TdF suggestion Gabriel Duarte
Illustrates Dudu Torres
Edition Felipe van Deursen
– (Dudu Torres/)
1. Little is known about her childhood. Born in 1794, Marie was the bastard daughter of a freed slave named Marguerite with the fifth mayor of New Orleans (USA), Charles Laveau. She had a comfortable life on a farm. Her mother and grandmother were priestesses, a trade she learned in her teens.
2. In youth, Marie worked with beverage imports. There are rumors that she was also a brothel owner. She grew into a tall, beautiful woman who wore colorful scarves on her head and large, glittering earrings. In 1819, aged 25, she married Haitian immigrant Jacques Paris.
3. A year later, Jacques disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He could have simply moved without telling anyone or been executed by an enemy. The fact is that, since then, Marie began to introduce herself as the «widow Paris». She got her husband’s estate
4. After the disappearance, Marie opened a hairdressing salon, frequented by the most powerful women in the city. As she also worked at clients’ homes, she had access to the secrets of the elite. Possibly, her aesthetic work was accompanied by religious work. She read the future in cards and did jobs to help people get rich.
5. Men sought Marie to induce abortions at a distance in poor young people who they had impregnated. As a result, she would have suffered a curse: her children would die early. With her second husband, Christophe Dominick de Glapion, she had 15 children. Only one, Marie Laveau 2nd, would reach the adult stage
6. Marie was much requested by families of death row inmates. It was said that when she put three peppers in her mouth for a few seconds and then deposited them under the judge’s chair, the judgment was favorable to the defendant’s release. The price for the miracle was high: the house of Marie would have been the payment received to save the son of a rich farmer
7. Voodoo was a popular religion in New Orleans. The main address of the rituals was Congo square, which was on the outskirts of the city. Ceremonies conducted by Marie, usually on Sunday afternoons and evenings, involved drumming, people going into a trance, and sacrificing roosters and goats. Blood was cast on those in need of purification.
8. In 1860, the sorceress stopped practicing voodoo in public without explanation. Her old age was even more mysterious, but Marie never stopped circulating through the streets of the city. He reportedly died peacefully in his sleep in 1881 and received a funeral with great honors. However, the tomb would be false. At the time, it was said that she abandoned her body and turned into a crow that continues to fly over the city.
9. Even in the versions where she died, the place of the grave is a mystery. The supposedly best-known tomb is in the St. Louis 1 Cemetery, a place considered to be haunted. There, it would still be possible to ask favors of Marie: just go to the alleged tomb, write an X on the tombstone, turn around on your own body three times and say aloud what you want
10. The sorceress is a cultural icon. It was portrayed in the series American Horror Story: Coven and in Marvel comics in the 70s. There are also several songs about Marie. And perfume brand Creole Moon has a line of products named after the voodoo queen.
WHAT END DID IT TAKE?
Marie and voodoo remain popular in New Orleans. People maintain the custom of visiting priestesses to read the future, ask for health or love.
Sources Books voodoo queenby Martha Ward, and Voodoo in New Orleansby Robert Tallant