I am no fan of reality television. But I do enjoy reality especially the treatment of religion portrayed in scripted TV like my favorite show Chicago P.D.
In a recent episode titled Donde Vives Spanish for Where do you live? new character Dante Torres played by Benjamin Levy Aguilar has joined the famed intelligence unit headed by gravelly voiced Sgt. Hank Voight Jason Beghe. In the locker room, he puts on his signature white T shirt and all his police equipment. Before he closes his locker, he touches a prayer card of St. Christopher holding a child as the patron saint of travelers. While Christopher is more legend than historical the scene captures a Catholic devotional practice of placing devotional prayer cards in daily life.
As Torres is breaking into his new position and pulled in different directions he receives a text from someone named Provi and ignores it because he is so busy. Eventually he returns home to the troubled public housing complex where he lives with his mother. As he enters they begin to speak Spanish and English subtitles pop on the screen. His mother says she dropped off items for Father Gonzalez. Before he begins to eat dinner, he bows his head and makes the sign of the cross in an unfamiliar way. I thought maybe it was unique to the actor is Guatemalan heritage.
Did I rush it actor Aguilar responded when I brought it up during a phone interview as he was about to fly out of Chicago where he films.
Then he divulged he was raised Jewish thus the Levy middle name taken after his father Jeff Levy a Brooklyn businessman. His mother converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married.
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