During the colonial period in Panama, the village of Portobelo was one of the most important ports of the Spanish empire. Strategically located on a deep natural harbor on the Caribbean coast, Portobelo served as a commercial center where cargo from Africa, Europe, and other parts of the Americas was sold, exchanged or warehoused. Since the 17th century, Portobelo has also been the home of the Cristo Negro de Portobelo - the Black Christ of Portobelo. There are several explanations for the presence of this life size figure of a black Christ in the village. Each story has three parts - the arrival of the statue, the refusal of the statue to leave the village, and its veneration. Regardless of the version, however, all of the stories conclude that the statue is responsible for miraculous deeds in the lives of his devotees.

At the time the Cristo Negro arrived in Panama, there was a plague on the coast that was devastating the population. The people of Portobelo began to venerate the figure of the black Christ and "miraculously" the plague ended. By some accounts, the plague avoided Portobelo but continued in other areas. As rumor spread among the slaves, freed blacks, mulattos, and criollos, people began arriving in Portobelo to venerate the figure. The first pilgrims began arriving from surrounding villages on the coast, but shortly after, they began arriving from Panama City on the Pacific side of the country. These pilgrims had to cross the isthmus over mountains and through a dense and dangerous rainforest. Since then, each year for the last three centuries on the 21st of October the Feast Day of the Cristo Negro de Portobelo, as many as 60,000 devotees make a pilgrimage to visit the statue. Some walk as many as 200 kilometers from their homes in the interior of the country to get to the village, while others come from the United States, Europe and other parts of Latin America. The Feast Day of the Cristo Negro de Portobelo has developed into a living tradition that celebrates the meeting of the natural with the supernatural. It is a meta-natural moment when the rules of nature are suspended and miracles can occur. It is an event that is celebrated with a great deal of pageantry that intersects the arts, religion, history, and folklore.

In the village of Esquipúlas in Guatemala there is a similar celebratory event for a black Christ figure that also dates to the colonial period. However, the origins of this figure differ from the one in Portobelo. According to historical accounts, Esquipúlas, the leader of a Maya village in the southwestern region of Guatemala recognizing the superior military powers and the brutality of the Spaniards in war, decided to surrender his authority peacefully in order to avoid the annihilation of his people. In return, the Spaniards named the town Santiago de Esquipúlas in his honor. A wooden figure of Christ was carved for the town out of a dark wood to resemble the complexion of the Mayas. It is said that the Indigenous people did not trust any of the white figures of Christ. By the eighteenth century, the figure became noted for miraculous healing when an archbishop was cured of a contagious disease. A cult following was developed for the Black Christ of Esquipúlas that spread as far north as the Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico. There are similar legends of other black Christ figures in Chalma and Otatitlán, Mexico, as well as other parts of the Americas.

The Cristo Negro de Portobelo, and the Cristo Negro de Esquipúlas will be used as case studies to investigates the role of art as a tool of empowerment employed by the pilgrims and other devotees of black Christ religious objects in Latin America. The Role of Art in the Veneration of Black Christs Santos in the Americas is a video-slide-lecture presentation.