Debating the Nation. Print Culture and the Consolidation of the Peruvian Republic: From Flora Tristán to the Revista de Lima 1838-1863 (Ph.D. Dissertation)

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DEBATING THE NATION PRINT CULTURE AND THE CONSOlIDATION OF THE PERUVIAN REPUBUC: FROM flORA TRISTAN TO THE REVISTA DE UMA 1838-1863

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AND THE COMMITrEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES

OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Carla M. Faini August 1997

UMI Kumber: 9810115

Copyright 1997 by Paini, Carla M. All rights reserved.

UMI Microform 9810115 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.

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ii

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Johannes Ulrich Gumbrecht

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality. as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Sylvia Wynter

Approved for the University Committee on Graduate Studies:

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DEBATING THE NATION PRINT CULTURE AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE PERUVIAN REPUBLIC: FROM FLORA TRISTAN TO THE BEV'STA pe LIMA 1838-1863

carla M. Faini, Ph.D. Stanford Universly, 1997 Advisor: Mary Louise Pratt

This dissertation examines the debate on the consolidation of the Peruvian Republic which took. place in print culture between 1838 until 1863, with a focus on one of the most contentious issues, the role of the Church in the new, secular nation. In many ways the debate itseH produced the republic, since social orders are founded on narratively instituted belief systems. The central point of reference in the debate is the Bevista de Lima. 1859-1863, arguably the most important magazine published in nineteenth century Peru. focus on the different visions of the nation articulated in the Reyjsla de Lima, Flora Tristan's autobiographical work. p'rigrio.ljons d'une garia, Narcisco Arestegui's serialized novel, EI Padre Honio. and the public relations program of the Church, orchestrated by Archbishop Goyeneche. The Bevista de Lima played an important role in Peru's national life because, at a crucial historical moment during the consolidation of the nation, it provided the space for debates to take place, both within its pages and with other publications and schools of thought. In addition to clericaVanti-clerical struggles, I examine the battle between Lima and Arequipa for hegemony in Peru. The three central tropes for the texts I analyze are necrophilia, incest, and convents as prisonsltombs.

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The liberal, urban, bourgeois, creole members of Lima's ·ciudad letrada· were simultaneously asserting their newfound hegemony and inscribing themselves in leadership roles in the consolidating nation; the Reyista de Lima was the vehicle for their self-congratulatory positivist discourse, which justifl8d and legitimated their own positions of power as members of Peru IS new governing elite. The contributors to the BeyiSla de Lima spell out their political, cultural and economic agenda in essays, poetry and serialized short stories. The bourgeois narrative of displacement that was articulated in both the fiction and non-fiction in the ReviSla de Lima portrayed the landed aristocracy and the Church as obstacles to progress and national development; these two groups represented the emergent bourgeoisie's main rivals for power in the new republic.

v

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mary Louise Pratt. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. and 8yMa Wynter for your support. guidance and patience throughout the process of writing this dissertation. It has been a truly exciting leaming experience to work with each of you. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. expertise and time so generously. To Kenneth Fields. thank you for your unfailing good humor and timely. insightful comments on my writing. To Kathleen Morrison and the staff of Bolivar House. Beth. Jutta and Megan. thank you for your gracious hospitality and ongoing support of my research; it has been a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of the Center for Latin American Studies. To Efrain Kristal. thank you for encouraging my pursuit of this topic and for introducing me to nineteenth century Peru. To liUgo Garcia Bryce. thank you for leading the Andean Working Group with me. and for sharing your excitement about Peruvian history. To John Frederick -Fritzi! Schwaller. thank you for guiding me through Father Tibesar's archives at the Academy of American Franciscan History. To Sonia Moss at Green Library. thank you for tracking clown the Revista de Lima and countless other books for me. To Maria Paz Haro. thank you for making teaching at Stanford such a rewarding experience. To Patricia de Castries and Louise Freeman. thank you for your gracious. generous support. To my family and friends. thank you for encouraging and supporting me tirelessly. generously. and enthusiastically for the duration of my graduate studies. Your kindness. patience and affection has been greatly appreciated: My hat is off to: Mom. Dad. Chrissy. Nonna Marfa. Grandmother Lenore. Nancy, Ben; Carol. Brigette. Duane. Sarah. Ania, Uza, and Sven; Misha. Jason. Edmundo and Soledad; Barbara and Faith; Mimi. Janice and Marylou; Peggy Sue. Robbie. Unda. Laurie. Betsy. Michelle. Charlesetta. Jim and Dave; Helen and -the kids;- Herb and the Uni Lu family; -Sprung;- my -brothers- • Eric. Scott, Jeff. Steve. and Rex; and my neighbors· Jayne, Susan. Christina. Carol and Marc.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Hlatorlcal Context of the _1111 de Uml In Post-Independence Peru

Irtrc:JclldiorI .•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••..••.•••••••••.•...•...••..••.•. 1 Civil Wars, the -Ciudad Letrada, - the Church, and the Consolidation of the Peruvian Republic .................................... 11 Lavalle, Palma, Gorriti and Camacho: The Most Prominent FICtion Writers for La Rayjsta de Lima ......................... 43 Lavalle's Tradici6n: -EI Capibin Doria- .......................................... 65

Chapter 2: Trl"n's M.molraa .t gtlrtlgrlnatlon. d'un. parla: A Comparison of Her Views of Peru with Those of the _'111 de Un ~ ..................................................... 82 Tristan's Unusual Bacl. 3.

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Palma began his career as an author writing for Peruvian newspapers. Although Palma was initially enthusiastic about Castilla's ability to govem Peru, (as he mentions in the citation above) as were most Peruvians, since Castilla's govemments provided some much needed stability, by the time that he began publishing in the Rayjsta de Uma in 1860, Palma was a member of the opposition party. He participated in a failed attempt to overthrow Castilla and had to flee to Chile in 1860. Palma wrote prolifically while in exile in Chile; his fiction was published in newspapers and magazine throughout South America. He finished his collection of tradiciones based on the Inquisition records that he had previously studied in Uma during this period. By the time that Palma was allowed to retum to Peru in 1863, he had established himself as a writer. In 1864, Palma traveled widely in Europe. He cut his trip short when he learned of the Spanish threat to Peru,- and retumed home via New York. Palma took part in Peru's defense against Spain by working for the minister of war, and also by participating directly in combat when Spain bombarded the port city of Callao. After the war with Spain, Palma's political activities eamed him a brief stint in prison, and then exile in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In 1868, Palma worked for the President of Peru, Balta, as his secretary; he was later elected Senator. By 1872, Palma was ready to retire from politics; he was disillusioned by the constant bloodshed that accompanied Peruvian politics. Palma then devoted all of his energies to writing. He retumed to military life again to fight - In Peru: A Sbgrt Hjstpry. David Werfich writes: -n. murder c:I two Spanish colonists on an estate in northem Peru in 1863 afforded Madrid a pndaxt for intervention. Spain demanded an apology and a large indemnity from Peru and seized the guano-rich Chi1cha Islands to foIce COft1)Iiance. In JanuaIy 1865, the Spaniards thraaIened CaIao with a naval bombardment

.....,.,S

and the Pazat regime capitulated to the demands. Spain relinquished its conIlOI over the Chincha I....., but only lifter • had removed large arncu1tS of pno. Colonel Prado ousted the President Pazet in November 1865. The new regime quickly repudiated the satIIement with Spain and signed a defensive aIiance Mh CIIIe, EalBdor and Bolivia. On May 2, 1888, the 5(). gun shore batteries protecting the Peruvian port fought the 275-gun Spanish fleet to a draw. The Spaniards withdrew from the Pacific coast and Peru claimed a victOlY.· [po 91]

52

against the Chileans when they attacked Lima. Unfortunately. Palma's house was bumed. along with many unpublished texts that he had been working on for decades. After the Chileans left Uma in 1883, Palma asked to be named the head librarian of the national library. The national library in Uma had been used as a barracks for the Chilean troops. who had destroyed some of the books and stolen others. Since the Peruvian govemment lacked the funds necessary to buy new books. Palma attempted to re-build the library by soliciting donations of books from his friends' private collections. His efforts on behalf of the library eamed him the knickname -el bibliotecario mendigo.Palma's works have been widely published and distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world; some of his works have also been published in translation in English and French. among other languages. He remains a perennially popular writer. The Peruvian literary critic Riva Aguero summarizes Palma's unique contribution and enduring appeal: Palma es el representante mas genuino del caracter peruano. es el escritor representativo de nuestros criollos. Posee. mas que nadie. el donaire. la chispa. Ia maliciosa alegria. Ia facil y espontanea gracia de esta tierra ..•

Palma himself comments on his experiences as a writer who was a member of the -Generation of 1848-1860:Toc6me pertenecer al pequefto grupo literario del Penl. despu.s de su Independencia. Nacidos bajo Ia sombra del pabell6n de Ia Republica. cumpliamos romper con el amaneramiento de los escritores de Ia del coloniaje. y nos lanzamos audazmente' Ia empresa. Y. soldados de una nueva y ardorosa generaci6n los revolucionarios bohemios de 1848-1860 luchamos con fe. y el .xito no fue desdeiioso para con nosotros.til

.poca

ffT

PalmI. La bphamja de oj tjarrm. 71.

