information about piece

my uncle who has since passed away made this piece for us about 20 years ago, i understand that it is not an antique piece in itself. could you please tell us what he was replicating when he built this. theres no one left whos brain we can pick and we were wondering if it was based on a specific time period or geographic area or a specific piece at his church or if he just was picking hodge podge memories from his head as he built. thank you paul if you need more pics i can gladly send them i am sorry i rotated these pictures about 4 times not only on my hard drive but on photo buckets site and a i cant get them to orientate properly on this post ,if an administrator or anybody wants to go in and rotate them you have my permission ugh

 

So just to make sure I'm getting this... he made this entire structure from the red/green striped "roof" down to the base with the "hedges" and figure and door? Made out of separate things and arranged attached in the littler scene? Is this as huge as it looks? How big is it? Some ideas as to the materials used might be of help. Offhand, I don't recognize the scene as representing any certain culture or area, but there are lots of brainiacs here who will be sure to know if there's a thread or theme. I find it really pleasant. Did your uncle do other art/craft stuff that might lend a clue? Or was he of a certain ethnicity or background?

 

I know that the padre is from Mexico. Catholic shrine of his design for sure.

 

Mary, what was holding me up from saying Mexican was that in my experience, the robes are black and without hoods. That could be regional, though, based on my history. The lack of any crucifixes or other Catholic signage also seems unusual to me.

 

my wife says he made a few of these as gifts for family , he would customize the colors to the recipients current rooms color shades. so i guess the colors arent going to give me any clue of the origin that it is based on.my wife says he did build it entirely piece by piece from scratch though.its pretty intricate. its about 3 feet tall and pretty heavy, you aint hanging this using a little nail ha

 

The Padre looks like it was painted white. I have several of these and Gila, yes, they were darker with some black hoods. Mine came from Mexico in the early 60s.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, okay, thanks. What do you make of the lack of crosses and stuff, Mary?