Doña Sebastiana and la carreta de la muerte
By Nicolasa Chávez
In late winter and early spring, the waxing light of the sun and the longer days signify a time of regeneration and rebirth. During this time cultures around the world celebrate the return of life and light to the earth. In many countries the Lenten season leading up to the celebration of Holy Week initiates the beginning of Spring. The crucifixion of Christ and his subsequent resurrection and ascension to heaven, marks the symbolism of everlasting life, or of life conquering death. In New Mexico and parts of southern Colorado, the practices and traditions of the season are unique, for in these special places we meet death face to face when Doña Sebastiana and her carreta de la muerte (death cart) travel over the high mountain roads.
Who is Doña Sebastiana? Marched in processions during Holy Week, most commonly on Good Friday, she is a skeleton figure who sits atop a two-wheeled cart pointing her bow and arrow at onlookers. As she passes by, she is a reminder of the reality of death. Eyewitness accounts describe hearing the creaking of the wheels from afar as the cart is pulled up the road by penitentes (members of a brotherhood dedicated to doing penance during Holy Week). Other accounts noted that the cart is loaded down with rocks to weigh it down for pulling along the routes. It is said the cart is so heavy that the ropes used by the hermanos (brothers) to pull it cuts into their skin. Pulling the carreta is an act of penance and an honor.
Researchers date the earliest wood carved carreta de la muerte to 1861, made by the godfather of the Córdova woodcarving tradition, Nazario López. Of the few firsthand descriptions of Doña Sebastiana images in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, very few are written by New Mexicans. Most descriptions come from outsiders who often have a negative view of her, all that she symbolizes, and other practices within the penitente tradition. One such account written in 1881 describes her as “a hideous statue, dressed in black, with pallid face and monkish cowl, which held in its hands a bow and arrow drawn in position.” This view of misunderstood rituals of the penitentes is also evident in the titles of articles written in the early twentieth century. One title refers to “barbarism,” another refers to the brothers as “savages of saints.” Others mistakenly connect Doña Sebastiana to the contemporary following of La Santa Muerte in Mexico and parts of the United States. Although both share historical origins, and each is sometimes referred to simply as “La Muerte,” they followed their own unique trajectories. La Santa Muerte is not an official saint of the Catholic Church, but she has a huge following that has elevated her to saintly status. Contrarily, even though images of Doña Sebastiana are quite popular among contemporary santeros (saint makers) and many unique versions of her exist, she is neither worshipped nor prayed to; there are no shrines erected in her honor. The Catholic Church does not venerate her as a saint. Instead, she is a very real symbol and reminder of impending death and our own mortality.
Doña Sebastiana is a “modernized” 19th-century New Mexican version of the mementa mori and Danse Macabre images of medieval Europe. Mementa mori, often in the form of exhumed human skulls and bones, were used for intense meditation and contemplation of one’s own mortality. They appear in many renditions and paintings of saints. A skull is usually held in Santa Rita’s (Saint Rita) hand, sits on the desk of San Gerónimo (Saint Jerome), or is held by San Francisco (Saint Francis) as he prays. Sebastiana is also a descendant of images of the Angel of Death and the dance macabre that began to appear during the Plague of the 1300s. The Angel of Death was depicted with a cart carrying away the bodies of those that had passed. During the time of the plague images of the danse macabre (in French), or totentaz (in German) also became popular. These images showed skeletons walking, dancing, and playing instruments alongside the living. They illustrate the constant presence of death; the idea of death is always and ever present. That they are depicted among the living at a dance or festival is commentary that all people, no matter what status in life, must join in the universal dance of death. A danse macabre mural dating to the 15thth century at Santa Maria Annunciata Church, Bienno, Italy, depicts a skeleton standing upright shooting arrows from a bow. Could this be a possible precursor to our New Mexican Sebastiana? Sebastiana appears as the direct descendant of both 16th century image with bow and arrow and the Angel of Death. Doña Sebastiana is the only death figure today who simultaneously rides on a cart and points a bow and arrow outward toward onlookers.
Even though the New Mexican death cart was developed much later than medieval mementa mori and danse macabre images, the use of skulls for prayer and contemplation was common in the Americas prior to European contact. For the indigenous cultures of Mexico, the skull or skeleton symbolized the continuance of the life cycle and reminded that death was a natural part of life. Skulls and skeletons represented universality in all living things; in life and in death all beings were considered skeletons underneath their skin and clothing. Throughout the colonial period the traditions of Catholic Europe blended with Aztec and other Mexican cultural expressions. Later in the 19th -century, the Mexican use and symbolism of the skull traveled North to New Mexico from places such as Durango, Mexico and Zacatecas. Both La Santa Muerte and Doña Sebastiana have roots in these traditions.