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Palma mentions Gormi in La bohemia de mj tjemgo. He writes: -Los bohemios Ia trat4bamos con Ia misma llaneza que at un compai'iero, y su casa era para nosotros un centro de reuni6n.- - Gorriti indeed ran one of the most popular and prestigious literary salons in Uma; however, due to the nature of gender roles at the time, it is very doubtful that she was treated as a ·compai'iero- by all of her male colleagues. Gorriti, who was bom in 1818 in Argentina, is known today as a talented fiction writer and essayist, and as one of the first South American feminists. She led a very colorful, public life, which always made Gorriti the favorite subject of gossip wherever she lived. Juana Manuela's father, Jose Ignacio Gorriti, devoted his life and the family fortunes first to fighting for independence from Spain, and then to fighting in Argentina's civil wars for the -Unitarian- political party, which lost to the Federalist Juan Manuel de Rosas, who became a bloody dictator. After Rosas' victory, Juana Manuela, her seven brothers and sisters and her parents were forced to flee to Bolivia in 1831. Two years later, in 1833, Juana Manuela married a Bolivian army officer, Belzu, when she ~s fourteen years old. Their marriage was very stormy, and was marked by long P8!'i0ds of separation. Gorriti had two daughters with her husband, Edelmira and Mercedes. When Belzu went in to exile for the first time, Gorriti and their two daughters moved to Peru with him. Gorriti and her children stayed in Peru when Belzu returned to Bolivia to enter political and military life there again. In 1848, Belzu led a military coup and became dictator until 1850, when he won the national election and became the constitutional president from 1850-1855.

• PamI, La bgbemja de mj tjaap), 14.

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Meanwhile, in Uma, Gorriti ran a primary school and a school for ·young ladies· as well as the most prominent literary salon in Lima. She supported herself and her two daughters by teaching and writing. Gorriti's serialized fiction was very popular; it was published in Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain and France. The Reyjsta de Um. was one of the first periodicals to publish her work. Gorriti's writing career, which begain in 1845, and did not end until her death in 1892, spanned almost fifty years. She wrote short stories, novels, autobiographies, speeches, essays, travel diaries and even a cookbook. While separated from her husband and living in Peru, Gorriti had two more children, Julio Sandoval and Clorinda Puch. In 1865, a two volume edition of Gorriti's short novels and essays was published in Buenos Aires under the title: Suailos y raal;clades. This publication was a success with both critics and the reading public. At this time, Belzal, retumed to Bolivia and defeated his enemies' troops, with his daughter's help; Edelmira participated in the battle against Melgarjeo. However, before he could assume power in 1865, Belzal was assassinated by his rival Melgarejo. Gorriti delivered a speech to over 8,000 people at Belzu's funeral. She spoke in favor of avenging her husband's death, which soon forced her to flee to Peru again. Gorriti proved her own courage under fire when Spanish troops attacked Callao, Peru in 1866. She ·repeatedly risked her life in order to save the wounded •.• and was subsequently awarded the Peruvian govemment's highest decoration for military valor, the Estrella del 2 de mayo.·. Over the course of her life, Gorriti lived in Uma, Arequipa, La Paz, Buenos Aires, and other locations in Bolivia, Argentina and Peru. She moved • Mary G. Berg. ....... Manuela Gonti.. $penjlb Amarican Woman Writers; A epBlzljogragbjcal Sgun;t RqW Diane Marting. ad., (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990) 228.

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frequently and traveled widely throughout South America. In 1875 she received several honors while living in Buenos Aires. The Argentine govemment decided to give her a special pension in honor of her father's distinguished military service. And Gorriti was recognized as a successful writer by several different groups. Gorriti's admirers presented her with an album of more than sixty compositions written in her honor, and in a separate gathering. a group of women gave her their own award. a gold star pin. In 1876. a two volume set of all of her work to date was published in Buenos Aires; it was titled: panoramas de la vjda. When she returned to Uma in 1876, Gorriti began running her school and literary salon again. In addition to being a talented and prolific writer. Gorriti is remembered in Peru as the organizer of the best -tertulia- in Lima. After Gorriti's death in 1892. Clorinda Matto de Tumer. one of the most famous nineteenth century authors in Peru. wrote about her friend: -no other woman writer of America or even of Europe can offer the world of letters a richer legacy.-90 In keeping with the fundamentally national focus of the Bevista de Lima. there were very few contributors to the magazine who were not Peruvian. Bolivar'S nephew Juan Vicente Camacho was born in Venezuela, but spent the majority of his life in Peru. Therefore. like Gorriti. he was an honorary Peruvian. Juan Vicente's brother Simon was also a writer. and lived in Peru. Camacho wrote short stories and poetry for the Reyjsta. The Enc;jcJopadja 8jogr4fica e hjst6rjca del peni credits Camacho with writing tradiciones before Palma, but in verse. His brother published a collection of Juan Vicente's poetry after he died in Paris in 1872. Camacho also wrote for several other Peruvian magazines and newspapers. Unfortunately. there is very little biographical information available on Camacho. 90

Mary Berg 229.

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Lavalle Sets the Tone for the Beyjsta

Jose Antonio de Lavalle wrote the prospectus and nine articles which appear in the first bound volume of the Bevista de Urn. for 1880: -Prospecto-; -Dos cuestiones dipIom4ticas-; -Cuestion de Irmites entre el Peru y el Ecuador-; -La ejecuci6n de Antequera-; -Un capitulo de la historia de Ia Inquisici6n de

Lima-; -D. Vicente Morales y DuareZ-: -Canto' la Independencia de America por D. Jose Pardo-; -Cr6nicas teatrales-; -EI Capit4n Doria-; -Cr6nicas politicas, literarias y teatrales-. The wide range of subjects that Lavalle tackles may be surprising to modem readers. Lavalle's texts include works of fiction, biography, politics, diplomacy, history and literary criticism. In nineteenth century Latin America, writers were not associated with one particular genre as they are today. Jean Franco comments on this characteristic of nineteenth century authors. Franco's observation about the conception of genre in early republican Mexico is applicable to the Beyjsta. and helps explain why the wide variety of texts found in the magazine would not have seemed incongruous at the time: ... hasta fines del siglo XIX las gentes letradas fungran de crrticos, poetas, novelistas, poUticos y soci6logos. No habra especializaci6n ni divisi6n de trabajo. Hay m4s; los generos literarios se conformaban en modo distinto de los generos modemos. Por un lado sa padra tratar la ciencia tanto en el esayo como en Ia poesra 0 la novela. Sa Ie hacra la crrtica a la religi6n en Ia poesra, en el teatro, en la oratoria 0 en el ensayo.-at Lavalle begins his prospectus of the magazine by reminding readers that although there have been many new publications in Lima, most of them have 91 Jean Franco, -En eepera de una burguesra: Ia formaci6n de Ia intelligentsia rnaxicana en Ia 8poca de Ia Independencia,- Ac;t,. del YIII Cgoggm de !a ASlGjacj60 'ntemacjonal de Hjpn.s) ads. David Koaaoff, at aI. (Madrid: Istmo, 1986) 26.

