{"id":1048,"date":"2015-10-19T04:20:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T09:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:20:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:20:56","slug":"dona-tania-soares-master-embroider-of-sao-luis-maranhao-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/?p=1048","title":{"rendered":"Dona Tania Soares: Master embroider of Sao Luis, Maranhao (Brazil)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"IMG_1686\"$ <\/a>These are the hands of Sao Luis\u2019 best known embroiderer.\u00a0 Tania Soares has played a central role in regional cultura popular for years.\u00a0 She provides embroidered costumes to many of the Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> celebration groups, and other in Sao Luis\u2019 vibrant popular culture.\n

Her work reaches a high point of production in June when she has to deliver the last of the new skins (couros<\/em>) for the boi<\/em> (symbolic ox).\u00a0 Groups that can afford it will have a new couro<\/em> each year.<\/p>\n

Each skin, or couro<\/em>, is a work of art in a highly recognizable style.\u00a0 There are many embroiders producing art in the region, but Dona Tania Soares is probably the most distinctive.<\/p>\n

We have visited her many times over the years and photographed her work.\u00a0 This visit (September 2015) was at a quieter time and only a few pieces were being created.<\/p>\n

Some of these are below \u2014 a costume\u2019s collar in shown below with on the work table with the tools and decorative glass beads and small glass tubes that she uses.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1716\" — Design of a collar to a costume, partially filled in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was also working on a larger costume piece with some of her most popular themes \u2014 some version of the holy family.\u00a0 In Maranhao that is Jesus flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John (*Sao Joao<\/em>).<\/p>\n*
Sometimes Saint John is shown as an adult in his role as Jesus\u2019 confessor, but here he is the child who is the patron of the *Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> festival.<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_1692\"$ <\/a>
Common Catholic themes in Sao Luis embroidery, the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Saint John (Sao Joao). In this region St John is revered as the cousin and confessor of Jesus, but he is most commonly represented as a child with a lamb. He is the patron saint of the Bumba-meu-boi festival, the most popular cultural celebration in Sao Luis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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$\"IMG_1700\"$ <\/a>
Detail of Dona Tania\u2019s embroidery.\u00a0 There are still\u00a0 many hours of work to fill in the design completely<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
$\"IMG_1703\"$ <\/a>
Detail of Saint John (Sao Joao) and the lamb.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saint John is central to the celebration in the federal state of Maranhao (of whihl Sao Luis is the capitol) and regional legends link him and the other June saints to the sacred ox (which links them to the festival).<\/p>\n
Traditionally performers and supporters of the *Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> did so out of a promessa to thank Sao Joao for blessings received.\u00a0 As Jesus\u2019 confessor he was considered an especially powerful entity for granting blessings.<\/p>\n*
*The promessa tradition is less powerful now, especially in the more performance-oriented celebrations in the capitol city of Sao Luis, but the patron saint is still revered.<\/p>\n*
In the Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions of Maranhao, Sao Joao and other Catholic saints are often understood as a surrogate for an entity of African origin.\u00a0 For example, a popular theme in Dona Tania\u2019s are is the orixa Iansa<\/em> (*Yansa<\/em>) who is the Afro-Brazilian entity related to Saint Barbara.<\/p>\n*
*\u00a0<\/p>\n*
$\"IMG_1737\"$ <\/a>
Dona Tania\u2019s neighborhood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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$\"IMG_1756\"$ <\/a>
Dona Tania\u2019s neighborhood. Children coming home after school<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dona Tania has made two embroidered hats for us in the past \u2014 one with Saint George (often with the Afro-Brazilian Ogum<\/em>), and with the emblem of Corinthians (a Sao Paulo soccer team).\u00a0 We are discussing the symbols to be placed on a third hat.\u00a0 The customer can, in principle, choose the symbols to be used, but there is always an artistic negotiation.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These are the hands of Sao Luis\u2019 best known embroiderer.\u00a0 Tania Soares has played a central role in regional cultura popular for years.\u00a0 She provides embroidered costumes to many of the Bumba-meu-boi celebration groups, and other in Sao Luis\u2019 vibrant popular culture. Her work reaches a high point of production in June when she has … Continue reading Dona Tania Soares: Master embroider of Sao Luis, Maranhao (Brazil)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folk-culture-and-spiritual-practice-in-maranhao-brazil"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1139,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}