Juana Ines de la Cruz April 26, 2010

“I, Worst of All” depicts the life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who has been hailed the first Latin American Poet. The movie begins in 1680 with the arrival of a new Viceroy and his wife as well as the new misogynic Archbishop. The movie opens with the performance of a play Juana has written and the Viceroy and his wife are taken with Juana’s passion and gift for writing. Where as the Archbishop promptly denounces the nunnery “a bordello.” Juana became a nun in order to access the knowledge and books ordinarily forbidden to women. She had a passion for learning and had amassed the largest library in Latin America. Then, sin of sins, she had the audacity to express herself and her own ideas through the written word. She quickly became popular for her poems and plays and gained the protection of the Viceroy and his wife. For a time, Juana received not only the protection but friendship of the Viceroy’s wife and the two became involved in sort of a passionate, yet chaste love affair. When asked why she never wanted children, Juana responds by pointing to her books, sundial, astrolabe, and telescope claiming these were her children.  She believed she possessed the sort of freedom that would have been denied her had she gotten married and had children as was expected. However, not everyone was so enthralled by her work or her voracious desire to learn, which was considered the province of men and the Archbishop was not to be dissuaded from his goal of bringing the lascivious poet down Viceroy or no. When the Viceroy was dismissed from his position and sent back to Spain, Juana was left without vulnerable and without defense. Manipulated and betrayed, Juana faced the anger of the Inquisition and suffered the consequences of stepping outside her conceived gender role.

This movie sums up some of the worst aspects of a “male dominated” society, even as women found ways to circumvent convention and express themselves in a way that did not involve matrimony or having children, they still ran the risk of losing everything even their lives when the Inquisition was in full swing. Although, it was interesting that she was supported by so many prominent political and religious men. She unfortunately also made powerful enemies who saw to her eventual fall.

Women in the Church April 19, 2010

The Spanish came to the “new world” and conquered every indigenous civilization with many goals in mind, not the least of which being the acquisition of gold and land; however, there was one other much holier purpose: the evangelism of the Indigenous people, what was left of them. Within Latin America there were two groups that served to minister to the people, there were the secular priests that served the Spanish population and religious orders such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians that saw to the indigenous community. Overcoming local culture would not be an easy thing so these religious orders served as a towering presence in the community burning idols and ancient religious texts. They then attempted to incorporate indigenous elements in order to shape beliefs using visual representation. Despite the attempts to incorporate a limited amount of indigenous beliefs by some orders, baptism, marriage, and burial rituals completely changed for the Indians.

The Catholic Church soon became a dominant force in Latin America as an institution of social control, religious authority, and even a financial institution. The sources of income such as tithes, donations, and income from the real estate the church was located on provided the church with the ability to make loans. There were also financial connections between the nobility and the church. This close relationship between the church and the elite paved the way for the church lending to local noble families. Then the lesser sons of the local elite often became priests as they would have little or no inheritance. Children of the elite joining the church did not stop at sons though; daughters with dowries could become nuns.

The idea that the church provided a safe haven for women who wanted to live pious religious lives or those who desired to escape marriage became increasingly popular. At one point during the seventeenth century, Lima, Peru had 1,000 nuns. It was not a vocation strictly for daughters with dowries now. Within the convent or monastery itself there were black veil nuns, women who had a substantial dowry given to the church and white veil nuns who often served the black veils. Then there were beatas, who were “unofficial nuns” or women who gave vows of chastity but were not considered nuns. The option of joining the church provided a respectable safe alternative to marriage and allowed women some amount of autonomy and even a chance for an education they might not otherwise receive. On other words an attractive alternative to an unhappy marriage or a life doomed to housework.