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only lasted -I'espace d'un matin. - Lavalle's use of French to indicate the demise of other people's publications is a pretentious manner of asserting that his publication will be a success. The name of the magazine - Beyjsta de Uma - is significant in that it signals the shift to an urban center of power, away from the landed oligarchies' estates in the Andes. Until 1860, the conservative Southern city of Arequipa, which was home to both caudillos and the Church in early republican Peru, battled Uma for control over the nation. After the wars of independence, many of the creole elite either left Peru altogether, or fled from Lima to their estates on the coast or in the Andes. Census data confirm that the population of Uma actually declined from 1820-1850.12 Kristal states that -it was not until mid-nineteenth century that there was a critical mass of the creole elite living in Lima." The name of the magazine conveys the information that its contributors are firmly anchored in an urban setting, in the newly victorious capital of the nation. Lavalle explains why the magazine is the best genre available (preferable to both newspapers and books): -Estas REVISTAS que tuvieron su cuna en Inglaterra, se han propagado tambi8n por todo el mundo civilizado-IM Lavalle's reference to England is noteworthy, because England was Peru's most significant trading partner after independence, and also the source of most of Peru's loans. After the revolutionary wars, it was necessary to create asense of rupture, because so much of Peruvian life looked the same as it did in colonial times. As part of their decolonization efforts, the creole elite sought to distance republican Peru from Spain. Thus England, France and the United • B.R. MiIcheII, Inlemetignal Hjstgrical Steti!tjc;e; Tba Arnerjc;as 1750-1988, 2nd ad. (New York: Stockton

Press, 1993) 52.

93

Efrarn KristaI, personal comrnri:ation, Febn.ary 1995.

1M

Jose Antonio de Lavale, ·Prospecto,· La Bavjsta de Ljna, vol I, 1860, 2.

58

States are referred to in positive terms, as appropriate role models, while Spain is often described as being barbarous, tyrannous and uncivilized. However, the negative portrayal of Spain is not universal and absolute; in fact, it is somewhat ambiguous, since the order and prosperity of the colonial era sometimes looked preferable to post-colonial chaos. In his biography of Vicente Morales y Duarez, the leader of Peru's delegation to the Cortes of Cadiz in 1810, Lavalle makes the following curious digression: he points out to readers how enlightened and progressive the Spanish crown was because it ordered a restructuring of the curriculum taught in seminaries in Peru. (San Carlos Seminary was founded by the Jesuits in Uma in 1771 because of an educational reform edict issued by Carlos III in 1763.) Lavalle describes the changes to the curriculum, and concludes by claiming that the establishment of the Seminary of San Carlos disproves a theory promoted by some of his contemporaries: Con tan laudable objecto - que prueba una vez mas la solicitud y esmero de los Monareas de Castilla por sus vasallos del Peru, y que manifestado asi' la faz de los contemporaneos por un hombre como Bermudez es el mas solemne mentis a los que, obsecados por vergonzosas pasiones, pretenden que el Rey de Espana ponia particular esmero en mantenemos constantemante anweltos en las tinieblas de la ignorancia y en los limbos de la inteligencia humana.· This is just one example of the slippages or double movements in a text that makes the ReYista complex and interesting. Lavalle stated that magazines could be found everywhere in the civilized world. In her article -En espera de una burguesfa: la formaci6n de la intelligentsia mexicana en Ie ~ de Ie Independencia-, Franco comments on the ideological linkage between -civilization- and -nation-: -La gente letrada se 95

Jose Antonio de Lavalle, ·0. V'lC8f1te Morales y Ouarez,· La 8eyjsta de lina. vol. I, 1860,

629.

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apoderaba de la noci6n de la civilizaci6n a la par que empezaba a formular el concepto de Ia naci6n." Pratt identifies the -civilizing mission- as one of the -new legitimating ideologies- employed by the Euroimperial nations.'II This European strategy is reproduced in newly independent Peru as a desire to achieve the status of a -civilized- nation, rather than to remain an uncivilized, peripheral, former colony in European eyes. In his article -Algo sabre el estudio de la historia peruana,- published in the

Beyjsta

in 1860, Enrique Tabouelle

describes Peru as: -un pueblo recien venido al banquete de Ia civilizaci6n," which implies that Spain is not civilized. Publishing a magazine was one way to demonstrate that Peru in general, and Lima in particular, formed part of a network of civilized nations. Anderson emphasizes the importance of print technology in helping to foster the invisible networks that are necessary to imagined communities. By launching a magazine which bore the name of its city of origin, the contributors to the BeYiSla, could imagine a transnational linkage between themselves and other cosmopolitan members of the global bourgeoisie, who also lived in cultural capitals that had magazines. There are three imagined communities contained in this one idea: literate Peruvians, other literate Spanish-Americans, and the European and North American reading public. These different groups are linked to each other through commerce, which allegedly had a civilizing influence. In Lavalle's prospectus and throughout the magazine, there is a tremendous optimism about democracy and the future possibilities of the Peruvian nation. At this point in time, it seemed like anything was possible. The Franco 27.

Pratt, IrrpriaI Eyes. 74. 98

Tabouelle 276.

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temporary lull in the civil wars provided a calm atmosphere, which had not existed in Peru since colonial times. The guano boom provided the necessary material conditions for the goveming elite to congregate in Uma, and debate the best way to establish and run a nation. The boom in knowledge that took place in the nineteenth century made the world seem more comprehensible and manageable to its inhabitants. Science appeared to provide the information necessary for a productive and profitable life on both the national and the individual level. Sarmiento's fellow creoles in Peru make the same assumption that he does in Facundo:

~at

is good for the bourgeoisie will be

good for everyone. Lavalle writes enthusiastically: • ... todo est4 en 81 por crear, en la polftica como en Ia historia, en Ia administraci6n como en literatura, en las ciencias como en las artes ..... Lavalle states in the prospectus that the Reyjsta's project is a national one, not a partisan one. He informs his readers that his publication does not advocate anyone point of view. Rather, Lavalle states that it is an open forum in which the authors each take responsibility for the texts that they contribute. After listing the names of the twenty men who have-been enlisted to be contributors to the magazine, he writes: Como puede facilmente deducirse del cuadro anterior, la Beyista de J.ima no es un peri6dico con bandera ni de sistema, no as conservadora ni liberal, romantica ni positivista, proteccionista ni abolicionista. Sin mas norte que el bien publico y sin mas objeto que el adelanto y progreso del pars, insertara artfculos de tadas escuelas, sin darlas otra autoriclad ni otra responsabilidad que las que ofrezcan a cada uno la firma de su redactor.100

• Lavale, ·Prospedo,· 3.

100 Jose Antonio de Lavalle, ·Prospedo·, 4.

61

The audience that Lavalle is writing for is small enough that he assumes that by providing twenty names, his readership will

~Iready

know the political position

of each of the men listed. Lavalle's statement reveals a lot about the project of the magazine, and the intellectual trends at that time. His assertion that this publication does not pertain to any political party or school of thought immediately arouses the curiosity of his audience, since astute readers assume that every periodical has some type of organizing principle and point of view. Lavalle's use of three binarisms to demonstrate that the Ravista does not espouse conservatism or liberalism, romanticism or positivism, protectionism or abolition informs us of some of the dominant political and literary categories of mid-nineteenth century Peru. I maintain that the system of thought found in the ReviSla is grounded in a series of binary oppositions that delineated the hegemonic republican aims of its authors: patriotic/self-serving; order/disorder; progress! backwardness; just/unjust; legitimatelillegitimate; rationaV irrational; naturaVunnatural; liberty/tyranny; innocent/guilty; not-punishablel punishable; white/non-white. In Epistemology of tbe Closet. Eve Sedgwick discusses the powerful role tbat binarisms play in any given system of thought; sbe proposes using a deconstructive approach to binarisms, while bearing in mind that: .•• categories presented in a culture as symmetrical binary oppositions heterosexuall homosexual, in this case - actually subsist in a more unsettled and dynamic tacit relation according to which, first, term B is not symmetrical with but subordinated to term A; but, second, the ontologically valorized term A actually depends for its meaning on the simultaneous subsumption and exclusion of term B; hence, third, the question of priority between the supposed central and the supposed marginal category of each dyad is irresolvably unstable, an instability caused by the fact that term B is constituted as at once internal and extemal to term A. 101 101

Eve Koaofsky Sedgwick, ~jstarnoIcg gf tho Closal. (Berkeley: UniYeraily of

California Press. 1990) 9-10.

