Mixed Media Miniature: V. Candelaria

Mixed Media Mini Art Cards V.of Candelaria. 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". Black & white copies of drawing on acrylics, oil marker, tissue and decorative paper with decorative tape on card stock. 

One of my favorite places to visit in Mexico has been the city of Valladolid (pronounced Vaya-do-lid)in Yucatan state. Valladolid is the city nearest the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and was the last Mayan stronghold on the Yucatan Peninsula during the conquest. Now Valladolid is still home to a sprawling colonial era church and ex-convent named for Franciscan monk San Bernardino of Siena. It is home to many churches, of course, including the neighborhood church at Candelaria Park, named for Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria. Every morning at 7 a.m. a devoted congregation attends mass at Candelaria. I know this because when visiting Valladolid I would wake if not before at 7 a.m. to the soft toning of church bells. Sometimes I slipped across the street, into the church and sat near the back.

In these days I have been thinking of the letter to 1.2 billion Catholics Pope Francis recently wrote on sexual abuse in the Catholic church, of how he confronted the far reaching pain of its aftermath during his visit to Ireland, and at the same time suffered rebuke from a conservative cleric. I am not Catholic but I have visited many a place sacred to Catholics in Mexico. I have been somewhat a follower of Pope Francis, whom many conservative clerics find much too liberal.