Comunicación y Fronteras Simbólicas. Religiosidad Popular En el Pueblo Pesquero de Santa Rosa

In the fishing port of Santa Rosa de Salinas, possibly the largest nautical procession in Ecuador takes place. There is a symbolic border formed by images, religious rites and a complex communication system, where the official religion interacts with popular religiosity, and important changes are produced in the meanings and in the reality that these represent. The objective of the work was to establish the symbolic limits and the changes of meaning that religious images produce and experience, both in the context of official religion and in the scenario of the popular religiosity of the fisherman. The ethnographic qualitative research allowed the interpretation of meanings, participating in the experience and systematizing the process. In-depth interviews were conducted during the activities before and after the nautical procession, over a period of two years, and the nautical voyage was carried out for its subsequent description. The results were: to know a cultural phenomenon and its significance frontiers. To understand the functioning of the communication system and its religious symbols; and, to understand the functioning of symbolic frontiers in the interstices between official religion and popular religiosity. In conclusion; devotional and ludic acts coexist in the phenomenon and although they fracture the structure of the official communication model, they validate the liturgical message and reproduce hybrid expressions of popular culture through symbols that are unstable in their significance.