Why is the Niño de Atocha featured in Michael Jackson’s Beat It video?

Bear with me, please, gentle readers, as we veer into a subject that would rightly be considered a little, uh, off-topic. You see, The House enjoys a good mystery, particularly one that involves Catholic iconography. So today we are going to look into why a Catholic Saint makes a cameo appearance in a Michael Jackson video.

Michael Jackson’s Beat It video premiered on MTV in March 1983, and it was a sensation at the time. Although director Bob Giraldi has denied it, many believe the video drew inspiration from the Broadway musical West Side Story, a tragic love story set against the backdrop of an epic tale of two warring gangs. (Fun fact: one of the first lines of dialogue in the film version of West Side Story is "Beat it!”)

According to an IMDB plot summary (which is actually taken from Wikipedia):

“The video opens with the news of a fight circulating at a diner. This scene repeats itself at a pool hall, where gang members arrive via foot, forklift, and out of sewers, while the video's titular song begins to play. The camera cuts to a scene of Jackson lying on a bed, revealing he's the one singing contemplating the senseless violence. The singer notices rival gangs and leaves. Michael Jackson dons a red leather J. Parks brand jacket, and dances his way towards the fight through the diner and pool hall. A knife fight is taking place between the two gang leaders in a warehouse. They dance battle for an interlude of music until MJ arrives; the singer breaks up the fight and launches into a dance routine. The video ends with the gang members joining him in the dance, agreeing that violence is not the solution to their problems.”

Let’s zoom in on the part above, where Jackson is “lying on a bed.” Michael is alone in a sparsely decorated and non-descript bedroom. Suddenly he stands and over his left shoulder, there is a single image hanging on the beige wall. It’s out of focus, but eagle-eyed viewers have confirmed that it is indeed the Niño de Atocha.

Santo Niño de Atocha is the patron saint of Spain, Mexico, and the wrongfully imprisoned. He also rescues people from danger.

In the Catholic tradition, Saints are the objects of veneration and their blessing and intercession is sought from faithful devotees. In this sense, one could argue that praying for the intercession of a Saint is a way to seek good fortune or protection.

Atocha is a neighborhood in Madrid, Spain. The Niño de Atocha represents Jesus as a child. The niño is dressed as a traditional Spanish pilgrim with plumed hat, wearing a cape adorned with a scallop shell. He is shown seated in a chair holding a basket and a staff with drinking gourd. The niño is venerated throughout Spain, Latin America and the Southwestern United States, especially New Mexico.

The legend of the Niño of Atocha begins in medieval Spain during a period of Moorish reign when many Christians were imprisoned for their faith. At that time, the families of the imprisoned were responsible for feeding them, but food could be delivered only by children aged 12 and under. This was a problem for the prisoners who did not have young children. But the problem seemed to sort itself out. An unknown child started to appear. He would feed the childless prisoners late at night. He always had a basket of bread and gourd filled with water, and miraculously, he never ran out.

The faithful started to suspect that their prayers had been answered by Our Lady of Atocha, who was sending the Christ Child to feed the prisoners. They checked the statue and found that the child’s shoes were worn, thus confirming his nightly escapades in the prison.

And that is how the niño came to be the patron saint of the unjustly imprisoned.

Traditional image of the Niño de Atocha

Chalkware statue of the Niño de Atocha, House of Good Fortune Collection

OK. So why is the Niño de Atocha hanging on Michael Jackson’s bedroom wall?

It seems so ….intentional… in the otherwise empty room to have this particular image hanging on the wall. The details in this video were meticulously planned, right down to the red leather J. Parks jacket that Michael Jackson wears. Is it reasonable to think the niño just slipped in, unnoticed? The House thinks not.

Is the image personal to Jackson or did the set designer place it there for some idiosyncratic purpose?

Jackson was neither Catholic nor Latino, so it seems unlikely that this image would have a particular resonance with him.

However, Michael Jackson often talked about feeling imprisoned by his fame. Was the niño there to protect Michael from this perceived “imprisonment” and offer spiritual sustenance? If so, who placed it there?

Maybe there is a simpler explanation. In the 1980s, gang violence was a big problem in Los Angeles, where the video was filmed. In fact, in order to give the video an air of authenticity, Giraldi cast actual members of the Bloods and Crips in the video (along with professional dancers). The conflict between the gangs in the video recalls the rumble between the Sharks and the Jets in West Side Story and the clash between the Christians and Moors in Spain that gave rise to the legend of the Santo Niño.

Perhaps then, the niño’s purpose was simply to rescue the gang members from danger? Let’s analyze the brief scene where the niño appears. He is in the room with Michael Jackson, literally looking over his shoulder. Then Michael changes his outfit and dances out the door into the hallway before making his way to the warehouse to break up the knife fight. One could say that Michael is acting as the niño’s messenger, dispatched to stop the violence and rescue the gang members from danger.

We may never know the real answer — unless The House can get in touch with someone at the production company who may know why Santo Niño de Atocha appears in this video.

For those who want to do a really deep dive on the Santo, The House recommends Santo Nino de Atocha by John Thompson, Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 1-18 (18 pages).