The worship of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela: saint, exceptional or mighty dead?

This article corresponds to an ongoing research that aims to describe and analyze the practices of sacralization around the figure of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, to understand the different forms of devotional expression established by popular urban sectors with beings considered exceptional. In this...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Hernández, Luis Alonso
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Repositorio:Ciencias Sociales y Religión (Online)
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8669770
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/csr/article/view/8669770
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Chavez
Sacralization
Polysemic entity
Exceptional beings
January 23
Venezuela
Chávez
Sacralización
Entidad polisémica
Seres excepcionales
23 de Enero
Sacralização
Entidade polissêmica
Seres excepcionais
23 da janeiro
Descripción
Sumario:This article corresponds to an ongoing research that aims to describe and analyze the practices of sacralization around the figure of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, to understand the different forms of devotional expression established by popular urban sectors with beings considered exceptional. In this sense, after a four-month visit to the sector January 23 in the city of Caracas, it was evidenced ethnographically the support of a cult that has its own prayers, a chapel and a whole reconfiguration of icons of Catholicism adapted to this religious manifestation. In addition, from the relationship established by the natives with Commander Chávez, it is observed that we are facing a polysemic entity, that is, for certain devotees it is a saint, for the guardian of the chapel it is a “ser vergatario” that is seated with God, while for a sergeant of the Bolivarian Militia that maintains a relationship of trust with the former president, he is a powerful dead man. Santo Hugo Chávez del 23, as he is known, already has a list of miracles that strengthen his presence and power in terms of Peter Brown (1982), in addition, many of his devotees express commitments to the Bolivarian revolution that merge with their ways of living the religious, which gives indications of a strong isomorphism between politics and popular religiosity that is of interest to the social sciences.