Mezclas extrañas, desordenadas y estruendosas.
Llegamos sobre la hora a la antigua estancia jesuítica de Santa Catalina una de las más grandes en las cercanías de Córdoba capital. Ya terminaba el horario de visita y nos quedamos afuera sin poder recorrerla, espiamos lo que pudimos. Los chicos tenían hambre y estaban "cansados de visitar iglesias".
Una de las cosas que llamó nuestra atención era el alboroto que armaban montones de cotorritas. Sus nidos entretejidos en unas araucarias (creo que no del tipo araucano o patagónico…) podían ser buen ejemplo de esos sincretismos a los que los jesuitas fueron tan afectos. Cotorras anidadas en araucarias en tierras que fueron jesuíticas.
Siempre me gustaron las cotorritas y sus nidos, pero nunca había tenido un zoom para verlos de cerca (y un marido a mano y resignado a fotografiar casi cada cosa sobre la que digo “¡Qué lindo!” –que es mi frase en clave para decir “¡Sacá una foto de eso!”).
Sus nidos son muy divertidos. "Propiamente un conventillo", como diría Catita. No es casual que otro nombre para llamar a las cotorras sea "catitas", son bastante parecidas al personaje de Niní Marshall: alborotadoras, vistosas e intrépidas. Y muy contentas con ellas mismas, I might add.
Aquí se ve de cerca un nido conventillo.
Hay que ver cuántas cotorras que caben ahí adentro.
Dos salen volando quién sabe por qué
y una pobrecita se queda sola…
_______________
Un interrogante, ¿esta otra veleta es una mujer? Buscaremos más información
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Oh, what lovely, interesting photographs! I didn't know they all lived in one big nest like that. How social. And who is the pot-bellied man with the trumpet and angel's wings?
Yes, this kind of parrot lives in comunity and big nests. I've seen bigger nests than this one in the pictures.
I also love those bellied figures, there was one in each tower. I'll e-mail you other picture so you can see it better. I think they're fat angels...
A church near here has a famous weathervane (well, had, the original is now in the Smithsonian), that was the basis for a WPA painting, that in turn was used on a 1965 Christmas stamp. At which point wags started pointing out that Gabriel looked a lot like a pregnant woman.
Thank you MMcM, very interesting!
Pregnant or not this Gabriel Angel looks elegant and celestial. The ones I show here look like jolly drunks to me. Don't you think?
Another thing regarding Saint Gabriel: did you know "he" was the most feminine of all the archangels? And as he/she was the announcer of Virgin Mary's holy pregnancy its image could be perfectly related to this "interesting state" (a Spanish euphemism for pregnancy, like "expecting").
That is a lovely one!
Julia, thanks for the additional picture; no wings means it's not a cherub or angel, I suppose, so what are they? The jolly drunks being so uncharacteristic, I think that the church ought to provide an explanation.
You're right! I've emailed some art professors (specialized in Colonial Art) but I should really address myself to Benedictus XVI for a good explanation...
Here's a Jesuit weather vane in Brasil, with IHS on it: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2KWJ_Christogram_weathervane_Sao_Paulo_Brazil
And another in Argentina, from a postage stamp (second picture down):
http://www.manresa-sj.org/stamps/2_Argentina.htm
Thank you, AJP, this is great!
We visited (in a rush, mostly because we were with the Russians) some of the other Jesuit's sites portrayed in these stamps.
Diego and I hope to go back there in a future with more time (and with less family, but that's a secret, they could feel offended ;-)
It's good you didn't tell me, then.
Yes, that's one of my many virtuous: I am very discreet.
Well discreetness may be a virtue, but it's the indiscreet people who makes the world interesting.
Esas giraldas pueden ser alegorías religiosas, como la de la Giralda de Sevilla, llamada popularmente “el Giraldillo”:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraldillo
Jesús.
Odd proportions, “el Giraldillo” - a tiny head and body above the waist. Somehow it works, though.
