Introducing a New Series: Churches of Latin America

Think of 'the new world' and sacred art and architecture and generally what comes to most people's minds are either 19th century gothic revival or mid-20th century modern church buildings, but this is a very limited view of the matter. In the English speaking new world this generalization remains largely accurate because of the fact that Catholicism grew in that world only later on when immigrants from Catholic countries began to arrive in greater numbers to North America. Prior to this, the English speaking new world was otherwise very much a non-Catholic world so it was naturally more limited. 

Of course the reality is the 'new world' is not synonymous with the English speaking new world. Aside from the fact of the French speaking new world, there is also the whole matter of Latin America, and it is here that we find our focus today. 

It has crossed my mind for some time to feature more of the liturgical treasures of Latin America here on LAJ. We have of course before featured some of the liturgical art of the Spanish colonial missions before, and it struck me that there may be an opportunity to expand our considerations as Latin America provides a treasure trove of Catholic liturgical art of the sort that many would think only exists in the 'old countries' of Europe or the Middle East.  In view of that, today I am introducing a new LAJ series, "Churches of Latin America" where we will try to feature some of the historic churches of this region of the world. (And certainly we welcome our readers to send in their submissions or suggestions).