2:\> DISTORT AND TRANSFORM.EXE
[ Many of the imported images that came from Europe were already prepared to fit in specific places in the Americas. The intention behind this was to replace the locals’ deities with equivalent European religious versions. In Bolivia, for instance there are paintings of angels that appear next to natural elements that were sacred for the Andeans. “In one way or another, the religious in America became aware of this relationship between angels and celestial phenomena, and created the series of angels with these names, so as to encourage the substitution of star idolatry within the Christian faith.”[1] The plan of overlapping Gods was also achieved through the process of association. Another example can be seen in the engraving of the Virgin of Remedios. The graphic shows how the Virgin emerging from of a local plant,[2] altering the relationship of the local with nature. After which they understood their land through the combination of foreign and local symbols. By making the foreign look local they calmed down the spirits of revolution in the locals’ minds.]

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[1] Jose de Mesa and Teresa Gisbert. "Angelic Ways." Franco MariaRicci (FMR), no. 85 (1997): 32.

[2] Katzew, Ilona, and Luisa Elena Alcalá. 2011. Contested visions in the Spanish colonial world. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 240.