Ethnicity and eroticism in wooden saints: popular religious art in Puerto Rico

This article contributes to the understanding of religiosity in the Caribbean. Its author associates elements that appear in the conventional Christian tradition, such as devotion, spirituality and eroticism. It also analyzes the reinterpretations that have been made in Puerto Rico of saints and virgins of the Iberian Catholic tradition. All this is redefined in the imaginary through the carvings of saints. Fragments of the oral tradition that account for these phenomena and their validity in the memory of this Caribbean people are included.