LAURIE ZUCKERMAN SHARES A CHRISTMAS NATIVITY SHRINE FROM SOUTHERN COLORADO

Laurie Zuckerman wishes you and your family a wonderful holy season. I hope your home is as spirited as this one in the tiny town of Weston, deep in Southern Colorado. The porch makes a perfect manger for the coming of the baby Jesus. These nativity figures are life-size. Wish I had the guts to kitsch-up my house like this!

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS ROADSIDE SHRINES IN ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO

Laurie Zuckerman has been culling through her Southern Arizona photographs from earlier this year and is posting these private roadside shrines in and around Tubac, one decked out with Christmas lights. There were a string of home shrines just south of the town in a rural neighborhood along the old highway to the Tumacacori Mission. The family shrine with the hats was on an old highway heading west of Tubac, likely the site of a car crash. Very sweet and simple shrines, contemporary statuary. Real folk-art gems, the grottos themselves. Over the years, the interaction with the family and the public offerings lends visual richness and soulful authenticity to these shrines. It is what makes Arizona so unique. I have seen only a couple of roadside shrines like this in New Mexico. If you count the Sanctuario de Chimayo, then yes, that is the pentultimate shrine. Southern Colorado has quite a few gems, too.

Here is one from a private residence in Raton, New Mexico. The grotto is comprised of beautiful chunks of colored slag, large and extremely formidable. A huge plaster statue of Christ stands behind a glass wall, first shrine I have seen behind glass or plexiglass.

On the road to Mountaineer, New Mexico, I came upon this roadside shrine just outside the boundary to the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. Wonderful structure, blends perfectly into the red earth hillside.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S CHURCH PHOTOS FROM ATOTONILCO, SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

Laurie Zuckerman traveled to San Miguel de Allende back in 2005, during the festival of El Dia de los Muertos. I am finally posting a few of my favorite photos of the Madonnas and Jesuses from the exquisite historic churches. Above is the village of Atotonilco, known for their penitente-style of worship. Here are three examples of their richly colored altars honoring the suffering  of Christ.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S HOLY CROSS FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS FROM SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

Laurie Zuckerman visited the Charco Botanical Garden in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, back in 2006, and photographed this towering cross and sacred heart structure left over from the Holy Cross festival. It is made by the indigenous Indians in the state of Guanajuato from the Dasylirion plant, known as the cucharilla. In a future post, I will share more examples of this religious folk art used as cemetery wreath decorations in the cemeteries around Guanajuato. The plant dries well. The wreath I bought is still holding up well, and I have used it in several Day of the Dead shrines.