Page - 88 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

88 | Héctor M. Varela Rios www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 87–106 tions.1 To my knowledge, its value for Christian theology, however, remains unexplored. This essay aims to address this oversight using the Latinx theo- logical concept of lo cotidiano (loosely translated, “the everyday”), especially helpful in this case for its decolonial force.2 I suggest that a lo cotidiano reading of El Velorio can increase its importance for decolonializing Puer- to Rican culture specifically and global religious art history and religious studies in general. To do that, after a brief analysis of the painting from the perspective of material culture, including painter Francisco Oller y Cestero and his context, I will use lo cotidiano constructively to subvert Oller’s own understanding of El Velorio, which earlier scholarship on the painting has presupposed to be normative.3 1 See for example Benítez 1983; Taylor 1983; Schechter 1994; Delgado 1998; Alegría 2001; Martorell/Hurley 2010; Salazar 2010; Cortés 2012; Pons Irizarry 2012; Álvarez 2017. 2 The use of “x” in “Latinx” is an incomplete yet essential attempt to unite binary and non-binary folk under one ethnicity. I will also use it with other concepts as applicable. 3 My understanding of “material” comes from material religion and material culture stud- ies, especially through the work of Miller 2005 and Morgan 2004. Briefly, the “material” is that which is expressed through/revealed by sensory interaction and with implications for “real life”. I use “constructively” as in “constructive” theology, meaning open-ended and forward-looking, and as in the “constructivist” sense of material religion scholarship, Fig. 1: Francisco Oller y Cestero, El Velorio, oil on canvas, 244 x 396 cm, c. 1893, Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico.