by Joy Houston

December, a month for reflection on the past year and hope for the future—not necessarily in that order or in any order. Christmas and year-end both mingle the past and the future inextricably. Dickens knew that when he wrote his timeless A Christmas Carol. Seems fitting to the season to celebrate The Museum of the Archdiocese of Santiago Guatemala, which opened on February 3 of this year.

Top: Sculpted niche in museum courtyard shows the boy Jesus learning carpentry from his father. Bottom: Museum director Ana María de Quezada shows one of 800 cataloged vestments, this one sewn with semi-precious stones.

A plaque of introduction that welcomes visitors states that the exhibits contribute to preserving the memory of a proud past, with a sense of continuity that looks toward the future. Works of art that are pieces of that past had been stored in closets and vaults far from the reach of the public who would love them. The plaque goes on to say the works of art express life, wishes and hope, “molded in different materials.”

“The goal is to save them,” says Ana María Urruela de Quezada, art historian and director of the museum, referring to the heritage and treasures of the Church in Guatemala. “We want the people to have handy access and comprehend the expressions and manifestations of the Catholic faith. The museum displays three features of the local church: historic, artistic and religious.”

Ana María started registering artifacts from churches years ago with Father Toruño, uncle of her brother-in-law, now Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño. “The first step was to register all the pieces, then catalog them.” Ana María’s response was not guarded when asked if the work received a boost from the cardinal. “Oh, definitely! He’s a historian himself!” The cardinal shares the passion to save the treasures of the Church in Guatemala.

The museum is located alongside the Metropolitan Cathedral de Santiago de Guatemala on Central Park in Guatemala City. The entrance is reached by exiting the cathedral through a door on the right, halfway up the nave, and crossing the patio. The facility occupies the site of the Colegio San José de los Infantes, founded in 1781. “We didn’t have to build anything because we had this space,” explains Ana María, crediting Banco Industrial for sponsoring the effort of preparing the building to establish the museum.

Not only is the museum easily accessible, but it’s easily doable, consisting of just five small rooms. Exhibits date from the 16th to the 20th century, but, as Ana María sums it up, “The majority of pieces are from the colonial period when they were in La Antigua churches. The churches moved when the capital relocated after the earthquakes in 1773, and everything moved with them.” To name a few of the museum pieces: a wood and bronze bell of the archbishop in 1727, an 18th century pair of baby-size, gilded and engraved silver sandals, a missal from 1663 and two gilded crowns of thorns. Of the last, Ana María makes a point, “Can you imagine just leaving these in a church? They would disappear!”

A reality that gave impetus to the establishment of the museum was that the pieces were being stolen. “We are trying to place less valuable replicas in the churches and preserve these originals so the public can see them.” A wood carving of San Antonio, about four feet high, was stolen from the church of Santa Clara in 1993 and somehow made its way to Mexico. It was exhibited in 1997, recognized and recovered, thanks to its having been registered. “Now it’s here,” Ana María states with finality.

She holds degrees in literature from the University of San Carlos and history from the University del Valle but is self-taught as a museologist. “For that I never studied. But I don’t work alone. I gather people who think.” At the diorama of a Corpus Cristi procession that includes a silk canopy and three capes, all exquisitely embroidered with gold and silver thread, Ana María says, “When I saw these pieces, I wrote the Getty Foundation, and I called on people who know, like Barbara Knoke de Arathoon and Rosario Miralbés de Polanco of the Museo Ixchel. And I found a nun who knows and sews! She led the group.”

Loving her work and moving quickly, the director stopped at a large, about five square feet, leather-bound music book with square notes. She couldn’t resist the fun of explaining the carved bronze pieces on the corners of the cover. “Do you know what these are for?” In addition to keeping the pages straight, they were to sharpen the nails of the cats that were kept to eat the rats that liked to eat the paper.

The archives are apart from the museum, adjacent to the other side of the cathedral and within the Palace of the Archbishop. Here a latex-gloved team of young university graduates works to register the history of the church in Guatemala from 1534 to the present. The exhaustive record includes maps, plans, music, visits of bishops, seminaries, histories of cofradías and more, more, more. A four-inch thick volume on the table was one of a series of seven on everything to do with Hermano Pedro, who died in 1667 and was canonized in 2003, the first saint from Guatemala. The rough pages include his own writings and records of his work as well as documents of his beatification centuries later. Climate conditions in Guatemala, especially the humidity, deal disaster to paper, so conservation processes are carried out; but also the entire history will be safely digitalized.

In an upstairs room of the palace, 800 vestments await, each one with a photo and catalog number. Most hang on custom-made mannequins, the wood wrapped in foil and cotton to keep from touching the textile. Heavily embroidered and some set with semi-precious stones, the garments are heavy and need just-right shoulder support. “There is supposedly one here from the first bishop of Guatemala, Francisco Marroquín, but I don’t believe it,” muses Ana María as she thumbs knowingly through the racks. “We’ve completed the first step. Now we are trying for a grant to begin the conservation and restoration so the public can see them.”

All the exhibits will change in January. “More people know about us, and now we have enough pieces, on loan from the churches, to change the display.” The museum also has expansion plans to implement when the offices can be relocated. The only limitation being money, Ana María conducts tours, lectures and lotteries to raise funds for the museum.

With gracious conviction, she says, “A museum is not just a place for display. The objective is to make this a living place, because that’s what a museum should be.”

The museum is open from 9-1 and 2-5; closed Mon. Q20 (locals Q10)

Tesoro de la Catedral Metropolitana, a coffee table book with pictures and commentary by Ana María de Quezada, Gustavo Ávalos and Luis Luján Muñoz, is available at the museum or any Banco Industrial location.