62

The tenns that Lavalle has paired were not as controversial as the binarisms I have listed. In the socio-semantic field of the creole elite, one could debate whether a given author was conservative or liberal without calling the entire system of thought in question. However, the binarisms that I list are central to the construction of the system of exclusion/inclusion in the creole republican world. As Sedwick points out, most binarisms are not made up of symmetrical pairs; they are ·sites for powerful manipulations.·1CR The terms are selectively defined and deployed by the ruling elite, since they have the power to assign negative and positive meanings to certain words, in such a manner that their own positions of power are justified. When Lavalle calls the definition of several of the binarisms [that I listed] into question in a serialized, romantic, biographical essay, there is a hostile response from the reading public, who oppose his potential destabilization of their privileged position. In·La ejecuci6n de Antequera· Lavalle writes about the life of an eighteenth century Peruvian nobleman named Don Jose de Antequera who took possession of the territory of Paraguay in 1721 and led an armed revolt against royalist troops from Peru and Argentina in an attempt to establish his own sovereignty. Even though it was abundantly clear that Antequera had rebelled against Viceregal authority in Lima, because of his noble status there were many people in Uma who thought that he should not be punished for his crimes. His social standing placed Antequera in the categories of innocent (no matter what he did) and non-punishable; therefore, some Limenos regarded his public execution in 1731 as a grievous error that would send the wrong message to the lower classes.

1(12

Sedwick. faUnplogr gf the eIgHt. 10.

63

Even though Lavalle is writing about a historical situation that took place 130 years prior to his story, his re-creation of the events aroused the ire of some

of the readers of the Bayjsta. A rival newspaper even re-printed to royal decrees which proclaimed Antequera's innocence. He writes the following in defense of his version of the story, (which he obtained by reading the ·Relaci6n de mando· that the viceroy of Uma who ordered the execution of Antequera left for his successor): A pr0p6sito de los artfculos que publicamos sobre Antequera, se han publicado en ·EI Cornercio· dos reales 6rclenes que r&habilitan su memoria. Nada tuvieramos que decir a este respecto, si no se les hiciera preceder de unas palabras de nuestros artfculos compendiadas y truncadas al punto que revelan torcida intenci6n. l,eu'l ha sido? no 10 sabemos; l,se ha pratendiclo probar que al decir nosotros que Antequera fue criminal nos equivocamos? Pero si no hemos pretendido juzgar a Antequera: si solo hemos querido hacer un cuadro hist6rico de su ejecuci6n, coloc8ndonos bajo el punto de vista de la epoca, relatando 10 que pas6 y refiriendo las ideas que en 81 se abrigaban, l,a que se nos quieren echar a cuestas delitos que no hemos cometido?1CD Lavalle leamed that it was not acceptable to write about the criminal escapades of an aristocrat, even in republican Peru, even hundreds of years after the aristocrat in question had died. Given the rigidity of Peruvian society, the descendants of Antequera clearly wanted to rid their ·illustrious· family of any appearance of wrong-doing, no matter how ridiculous their efforts were to rewrite the history book on colonial Peru.

.

It is ironic that Lavalle claims that each author is solely responsible for the contents of his text, because he publishes quite a few anonymous articles, despite several assertions stating that he will not published anx anonymous articles in the Bavista. In fact, some of the essays dealing with the most controversial topics, such as one titled ·Extranjeros· which calls into question 1CD Lavalle, -Cn5nica,. La Aetiet· de Urna, vol. 1, 1860, 670-671.

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the status of foreigners living in Peru, are anonymous because their authors did not want to face the fallout from challenging popular opinion or challenging the foreign financiers of the Peruvian govemment. The unknown author of ·Extranjeros· argues that the Peruvian govemment should not be forced to give foreigners rights and privileges that are denied to Peruvian citizens, such as reparations from damages incurred in civil wars. Lavalle claims that the ·Cr6nica- section, which he sometimes writes, reflects the consensus view point of all of the contributors to the magazine, which would have been an impossibility given the variety of opinions expressed in the individual essays. It is to his credit to note that during Lavalle's tenure as director of the Aeyista. he published fiction and non-fICtion articles that disagreed with his point of view, which only added to the magazine's prestige, then and now.

Lavalle'. Tradlcl6n:

-EI Caplt.n Doria-

Based on the premise that fiction reveals more of the -conflicts at the borders of the text- 1OJ than ostensibly non-fiction texts, I will next examine a tradici6n by Lavalle. At this point, a brief discussion of nineteenth century Peruvian literary trends is in order. One of the most obsessive themes in postindependence literature is Peruvian national identity, which is a profoundly bourgeois concept. Neither the landed elite nor the large population of the lower class were very interested in defining their individual or national identity. In order for the bourgeoisie to articulate a sense of national identity, it was necessary to take a position regarding Peru's colonial history, which did not happen until the middle of the nineteenth century.

10J

MachenJy 155.

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Before the ·generaci6n de 1848-1860· began writing, the most popular form employed in literature was a type of regional ·costumbrismo.· In 1.& formaci6n de fa tradic;i6n marada an a' paOl, Antonio Comejo Polar writes that ·costumbrismo· was the hegemonic literature in the years immediately following independence. Comejo Polar emphasizes costumbrismo's determined focus on the present, with no mention of the past and the future, (·Contemporaneidad y cotidianeidad son los panimetros del imaginario costumbrista.·) as well as its characteristic attention to minute details while avoiding larger issues: ·EI costumbrismo rehuye Ia problematizaci6n de los asuntos mas graves de la naci6n.·

105

Costumbrismo is noted both for its brevity, and its descriptive

quality; costumbrista texts tend to be more descriptive than analytical. Costumbrista texts usually took the form of short prose sketches, poetry, or plays. 101 Although the texts written immediately following independence avoided referring to Peru's colonial past, it was not long before Peruvian writers began looking back to the Colonial epoch with nostalgia, perhaps due to the unceasing intemecine warfare that followed independence. Comejo Polar explains that the tension between viewing Peru's colonial history as ·una larga etapa negadora de la nacionalidad· or ·una 4ipoca de grandeza. paz y prosperidad· 107 is characteristic of almost all of the post-independence texts. In Lavalle's various fiction and non-fiction texts, this tension is usually expressed by referring to the colonial past in positive terms, but at the same time he undercuts his admiration of the Spaniards by praising Independent Peru as an 105 Cornejo Polar 31. 101

cesar Taro Montalvo. I " " de II IIIIIhg parIWII. Tamo IV Costumbrisnp r

107

Cornejo Polar 21.

Ijteratu,. nag,. del pam (Lima. 19M) 14.

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improvement on the colonial system. Direct criticism of colonial society was thus neatly avoided by someone whose family had benefited directly from colonialism. Ricardo Palma's generation of writers seized upon Peru's colonial past as the key to unlocking Peru's potential as an independent republic. And, of course, they envisioned themselves to be the heirs to the -positive- aspects of the colonial aristocracy. Palma and Camacho's new genre, the -tradici6n,- is romantic in style and taste. It is important to keep in mind that -romanticism- as a literarY style took a different form in Spain, and hence Spanish America, than it did in Germany, France or England. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht comments on Spanish romanticism: -European romanticism is about heroic individuals who break all the rules; however in Spain, the hero wants to be transgressive, but also simultaneously reconciled with Catholicism. This desire to become an interesting subject through transgression, while maintaining a reconciled status with the Catholic Church, produces the structural and semantic incoherences of Spanish romantic texts.-. In the introduction to his re-telling of the execution of a nobleman during colonial times, -La ejecuci6n de Antequera-, Lavalle expounds on the value of knowing colonial history, and laments the destruction of colonial archives. Lavalle points out that the Spanish govemment was completely destroyed by Independence; however, at the end of his introduction, Lavalle also reminds his readers that: ... trescientos anos corridos bajo ciarto sistema politico, bajo ciertas leyes, bajo cierta administraci6n; crean haibitos, costumbres, caraicteres, tradiciones, praicticas, que no pueden desaparecer en un dra ni borrarse con un rasgo de pluma .•. -,. 108

1.

Johannes Ulrich Gumbrecht, personal communication, spring 1995. Lavalle, -La eiecuci6n de Antequera, - La BeyWa de Yma, vol. 1, 1860, 489-490.

