Maria Lionza: An Introduction to the Indigenous Venezuelan Goddess (Part 1)

Subaltern Speaks: Decolonizing Spirituality

Join our guest, Dr. V. Rivas, the Associate Chair for the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Toronto. He specializes in the critical and theoretical study of alternative texts, creative non-fiction, narratives of resistance, and the politics of culture. In this episode, we discuss the syncretic spirituality of the cult of Maria Lionza, in Venezuela. Maria Lionza represents a part of an Indigenous myth that has revived a sense of time before the conquest in Latin America, in particular to the area of Venezuela. It is referred to and explained as a syncretized, religion or cult, because it brings in elements of not only the Indigenous myth, but also brings in elements of Christianity in particular Catholicism brought in by the Spanish conquistadors and colonizers of the area, and then eventually brings elements of Western African spirituality when people from this region were brought by the Europeans for the slave trade. These three cultures contribute to the current understanding of Maria Lionza that feeds into post-colonial movements in Venezuela.