I purchased a small box lot of otherwise mostly uninteresting photo postcards this week just to have this one--and how could I not?! This early 20th century Diablo stands in front of the Iglesia de la Merced (Chuch of the Mercy) in the historic Casco Viejo neighborhood in Panama City. The tradition of Diablo carnivals in Panama is a deep and complex one, with different incarnations of the devil specific to different regions. The roots are in the colonial era--in some regards representing the contrast between “good” and "evil" and the evangelization of the "devil" via Christianity--but with the devil as personified in some festivals embodying resistance against the oppression of the colonizers, and in some cases the devil standing for the colonialists themselves. Based on the very limited amount that I have read, the costumed devil in this photo looks representative of the Diablos de los Espejos, or Mirror Devil, to me. I have found exactly one record of this image out there by searching, from a post relating to historical images of Panamanian carnivals.
5 3/8' c 3 3/8", good condition, unused postcard back with some black paper residue from being glued into an album.
You might also like