Burn the Witch April 12, 2010

                To me, witchcraft in the medieval times all the way through the 18^th century conjures the image of old women standing over  the smoking black cauldrons that when discovered were quickly brought to justice either by fire or possibly drowning.  Although in many places witchcraft was seen as a threat to the community that only death could cure, in colonial Spanish America witchcraft was handled in other ways. The stereotypical version of a witch being an old poor woman did not really exist in Castile and southern Spain. Women who practiced witchcraft came from all different backgrounds and occupations. Witchcraft was not considered to be so much heresy as it was simple ignorance, so instead of putting witches in the hands of the inquisition which would have led to death, the people caught practicing witchcraft were to be educated in biblical doctrine. This then begs the question; if witchcraft is not considered heresy what threat did it pose?

                Indian and mestiza women are the most closely associated with witchcraft but this was a practice and belief that crossed both racial and social lines. There were remedies and concoctions for all kinds of things but remedies for love seemed to be the most common. Women typically made men ingest their witchcraft because as the preparers of the food it allowed easy access to a medium in which they could dispense their remedies. These remedies served many purposes. They were used to keep a lover faithful, to blind him to her affairs, to cause impotence, to spy on lovers, or even increase love. This leads us to a main threat in women practicing witchcraft; it gave women power over their husbands. Ruth Behar points out in her article that men saw this as a “larger threat to a patriarchal structure” that it turned “the world upside down by making husbands submissive to their wives.”

                Though the offense was not usually punishable by death witchcraft and magic were considered sins. The church gained knowledge of these affairs through the confessionals and were generally considered the result of ignorance. The Inquisition really just desired those guilty of such deeds to feel a “sense of guilt and shame.” By denouncing people’s fears of witchcraft as mere superstition, it devalued the women’s power gained by the ability to control a lover and questioned their mental capacity. This slap in the face served its purpose in some cases, causing people to disbelieve in the power of witchcraft, while it also allowed those still inclined  to use the remedies a certain amount of freedom from consequences.

Sex and the Catholic Church March 29, 2010

According to the law in Colonial Mexico, sex was to be consensual, unadventurous, and only done for the purposes of procreation. Sure, being consensual is important but use of the term “unadventurous” and limiting its purpose to procreation, gave rise to the possibility of all sorts of “sexual sins” that many people seemed perfectly at liberty to violate. There were seven basic manifestations of these sins, that if one were caught participating in could then be prosecuted and punished. The Catholic Church supposedly was the tool of social control in colonial Mexico, according to Lavrin’s article, “Sexuality in Colonial Mexico: A Church Dilemma,” but the church’s ability to impose social controls especially concerning  sexuality comes into question based on the large number of illegitimate children and numerous court cases involving  what the church had deemed “sexual sins.” 

The strict morality code was vamped up in response to “humanists, freethinkers, and protestants,” in the Council of Trent, but the trouble lay in the cultural and societal norms that already existed, that, and the reality that it was difficult to catch and then subsequently prove that people had been involved in sexual sins. The Church’s difficult task was in resolving the seemingly large discrepancy between the rules and code of behavior given on acceptable sexual practices and the actual conduct of people. The task was given to the priests and local bishops who used confessionals as a main tool in learning about the people’s “sins” and then, in theory at least, the priest would guide them toward a more holy lifestyle. Once again however, in reality the priests themselves did not heed the constraints and control their behavior.

Despite the strict moral codes, that were basically ignored by many people until it served their purposes there are a surprising number of court cases involving sexual sins that were punished by jail sentences and fines depending on the severity of the crime. It seemed anyone could file a case with the court whether it be a husband who believes his wife is participating in an adulterous affair or an Indian woman accusing a man of rape. The court took each case and investigated with equal fervor, in order to find out the truth and punish the offender. The court cases themselves often demonstrated the lack of attention given to the church’s strict definition of sexual purity. It was more likely that a person would be punished or brought to court because an opposing party felt hurt, betrayed, or knew they might get something out of it than any moral obligation.

