Jesús Nazareno del Consuelo It is one of the most appreciated images in Lent and Guatemalan Holy Week.
The origins of this sculpture date back to the nineteenth century, between 1825 and 1835. It presents very characteristic neoclassical features of the time when it was sculpted. As in many religious sculptures, the documentation that proves its made is missing.
In the last investigations, the authorship of the Nazareno to the sculptor is attributed Santiago Ganuza. Ganuza also sculpted in Costa Rica an image similar to Jesus of Consuelo.
Its official march is the call Jesus of Consuelocomposed of Fray Miguel Ángel Murcia and with journalist’s lyrics Mario Sandoval Figueroafounder of Free press. “Adorable Jesus of Consuelo, eternal source of peace and blessing” is the beginning of this historical march.
The legend: The Holy Week of Grandfather It is part of the adaptations of oral tradition to modernity, explains the historian Aníbal Chajón, who says that legends seek to leave a message of reflection in people and that it has gone from the use of horses and carriages to cars. In 1905 he had the first car with a plate in Guatemala, although they began to be imported since the end of 1800.
Luis Celis, from Wool foot collective, It emphasizes that neighborhoods have places of great historical content, both for their architecture and for oral tradition. In the Collection neighborhood The temple of the same name stands out, one of the few who still retains a chapel of Ánimas on the left side of the entrance, which serves to pray for the blessed souls of purgatory, whose effigies are placed at the foot of a crucifix, in attitude of pleading with its redemption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWB6OZBICBC
Among the prominent residents of the sector lived the announcer, journalist, historian and writer Guatemalan Héctor Gaitánwho made the rescue of some legends such as The Penitents of the Collection and The Holy Week of the grandfather.
The Holy Week of Grandfather
This story is about a young man who enjoyed resting during Holy Week and going to the sea or being with his friends, Although his grandfather, Don Chepe, took him to all processions. “Everything began since Holy Monday with that of the Nazarene of the parish and continued with another without missing the temple of the collection with the Nazarene of the comfort on Ramos Saturday. But when he grows up he separated from the grandfather. The old man begged him to accompany him to the processions and there was always a reason not to do it,” Gaitán described when telling the story.
The grandfather always made him reflect: “Son, as every day you depart more from God and your Catholic religion, and that is bad,” said the grandfather, in addition to claiming that the young man always found a justified reason not to accompany him, especially to see Jesus Nazareno del Consuelo.
One year the grandson was reluctant because the grandfather got him a turn. The old man expressed that he was sure that he approached his latest experiences of Lent and Holy Week. “I want you to continue with tradition, I’m old. And sometimes I think I’m no longer going to bear the walks and the weight of the steps. What better than my favorite grandson would follow this whole beautiful process,” he said.
On that occasion he planned to go with a friend to the port, although he knew his grandfather would wait for him. But the friend’s car was ruined and then stolen, so he had nothing left with Don Chepe. Although he almost did not reach it because he had already asked for a taxi to attend the procession. The grandfather also bought a complete suit, shirt and shoes.
They loaded the departure honor shift from the temple of the collection and, when the timpage rang and lifted the walks, hearing the notes of the march of Jesus of Consuelograndfather cried. The grandson just observed and said nothing.
The next Lent, the grandfather died on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Funeral marches were heard and talking, when they collapsed because of a heart problem.
The grandson, sad, was the Saturday before Palm Sunday to fulfill his promise to follow the tradition. On that occasion he asked for the soul of his beloved grandfather.
Then he fulfilled another tradition of his grandfather for that day, which was to go to the general cemetery to clean the tomb of relatives where he was now buried with his wife. Cemetery employees knew him and sometimes lent him the stairs to decorate the high niches of the mausoleum.
Don Chepe was widely known by the sellers of water and private gardeners of the cemetery, Gaitán said. He approached the grandson when he saw that he was going to leave fresh flowers and the turn that the grandfather no longer loaded that Holy Week. “Do not put more flowers because they do not fit. Today, a few minutes ago, your grandfather came to clean and leave flowers. It will not go very far, if you rush it, it reaches it there by the gas station of the 19th street,” he said.
The young man stayed in a piece, but at the moment he got angry because he thought that the man was making fun of him. Other workers came to confirm that the grandfather had been on that site.
One of them indicated that he had left a coronita to take it to Jesús Nazareno del Consuelo and gave him the crow of flowers. He had told them that possibly his grandson was going to arrive. The young man had only to tell them that everything was impossible, for the simple reason that the grandfather was buried for a few days.
He went to leave the coronita to Jesus of Consuelo. Months later, whenever he arrived at the cemetery, people who did not know about grandfather’s death told him that he had just been adorning the mausoleum. Since then the grandson followed the tradition without missing any year and thus has tried to leave this legacy for their children.