The Black Christ: one in Panama, the other in Manila
To understand how this all led to the Black Nazarene of Quiapo, we have to realize that the widespread notion that we were colonized, politically and religiously, by Spain is false. As it were, we were “ruled” from “New Spain” Mexico. What worked in the conversion of Central America to Catholicism –– the depiction of Christ as black-skinned –– was exported to that far-flung colony, whose inhabitants had the same skin color as the Mesoamericans, the Philippine Islands.