“All wisdom comes from the Lord, and with him it remains forever.”-Sirach 1:1

“Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent-that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.”-Friedrich Nietzsche

We should aspire to obtain wisdom through our lives. Both our successful experiences and failures will lead to learning.

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.

I found it difficult to accept that Sor Juana was such a threat to the church. I understand that her love of learning meant discussing theology possibly considered heretical to the church, but then again, I cannot imagine that men in other monasteries were not engaging in the same type of reading. It seems that Sor Juana in particular was just dealing with an Archbishop who was in particular not fond of women in general. Were they threatening to him?

It does seem that Sor Juana was a poineer for women’s rights although she probably had no intention of calling it that. It was very interesting to see nuns portrayed in more actual behavior as opposed to the idealized notions I think we tend to hear/read more about. They did have passions and feelings!

In regards to sexuality, there was definitely a portrayel of sexual tension between Sor Juana and the Vicereine. It seemed that the Vicereine, as portrayed in the film, had more intention than just a friendship with Sor Juana. Overall, though, I thought this depiction was a nice reflection of Sor Juana and her contributions to gaining equal status under such a patriarchical system.

The next case was of the beata in the movie we watched whose love for knowledge and free thinking began to get her in trouble with the church. She had a ton of books and poems she had written and tons of artifacts around her room but free thinking people and especially women were seen as dangerous in the eyes of the church. This didn’t help with the fact that the Archbishop actually hated women and thought they had a certain role within the church and this further got Juana in trouble when she spoke out against him. Although she had gained some respect from the Vice Roy and his wife and a few others that did not stop the Church from condemning her and to try and force her back into the path of God.

The point of all this is that beatas were dangerous women because they were unofficial nuns who had access to the same education official nuns did but were targeted more  for not taking the same steps.

One part of the movie that I had a hard time understanding was the relationship between Dona Marina and the Queen.  For someone seeing this movie in 2010 I have a feeling that the Queen likes Dona Marina as more than a friend, because she asked her to undo her middle part of her dress, and the Queen also asked her to take off her veil than gives her a kiss on the lips.  This did not look so innocent to me but rather sexual.  I am not sure that Dona Marina feels the same way, if I am reading into this right.  If I am not right about this hunch, it could be because this cultural of early Latin America may have been a bit more touchy feely than our current America cultural, and also it may have been normal for women to have more of a stronger and closer relationship than the heterosexual women of our time do.  Although we have not seen the conclusion of this movie, I can say that I have enjoyed it.

I find the whole scenario disturbing because she was not a threat to the Church, yet they persecuted her. In fact, she was most likely an asset to the Holy Church, and they failed to see because she was a woman. I feel it is important to point out all the women in Biblical history first that has shown God believes them capable of aiding Israel/the Church. Tziporah, Deborah, Esther, Ruth, Judith, and Mary all influenced Judeo-Christianity for the better. However, where my criticism of the Church comes is when they referenced St. Theresa of Lisieux, one of three female doctors of the Church. This saint was known for praying and working and finding God in the little things. To me, it appeared that the Church only accepted women when they knew their place and did not challenge authority. This is antithetical to the ideas of the Church, but geopolitical chauvinism took hold that prevented them from seeing the usefulness of female leaders. The nun in the movie offered a rare gem of brilliance that the Church should have cultivated. Instead, they let their agendas get in the way. This leads me to the conclusion that patriarchy lasted so long because men were unwilling to give up power. It had nothing to do with their sex as much as it had to do a select class of people trying to maintain their monopoly on control of the society.

