Sonia
December 21st, 2006, 04:05 PM
We Three Kings: Wise Men rule Puerto Rico festival, art
By Mary Ellen Botter
The Dallas Morning News
(MCT)
JUANA DIAZ, Puerto Rico - It's Bethlehem in the New World.
The Three Kings seem to be everywhere in Puerto Rico. In art stores. Souvenir shops. On the wall of a bakery. Among gamers in San Juan's Pool Palace. Beside expensive watches in a jeweler's display.
They even have their own museum in this small city five miles northeast of Ponce in southern Puerto Rico.
That isn't to say Christmas itself is trumped by the island's love of the Wise Men reputed to have visited the baby Jesus in the manger. Puerto Ricans are wild about that holiday, celebrating it with joyous abandon, decorating homes, plazas and buildings as early as the beginning of November, and reveling in family gatherings and Christmas Eve church services. Festivities stretch through the second week of January.
Visitors to the sun-sauced Caribbean island can catch the spirit by joining local celebrations, shopping the array of crafts commemorating the Nativity and the kings (locally called Los Tres Reyes), discovering the men's images in unexpected places and talking with Puerto Ricans about their plans for celebrating the season.
Where commercialism and Santa may insinuate themselves into the glowing, garlanded run-up to Dec. 25, Three Kings Day on Jan. 6 (traditionally the date the men arrived in Bethlehem to honor the Christ child) has a strong religious tone rooted in the island's heritage.
"We have the best of both worlds," says Juan Enrique Cruz, director of sales at El Convento hotel in San Juan, referring to the Santa Claus influence from the U.S. and the Three Kings observance from Spain. (Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony for 400 years until it was lost to Uncle Sam in the Spanish-American War in 1898.)
Towns and villages may offer re-enactments of the royal visitors, but the kings among Three Kings are those in Juana Diaz, whose observance is in its 123rd year. Although artisans will have booths on the plaza the evenings of Jan. 5 and 6, don't expect to find a circus of businesses elbowing for profit. A happy and spiritual atmosphere rules.
On Jan. 6, hundreds of Puerto Ricans and visitors gather at the plaza in front of San Ramon Nonato church to see a procession of shepherds and the Holy Family followed by the Wise Men on horseback (no camels on Puerto Rico, or in this pageant). Mass is celebrated, the kings present their gifts of adoration to an infant portraying Jesus, and music and mingling follow.
The spectacle follows a four-day national caravan by the city's anointed three. The men - chosen by a church panel for their spotless characters, people skills and commitment to the commemoration's meaning - visit different cities each year to deliver a message of reverence. Among stops in 2007 will be one at 5 p.m. Jan. 5 in the main plaza in Ponce.
On other days in the year, the faithful can tap into the spirit at Juana Diaz's modest museum. Casa Museo de los Reyes Magos, opened in 2004, includes a room displaying the glittering costumes blessed by the pope and worn by the city's three kings. An accompanying exhibit of photos captures the trio's travels and the people's love for them: An old woman beams as she embraces one of the saintly men; a small boy stretches up to kiss the bearded cheek of another.
Two galleries showcase paintings and figures of the kings. In the upstairs, permanent exhibit are a handful of oils moving in their sincerity, among them a Cuban artist's vision of the kings cradling the infant Christ and, in remembrance of the 2004 visit by Juana Diaz's kings to the Vatican, a canvas picturing a benevolent John Paul II waving a greeting to the city's mounted Wise Men.
Though selling the kings' image isn't a priority in Juana Diaz, it's available in many forms islandwide. Families prize collections of Three Kings figures, and travelers can find collectible art in stores ranging from trinket-stuffed souvenir shops to sellers of quality crafts. On Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan, discerning buyers favor Ole, which stocks antique woodcarvings of saints and the Three Kings, and Puerto Rican Art & Crafts, where the island's artisans offer traditional and contemporary depictions of the kings in ceramics, fused glass, print and, perhaps most sought-after, woodcarvings. A casual shopper can spend a few vacation dollars; a connoisseur, hundreds.
On an early November afternoon, fourth-generation carver Antonio Aviles delivers brightly painted kings and saints to the crafts store. A former artisan of the year in Puerto Rico whose works are in museums in Spain, Australia, Sweden and Japan, he unwraps figures he's brought for the shop's shelves, explaining that forward-facing kings are the traditional arrangement, though he sometimes angles the trio on a wooden base. He smiles and shows the tool he uses for shaping the cedar: a Swiss Army knife.