“To Love, Honor, and Obey” March 22, 2010

We have all heard the story of Romeo and Juliet, the tragic story of the star-crossed lovers broke all our hearts at one point or another. Patricia Seed, in her book To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico, begins by telling the story of Juana and Gerónimo, a similar version of Romeo and Juliet, with two lovers determined to be together despite their parents’ wishes, but this story had a very different ending. The differences, as Seed points out, lie in the understanding of the role of the Church, the role of love or will, and the role of the parents in making decisions in their children lives. It is a common misconception that Spain and therefore, its colonies are structured and governed much like other western European countries like England and France, but that was not the case. These countries favored the system of patriarchy, in which parental consent was required for children to marry. By the 18^th century Mexico too would favor the parents of the children with the gradual loss of power in the Catholic Church and the rise of capitalism, but in the 16^th century when Juana and Gerónimo’s story took place things looked very different.

In the 16^th century and the Crown and the Catholic church sort of co-ruled the empire. The Church was responsible for the “social control of the people,” which incorporated ideas about marriage and settling marriage conflicts.  This system allowed the church a good amount of independence when making decisions. For the Mexican Romeo and Juliet, their good fortune came in the fact that the church did not believe in the parents’ right to interfere in a child’s decision to marry especially when based on material reasons. This mainly came from the idea that love was seen as “the action of the will” or as “the expression of the will.” Parents were not allowed to force marriages and thereby control a child’s will. The child’s soul was at stake in making a marriage work since divorce was not an option, so the decision as to who they should marry was to be left mainly to the child. The church believed that a forced marriage would only make the daughter or son unhappy and lead to their disgracing the whole family.

Honor is another central theme in Seed’s book. Honor was everything in the Spanish culture and that even remains true to some extent today. What has changed is the manner in which one achieves honor. In the 16^th century women had honor by being virtuous, living a sexually pure life. If they violated this in some moment of passion, the church would almost always supersede the desire of the parents and secretly marry a couple in order to spare the women’s disgrace. As time passed and capitalism became the order of the day, materialism began to take on a whole new meaning. By the late 17^th and 18^th century one gained honor by being wealthy so now the church did not see the extreme importance of protecting a women’s sexual purity, especially if she wasn’t a noble.

As the crown and secular rulers gained more authority, the freedom of a child to choose their marriage partner dwindled. The crown eventually did not have the use of the royal police to force a parents’ hand and were more concerned with keeping the local rulers happy so as to keep their jobs than preventing any unwanted marriages.  In 1776 the king issued the Royal Pragmatic which now meant the parental permission was required for a marriage to take place. Where once a husband and a wife had a say in the household now a system of patriarchy took over and where once the crown and church had jointly ruled, the church slowly gave way to a more powerful secular authority, to the detriment of free will in marriage choices.

Marriage, or Something Like it February 21, 2010

Allyson M. Poska, in her article “When Love Goes Wrong: Getting out of Marriage in Seventeenth Century Spain,” challenged some preconceived notions of relationships, divorce, and pre-marital sex early Spain.  The Catholic Church’s official position on marriage and divorce was fixed during the reformation at the Council of Trent. Through a decree entitled the Tametsi , the Church established a uniform set of rituals meant to be followed across the globe. Before this decree, it had been the practice in Europe that all a couple needed was a “consensual marriage promise and sexual intercourse,” to be legitimately married. Now, however, the Church declared a couple must announce publicly on three separate occasions their intentions to marry at least two weeks prior to the actual wedding. Then the marriage must take place in the presence of a priest, much like the ceremonies we experience today. Divorce was not an option according to Catholic Doctrine, and chastity especially among women was to be closely guarded. The position the Catholic Church took on marriage was not new, and there had been many similar decrees in the past, even among smaller parishes, but it turns out enforcing these decrees was a whole other matter entirely.

                Poska focuses her article on a small diocese in northwestern Spain called Ourense. This was a village far from the governing hand of Rome and the secular powers of Spain. After the reconquest of Spain, most cities were left to govern themselves much as they had before, with some amount of autonomy.  Ourense was no exception and took the decrees sent from Rome with a grain of salt. Tradition after all, is not easily dislodged, especially when it allowed women and men the freedom of choice and the laxity of divorce should one’s partner prove to be undesirable. Though the Tametsi would eventually take hold, it would be some time before communities across the board paid them heed. There were attempts to regulate and enforce the doctrine through means of the Inquisition and “regular Parish visitations,” but with the people and even some of the priests themselves holding onto tradition the task was not easy.

