Spirit of Chiapas: The Expressive Art of the Roof Cross Tradition: Featuring the Frans Blom Collection at Na Bolom

Chiapas may be most notorious for its recent rebellious history; however, the southerly region of Mexico is also home to the rich folk art of rooftop iron-wrought crosses. These symbols festoon not only local church steeples, but homes, water springs, town entrances and many other local sites. To preserve this fading tradition, anthropologist Guess explores the origins of the cross, which was significant both for the conquering Europeans and the indigenous pre-Columbian cultures, aided by a plethora of photographs shot by her husband, Robert Guest. In addition to the typical Christian cross's North-South and East-West axes, the ancient Chiapas crosses also depicted a sun-like axis mundi representing the four directions of the""Mother Wind"" that blew the clouds and rain. Guess devotes a large portion of the book to identifying different ironwork styles, especially those illustrated in the 32 roof crosses on permanent display at the Na Bolom regional museum in San Cristobal de Las Casas. (Danish archeologist Frans Blom collected the crosses when he relocated to the area in the 1950s.) Against this visual library, the author also investigates the increasing pressure on the herreros, or traditional ironworkers, to forge crosses that fit the tastes of the tourist hordes, and compares the Chiapas motifs with those that adorn roof crosses in Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia. For those who visit the region physically or only vicariously through the pages, Guess includes a""walking tour"" of the old barrios of San Cristobal. Glossary. 80 color and 41 b&w photographs.