Take time to talk with Puerto Ricans, and you discover how they celebrate Three Kings Day. On the night before, young children go with their parents to collect grass for the Wise Men's horses. They put this in a box beside a dish of water, often under the parents' bed. In the morning, after a nighttime "visit" by the royals, the children's offerings are gone and in their place the "kings" have left presents. Although at Christmas, largesse tumbles from Santa's stuffed bag for everyone, on Jan. 6, in keeping with the theme of gifts for the infant Jesus, only children get presents, often just one, or perhaps one from each king. (Mom and Dad may stretch the rules for any age of their children.)
As with Christmas, it's a day for being together. Some families go on a picnic. Others gather at home or attend church.
Puerto Rican-born orthodontist Robert Lugo, now a Collin County resident, remembers his family's going to the green mountains bisecting the island, cooking a pig over coals and singing typical Spanish songs. "You bring any and all friends," he says.
The message of the day is never far from the feasting and togetherness.
Some faithful make a selfless version of the New Year's resolution called "la promesa."
"When you ask God for something and get a response, you promise to do something good back," says William Santiago Figueroa, administrator of the museum in Juana Diaz. "It's not to get, but to give."
---
IF YOU GO:
GETTING THERE: Major airlines including Delta, United, Continental and US Airways offer service to San Juan.
The island is small, about 110 miles east to west and 35 miles north to south, and is easily drivable.
Puerto Rico is part of the United States. No passport is required of U.S. citizens.
Both Spanish and English are official languages, and although Spanish is common, especially outside the cities, English is widely spoken.
CARVERS' MEET: The Puerto Rican association of santeros (artists who carve saints and religious figures in wood) meets each December at the Museo Orocoveno in the central-mountain town of Orocovis. The public may view and buy artworks. Information: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, San Juan, 787-724-0700.
RESOURCES: Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (government organization), 1-800-815-7391; www.gotopuertorico.com.
Casa Museo de los Santos Reyes (Three Kings Museum), minutes from the plaza in Juana Diaz; 787-837-2199 or 787-260-0817; www.reyesdejuanadiaz.
Juana Diaz city information on Web: www.juanadiaz.org.
Welcome to Puerto Rico! (helpful private Web site): www.topuertorico.org.
Puerto Rican Art & Crafts, 204 Fortaleza St. in Old San Juan, 787-725-5596; www.puertoricanart-crafts.com.
Ole crafts and souvenirs, 105 Fortaleza St. in Old San Juan, 1-787-724-2445.
---
Mary Ellen Botter: mebotter@dallasnews.com
By Mary Ellen Botter
The Dallas Morning News
(MCT)
JUANA DIAZ, Puerto Rico - It's Bethlehem in the New World.
The Three Kings seem to be everywhere in Puerto Rico. In art stores. Souvenir shops. On the wall of a bakery. Among gamers in San Juan's Pool Palace. Beside expensive watches in a jeweler's display.
They even have their own museum in this small city five miles northeast of Ponce in southern Puerto Rico.
That isn't to say Christmas itself is trumped by the island's love of the Wise Men reputed to have visited the baby Jesus in the manger. Puerto Ricans are wild about that holiday, celebrating it with joyous abandon, decorating homes, plazas and buildings as early as the beginning of November, and reveling in family gatherings and Christmas Eve church services. Festivities stretch through the second week of January.
Visitors to the sun-sauced Caribbean island can catch the spirit by joining local celebrations, shopping the array of crafts commemorating the Nativity and the kings (locally called Los Tres Reyes), discovering the men's images in unexpected places and talking with Puerto Ricans about their plans for celebrating the season.
Where commercialism and Santa may insinuate themselves into the glowing, garlanded run-up to Dec. 25, Three Kings Day on Jan. 6 (traditionally the date the men arrived in Bethlehem to honor the Christ child) has a strong religious tone rooted in the island's heritage.
"We have the best of both worlds," says Juan Enrique Cruz, director of sales at El Convento hotel in San Juan, referring to the Santa Claus influence from the U.S. and the Three Kings observance from Spain. (Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony for 400 years until it was lost to Uncle Sam in the Spanish-American War in 1898.)
Towns and villages may offer re-enactments of the royal visitors, but the kings among Three Kings are those in Juana Diaz, whose observance is in its 123rd year. Although artisans will have booths on the plaza the evenings of Jan. 5 and 6, don't expect to find a circus of businesses elbowing for profit. A happy and spiritual atmosphere rules.
On Jan. 6, hundreds of Puerto Ricans and visitors gather at the plaza in front of San Ramon Nonato church to see a procession of shepherds and the Holy Family followed by the Wise Men on horseback (no camels on Puerto Rico, or in this pageant). Mass is celebrated, the kings present their gifts of adoration to an infant portraying Jesus, and music and mingling follow.
