Requested: Churches

I have mentioned before how prevalent Catholicism is in Latin America, and how Chile is no exception. (I should note, though, that religious culture here isn't hegemonic. There are Mormons, Protestants, Evangelicals, atheists, Pagans, Jews, Muslims, and unaffiliated parties.)

Of all the different belief systems, though, Catholicism seems to have the largest cultural presence. Like I said before, the Virgin Mary (la Virgen de la Guadalupe) holds great significance here, so her iconography is prevalent, and there are many national Catholic holidays (for which for and school are canceled).

For those reasons, there are lots of beautiful churches in Santiago. A former student of mine, Grant, asked me to post pictures of some of the churches I pass. I've tried to accumulate some good ones.

This is a church near our house. It's been under construction since we got here, but it's very pretty. I like the yellow and white.

This church is near my work. I really like the way it looks. The tiles are irridescent. This church is on a side-street, and doesn't get a lot of sun, but with the sunlight does hit it, it illuminates.

Another shot - I love the arches.

And of course, la Virgen.

This is another yellow church, and it's also close to work. It's a massive building. I had a hard time capturing how big it is, since I could only take a picture from the sidewalk.

It extends pretty far back, too.

This is a gorgeous church we've passed a couple times. It's really pretty, and has a gothic cathedral feel to it.

I like the rose window a lot. The church had a gate in front of it. Behind the gate was an illuminated statue of who else, la Virgen.

This church burnt to the ground when Matt was here in 2011. (He remembers it because it happened when he had first gotten to Chile and was staying in a hostel nearby.)

Yellow seems to be a popular color for churches here!