En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico Book

The Penitente Brotherhood, formally known as La Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, is a lay Catholic organization unique to New Mexico and southern Colorado. This book documents moradas, the buildings in which the Brothers meet and pray, and offers an intimate and respectful account of their religious observances. The Penitente Brothers have been objects of intense curiosity ever since New Mexico became a tourist attraction, and they have guarded their privacy fiercely. This book respects the privacy of all members of the brotherhood. Quotations are anonymous; building locations are unidentified. But unlike previous melodramatic or scholarly accounts, Michael Wallis's straightforward text and Craig Varjabedian's unadorned photos capture the deep piety of the brothers and their complex relationship with their history and the modern world. These are ordinary people, many of whom have moved away from the mountain villages in order to earn their livings in city jobs. For these hermanos, keeping their tie to the morada is to keep alive their history, their culture, as well as to express a deep piety. It is impossible to see Craig Varjabedian's luminous photos of their moradas or to hear the voices of the hermanos captured in Michael Wallis's intimate text without being moved by this glimpse into a religious experience absent from the lives of most Americans.