                I think the common belief among historians was that there was a strict moral standard women of early Spain were expected to adhere to, and this might have been the case for the upper class, but the majority of people lived a much freer lifestyle. Sexual activity among couples merely promised to each other was readily accepted and such a promise, whether made in front of a priest or not would hold up in court. That is not to say that the people blatantly ignored the Church’s decrees but that they allowed room for human error within relationships. It was often the case that a couple would make a promise to each other, live together, and have children and then one person decided they, in fact, did not want to marry. In such a case the woman usually went before a judge or priest where the father of any children would pay money for their care and was then absolved of any ties to the woman and vice versa.  After the separation was taken care of both partners were free to marry another.

                Though technically divorce once officially married was not possible, it was often found that couples who had married were living separately with no condemnation from the community. In order to better enforce the Catholic Church’s stance on marriage Episcopal visitors were sent to the towns and investigated couples said to be married but living separately. The married couples would then be forced to return to each other and often faced fines. If someone were to disobey such as order they would possible face denunciation before the inquisition.

                Poska states it is difficult to know exactly how frequently these sorts of situations occurred, but it was clearly generally accepted enough to question the previous assumptions made about relationships in seventeenth century Spain.

The African Slave Trade February 15, 2010

 John Thornton makes some enlightening claims in his article on “Slavery and the African Social Structure.”  It is easy for me to view all forms of slavery as a racial issue, which makes it difficult to understand how Africans helped support the slave trade with the Portuguese. Despite the fact that they would sell slaves from other tribes, to subject another human being to such treatment and willingly help perpetuate the practice is difficult to fathom. Thornton claims that the European view of slavery and the African view of slavery differed a great deal. In Africa, much like in the native cultures of South and Latin America slaves were captured enemies, usually the result of war, but in Africa slaves were also the main source of wealth. Individuals could not buy land in the sense that we understand so “their only recourse was to purchase slaves, which as their personal property could be inherited and generate wealth for them.”  It was not a matter of the color of their skin and inferior intellectual or moral abilities but a means to gain wealth and subdue one’s enemies. Although the idea of owning another human being, whatever the reason is a disgusting and humiliating experience, the slave trade started by the Portuguese and practiced in the “New World” was something else entirely.

A white Portuguese doctor documented the treatment and suffering of slaves in Africa before they even reached Brazil. He wrote “only the imagination can give an idea of the treatment that the slaves suffer when they are put in those libambo,” which was a chain that bound the slaves. He writes of their horrible treatment, lack of proper nourishment and water, and the fact that their “human nature is entirely overlooked.” However among the slaves he notices “charitable and obliging qualities which are not seen among the backlanders or any other free people. Though ten to twelve thousand may reach the coast, only six to seven thousand are taken to Brazil.

Despite racists overtones the lack of humanity and appalling treatment of the Africans was noted by several prominent white members of the community once the slaves that survived reached Brazil.  One clergyman describes the scene at the slave market at Valongo in Rio de Janeiro. He likens the process to that of a “butcher feeling a calf,” with no other thought the physical capabilities and profit the slave can bring. The slaves were bought and sold with no regard to the fact that these men and women were human beings. Some went to work on plantations, others to be domestic slaves, or trained in some occupation in town, but there were some women who experienced a different fate. Slave prostitutes in Brazil were a common place commodity, even though technically attempts were made to impede the practice. Anything that could be done to demoralize or present the slave as subhuman was done. Slaves were renamed with Christian names upon arrival; women were hired out as wet nurses and subject to the every whim of their master, and human beings were treated as livestock. The wealth Spain gained from their new colonies was built on the backs of the people they conquered and the abhorrent practice of slavery.

