Revista del CESLA. International Latin American Studies Review

The construction of a beatification and canonization cause: historical analysis and ecclesiastical norms

Carlos André Silva de Moura — 2024-06-30

Debates on the beatification and canonization processes have always been a concern to the Catholic Church hierarchy. We have identified changes in the established norms at different times in history, with specific literature on the ways to decree the sacralization of an individual. Based on what is proposed by Cultural History, we analyzed the norms used in beatification and canonization causes based on representations that were elaborated around individuals who lived according to the standards established by the Catholic Church. To do this, we used normative documents, codes, and guidelines for the clergy, to understand the legal procedures of canonical norms. Throughout the article, we present how the causes for sainthood were based on historical, cultural, and social aspects for the faithful and the clergy.

A Brazilian saint and her photographic records. From the secluded room to the electronic public profile

Emerson José Sena da Silveira — 2024-06-30

This article explores some of the meanings of the photographic records of a popular Brazilian saint, Floripes Dornelas de Jesus (1913-1999), or Lôla as she is known to her devotees in a small rural town. Between her seclusion in a bedroom, a national news report and publicity on an electronic social network, the image of this saint has been fixed within the parameters that official Catholicism produces of what its saints should be and look like. The photographs circulated by the Church and the devotees evoke purity and sanctity. They refer to a controlled female body, purified by pain, stubborn ascetic refusal, modesty and imitation of the Virgin and the saints. But there are deviations in the photographs that make the saints human, too human. Our hypothesis is that this too-human, inseparable from the figure of the saint, remains a hidden otherness. Throughout the research, which took place between 2019 and 2023, we followed the tradition of field research. We collected photographic reproductions from the archives of the National Library Foundation, the public electronic profile, the archives of devotees and religious material. The popular canonisation (which has taken place) and the official canonisation (which is underway) have created an image of this anorexic Brazilian saint purged of deviation, but the excess of humanity can be found under the cloak of the official image.

The Quilmes-Varela pilgrimage to the Casa Cura Brochero

Rodolfo Puglisi — 2024-06-30

In this work we address the current devotion to Saint Brochero in the southern area of Greater Buenos Aires, almost 900 kilometers away from the epicenter of the cult located in Córdoba. In this direction, we will describe the “Brocheriana pilgrimage on foot” that has been carried out annually for more than ten years in March and that unites the districts of Quilmes and Florencio Varela, covering a route of approximately 20 kilometers in this region of the province of Buenos Aires. Contrasting this pilgrim practice with what happened in the province of Córdoba, we offer an example of the varied character of the Brocheriano movement in contemporary Argentina.

Popular religiosity in the latin american south: the Festivity of the Lord of Miracles of Mailín in Santiago del Estero, Argentina

María Mercedes Tenti — 2024-06-30

The devotion to the Lord of Miracles de Mailín dates back to the end of the 18th century, when a small cross was found in a carob tree in the middle of the mountains of Santiago. The villagers tried to take it to the ranch of the person who had made the discovery, but it was impossible to move it from that place, since then sacred. With the establishment of the bishopric in 1910, the ecclesiastical authorities began to intervene in the festivities that already gathered crowds, thousands of people who traveled dusty roads, without drinking water or lodging, but with unwavering faith to ask for a grace or to fulfill a promise for the favors received by the 'saint'. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how it was transformed into a true mass festival that brings together different identities that give meaning to new forms of religiosity of the Latin American popular sectors; instances valued in new social and economic contexts where religious and political authorities are not absent, in a scenario in which the market also plays its role but in which, at the same time, new ways of approaching the transcendent, crossed by a complex religious pluralism, gain vitality. From an interdisciplinary point of view, both theoretically and methodologically, we try to understand the religiosity of the popular sectors in the deep interior of Argentina and the multiplicity of the network of meanings given by the different social actors, in the face of a complicated economic, social and cultural panorama.

