Culture

Some 1936 footage of our San Antonio Village is revealed in the movie ‘Lash of the Penitentes’. During WWII, the high rate of men from our village serving in military reduced the number of members in the morada. When men returned from military service, they sometimes didn’t return and join cofradias or ritual societies, and this reduced participation in ‘la hermandad’. In addition, the decline may have started a decade earlier when filmmaker Carl Taylor secretly filmed a movie entitled, ‘The Lash of the Penitentes’ in San Antonio in 1936. The event angered a young man from San Antonio by the name of Modesto Trujillo so much that it led him to murder Mr. Taylor. In retaliation for the murder, Hollywood released the film in June of 1937 exposing the riturals of ‘los hermanos’ and is believed the the state wide organization of ‘la hermandad’ condemned the action of exposing the brotherhood by the viewing of rituals in San Antonio de Carnue. A link to excerpts from the movie is included here.