Page - 101 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Using Latinx Theology’s Lo Cotidiano | 101www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 87–106 but plentiful in other ways; in love, for one. Straining under the colonial yoke is hard, but those oppressed find ways to survive, and sometimes thrive, by drinking pitorro and dueling with machetes when called for. El Velorio, then, is not predominantly about a ritual or the politics of rural versus urban or orthodox versus popular religion but about the imago dei Puerto Ricans should aspire to be: Oller’s painting is nothing less than a jíbare decolonial Christian theological anthropology. Since the imago dei is a challenge to approach the human to the divine as much as possible, Oller’s creation unintentionally expresses an imagined yet carefully curated Puerto Rican-ness as a challenge for the rest of humanity: being Puerto Rican by way of El Velorio is being eager and grateful to God, creatively faithful even in the direst of circumstances. Theological Insights: El Velorio as Decolonial Ecclesiology, Creativity, and Mestizaje/Mulatez After progressing from the description through (re-)interpretation to signifi- cation of El Velorio in light of the decolonial lo cotidiano, I offer three insights into the decolonializing power of El Velorio itself, in other words, three ways in which the painting decolonializes its beholders and their understand- ing of Latinx being human. This is a constructive endeavor, meaning it is open-ended and forward-looking, because each beholder must rethink their own hermeneutical lens and will not necessarily adopt mine or its implica- tions. Lo cotidiano, as central to Latinx theology, makes visible its particular her- meneutical lens, the preferential option for the poor, as reality is interpreted from the side of the socio-economically and spiritually deprived, that is, those marginalized by human non-religious and ecclesial kyriarchies. That El Velorio presents a particular moment of rural, impoverished family and communal life is self-evident. What is less evident is its Latinx ecclesiology, that is, the painting’s interpretation of this Latinx community from a theo- logical perspective. For these mourning-celebrating poor Puerto Ricans, as for many other less-privileged believers, funerary wakes in churches are for the rich. However, the church is not the building but the humans that dwell inside. The family house then serves as sacred space, confirmed by Oller through the small cross above the door in the painting. This sacredness is