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Lavalle's remarks point to an observation that Cornejo Polar makes: -Ia superficialiclad del corte hist6rico producido por Ia emancipaci6n. acontecimiento que .•• fue ma polftico que econ6mico y social. -110 This topic appears subterraneously as a challenge to the contributing authors of the BeviSla: how to maintain a sense of rupture. or difference. when the hierarchical nature of Peruvian life after independence so closely resembled life before independence. Sylvia Wynter reminds us that post-colonial. bourgeois creoles wanted to be transgressive. in order to elevate their own status, but not so transgressive that they called their own privileged positions within the 8double colonial- social structure into question.111 In his dense short story -EI Capitan Doria8, Lavalle explores many of the burning issues of his time: -natural- love (romantic love) versus -unnatural- love (arranged marriages); the role of priests (and the Church) in society; the need to police female desire; gender roles; the desirability of consolidating creole wealth; bourgeois aesthetics; the indigenous presence and the problematics involved with maintaining a sense of rupture in post-independence Peru. He prefaces his fiction by stating that he is merely re-telling a series of historical events that occurred during the colonial period. This disclaimer allows Lavalle to introduce current controversial items with impunity. The 8tradici6n- became the favorite form of the short story in nineteenth century Peru because it allowed writers to bring up scandalous subjects, (such as Camacho's tradici6n ·Furens Amoris· about mother/son and brother/sister incest which will be discussed in Chapter 3,) under the guise of merely r.presenting -ancient history. - All of

110

Cornejo Polar 22.

111

See footnote .... above.

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these authors have the built-in recourse of -history- to shield them from attack, since they claim to be merely reporting factual events that have already taken place. Sommer comments on the frequency of use of the -historical disclaimerin nineteenth century Spanish American fiction: -Novelists tried to insist that their work was 'historY not fiction; and therefore not idle or fuel for fantasies. -112 However, as we have already seen, with Lavalle's historical fICtion ·La ejecuci6n de Antequera,· this narrative strategy of the historical disclaimer did not always prove to be successful at shielding writers from attack. In the lengthy, pretentious preface, Lavalle frames his serialized short story by identifying his intended audience, and by informing his readers of his own literary tastes, which were a reflection of his political views as well. Lavalle begins with the assumption that his readers are men with leisure time who are looking for pleasant distractions. It is interesting to note that Lavalle assumes that the readers of his tradici6n will be male, because it is a romantic love story; this type of fiction typically attracts women readers. However, by offering his story as a break from the more ·weigh~ considerations of a man's life, Lavalle introduces us to the -neW- nineteenth century romanticized male subject. This new man is capable of falling in love, and of becoming exhausted (see underlined section of quote - my emphasis); both of these activities are traditionally aSSOCiated with the -weaker- sex. Hay momentos en que el espfritu se fatiga de la polltica, de las ciencias, de todas las cuestiones en fin que Ie demanden una atenci6n .ria, aun de los propios negocios privados, y se welve en busca de otros objetos que 10 distraigan y reposen. Necesarios son estos ratos de entretenimiento y de salaz, que nuestra naturaleza misma exije a veces imperiosa, porque no se puede pretender de ella una aplicaci6n profunda y constante hacia objetos que Ia requieran, sjn exggnerse a ramcer sus dibiles fjbras.113 112

Sommer 36.

113

Lavalle, -Capijn Doria, -La BeyiMa de Ljm. vol. I, 1860,83.

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Lavalle states that his story will serve two purposes simultaneously: it will entertain the reader, while also teaching him something about Peruvian history - since his fiction is based on fact, and therein lies its merit. Lavalle contrasts his historical fiction with the -.angled labyrinth of French romantic novels,· which is ironic, because his tradici6n is very romantic. Para los lectores que en esos momentos se hallen, registrar' la REVISTA, - de tiempo en tiempo, y siempre que .te primer ensayo sea benevolamente acojido - una _rie de recuerdos de nuestros pasados tiempos, que con todas las apariencias del romance y de la novela, sean en realidad veridicas historias, en 10 que consistim su merito - si merito pueden alcanzar' los ojos del lector - pues tengo para mi, que mas interes encierra un hecho cierto, aunque sencillo, que todo el enmaranado laberinto de las novelas francesas de la escuela romantica, que tanta voga obtuvo en Ia Illtima decada, y que ya felizmente va cediendo el paso a otra escuela mas positiva y de mejor sentido. 114

Lavalle elaborates his literary preferences by providing a list of authors whom he admires and those of whom he disapproves; he was outlining a bourgeois aesthetic code. Lavalle approves of Prevost and Diderot's novels, but condemns the writings of Crebillon, La Clos, Florian, Marmontel, Voltaire, and Rousseau. This long list of names further narrows Lavalle's public. Not only must his audience be literate and have leisure time, apparently they should also be familiar with a wide variety of popular eighteenth and nineteenth century French authors. After examining Lavalle's literary preferences, it is clear that he endorses anticlerical novels, and that he opposes fiction that is ·licentious· or that doesn't resemble ·reality.- Indeed he criticizes 'imagination' as a negative trait. Lavalle praises Prevost for writing fiction that is plausible in ·real life.· He claims that the Spanish novels of chivalry and the French novels 114

Lavalle, -Capitan Doria,- 83-84.

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by Dumas will not stand the test of time, and will not be read by future generations because they are too improbable. Lavalle concludes his preface with a seH-conscious display of false modesty by stating that he is not really comparing his short story to the works of these famous French and Spanish authors, but rather just making an interesting aside. According to the plot line, Capit*, Doria is a dashing military offICer from a noble Spanish family who has been sent to Peru in command of royalist troops to quell the Tupac Amaru uprising and ·restore order.· As the second son in his family, Doria would not inherit any money or property, and was forced to create his own prosperity. Given the limited choice of ·Ias armas 0 el alta"', Doria chose military IHe. After he arrived in Lima, Doria was invited to the home of the ·Conde del Aroo,· an extremely wealthy creole, because of his familly's noble social standing in Europe; his military rank alone would not have garnered him an invitation. The Count's daughter Teresa, ·Ia mas cumplida y perfecta de las bellezas que habra por aquel tiempo en Lima,· and Capitan Doria meet. Of course, it is love at first sight for Teresa and Doria. However, unbeknownst to either of them, Teresa is unavailable since she has already been promised to her first cousin, the Marqu.s de Valdencina, by her father. Through the help of Teresa's maid. Doria and Teresa exchange letters, Sighs, and conversation (she at her balcony, he on the street below.) Then the Count announces that Teresa will marry her first cousin. who is also fabulously wealthy. At the engagement ball held in honor of Teresa and the Marqu.s de Valdencian, Doria challenges his rival to a duel. The next moming at the duel, Valdencina is severely wounded. but not killed. Doria flees to a monastery. A corrupt priest quickly marries the two cousins. When Doria hears that Teresa is married, he enters the priesthood. Valdencina recovers and lives.

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Although this story is theoretically based on -actual- events from Peru's colonial history, it reads as if it were taking place in nineteenth century republican Peru. Lavalle provides the link between the colonial world and the independent one at the end of the story. He writes that he has used the real names of only three characters in the story: Doria; the man who accompanied him to the duel, Zubillaga; and the -good- priest whose advice Doria sought after the duel, Aycarde. Lavalle adds: - .•• los de los otros actores de ella se han cambiado, porque a sus descendientes poena quims series desagradable que sa les designasa con ellos. -115 In this manner. Lavalle creates additional .

.

interest in his story; his readers will want to try to figure out who the rest of the characters were. and. more importantly for the current creole social hierarchy in Lima, who their descendants are. It is crucial to note that it is an indigenous uprising that begins the action in this story. Race figures prominently in this narrative right from the start. Although they are not the subject of any discussion, the indigenous majority of the Peruvian population is definitely omnipresent in -EI Capitan Doria.- The indigenous presence is only referred to directly twice in the entire story, but in each example, the indigenous (or mestizo) Peruvians threaten the stability of the social order. In the first example, Doria, who threatens to disrupt the bourgeois order of things by courting Teresa, is sent to Peru in order to reassert European and creole hegemony over the indigenous inhabitants; therefore, the indigenous uprising and its fallout threaten to create multiple havoc. Lavalle makes an interesting indirect comparison between the -Muslim infidels- and the indigenous peoples of Peru, thus linking the modem indigenous population of Peru with a traditional negative signif"l8r - the Muslims were always depicted as the arch-enemies of Spanish Christian- -Civilization. 115

Lavalle, "CapiI8n Qoria,-130.