As this is the last blog post for this class, I think it’s important to look back at what we’ve talked about this semester as a whole. We’ve covered several centuries, and looked at gender roles all across Latin America. First, we defined what gender, sex, and sexuality really mean, and then we applied these definitions to the indigenous pre-conquest cultures and saw a variety of gender systems—many which were surprisingly equal. It seems the arrival of the Spanish brought a system of less equality, and as Spanish notions of gender met indigenous ones the two mixed. The Church seems to be the defining factor in Spanish gender notions, as most beliefs of how a man or woman should act is derived from Church officials’ interpretation of the scriptures. It’s kind of interesting to realize that pretty much in every culture we looked at, gender roles were tied to spiritual beliefs–it was the cosmos with the Indians in South America, it was the “spiritual war” in pre-conquest Mexico. This contrasts I think with modern society, where we derive our ideas of gender less from religion and more from other social arenas. This is really a reflection of how much society has changed over the last few centuries. I think the most important thing to take from this class is the understanding that gender roles have changed throughout history, and can give pretty good insights into the values of a culture and the way it operates. By studying gender relations and the way the change over time you will have a much greater and more accurate understanding of historical events that took place, and thus studying gender is essential when studying history.

Gender and property in colonial Spanish America also played out in interesting ways.  Married women had, to a large extent, complete control over their property even after marriage, unlike in colonial British America, where property automatically became the husband’s once the marriage took place.  Women, then, remained financially independent after marriage.  They could even loan their spouses money and sue if it wasn’t paid back!

Gauderman’s point in all of this is to point out how the bureaucratic decentralism practiced by the colonial government and the Spanish crown influenced colonial Spanish American society.  In an effort to stop any one group from concentrating power, the crown created and encouraged competition and overlapping jurisdiction.  In the same way, marriage became a space of competition and competing jurisdictions.  To prevent the male patriarchs from gaining to much economic power, property was left to a great extent in the hands of women.

I want to examine the case of dona Maria Pino Argote. First, let me start by saying she symbolizes every white trash trailer mom out there. Now, so you all won’t bitch at me, my own mother is a small town, close minded individual. I was raised in a one red light town with very little to talk about other than local sports or politics. But….I personally think that owning a dowry should not give a woman the right to economic independence as it gave her (Maria Pino Argote).  Come one, the only reason she was able to support her children is because of what her husband gave her.

It is clearly stated in the reading that she had no obvious grounds to sue.  So why did she?  she sued because she knew the laws and knew she could benefit from them.  The father had given her everything she had and I would bet that the children wanted to be with the father but no…she had the dowry…she had the right…and she got the children.

I know it didn’t always work out like this and I know that a dowry was a great thing to have. If you were a woman. Especially a poor woman with no social background.  Dona Maria’s husband wanted his children just as bad as she did, most likely, but because of the dowry, he had no way of getting them.  So this dowry, which her husband gave her, gave her complete power over him.  I’m sorry but this is bullshit, and if it were the reverse situation I would say it is bullshit too!.  The female should not get economical independence simply from a dowry.  What did she put into the relationship to deserve all of the power…..Nothing

To be continued….

It’s somewhat frightening to think that the Inquisition could apprehend someone that they were simply suspicious of. Just like that a person could disappear, spending weeks, months, and in some cases years in entirely secret prisons. The idea that a person’s life could be controlled in such a way is frightening both because there was such a lack of rights for the person being taken, and because it shows how much control the Church had in the daily lives of the people in Latin America. I have observed before how interrelated the Church and the daily lives of people were at this time, but this is evidence of an even deeper amount of control that I had not realized before. The fact that a person could be locked away without even being told what they were accused of shows a frightening level of Church control.

The case of Marina de San Maguel that we spent so much time on displays this perfectly–a 52 year old woman was taken without being told what she was accused of, and was imprisoned for months while being forced to divulge anything in her life that was sinful. In the process, she pretty much had to tell all the private things in her life in an attempt to figure out whatever the Inquisition was waiting for her to say. Even more horrible, after this long drawn out trial, she was thrown in prison for two years, then paraded around naked, given 100 lashes, and sent to a “plague hospital”. The victim had no rights at all in these situations, and this instance where 9 confessions were taken is probably just an example of the many things that went on with the Inquisition. What I gather from cases like this is the extreme lack of rights people had in this society. The fact that they could be taken and thrown into a secret prison for simply being suspected of religious heresy is disturbing.

