Iglesia Cristiana Bautista Berea León

before 'the saints go marching'--unlikely art

León is a city of colonial churches. Several times a year, processions parade around town; the saints keep marching...and so there's a local cottage industry of making and repairing the statues.

In the outskirts of this Nicaraguan city, with volcanoes on the horizon, in a grove of banana trees, I spent a few minutes conversing with this young man, busy with his brushes in the shade of a corrugated tin roof...

Still waiting for his arms, the making of a saint: unlikely art.