The Black Christ of Mexico
ca. 1949
Color Serigraph
12” x 15 ½”
The Black Christ of Mexico was another more complex religious scene establishing Rose’s ability and desire to delve deeply into cultural and religious practices. In a 1955 letter to philosopher Raymond Piper, Rose identified this print as the culmination of her two years spent living in the village of Ajijic. She explained that her ability to speak Spanish enabled her to gain the “confident friendship” of the Afro Latino indigenous people there, who escorted her to many “half-Pagan, half-Christian” ceremonies in remote mountain villages, which she later wrote represented the high points of her time spent in Mexico.
In the serigraph, Rose positions a figure of a black Christ on the cross at the center of her composition. Women mourn at his feet. The scene merges Mexican Christians on the left with the ancient priests of the Quetzacóatl deity on the right to indicate the long history and deep sophistication of religious worship in Mexico.