“From indigenous to monuments”. The representations of Ceferino Namuncurá in the province of La Pampa, Argentina

Anabela E. Abbona — 2024-06-30

The military campaigns against the native peoples of Pampa and North Patagonia (1879- 1885) caused their social dislocation and their submission to national society. However, over time, certain leaders or their families developed strategies that allowed them to survive. For example, Ceferino Namuncurá, who is sent to Buenos Aires to receive a Christian education and became an object of popular worship to this day. In the province of La Pampa, the importance of his figure is observed in various representations where the population goes to worship his figure, give thanks and make requests. Taking into ac- count that monuments play a fundamental role in the construction of significant historical stories for a society, in this work we will focus attention on two: one located in General Acha (1977) and the other in Santa Rosa (1981). Through these representations, the Salesians tried to capture or remember, a century later, their role in relation to the incorporation of the indigenous people in the then National Territory of La Pampa. With these objectives we conduct interviews and analyze documentation of different kinds, such as Salesian records, government resolutions and information available in censuses, in the press and on the websites of the municipalities.

However, over time, certain leaders or their families managed to position themselves or develop strategies that allowed them to survive. In this context, Ceferino Namuncurá, coming from a family of indigenous leaders, is sent to Buenos Aires to receive a Christian education and became an object of popular devotion to this day.

In the province of La Pampa, the importance of Ceferino is observed in various representations and monuments displayed in different locations where the population goes to worship his figure, thank him for favors and requests. Taking into account that monuments play a fundamental role in the construction of historical stories that are significant for a society, in this work we focus attention on two monuments that refer to the figure of Ceferino. One of them was located in 1981 at the entrance to Santa Rosa, the capital of the Pampas, and the other in 1977 in General Acha, one of the first cities in the province, originally erected as a border fort and initially populated by a majority of residents. natives.

We maintain that, through the representations of Ceferino in General Acha and Santa Rosa, the Salesians tried to capture or remember, a century later, his role in relation to the incorporation of the indigenous people in the then National Territory of La Pampa.

With these objectives we analyze documentation of different kinds, such as Salesian records, mainly those of priest Celso Valla, and “official” documentation such as government resolutions and information available in censuses, in the press and on the websites of the municipalities.

Introduction - Popular saints and pilgrimages in Latin America today

Roberta Bivar Campos — 2024-06-30

The Baron's Archives: towards a social history of the Itamaraty Historical Archive in Rio de Janeiro (1808-1959)

Frederico Antonio Ferreira — 2024-06-30

Article seeks to analyze the production, reception and accumulation of archival documents by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as its predecessor bodies, between the 18th and 20th centuries and the different ways they were used in this period. From a critical perspective on the function of documents for structuring the National State and analyzing records from Itamaraty itself, we seek to understand the formation of the collection from three perspectives, as a strategic input for the resolution of international disputes, as an element of institutional memory and as part of the national archival heritage.

The use of the social name in the Virtual Learning Environment: democratization, universalization and student retention policy in combating the evasion of the transsexual, transvestite and non-binary population from professional and continuing education

Tássio Acosta — 2024-06-30

This study recognizes the importance of the tools offered by the Virtual Learning Environment (abbreviated as AVA in Portuguese) and Moodle to include the social names transexual, travestite and non-binary students as a school continuity policy for distance learning students. The current laws, as well as the post-critical curriculum theory, serve as grounds for the use of the social name of this population for acknowledging that the teaching-learning spaces are able to produce different territorialities. It is thus concluded that, among the advantages existing on AVA/Moodle such, for instance, democratization and universalization of the access to professional or higher education, especially regions located afar from the big urban centers where there are no educational institutions, the countless auxiliary tools existing in the virtual platform can be used for the full exercise of citizenship ad to ensure the right to school continuity for transexual, trasvestite or non-binary students, allowing them to continue to develop their studies. So being, these are considered affirmation and continuity policies in the fight against school evasion in higher education, in addition to being a crucial mechanism for the increase of professional education in free courses.