In New Mexico skulls had been kept at penitente moradas (meeting houses) and appeared as attributes of the several different saints. One of New Mexico’s earliest santeros Molleno, included them in late 18th -early 19th-century paintings of the crucifixion and on an altar frontal. Jesuit priest and historian Fr. Thomas J. Steele, S.J. states “the carreta was in its foremost meaningful feature the allegorical image of death, not a sudden innovation but only a statement more striking than the familiar skull… for it was only a fuller and more mobile presentation of the human skull, an item familiar in art and reality.”
Like mementa mori, the Angel of Death, and the Danse Macabre, Sebastiana is the great equalizer. Doña Sebastiana became the very personification of death, a commonality that binds all humans together. No matter rich or poor, on Good Friday she passes by all of us, and none of us escape the reality of our own mortality. Like the Angel of Death, Sebastiana is always accompanied by a cart, or carreta. In lieu of carrying bodies away, in New Mexico, the cart has another meaning. The carreta is the smaller, two-wheeled version of the four wheeled carros that came up the Camino Real. Instead of carrying away bodies during the plague, carros carried goods, people, ideas, and disease up the 1500 mile stretch from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Foods, dry goods, clothing and more, brought sustenance. In short, in New Mexico’s history, the cart provided sustenance, but its absence could take life away.
Another point of interest is the representation of death as female. An early connection of the female to death, and perhaps a precursor to the Angel of Death, is evident in Greco-Roman mythology. The Moirai in Greek, or Parcae in Latin are the three fates who determine one’s path through life. Generally represented as three older women, the third, named Atropos in Greek and Morta in Latin, represents one’s final destiny and death. The Roman name “Morta” directly translates as “the Dead one” for she represents old age and the inevitability of death and is the one who cuts the thread of life upon one’s passing. In Western European heritage, the early images of Morta contribute to those of the Angel of Death and may be the oldest and earliest precursor to Doña Sebastiana. The image of the third fate also lives on in Latin America as La Parca, depicted as a female skeleton figure draped in a black cloak. It is also a belief among some that death appears as a woman in the form of Sebastiana because she represents San Sebastian, inverted. He was martyred by bow and arrow. Unlike her counterpart, Sebastiana takes control of the bow and points the arrow outward. She is also not a martyr; she is in total control.
Though the first sight Doña Sebastiana and her carreta de muerte can be a frightening experience, for the native New Mexican, this is not so. It is important to remember that when acknowledging Sebastiana’s presence, one is not worshipping death; rather, it honors the reality that death is inevitable. Sebastiana represents the duality of death and living a good life. Remembering we are mortal reminds us to live a decent, kind, and moral life. The fact that she is marched in our gorgeous New Mexico landscape also reminds us to find beauty every day. Once the severity and somberness of Lent and events leading to Good Friday culminate, one can rejoice on the final day of Holy Week, Día de la Resurrección (Easter Sunday). Only after Doña Sebastiana passes with her creaking carreta, bow and arrow in tow, after the day of resurrection, or rebirth, is completed, Spring officially begins.
Suggested readings:
Candelaria, Michael, “Images in Penitente Ritual and Santo Art: A Philosophical Inquiry into
the Problem of Meaning,” Nuevo Mexicano Cultural Legacy: Forms, Agencies, and
Discourse (Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2002).
Chávez, Fray Angélico, My Penitente Land: Reflections on Spanish New Mexico
(Albuquerque, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1974).
Steele, Thomas J. “The Death Cart: Its Place Among the Santos of New Mexico,” The
Colorado Magazine (Vol. 55, No. 1, Winter 1978).
Mart Weigle, Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood: The Penitentes of the Southwest (Santa
Fe, New Mexico: Ancient City Press, 1976).
Marta Weigel “Ghostly Flagellants and Doña Sebastiana: Two Legends of the Penitente
Brotherhood,” in Western Folklore 36. No. 2 (April 1977).
Archival Resources:
Dorothy Woodard Memorial Penitente Collection, State Archives of New Mexico
Works Progress Administration Files “Penitentes”, State Archives of New Mexico
History Files “Penitentes”, State Archives of New Mexico