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Rather than being couched in religious terms, the Peruvian uprisings mentioned in ·Capitan Doria· were described as race wars, barbarism threatening civilization. The classificatory schema of the nineteenth century SpanishAmerican creoles no longer required that -enemies- be categorized as infidels. The secular world system that was replacing corporate Christianity conveniently substituted -indigenous· or -indigenfl for -infidel,- since all of those words implied the same meaning: -guilty. - In a sense, those words also implied a ·Iack,· as Fanon has discussed in the twentieth century. The narrator comments that one of Doria's ancestors, Andrtis Doria, was the admiral who led the fleet of Emperor Charles the V successfully against the Muslims in the battle of Lepanto; he won a commendation from the Pope for his efforts. Lavalle writes that Andres Doria -saved Christianity. - In a parallel fashion, Doria is sent to Peru to ·save- the Spanish colonial order from the indigenous population. Indigenous men are blamed for causing military and political trouble, and mestiza women are described as potential disruptors of household harmony for creole families because they are viewed by bourgeois and upper class men as charming, exotic and [sexually] appealing. The second example of the particular threat that indigenous and mestiza women pose for the Peruvian social order takes place at the elaborate ball held to announce the heroine's engagement. In this scene, the female servants are described as appealing. Their sexual desirability was treated as both a boon for creole men, and a potentially destabilizing force for the social order. ... unas criadas obsequiaban a las Senoras con esos graciosos caprichos que forman Ia mistura de Uma, y otras perfumaban la atm6sfera con el humo del zahumerio, que se desprend(a de los pebeteros de filigrana de plata que Ilevaban en las manos.'"

". Lavalle, -C8pitmI Doria,-126.

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The theme of illegitimacy and incest, which is dealt with much more explicitly in several other stories, is hinted at here, because if the -masters- of the house father children with their servants, these -illegitimate- children, with unknown fathers, may inadvertantly marry their half-brother or half-sister. This recurring theme is explored at length in chapter three. Although this was less of an issue for urban creoles than for creoles who owned plantations and had many slaves and peons, it surfaces frequently as a national topic of concem for all creoles. Teresa's maid is also implicated as a threat to the Peruvian social order, because Doria and Teresa'a romance could not have gotten off the ground without her help. Although Doria does not specifically identify the race of the maid, it is safe to assume that she was non-creole, and probably indigenous or mestiza. Lavalle writes that she was persuaded to serve as Doria and Teresa's -Celestina- by a bribe from Doria, which indicates her -moral weakness, - since she was being paid by Teresa's parents to protect Teresa from romantic encounters. Her probable race and her gender clearly mark Teresa's maid as a troublemaker. At the beginning of the story, Capitan Doria appears to be a triple signifier: he literally represents colonial Spain, while he symbolically represents two of the new villains of republican Peru, the Church, and the military. He portrays a dangerous challenge to the bourgeois order of things. Teresa and her cousin, although they are literally portrayed as upper class in this story, are metaphorically bourgeois for the narrative purposes of the Reyjsta. They simultaneously represent both the -enlightened- members of the upper class, (i.e. those who would join together with the bourgeoisie to consolidate the nation) and the bourgeoisie. Doria was so smitten with Teresa that he ignored some of the obvious barriers to his love affair with her. Even

74

before he found out that she was had been promised to her cousin, Doria knew that his own impecunious status would disqualify him from seeking Teresa's hand in marriage, but he persisted in courting her anyway. He is her social, but not her financial equal. Doria's lack of funds provides the structural impediment which prevents him from asking Teresa's father for her hand in marriage. Lavalle is acknowledging a new factor in determining one's social status, money, which had already begun to blur the dividing line between the middle and upper class in Peru by this time, since some aristocratic families had lost their wealth, and some middle class families had made theirs in the midst of the civil wars and chaos that followed independence. Teresa, unaware of her father's plans for her, believes that it will be possible for her to choose her own husband; however, Doria correctly suspects otherwise. In addition to financial concems, the free-wheeling Doria was rebelling against another one of the dictates of colonial [and post-colonial] society by pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman without her father's knowledge and permission. He is aware of but does not accept the rules goveming the marriage market. According to Gayle Rubin in rrhe Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex,· women are exchanged by men in order to further their own specific goaIS;117 therefore, Doria was breaking with sacred patriarchal tradition, in both colonial and republican Peru, in both bourgeois and upper class homes, by attempting to establish a relationship directly with Teresa instead of going to her father first. That was a serious transgression, not just against Teresa and her father, but against the whole social order, since the personal, (or private,) was treated as public in all of the fiction from this time frame.

117 Rubin. See fuI citation of article in footnale 7.

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Teresa's father, Conde del Arco, and her aunt, the Marquesa de Valdencina plan to combine and consolidate their respective creole fortunes by having their children marry each other. There is a new twist to this traditional business arrangement though: the Marques de Valdencina would like to believe that even though his marriage to his cousin has been pre-arranged, it is also viewed as desirable by both he and Teresa. He wants to maintain the illusion of -natural- love. -Love- as a determining factor in deciding who will get married or not was a radically new concept for nineteenth century republican Peru. For prior generations, there was no stigma attached to arranged marriages; the landed gentry had always had arranged marriages. However, as part of nineteenth century, secular, bourgeois culture, the concept of spontaneous -natural- love had been introduced. This conception of love has an entire conception of ideology that accompanies it; -free- or -natural- love was an effective means to allow social-climbing bourgeois men and women to marry up the social ladder, under the guise of fulfilling romantic love. However, as Lavalle's tradici6n makes clear, creole men wanted to be firmly in control of deciding how -romantic- love would be played out; they would still determine which marriages should take place. Creole women would still be forbidden to choose their own mate. In -EI Capitan Doria, - Lavalle portrays two different types of priests. After his duel with the Marques de Valdencina, Doria flees to a monastery. As Gumbrecht noted. although the Spanish romantic hero may violate societal norms, (dueling was forbidden,) he will ultimately seek reconciliation with the Church. The -good- priest, el Padre Aycarde. whose counsel Doria seeks after the duel. spends his life quietly praying; he doesn't interfere in the political or economic affairs of the nation. Lavalle portrays Aycarde as the model of the ideal priest. He chose to resign from the military to accept a more humble

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position in the post-colonial social order. This scenario was undoubted wishful thinking on Lavalle's part, given the destruction caused by the military following independence. EI Padre Aycarde era uno de aquellos hombres nacidos para la vida religiosa: arrastrado por Ia suerte a Ia carrera militar, ciiio Ia espacla con honor pero con tedio; una secreta aspiraci6n de su alma 10 lIamaba a los claustros: venido a Uma de oflCial en el mismo regimiento en que servia Doria, aprovech6 de la primera ocasi6n que se Ie present6 para dejar el servicio y retirarse a Ia Congregaci6n del Oratorio, donde ofrecia el tipo perfecto de los hijos de San Felipe. EI espect4culo de paz y de pacifica tranquilidad que encontro Doria en su antiguo compaiiero, tranquilo y feliz en su desnuda celda, Ie impresion6 vivamente, y Ie sumi6 en una profunda meditaci6n. 111

The -bad- priest in this story is interested in playing an active role in shaping the social order; Lavalle disapproves of this. He portrays -good- priests as the kind who stay in their monasteries quietly praying; -bad- priests are worldly and self-interested. After Valdencina is wounded, the -corrupt- priest urges the Conde del Arco to have Valdencina and Teresa married in haste in case Valdencina dies, so that Teresa will still get his fortune: se buscaban a toda prisa medicos y confesores, IIam6 al Conde el de su esposa (franciscano frio y calculador, que en su faz rellena y rubicunda manifestaba el refinado egoismo de su alma, y que alii se hallaba por ser llegada la hora del chocolate matutino) - y Ie indic6 con frases ambiguas y entrecortadas, acompanaclas de sendas polvos de tabaca, 10 conveniente que seria celebrar inmediateamente el matrimonio de su hija ...118

After he is wed to Teresa on his death-bed, Valdencina recovers and lives, much to everyone's surprise. Teresa comports herself as the model wife and

111

Lavalle, 8Capitan Doria,8 128.

119

Lavalle, 8Capitan Doria,8 128.

