This is Arthur Lopez’s “Robert Reina del Cielo,” or “Rodeo Queen of Heaven,” a clever little santo, or devotional sculpture of the Holy Family that I saw today at the Denver Art Museum (more info here, although as you’ll see they misspell cielo.) Ain’t it swell? Dig baby Jesus’s hand raised in the preaching (and/or bronco busting and bull-riding) position, just as in the European tradition.
At least it’s the most important parts of the Holy Family–the Madonna and Child, natch. Joseph: he’s always seemed like the Ken of the Holy Family to me. Barbie and Skipper seem to do just fine without him.
Well, don’t they?
Historiann 
When I got dropped off for college, people were wearing that “watermelon-y” pink sort of late-summer stuff, if not quite as burlap-y as these things appear on the close-in view. Not me, of course. I would have been standing as far to the right or left as you could get without falling into the Scioto River, in a blue-ish Madras jacket and a surly look, head jammed into the back of the station wagon so as to be as invisible as possible. What was in the watermelon back in those days, anyway?!? Any provenance on that second pic?
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I’m Talky Tina, and I don’t like you.
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