Doctor Lunarejo and the indigenous Rosa.

Criollismo and religiousness in a XVIIth century baroque sermon.

Abstract

Juan de Espinosa Medrano’s Oración Panegírica a la Gloriosa Santa Rosa, included in La novena maravilla, shows the close link between criollismo and religion in a baroque sermon delivered in the XVIIth century at the center of Lima’s lettered city. The autor constructs a peruvian religious genealogy rooted in a "double consciousness" that endorses criollismo in geopolitical terms, while still vindicating "europeanness". He builds on the myth of Rosa, a criollo limeña, whose martyrdom and sanctity elicit both acceptance in the upper colonial classes and enormous popular fervour. Rosa, comissioned by Christ from Perú to Rome, inverts the movement and grants priority to the indigenous orb. The relevance of Rosa’s figure, embodying the idea of parousia, inscribes in divine history, with new characters, a geography previously tarred as barbarous and idolatrous. The sermon, a rethorical artifact offering a poetical spectacle to an audience is, by the same token, a demand of inclusion in the imperial orb.