The Florentine Codex February 8, 2010

What has become known as the Florentine Codex is a history of the Nahuat speaking people, written down by a Franciscan, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. He began his work around the 1540s by gathering speeches and interviews from the various members of the society, and was written in Nahuatl. Sahagun’s purpose in completing such as arduous task has been explained by his desire to “extirpate idolatry” and preserve the traditions and language of the Mexican Indian culture. Although the Spanish had come to Mesoamerica, the culture had yet to be greatly affected by the notions of Christianity and European society, so what Sahagun recorded is mostly the life of the Mexica Indians pre- Spanish conquest.  

The excerpts from the midwife’s speeches in Book VI have proven to be extremely enlightening in ascertaining the gender roles both males and females were expected to perform. I believe it gives a startlingly clear picture of how that society saw and defined gender. While giving birth, the mother, if she was a noble woman, was attended to by possibly two to three midwives who bathed the mother and cleaned the house. Once the baby was born the midwife “shouted; she gave war cries, which meant the woman had fought a good battle, had become a brave warrior.” This image reinforces the warrior motif so prevalent in that society. Everything, even the smallest gesture or chore could be given meaning relating to some kind of battle. The women, though confined to certain roles were considered warriors within their sphere, battling evil and taking captives in their own way. The gender parallelism that defined Mexica culture can be described in terms of warfare.

Immediately after birth, the child whether male or female was placed into their clearly distinctive and defined roles. The midwife, even as she is cutting off the umbilical cord gives a speech to the child explaining their fate and duty. The male would die either in sacrifice to the gods or in battle, and his umbilical cord was entrusted to the warriors to be buried field “where warfare was practiced.” The female’s umbilical cord was buried by the hearth, to signify that she would remain at home and not wonder off. The male’s destiny lay in battle, where he would perform his duty to the sun, and the girl’s heart was to remain at home, fighting her battles with a broom and a loom.

While women were expected to remain at home and perform typical “women’s work,” I believe it is more about how society perceived the work. It is clear by the midwife’s speech that neither the male nor the female was considered more important than the other, and that the female by staying home was not in any way inferior. She was a brave warrior, as evident by the midwife’s cry of victory after a birth. Women did not stay at home because they were believed to be incapable of anything else, they remained at home to perform the necessary duties that ensured the survival of their community and the safety of their husbands.

Enter: The Conquistadors January 31, 2010

                The position of Andean women within pre-Spanish conquest and post Spanish conquest seems relatively rigid but this rigidity took vastly different forms. Elinor Burkett claims the impact on Andean people after the conquest affected rural Indian women more versus the affects it had on rural Andean men. She even speculates that Spanish conquest perhaps opened up different opportunities to Andean women that had not been open to them under Inca rule. This view seems somewhat controversial, and it seemed strange to me. It is my natural inclination to assume Spanish conquest had mostly negative consequences to all Andean people, that the relationships between Spanish men and women were in fact inherently coercive. There is no doubt in my mind that many or even most of those relationships, whether they be servants, mistresses, or wives, were the conquerors exercising their authority over the conquered. At the same time, there is also no denying that some women saw the benefits of such relationships. There were benefits of entering into such a realtionship willingly which leads me to believe that perhap not ALL of  the relationships were inherently or intrinsically coercive, because some women most likely saw these interactions as a means of moving up the social ladder or gaining some sort of superiority previously unreachable, as  her place within Incan society was often non-negotiable.  Either way the situation is perceived, as soon as the first conquistador set foot on the soil of the “new world,” the lives of these people would forever change.

                Andean society under Inca rule was built around the community as a whole, very unlike our individualistic culture today. The parallelism that existed within the society guaranteed everyone of each sex had a role to play and a job to fulfill whether it be within the home, or the political and religious structure. Each member of the ayllus was expected to pay tribute to the state based on the system of reciprocity. This was how they were able to survive in their diverse climate. If the tribute system is viewed in terms of the household, not the individual in which the man is merely the representative it is clear that each member is equally important to survival. In other words it is easy to see that women in Andean society were viewed as useful contributing members of their households. Marriage itself can be used as a way of reinforcing this idea. Instead of looking at the bride price as a sale of a woman from one man to another, it could also be  recognition of the fact that when a woman leaves her previous household, that the house will suffer without her contribution, at least according to Burkett. So, while individuals often had no control “over their social and economic movement,” a female was not a fundamentally inferior member of society.

