"Fray Andrés de Guinea: A portrait of Chilean Slavery", Research Workshop with Celia Cussen, Professor of History, Universidad de Chile

Department: History

Date and Time: January 28, 2020 | 4:00 PM-5:30 PM

Event Location: hg 1002

Event Details

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The portrait of the young convent servant, Fray Andrés de Guinea (1792), the first representation of an African produced in Chile, is tucked away in a corner of the nearly abandoned Recoleta Franciscana in Santiago's La Chimba neighborhood, north of the Mapocho River. In this project, Celia Cussen and co-author Javiera Carmona situate the painting in a series of seasons of the Franciscan Order: the reported period of Fray Andrés' life (17C); the production of the portrait (late 18C); its displacement during the renewal of the convent (18C); and the current season of abandonment. They analyze the painting from the theoretical perspective of heritage studies as an object of devotion that aided a community to remember what was once important, but which has been forgotten, its relevance lost and even its meanings altered.

In this research workshop, Professor Cussen will discuss her work-in-progress and solicit discussion and feedback. (There are no pre-circulated materials.)

Cussen is in residence during January as a Visiting Researcher through a formal Academic Exchange Agreement between UCI Latin American Studies and the University of Chile, Santiago. She is author of Black Saint of the Americas: The Life and Afterlife of Martín de Porres (Cambridge, 2014) and editor of El libro de la Cofradía de la Candelaria. Una
hermandad de mulatos y naturales, Santiago, Chile, siglo XVII(Editorial  Universitaria and Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, forthcoming).  She has a courtesy office in the History Department (KH 273) and may be contacted at celia.cussen@gmail.com

Sponsored by the UCI Center for Latin American Studies and Department of History