Art of Devotion: The unique Puerto Rican artistic heritage of santos de palo

By Dorie Reents-Budet, PhD

Carvings of santos de palo, “wooden household saints,” are a uniquely Puerto Rican artistic heritage. These sculptures intricately intermingle the nation’s Hispanic Catholic framework with indigenous Taíno/Carib and African elements into a singular folk artform. Spanning 400-plus years, santos de palo have come to symbolize Puerto Rican national identity, embodying multicultural traditions steeped in spiritual faith, personal strength, and a resourceful response to hardships.

The tradition of carving sacred Catholic images began in the 16th Century among Puerto Rico’s first Spanish immigrants. In the 1500s, Franciscan friars came to Puerto Rico to convert the indigenous Taíno people to Catholicism. The friars needed images of the saints for their evangelical efforts, but few were available. Taking advantage of the ancient Taíno tradition of wood carving and carpentry, the friars turned to untrained immigrants and native Taíno artisans to carve the Catholic images.

These early carvers copied the Spanish Baroque style. By the early 1600s, santeros (translated as “carvers of wooden saints”) also made small, less opulent carvings that came to be known as santos de palo, “saints of wooden branches.” This literal translation conveys the precious objects’ origin as tree branches, roots, and cast-off lumber.

The two port towns of San Juan and Ponce held most of the population, and the island’s rough interior was sparsely populated by peasant farmers. Few priests ventured into the countryside, and local chapels were nearly absent. The isolation stimulated the development of a folk version of Catholicism, and the faithful worshipped at humble home altars to express their faith and seek divine protection from daily hardships, sickness, and catastrophic weather events. Lacking money and access to religious sculptures, peasants carved their own holy figures by copying images from prayer cards distributed by the infrequently visiting priests.

By the 1750s, santeros had invented a distinctive, austere format better suited to local materials. Santos were made from whatever local wood was available, but carvers preferred Spanish cedar because it was abundant, soft, and resistant to rot. Paints were either homemade or were remnants of commercial pigments. Santeros also introduced iconographic innovations in response to the beliefs and practices of their folk Catholicism and perhaps also from Taíno and African traditions.

The santos de palo repertoire features many different saints and aspects of the Virgin Mary. Among the most popular are the Three Kings, Our Lady of Montserrat, and the Miracle of Hormigueros.

The Three Kings carvings best exemplify the transformation of the once humble santos de palo figures into a prime expression of Puerto Rican pride and identity. Puerto Rico is unmatched in the Catholic world for its expansive celebrations of the Christmas season beginning with the twelve days of Christmas, spanning December 25, the birth of the Christ Child, to Epiphany on January 6th, the day of the Three Kings’ visit to the Messiah. Beginning in the late 1950s, carvings of the Three Kings often incorporate Puerto Rican national symbols and references to the key activities of the Vigil of the Three Kings on the night before Epiphany and the Day of Epiphany celebrations.

Our Lady of Montserrat (or the Virgin of Montserrat) is one of the most popular saints in Puerto Rico, rivaled only by Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The two Virgins’ devotional importance is signified by being adorned with small silver milagros depicting animals and human body parts. These tiny adornments were offerings of thanks for the saint’s divine answer to prayers to heal an illness or resolve other life crises.

The first families of santos de palo carvers

The early santeros, all self-taught, did not make money from their craft but instead were drawn to create sacred statues as an expression of their faith and to give thanks for a saint’s divine answer to prayers. By the early 1800s, the first families of carvers emerged, including the Espada family of San Germán in southwestern Puerto Rico, the Cabán and Acre families of Camuy and Arecibo on the northwest coast, and the Riveras of the Orocovis area south of San Juan in the mountains.

The patriarch Felipe Espada initiated the ubiquitous Puerto Rican style of frontal, stiff poses, and simplified, almost abstract, body shapes and proportions. The Rivera family of carvers spans five generations from the 19th century to today, and their artistic style has influenced santeros for more than 150 years. The Rivera style features rounded faces and figural forms with large heads and small bodies which intimately draw together worshipper and saint. Similarly, the Arce family focuses on transmitting a message with each santo de palo by emphasizing the saints’ faces and body positions, their large, wide-open eyes and gestures directly engaging the devotee in spiritual interaction. In nearby Camuy, the three generations of the Cabán family established the ubiquitous Puerto Rican style, first outlined by the Espada family, and fully developed by Florencio Cabán.

From independence to decline and revitalization

Beginning in the late 19th century, independent carvers added their own styles to the santos de palo tradition, yet the tradition was slowly declining. In the 1930s, a few individuals realized the need to rescue the santos de palos tradition from decline. Foremost among them was Ricardo Alegría, PhD, a Harvard-educated anthropologist and the father of Puerto Rican archaeology. He understood not only the importance of saving the old santos de palo as cultural patrimony, but also the need to support living santeros so that they could train new carvers to revitalize the tradition. His preservation efforts were advanced by the Ateneo Puertorriqueño (Atheneum of Puerto Rico) that sponsored carvers’ competitions during the 1950s and hired the best graphic artists to create posters advertising the competitions and public exhibitions. The Ponce Museum of Art joined these efforts which continues today.

Dr. Alegría also pressured the government to establish the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña). Created in 1955 and headed by Alegría, the Institute sponsors carvers’ competitions, folk art festivals, museum exhibits, classes taught by the best carvers, and building and displaying the national collection of santos de palo.

These efforts revitalized the market for santos de palo and encouraged carvers with a new sense of competition and experimentation. Today, makers of wooden sculptures in the santos de palo tradition are called talladores (“carvers”) to reflect the broader subject matter, and many have professional training in studio art, art history, or related fields of technical and academic study. The mid-20th century’s revitalization efforts changed the public’s view of santos de palo from naïve carvings to museum-quality fine art with high monetary value which, in turn, has broadened the market in Puerto Rico and abroad.

The Toste-Mediavilla Collection

Nitza Mediavilla Piñero and Francisco (“Paco”) Toste Santana began collecting santos sculptures in the early 1970s. They were among the first wave of collectors who valued this unique carving tradition as fine art, assembling a diverse collection spanning the 18th-21st centuries. The Tostes conducted extensive research on their pieces, the carvers, and the history of the santos tradition. They became friends with many santeros who shared insights into their and others’ artworks. Nitza, an accomplished santera (female carver of saints) with a university fine arts degree and studio training by carver Roberto Ríos, has authored four excellent books on the topic. Paco lectures widely, most recently presenting a nine-part, university-level santos de palo course sponsored by the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y El Caribe. Of special importance is the Tostes’ archive of santos articles, brochures, recordings, photographs, and the superb serigraph posters from the 1950s-1990s announcing santeros competitions and exhibitions. Many were created by Puerto Rico’s best graphic artists. Now living in Charlotte, Paco and Nitza are pleased to share their collection of santos de palo with The Mint Museum in the exhibition Art of Devotion.

“We encountered the santos de palo tradition in the 1970s and soon acquired our first figure. From the moment we learned about the santos sculptures, we became obsessed with bringing their artistry to light,” says Francisco “Paco” Toste. “Our family has long wanted to share the cultural legacy of the santos de palo with our wider community. As Charlotte residents, we are delighted that The Mint Museum has selected this presentation of devotional art from our collection.”

Dorie Reents-Budet, PhD, specializes in art of the ancient Americas. She is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, has been an independent museum curator for 25 years, and is the curator of Art of Devotion.