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mother, (she complies with the gender role alloted to her as a creole womanrepublican motherhood) and Valdencina never suspects that she loves another. Doria waits with his friend Padre Aycarde in the monastery until he hears the outcome of the duel. After hearing of Teresa's hasty marriage, Doria renounces all earthly concems and takes the vows of the priesthood. After his -seHishattempts to disrupt patriarchy and patrfotism are unsuccessful, Doria accepts his ·punishment- and sacrifices the privileges of his gender by becoming a neuter subject, and withdrawing from the SOCial ord8r. Doria is ultimately defeated as the disturber of the new social order. One of Sommer's statements in Foundational Fictions. - ... after the creation of the new nations, the domestic romance is an exhortation to be fruitful and multiply,-12O provides further insight as to why narrative necessity mandated that the Doria/Teresa romance be ended. In this case, the word multiply refers both to bearing children and to economic success. All of the groups that Doria represents (SpaniardlChurchlmilitary) are -sterile- for the purposes of nationbuilding, according to the bourgeois ideology espoused by the contributors to the Bevista. Obviously, the Spanish had already been forced out of Peru. The Church is consistently portrayed as a major hindrance, rather than a help, to nation-building. And the military men in Peru, who were praised for expelling the Spaniards, are now under attack for threatening to destroy the fledgling nation they made possible. The military consumed national wealth, rather than generated it. Lavalle is making a subtle distinction in this tradici6n that is crucial to its interpretation: Teresa and her cousin, the Marques de Valdencina, are both members of the upper class, not the bourgeoisie. However, Lavalle and many of the other authors for the Rayjsta, and the novelist Art§stegui, distinguish 120

Somrra 6.

78

between the -good- members of the upper class and the -bad- members. Teresa and her cousin are -good- because they will use their combined creole wealth wisely for patriotic purposes rather than selfishly wasting it on imported lUxury items. They serve as narrative representatives of the members of the upper class who are willing to join together with the rising bourgeoisie to form the new governing elite. Although the authors for the Rayjsta continually criticize the Peruvian aristocracy. they knew that it would be impossible to construct the new nation by themselves. They would have to form strategic alliances with some members of the upper class. Lavalle is an excellent example of an aristocratic Peruvian who believed in the vision of the nation that was proposed by a group of bourgeois intellectuals. According to the rules of creole republican motherhood. Teresa's marriage should simultaneously benefit both her family and her nation. As the smallest unit of the nation. the family structure was considered the building block of society. Therefore. Teresa's choice of an indigent (i.e. metaphorically sterile) suitor. Doria. would have undermined both family financial stability and the bourgeois order of things. Sommer points out that -marriageable women often represented investment. or risk. capital- 121 for their families. which meant that all female desire needed to be policed. Lavalle's tradici6n shows that if she were allowed to choose her own husband. Teresa would have chosen the wrong man. However. Lavalle's narrative creation. Teresa. serves as a role model for middle and upper class creole girts by being obedient. (even in the age of -natural love;-) as a -modem- woman. Teresa has her own opinions and preferences. but she still wisely defers to male authority. Although she prefers Doria to her cousin. Teresa never considers rebelling against her father's wishes. She accepts her fate silently and gracefully. In the end. Lavalle shows 121

SornrMr 19.

79

-irrational- female desire yielding to calm, male reason. Lavalle's allegedly historical fiction shows the conflict between the old, aristocratic system of arranged marriages, and the new, middle class, system of romantic love and -free- choice regarding marriage partners. However, ·EI Capitan Doria· also demonstrates why the final choice would always remain in male hands. Doria pays a high price for his unsuccessfui challenge to bourgeois hegemony; after his duel with Valdencina he is rendered ·neuter- by putting on the -skirts· of the priesthood. In fact, Lavalle even goes so far as to. compare the black habit with a funeral shroud: ·un momento despues la negra sotana de San Felipe, cubria para siempre como un funebre sudario al descendiente de Andres Doria.· Denis De Rougement writes in Love in the Western World: .... a self-imposed chastity is a symbolical suicide.·123 By becoming a priest, Doria is voluntarily accepting the death of his manhood. His banishment from civil SOCiety removes him as an obstacle to domestic and national harmony. Lavalle ends his story by suggesting that Teresa and Doria may have consoled themselves by keeping their unconsummated, romantic love burning in their hearts: Cuando Teresa, ya viuda y anciana, y el palido y severo oratoriano Doria se encontraban alguna vez, IQui8n saba cuantos recuerdos embalsamados con las perfumadas brisas de la juventud, cuantos dulces dolores ajitarian sus corazones bajo las heladas nieves de los

enos .. .1

Lavalle has thus managed to end his story in a satisfying manner for his readers: the hero is reconciled with the Church, but still remains a romantic hero because he has conserved his profoundly passionate, though chaste, love 122 Lavalle, "CapiI8n Doria,· 129-130. 1~ Denis De Rougement, Lgva in the western World, (New York: Pantheon Books,

1956) 45.

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for the heroine. while suffering their separation in silence. Female desire. which is potentially dangerous and dis-orderly - Teresa would have chosen Doria as her husband if given the chance - is channeled into a constructive. patriotic. family and nation-building project. and the unwelcome interloper is quietly removed from the scene. In an allegorical reading of this story. Lavalle proposes an end to the civil wars: the military man becomes a good priest. and withdraws from the social order. The over-supply of military men in Peru was particularly troublesome and disruptive for the members of the urban ciudad letrada who were trying to organize an orderly republic in Uma. In Lavalle"s narrative fantasy. the soldier voluntarily surrenders his sword. the Church refrains from -interfering- with the political and economic life of the republic. and the landed aristocracy wisely combines forces with the ascendant bourgeois class to produce the ideal republican family.

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Chapter 2 Flora Trledn '• M'mglrt. It ."rlnltlga. d'ua. pI,I.: A Comparison of Her Vie. of P.u with Those of the Rtyll1l cit Urn. write,.

-La religi6n del progreso tendni sus martires, como todas las otras han tenido los suyos, y no faltanin seres suficientemente religiosos para comprender el

pensamiento que me gufa, y tengo tambien conciencia de que mi ejemplo tendra imitadores. EI reino de Dies Ilega. Entramos en una era de verdad. Nada de 10 que panga trabas al progreso podra subsistir.Flora Tristan

When Rora Tristan's two-volume book, Memojres at cSrig[jnations d'un. parial 1a6 which preached her secular -religion- of Progress, arrived in Arequipa, the second largest Peruvian city, in 1838, she was burned in effigy in the townls public square, her book was also burned, and then peregrinations was placed on the Church's list of banned books. Who was Flora Tristan, and why did her lengthy autobiographical text, which she dedicated to Peruvians,

incite the citizens of Arequipa to bum her image and her ideas? Tristan's mother was a French woman, and her father was a member of one of Peru's leading aristocratic families. Flora Tristan grew up in France, and went to Peru for the first time in 1833 in search of her inheritance. Tristan offered her opinions on the situation in Peru in the arrogant belief that Peruvians would thank her for diagnosing their ailments and prescribing the cure. 125 The uproar

1a6 I wi .... to this t8lllas PinigriydjoDl for the rest of this dissertation. The edition I used contains aI of the original taxi, in translation, from the 1838 two wlume set which was ptj)Iished in Paris: Flora TriIIm1, PngiW;jonas cit yna paria. Ernia Romero, trans. (Lima, Peru: Moncloa • Campod6nico, 1971.) Thera is no compIaIe edition of P'riginatjoos currently available in Franch, which is why I used the Spanish edition. For mont information on this topic see: Jean Hawkes' tranaIaIion: Ptngjnatiorw gf a pariah, (London: Virago Press, 1986) xxix. 125

Mary Pratt, personal communication, January 1997, Stanford University.

82

surrounding the reception of her book was not the last time that Flora Tristan's name would be on every one's lips; four years after retuming to France, her estranged husband Chazal tried to assassinate her. The melodramatic, nearfatal attack on TristM proved to be excellent publicity for peregrinations: For ten days she hovered between life and death as the Paris dailies had a field day playing up the reports about her wounds, her unusual history, and Chazal's crime of passion. earegrinatjgns of a pariah was soon sold out and went into a second edition as Paris clamored for more details about the exotic heroine.-,.

After recuperating, Tristan went on to become a well-known author, labor organizer and social theorist; she is known today as -one of France's most prominent pre-Marxian socialists.- 127 As her first political act following her shooting, Tristan presented a petition to Congress, -Petition pour I'abolition de la peine de mort, - requesting the abolition of the death penalty, before Chazal's trial began. At that time, under the Napoleonic law code, Chazal could be given the death penalty for trying to assassinate her. Flora was not the first member of the Tristan family to spark a public controversy or cause a scandal. A few years prior to her arrival in Peru, in 1831, Flora's Arequipan cousin Cominga Gutierrez, a nun, had created a huge uproar when she escaped from the convent where she was living in Arequipa. Gutierrez wanted to renounce her vows, but that was legally impossible at that time. In her desperation to break out of Santa Rose, the fortress-like convent where she lived, Gutierrez had one of her servants smuggle a corpse into her nun's cell. She dressed the corpse in her nun's habit, set it on fire, and then successfully escaped. Initially everyone thought that it was Gutierrez who had died in the fire. These two inflammatory

1.