Maybe this phenomenon has carried over.  Other than The tradition of classes among the nuns (black veils and white veils)Maybe this is why when I am back home I feel overwhelmed in church merely because of the number of old women breathing down my neck.  I am a very religious person but I feel that females, being more emotional beings, have different feelings for church and religion than men. Could it be a comfort thing? Possibly. Are women just more religious? Could be that too.  Either way you look at it, the domination of women in the Catholic church was very ordinary and evangelism  spread like a wild fire.

The whole dominance of there church in general truly makes me feel lucky that I do not live in a time like this.  I can’t imagine an environment where the church rules everything.

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.

This week’s class topic was about women and the Church in Colonial Latin America. We discussed prominent women figures to the Catholic Church, including the Virgin of Guadalupe, or the most important Mary in Latin America, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the most famous nun in Latin America. We also discussed the organization of the Catholic Church and it’s use as a financial institution. Another interesting topic was the differences between the white veil nuns and black veil nuns. I did not realize that even the nuns were subject to social and economic hierarchy. The black veil nuns did not take a vow of poverty and came from upper class families and spent most of their time studying and concentrating more on spiritual matters and less on physical. The white veil nuns were more like how we think of nuns today. They took a vow of poverty and bore the brunt of the labor. We also discussed the reasons why most females (especially those from prominent families) chose to become nuns instead of marrying and raising a family. The numbers of women who professed to convents were surprising; 77% of female from prominent families joined convents, while only 14% married. The reasons why these women chose this route were understandable. One major factor was education. The only way women could receive an education was through the Church. Another reason why a woman may choose this life was because of family and economic strategy. A daughter that chose to become a nun required a smaller dowry up front as opposed to one that got married. Lastly, a woman may rather live in autonomy without a man governing over her, so that she can devote her concentrations on God. It is also interesting, though not surprising, that women who did not join convents, beatas, were usually held suspect as immoral women.

These discussions about how women were involved in, and viewed by the Church were important, because during Colonial times in Latin America, the Church was mostly the center of the peoples’ lives, whether they liked it or not.

I’ve seen a few instances when the church would send out missionaries to foreign countries to try and spread Christianity. Japan was a place where it worked a little bit but mostly failed because the Japanese were mostly just using them for their guns and when the priests tried to spread it to the common people it all ended. They were kicked out of Japan and the ones who tried to get in after that could be killed. Luckily for the Spanish they had their army in Latin America with them.

There are cases where noble women would go into the nunnery and lead a life of luxury. They would be black veil nuns and the white veil nuns would take care of them. This distinction was based on who had the larger dowry. The wealthy nuns could then spend their lives writing and studying instead of having to work and raise children. One woman, Maria de Agreda became a prolific writer and worked on many different subjects. She wrote “Divine History of the Mother of God” among other books and essays. Because she was able to write a book, this means she was able to study reading and writing to a greater extent than other women would have. Life in the convent provided her with a more leisurely life than that of wife, where should would not have had time to write books. This is, of course, not to say that all nuns had an easy life. Many had to work hard and pray all day long, which does not appeal to many people. However, there were several reasons that so many women would not want to enter into marriage. One must ask, what does this matter for women at the time? I would submit to the reader that this truly showed female empowerment. They could enter into the vocation God called them or into marriage. Contrary to what many feminists would argue, they had choices. No, they were not as diverse as today, but it demonstrates that women were not as subjugated as we are often told.

