THE DEMONIZATION OF THE BLACK IN DEL AMOR Y OTROS DEMONIOS

Abstract

This article discusses how the demonization by the Catholic Church of the black slave as well as of the white offenders of religion works as a form of colonial domination in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Del amor y otros demonios, published in 1994. As it is said in the prologue of the novel, on 26 October 1949 the author/narrator, a journalist seeking news, went to watch the demolition of the crypts of Santa Clara’s Convent. The destruction of the convent leading to the building of a luxury hotel is not however what draws the journalist’s attention, but rather the bones of a girl of about twelve, with a huge copper-colored hair of 22 meters and 11 centimeters clinging to her skull, found in the ruins of the Convent. On her tombstone there was only one a name without surnames: Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles. In the novel the character is accused by the Church of being a victim of demonic possession. This accusation is not only due to the aggressive behavior of the character after being attacked and bitten by a rabid dog, but also the intolerance towards Sierva Maria’s customs linked to black culture, once she was a white girl who was raised in the slave house among her father’s slaves.