The spectacle follows a four-day national caravan by the city's anointed three. The men - chosen by a church panel for their spotless characters, people skills and commitment to the commemoration's meaning - visit different cities each year to deliver a message of reverence. Among stops in 2007 will be one at 5 p.m. Jan. 5 in the main plaza in Ponce.
On other days in the year, the faithful can tap into the spirit at Juana Diaz's modest museum. Casa Museo de los Reyes Magos, opened in 2004, includes a room displaying the glittering costumes blessed by the pope and worn by the city's three kings. An accompanying exhibit of photos captures the trio's travels and the people's love for them: An old woman beams as she embraces one of the saintly men; a small boy stretches up to kiss the bearded cheek of another.
Two galleries showcase paintings and figures of the kings. In the upstairs, permanent exhibit are a handful of oils moving in their sincerity, among them a Cuban artist's vision of the kings cradling the infant Christ and, in remembrance of the 2004 visit by Juana Diaz's kings to the Vatican, a canvas picturing a benevolent John Paul II waving a greeting to the city's mounted Wise Men.
Though selling the kings' image isn't a priority in Juana Diaz, it's available in many forms islandwide. Families prize collections of Three Kings figures, and travelers can find collectible art in stores ranging from trinket-stuffed souvenir shops to sellers of quality crafts. On Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan, discerning buyers favor Ole, which stocks antique woodcarvings of saints and the Three Kings, and Puerto Rican Art & Crafts, where the island's artisans offer traditional and contemporary depictions of the kings in ceramics, fused glass, print and, perhaps most sought-after, woodcarvings. A casual shopper can spend a few vacation dollars; a connoisseur, hundreds.
On an early November afternoon, fourth-generation carver Antonio Aviles delivers brightly painted kings and saints to the crafts store. A former artisan of the year in Puerto Rico whose works are in museums in Spain, Australia, Sweden and Japan, he unwraps figures he's brought for the shop's shelves, explaining that forward-facing kings are the traditional arrangement, though he sometimes angles the trio on a wooden base. He smiles and shows the tool he uses for shaping the cedar: a Swiss Army knife.
Take time to talk with Puerto Ricans, and you discover how they celebrate Three Kings Day. On the night before, young children go with their parents to collect grass for the Wise Men's horses. They put this in a box beside a dish of water, often under the parents' bed. In the morning, after a nighttime "visit" by the royals, the children's offerings are gone and in their place the "kings" have left presents. Although at Christmas, largesse tumbles from Santa's stuffed bag for everyone, on Jan. 6, in keeping with the theme of gifts for the infant Jesus, only children get presents, often just one, or perhaps one from each king. (Mom and Dad may stretch the rules for any age of their children.)
As with Christmas, it's a day for being together. Some families go on a picnic. Others gather at home or attend church.
Puerto Rican-born orthodontist Robert Lugo, now a Collin County resident, remembers his family's going to the green mountains bisecting the island, cooking a pig over coals and singing typical Spanish songs. "You bring any and all friends," he says.
The message of the day is never far from the feasting and togetherness.
Some faithful make a selfless version of the New Year's resolution called "la promesa."
"When you ask God for something and get a response, you promise to do something good back," says William Santiago Figueroa, administrator of the museum in Juana Diaz. "It's not to get, but to give."
---
IF YOU GO:
GETTING THERE: Major airlines including Delta, United, Continental and US Airways offer service to San Juan.
The island is small, about 110 miles east to west and 35 miles north to south, and is easily drivable.
Puerto Rico is part of the United States. No passport is required of U.S. citizens.
Both Spanish and English are official languages, and although Spanish is common, especially outside the cities, English is widely spoken.
CARVERS' MEET: The Puerto Rican association of santeros (artists who carve saints and religious figures in wood) meets each December at the Museo Orocoveno in the central-mountain town of Orocovis. The public may view and buy artworks. Information: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, San Juan, 787-724-0700.
RESOURCES: Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (government organization), 1-800-815-7391; www.gotopuertorico.com.
Casa Museo de los Santos Reyes (Three Kings Museum), minutes from the plaza in Juana Diaz; 787-837-2199 or 787-260-0817; www.reyesdejuanadiaz.
Juana Diaz city information on Web: www.juanadiaz.org.
Welcome to Puerto Rico! (helpful private Web site): www.topuertorico.org.
Puerto Rican Art & Crafts, 204 Fortaleza St. in Old San Juan, 787-725-5596; www.puertoricanart-crafts.com.
Ole crafts and souvenirs, 105 Fortaleza St. in Old San Juan, 1-787-724-2445.
---
Mary Ellen Botter: mebotter@dallasnews.com