The Penitents by Sebastian Castañeda

Public Story

The Penitents

Copyright Sebastian Castañeda 2024

Date of Work Oct 2019 - Ongoing

Updated Nov 2019

Topics Black and White, Christianity, Community, Documentary, Latin America, Photography, Photojournalism, Religion, Spirituality, Still life, Travel

Every October, about 50 thousand pilgrims arrive in Ayabaca, a small town in the Andes of the department of Piura north of Peru, some arrive by buses, others by trucks, some by mototaxi, but the vast majority arrive walking, pilgrims arrive from Ecuador, Colombia and from different parts of Peru, it comes from so far that it walks about six months to reach Ayabaca, it is common to see between June and July at the southern tip of Peru people walking in purple clothes. This holiday is the object of a great devotion that goes from pilgrims who carry a cross in tow to others when they arrive in Ayabaca, they crawl on the floor as a sign of penance or promise for a miracle granted. With them they bring musical instruments and their songs attenuate the walk of the journey to the Land of Captive. These groups of pilgrims are called "Brotherhoods."

According to history, in the year 1751, the Spanish priest, García Guerrero wanted to give his people in Ayabaca an image of the Lord; for which it was decided to use a cedar log, from which blood had sprouted after a farmer gave him an ax. Then three men dressed in impeccable white ponchos of wool arrived in the village, trotting on three brighter albino horses, carving artists and pledged to sculpt the image of the Captive Lord under three conditions:
That nobody saw them workThat they reach food once a day and which would be at dawnThat the price of the work would be agreed at the end of it
After several days and when nothing was known, the villagers approached the house, called insistently and, not getting an answer, thought they had made fun of them. Then they forced the door and inside there was no person, the food was intact and there was only an imposing and majestic sculpture: the sculpture of a Nazarene with his hands crossed. Only then did they realize that the authors were angels who at the end of the sculpture took flight and left.