Si tal era el dedo, cual seria el cuerpo!: The Archival Project of Sor Maria Josefa de la Santisima Trinidad (1783)

Abstract

Since the arrival of the Spaniards to the New World, religion became an instrument of political expansion, social control and identity construction.1 Literary critics and cultural historians have emphasized the political and social significance of the convents in colonial Spanish America and their vital role in economic activities and social services. Their social function and political significance was achieved thanks to the work of many religious women who as founders, directors or practitioners established a close connection between the outside/secular world and the inside/spiritual world of the convent. As Electa Arenal and Stacey Schlau have indicated, By choosing chastity, religious women expanded their opportunities in a society as a whole, acting as teachers, protectors, creators, and healers (297). Nuns definitely also had to depend on the outside world in order to keep their institutions alive. Dowries and contributions became two of the most needed sources of economic stability, especially in small convents with lesser means.2 As Kathryn Burns aptly states, for nuns spiritual and economic goals were inextricably (208).This essay approaches the convent precisely as a national and social institution deeply connected to the political outside world. I specifically examine the efforts made by a particular nun to write the forgotten history of her convent in order to preserve a glorious past and to produce a written account that could serve as a guide for future generations. My study focuses on the religious chronicle compiled and edited by the Peruvian nun Maria Josefa de la Santisima Trinidad in 1783 entitled, Historia de lu Fundacion del Monasterio de Trinitarias Descalzas de Lima. I first offer a historical overview of the political and economic situation faced by Peruvian convents during the eighteenth century in order to understand why nuns such as Sor Maria Josefa felt the need to project their convents as crucial institutions in the process of educating new Peruvian generations. The second part of the essay is devoted to the analysis of Maria Josefa's chronicle-especially her introduction-and the forging of her text as a cultural patrimony and written evidence of the religious heroic virtues that characterized the lives of many of the nuns who inhabited the convent of Trinitarias Descalzas. I underscore that at a time when many convents were facing a period of crisis and decay, the urgency to document the history of a convent became a crucial tool to justify the still important need for the existence of the convent as a religious and social institution. The archival endeavor of Maria Josefa de la Trinidad went hand-in-hand with the articulation of a local sense of national identity that could serve as an exemplary religious model to be followed by future generations as well as a testimonial of Peru's religious prestige. Sor Maria Josefa's project was anchored in what I call a religious patriotism; a type of discourse that claimed a love of one's country on the basis of religious principles. In sum, for this nun, the reconstruction of a glorious past turned into a process of representation of a religious institution in search of social recognition and cultural visibility.Religious Reforms and Their Impact on Peruvian ConventsIn 1565, as a result of decrees issued by Philip II, the religious authorities of the Viceroyalty of Peru summoned the first Concilia limeno with the purpose of adapting the decrees of the Council of Trent to their social reality. In 1568, the Concilia Provincial established 132 decrees which aimed to regulate religious life in the Peruvian viceroyalty. The sixteenth-century Peruvian mandates established by the four councils (1565, 1566, 1567, and 1583) survived until the eighteenth century,3 when the deterioration of religious institutions prompted Charles III to call for new Concilios provinciales in 1769.4Continuous denunciations by religious authorities to the King, with regard to the lack of discipline observed in many of the nunneries, constituted a major reason why the Peruvian councils were ordered. …