                Enter the Spanish and suddenly life, especially for the women is drastically changed. This is not to say the entire system would change right away. Some communities were left virtually untouched by the new conquerors in the beginning, however when the Spanish enacted a new source of tribute, it would be the women whose lives would be most affected. Men under Inca rule were already expected to give themselves in physical labor for the state, but now women were expected or maybe a better description would be forced to give their personal services as well. “The rape of Indian women was an integral part of the drive for submission that characterizes all conquest,” or so Burkett so straight forwardly states and I agree. It seems a likely course of action for men to express their authority in this way, but it can’t be completely disregarded that some women were accepting or even invited relationships with the Spanish. The conquerors needed some level of acceptance in Inca society, so marriage to an Andean woman was logical or even necessary. It also presented benefits to the woman as well. Kinship was so important among the Andeans that a marriage or even a child with a Spaniard could possibly improve their position.  These changes within society became all more evident with the existence of wills and documented court cases in which women defended their rights.

                It seems the logical conclusion that women were exposed to Hispanic society in a far more intimate way than most men, even just as maids within a household; they were exposed to the habits and culture of the Spaniards. However, it could also be said that the Spaniard’s somewhat generic and narrow view of women allowed them this position. Viewed as submissive and relatively unaggressive, women servants were not considered a threat and men were sent to do hard labor while the women were sent into the parlor to dust.

                The end result was the eventual and virtual decimation of the Inca culture. The parallel structure that had previously existed vanished within the new Spanish culture. Some flourished and many died but the Spanish had come and there was no turning back.

The Starched Apron January 25, 2010

I have to admit that when signing up to take Latin American Gender and Sexuality, I had no idea what to expect. Sure, the terms sex and gender are thrown around all the time by history books, but I rarely bothered to delve any further into discovering the possible meanings or significance these words held. The term sex is used to describe the physical characteristics of men and women and here I naively sat, thinking there were only two possibilities. The lines have been blurred, and black and white are no longer the only colors in my mind. There is a whole other world completely shaded in grey, making all the clear set images our society has previously portrayed of men and women seem slightly empty and left wanting. Yet, this doesn’t even touch the idea of gender, which is more like the social construct of what men and women are expected to be. There is so much more wrapped up in that tiny word than its length first implies. Gender encompasses a whole range of ideas and thoughts that span centuries and geographical location. The complex details have not remained static throughout the whole of history, and though relatively ignored by many before this “age of feminism,” it turns out, obviously enough that gender and a society’s concept and understanding of the male and female has long affected human action, thought, and lifestyle.

It all became so much clearer when this realization dawned on me during our class discussions this past week. Of course the study of gender and sexuality of any culture must be studied in order to fully gain a better understanding of that society and the world they inhabited. As obvious as it all appears, it seems a vital component often left out or maybe not fully appreciated when studying history. Joan Scott argued that gender was a “key category of historical analysis,” and that it was vital to study how “femininity and masculinity were culturally constructed in relation to each other in different societies.”

I’m so often guilty of seeing the 1950s woman in the housewife ad; flowered apron, rosy red lips, and perfectly coiffed hair, when imagining what characteristics women should possess to successfully fill out the role our gender calls for. Thankfully, the reality of that particular vision has faded somewhat from our society yet, we are still very much governed by these strict ideas of what is appropriate for men and women. These social constructs that bind our mind and actions have done the same in different ways in every culture across time. Anything from the ideal body image, to women’s role as a wife, mother, mistress, provider of the household, and position in political society has had a profound impact on the society as a whole.

Having opened the proverbial can of worms, I am now ready and excited about studying looking further into the idea of gender and sexuality and the part they played in early Latin America.