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El Niño de Atocha
In the 13th century, Spain was under Muslim rule. The town of Atocha, now part of Madrid's Arganzuela district, was lost to the Muslims, and many Christians there were taken prisoners as spoils of war. The Christian prisoners were not fed by the jailers, but by family members who brought them food. Reports soon began among the people of Atocha that an unknown child under the age of twelve and dressed in pilgrim's clothing had begun to bring food to childless prisoners at night. The women of the town returned to Our Lady of Atocha to thank the Virgin for her intercession and noticed that the shoes worn by the Infant Jesus were tattered and dusty. They replaced the shoes of the Infant Jesus, but these became worn again. The people of Atocha took this as a sign that it was the Infant Jesus who went out every night to help those in need.
La historia dice que los moros tenían encarcelados a cristianos y que no permitían visitas ni de familiares ni de amigos, solamente de niños pequeños. Fue así como “el mismo Niño Jesús” decidió hacerles compañía en su tribulación, los consolaba y daba comida. Desde entonces, en las imágenes fue representado como un Niño Peregrino con huaraches, sombrero, una cesta de pan en una mano y un bastón en la otra.
Magic Realism in Graphic Novels
These drawings and stories are part of a graphic novel I am working on. It is a collection of illustrated short stories, oral traditions, dreams, visions, and my own real-life memories. In a Native American tradition, I am following a vision, a sign given to me to do this project. I will write a story and illustrate it, or I will start with an ink drawing and then write the story. I keep a sketchbook near my bed, and I also would sketch a doodle if I had a fresh dream. I have memories or visions before I fall asleep or before I wake up and I will draw these images or stories in a sketchbook. They are the hypnagogic state of consciousness during wakefulness into sleep. And the hypnopompic[1] state is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep.
I also meditate and induce myself to open visualization. I was taught this ancient strategy by a shaman, Paco in Madre de Dios, southern Amazon, Peru in 1971. According to Paco all human beings had this power until formal education appeared and this erased the practice of visualization because religion and formal education were prohibited. They considered devilish, satanic, and dealing with idolatry. In real life is like inducing several daydream-like visions and later drawing them.
The word association exercises for psychoanalysis used by Freud and Jung are also very successful for me. I draw archetypes from the collective unconscious or try to remember childhood oral traditions or simple memories.
After I make an ink drawing, I write the story the same way. Using InDesign I place the scanned pen and ink drawing together with the story, on facing pages, to get a prototype of a finished book.
[1] Ghibellini, Romain. Meier, Beat. The hypnagogic state: A brief update. Wiley Online Library. 2022
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.13719
After 30 years I have been thinking that illustration is married to text and lives in that world: Illustration belongs in the printed page.inside a tablet, a newspaper, a magazine, or a book page. The Latin word "illuminati" means to bring light: To shed light on a subject . But this last few months I have had moments of enlightenment that my sketchbook drawings contain meaning and calligraphy and they also have a style. In my drawings from life I write what people are saying on the page and or what comes to my mind. My philosophical question now is, Why can't these daily sketches be the new format for a graphic novel? I researched several illustrators and fine artists who use hand drawn text and image in an unusual way.
After 30 years I have been thinking that illustration is married to text and lives in that world: Illustration belongs in the printed page.inside a tablet, a newspaper, a magazine, or a book page. The Latin word "illuminati" means to bring light: To shed light on a subject . But this last few months I have had moments of enlightenment that my sketchbook drawings contain meaning and calligraphy and they also have a style. In my drawings from life I write what people are saying on the page and or what comes to my mind. My philosophical question now is, Why can't these daily sketches be the new format for a graphic novel? I researched several illustrators and fine artists who use hand drawn text and image in an unusual way.