I think her references to spiritual encounters with Jesus, hell and being in purgatory were most likely dreams or fantasies that she had previously had, and she probably thought that someone knew about them, other than herself, so this could have possibly been a reason for her arrest in her mind. After going through nine confession sessions, of course Marina would be coming up with the most bizarre accounts of her imagination in order to explain the possible reason for her questioning. It almost seems that if you were arrested by the Inquisition, you had no hope for getting out without some sort of pentalty due to the “guilty until proven innocent” mentality that is backwards from today. Also, like Marina, people who were held for quite some time in cells would probably come up with some crazy things about their personal past in order to find some closure to what the Inquisition was looking for so they could be freed. I think I could go a little nuts being locked up in a cell myself. You could probably get anyone to say anything if they knew that confessing something would atleast free them from imprisonment.

Again, this just seems too time-consuming for the Inquisition. You would think that they would just tell people what they were accused of and go from there, but I guess the point was that people would tell the truth, and even confess to other “crimes” without knowing the actual, real reason of their first arrest.

Reading cases like this makes me glad for our justice system of today, that’s for sure! Although, because of this questionning style, it has given us very detailed accounts of actual behaviors of people during colonial times. This is probably the only positive coming from such cases.

Because these societies were based in patriarchy, all members of society, women included, viewed any power that a woman might have as illegitimate and unnatural.  Society accepted and expected spousal abuse of a woman, so if a husband suddenly acquired the demeanor of a lamb towards his wife, the wife became suspect for foul play.  Behar solidly establishes that Spain and Spanish America were male-dominated societies.

The Spanish viewed witchcraft very peculiarly which was as ignorance rather than heresy.  Spain had its share of heretics during its expansion; the converts from Judaism and Islam were the targets of the Inquisition.  The Spanish believed that witchcraft could be dealt with through Christian intervention.  The type of witchcraft found in Spain was a very specific kind — one that revolved around love magic and sexual bewitchment.  Women used these remedies to manipulate their lovers in a number of ways:  to cause impotency for a cheating husband, subdue a violent husband, or to bring about illness.  The main method of bewitching men was through ingestion.  The “magical” herbs were oftentimes also mixed with the woman’s bodily fluids, and when her husband would ingest this food, it was almost as if she were penetrating him.

The same ideals surrounding witchcraft in Spain traveled to Latin America.  Women who performed witchcraft in Latin America formed networks with each other within their neighborhoods.  Some women supplied the others with magical herbs and plants.

I believe that since witchcraft was not viewed as heretical in this area of the world that the only reason it became an issue was because of its threat to the dominance of men.  A woman in power was viewed as deviant, and even more deviant was a man in submission.  The only reason that the Church involved itself was because witchcraft was seen as an abomination on the status of a normal marriage, and at that point in time the Church had taken it upon itself to handle the rites of marriage.  I personally believe that these supernatural methods could not have worked whatsoever, so the men that happened to become “bewitched” probably just exposed their wives in order to get them in trouble.  Then again, after listening to some of the historical excerpts in class, people were probably ignorant enough at the time to believe that they were actually being bewitched.

It was interesting to read how witchcraft was really not considered that big of a deal, a “minor sin”. I guess it’s my saturation with the Salem witch trials thats gives me the idea that all witchcraft was deemed worthy of death, but I was surprised to find that the inquisitors actually dismissed the crime of witchcraft lightly. Nevertheless, a method women used to gain power was instantly labeled as harmful, perhaps mainly because it did allow women to gain some power in relation to men. It is obviously not viewed as some extreme form of heresy or sacrilege, yet society still formed a legal viewpoint against it. Once women found a way to gain power, it was instantly countered by a formation of “shame” associated with it. Behar aptly calls this the “paradox” that exists when women exercise power.

Martha Few discusses in some detail the fact that religion played such an essential role in gender roles of this time. Religion seems to have been a very common theme throughout all of our studies in this class, whether it be the idea of the cosmos found in southern Latin America, or the views towards war found in Mexico, or the religion the Spanish friars imposed upon the indigenous when Spain came to conquer much of Latin America. Religion can limit the practices of a society (as seen with the views towards sex) or provide opportunities for gender roles to change and shift from what they previously were. Either way, there is no doubt that religion and society are strongly intertwined throughout early Latin America history.