>A.J.P. Crown
It’s curious that the name of those figures in Spanish, “giralda”, has changed the name of the tower because of the metonymy and, in this case, the figure is called “Giraldillo”.
Gracias, Jesús, por traer la imagen de la giralda de Sevilla. ¡Es un lugar tan presente en la literatura picaresca del Siglo de Oro!
Ahora me doy cuenta de que el gran ¿estandarte? que lleva al costado el Giraldillo funciona como la panza de los ángeles jesuitas.
AJP, odd proportions, yes. It might have something to do with the fact that this figure has to be seen from below. (I'm not sure the expression is correct I mean "desde abajo", from the street)
Nothing wrong with "seen from below". - Yes, maybe.
Hola, Jesús!
The unique radial branch structure of the araucaria (or "monkey tree") is wonderful to behold, and far more practical than the mind of a Jesuit.
In a storm, the extremely resilient branches do not resist, but give themselves up to the wind, swaying but never breaking.
The fruits grow large and heavy.
There is a large araucaria on the premises of a very expensive and famous eatery in this city. The fruits must be trimmed away annually for reasons of "liability" -- that is, so that they will not fall upon the heads of the celebrity patrons.
Last week this restaurant celebrated its 40th anniversary, an event attended by Governor, Senator, Movie Stars, and a liberal sprinkling of the world's richest people.
Passing by this celebration of excess in the midst of general social decline and economic impoverishment, it was impossible to resist the idle wish that someone had forgotten to trim the araucaria, and... bombs away!
¡Jajaja! Tom, you're baaad! ;-) It's a wonderful idea for "guerrilleros ecológicos": no industrial nor contaminating devises for explosives, just araucaria's fruits and branches very thoughtfully manipulated.
Brilliant!
About jesuit's minds, at least the one that came here and build incredible things from scratch, did have a very practical way of thinking.
And they built -or perhaps it's commissioned - some jolly good churches.
Hi, Tom! I went to Chez Panisse once, about 25 years ago. I vaguely remember the food was pretty good (overpriced). But Alice Waters had a very good influence - fresh, locally-grown vegetables etc, - even if she is like Pol Pot (and I'm not saying she is).
Hello there, Artur.
Oh yes, the Jesuits and Alice, old familiars. Of mine, that is.
I had the dubious privilege of experiencing the rigorous instruction of the former.
And as to the latter... what can one say.
Angelica went to college with her. Our daughter baby-sat for her.
But currently the mere idea of a hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner, well...
I CAN say that the smells emanating from inside the place are often quite pleasant, and that the framed-out-front menu usually draws legions of gawkers, and that it appears that taking pictures in the famous doorway is a great tourist thing-to-do (as, perhaps, was once the case with Grauman's Chinese Theatre, that haunt of famous stick-in-the-muds).
And about the Pol Pot resemblance... well, the detention camps are at least discreetly camouflaged.
Anything for discretion.
As in "discretionary income" or "the better part of valour"?
Actually, I have nothing to say here, only that I really love to host your conversations (so don't think my silence means nothing els)
=)
Artur,
Well, both, I expect. Though whether valour can be assured by a plastic card I wouldn't really be in a position to know, not having one.
Julia,
And your hosting is brilliant, and your parrots' nest photos are sublime. If I haven't said that already (he chuffed).
He ido dando un repaso arriba y abajo. Lo que me entusiasma, Julia, es la curiosidad –a veces también entusiasmo– que te mueve y que, por loq ue veo, arrastra a los que te rodean. Sí, hay que tener cuidado de no saturarlos demasiado.
La iglesía blanca de los jesuitas, preciosa. Yo cuando voy a visitar este tipo de cosas siempre pregunto si tienen archivo o biblioteca.
Beso
Las fotos de las cotorras me encantan, son unos animales muy curiosos que me gustan muchísimo, y las otras también son muy bonitas. Felicidades!!
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