Ex-voto, bastion, and sanctuary: autoethnographic and historical reflections on the Luján National Basilica (Argentina)

Abstract

In the seventeenth century, a cart bringing goods from Brazil mysteriously came to a halt on the banks of the Luján River, in a rural area of the city of Buenos Aires. The cargo included a statue of the Virgin who would eventually become Argentina’s patron saint. Today, pilgrims and tourists worship her figure at the National Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, built in the late nineteenth century in fulfillment of a promise (an ex-voto). In this article, I argue that the enormous neo-Gothic basilica was erected as a bastion of the Church in competition with the liberal state. Despite being the country’s most important national shrine, it houses almost no other ex-votos.  This essay adopts an autoethnographic approach to reflect on the materiality of the basilica, the practices of its visitors, and the role of the candle and souvenir stalls that surround the temple.