Page - 96 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

96 | Héctor M. Varela Rios www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 87–106 Oller, societal backwardness seems to be solved by a total transformation of Puerto Rico through education and an emphasis on a purified Puerto Rican human being free of empire and religion, exemplified by the dissolution of “uncivilized” practices such as the bakiné. In that sense, El Velorio is intensely humanist while inherently theological: intentionally or not, it mediates God- talk in pictorial form. Beyond the pictorial representation, Oller’s productive intent is clear in his reasons for submitting the painting for the 1895 Paris Salon, sent to its organizers: Astonishing criticism of a custom that still exists in Puerto Rico among coun- try people and which has been promulgated by the priesthood. On this day the family and friends have kept vigil all night over the dead child […] extend- ed on a table with flowers and lace tablecloth. The mother is holding back her grief, on her head she wears a white turban; she does not weep because her tears might wet the wings of this little angel that will fly to heaven. She grins and offers a drink to the priest, who with eager eyes gazes up at the roast pig whose entry is awaited with enthusiasm. Inside the room of indig- enous structure, children play, dogs romp, lovers embrace and the musicians get drunk. This is an orgy of brutish appetites under the veil of gross super- stition. Two figures, in the midst of the chaos: the old countryman, […] pants rolled up […], who comes to bid farewell to the dead youth who left forever.26 Oller’s socio-cultural critique shows in his own interpretation of the bakiné tradition as an “orgy of brutish appetites” and the beliefs supporting it as “gross superstition”. He embodies the minority “cultured” elite in contrast to the majority “uncultured” masses. However, even if genuinely desirous of a puertorriqueñidad unfettered from an imposed hispanidad and catolicidad, Oller and this elite were deeply colonialized.27 For instance, in his desire to critique the lack of social discipline of rural Puerto Ricans, Oller ends up man in El Velorio, even calling him Oller’s “alter ego” (Delgado 1998, 45). However, even al- lowing for Delgado’s interpretation and its potential implications (for instance, that Oller’s positive take on dark-skinned folk means he was not racist), Oller’s description of the bakiné quoted below makes plain his elitist worldview. 26 Benítez 1983, 193. 27 Puertorriqueñidad (“Puerto Rican-ness”), hispanidad (“Spanish-ness”), and catolicidad (“Catholic-ness”) are terms common in Puerto Rican literature; I introduce them in Span- ish here, though I translate them later for the sake of English readers.