Source: Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, "The Virgin of the Macana and the Pueblo Revolution of 1680," in Smarthistory, October 16, 2020, accessed March 21, 2021, https://smarthistory.org/virgin-macana/.