Laura Strumingher, Tba Odypay gf EIgra Triataln (New York: Peter lang, 1988) 66.

127 Pndt,

Inprial Ev., 155.

83

cousins had the opportunity to meet each other during Flora's trip to Peru in 1833-1834. Although

Pir~rinations

was burned. banned and dismissed by the

people it was dedicated to. and then subsequently forgotten almost entirely for more than a century. - I believe that Trist4n·s text merits closer study because she was a precursor to the ideological struggles to consolidate the nation at mid-century; her analysis of early republican Peru identifies some of the nation's key problems that would not be adclressed by Peruvians themselves in the national public sphere in a systematic manner until the publication of the Bevista and its opposition journals in 1860. more than twenty-five years after Tristan's trip. In this chapter. I will examine Tristan's diagnosis of the ailments of the Peruvian nation. her attribution of the causes of illness. and her prescription for the cure. I will compare and contrast her views and priorities with those expressed in the Ravista. Although Tristan reaches many of the same conclusions that the Beyista writers would later reach about who was to blame for Peru's national problems, the Church, and the aristocracy. and proposes similar solutions, public education, the secularization of national life and a re-valorization of ·work,· her ideas were rejected at the time of the publication of her text for three reasons: her position as a female foreigner to Peruvian literate culture. and because both her founding premise and her goals for Peru as a nation were completely different from those of the Peruvian members of the governing elite, whether they were liberal or conservative. Tristan's humanitarian, reform project, designed to enact social justice on a nation-wiele scale, was not one that the members of the ciudad letrada would support either in 1838 when she 131

p.rjgrinatjons was revinrflC8ted by femirist scholars in the 197(15. Pratt, IrrptriaI

Wa,156.

84

published peregrinations or in 1859 when the Bevista was first published. Tristan claims that without social justice, the attainment of progress is impossible. Trist4n takes it for granted that the utopian, emancipatory goals that she formulated for the nation would be immediately recognizable to educated Peruvians as , . truth- and as ... solution- to their national problems. Trist4n's secular, feminist, positivist, egalitarian, utopian discourse was offensive to Peruvians, and her world view was incomprehensible to them. Her founding premise, that all humans, (of all races and classes, men and women,) were equal in terms of meriting what she considered to be basic human rights, (such as education and a right to work for fair wages) was totally foreign to the Peruvian creole frame of reference, in 1838 and in 1860. Tristan calls into question the creole structure of privileges that had existed in Peru for centuries. and that was accepted and viewed as ·just- by the same people who read peregrinations. The bourgeois members of the Peruvian ciudad letrada, although they were interested in raising their own social and economic status. were no more interested in an egalitarian. nation-wide, ·social justice· project than the members of the upper class were at that time. Trist4n argues that social injustice leads to disorder and chaos, and that social justice leads to order and progress. The Bayjsta writers, however, were not talking about social justice issues; they wanted to figure out how to impose order (from the top down) and how to facilitate progress, but they did not make the connection between social justice and order and progress that Tristan did. Tristan's condemnation of the Church and the upper class converges in the intercalated story about her infamous cousin Dominga Guti'rrez' imprisonment and subsequent escape from a convent, and her own visits to the two most important convents in Arequipa. I will conclude this chapter with an analysis of a Revisla tradici6n that focuses on one of the tropes that Tristan identifies as being central

85

to the Peruvian national imaginary: conventslmonasteries as prisons and tombs. peregrinations is an invaluable historical and literary text because it provides readers with a snapshot of how Peru looked in the midst of its postindependence, bloody, civil wars when viewed by a European. Trist4n's text is thoughtful and thought-provoking. Mary Pratt comments on Trist4n's choice of genre for peregrinations: Flora Trist4n ..• took up the form that had become canonical and authoritative in the bourgeois era, the autobiographical narrative. She constitutes herself as the protagonist of her travels and her life, and claims the intentionality of direct address to all posterity.1a

Written in French, and published in January of 1838 in Paris, pirigrinations was initially presented to the reading public as a travel pumal; however, this text is much more than a simple narrative description of the sights Tristan sees, the spots she visits and the people she meets; her critique of Peruvian society is informed and analytical, and some of her proposals are truly radical for their time. Tristan discusses the political, economic, legal, military, ecclesiastical and cultural aspects of the Peruvian social order; she witnessed or participated in most of the events that she narrates. pirjgrjnatjons effectively captures the feel of a particular historical moment with its many detailed, colorful descriptions. Due to her affiliation with the Tristan family, Trist4n had access to the power brokers of her day. She formed her opinions by both observation and interrogation; she talked to many of the people who were making history in Peru. Tristan had an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time. In fact, many of the n&wsmakers of that period of Peruvian history were her 1a Prall. ' ' ' ' - ~, 171.

86

relatives, such as her uncle Pio Tristan, the last Viceroy in Peru, and her cousin, the formidable Bishop Goyeneche, and of course, Cominga Gutierrez. Tristan recounts, in her own anecdotal fashion, most of the important historical events that took place while she was in Peru. The civil war battles from this period took place in and around Arequipa. Disagreement about Peru's trade policies was the major factor behind the relentless civil wars that Trist4n had the opportunity to witness. In Between Silyer and Guano, Gootenberg writes: - ... for more than twenty years tradepolicy fissures had prevented the consolidation of a national state in Peru. -130 Northem caudillos and their allies favored protectionism and trade with Chile, while Southern caudillos and their supporters favored free trade and close ties with BoiMa. Thus, economic issues fueled the caudillo battles. Gootenberg summarizes the dynamics of these regional antagonisms: The two decade politico-military stalemate of the caudillos (1825-1845) boils down to two political factors: the liberal Southern caudillos were incapable of subduing Uma; the nationalist Uma-based state was very weak (due to a chronic dearth of resources) and could not subdue the South. 131

However, Tristan repeatedly insists that the civil wars are merely a symptom of the true problem: the incompatibility of the colonial social structure with a republican form of government, which is allegedly a participatory democracy. When Flora Tristan visited Peru in 1833-1834, General Gamarra, the most powerful of the post-independence caudillos at that time, had just stepped down after completing his term as president. He was the first Peruvian

130 Gootenberg, 131

Between SjIyar and Guanp. 44.

Gootenberg. Batwaeo SjIvar and G. .oo, SO.

87

president to complete his entire term in OfflCe;1. to do so, he had to fight off seventeen conspiracies to overthrow him.1. Before he left offace, Gamarra had tried to manipulate a constitutional convention that he had called into electing his Minister of War, General Bermudez, president. The constitutional convention balked and elected Orbegoso. another military man. instead.· The city of Arequipa. where Trist4n spent seven months. supported Orbegoso's bid to retain office. Nieto led the pro-Orbegoso Arequipan troops in battle against those of Gamarra and Bermudez, which were commanded by San Roman. Franeisca Zubiaga de Gamarra. also known as Dona Pancha, La Mariscala. or La Presidenta, rejected -republican motherhoocr in favor of a political and

military career. She commanded troops and ran the nation in partnership with her husband, General Gamarra. La Presidenta had to flee Peru after a public riot against her and her husband; she allegedly escaped by disguising herself as a priest. 136 Tristan interviewed Gamarra as she was leaving Peru en route to exile in Chile in 1834. Tristan made the followfng astute observation about the dynamics of Peruvian post-independence politics, summarizing the dynamics of the caudillo years in one sentence: La senora Gamarr.. por su lado, sentra que la autoridad del gobiemo organizado par ella no podrfa mantenerse mientras existiesa una resistencia armada. para sac duMa de Lima era prec;iso serlo de ArequiDl ..• [my emphasis]

1.

132 ....... XV.

133

Basadnt, wi. 1, 320.

136 Basadre, wi. 1, 340.

1.

TristIin,

pangjnacjonas. Romero, 366.

88

Trlst4n's Unusual Background

Bjographjcal Information

Flore-C4ilestine-Thtirese-Henriette Trist4n y Moscoso was bom in 1803 and died in 1844; her mother was French, and her father was a member of a Peruvian aristocratic dynasty. Her parents were married in Spain, but the marriage was never legally recognized in France. Thus, legally and socially, Flora was classified as an illegitimate child. Sim6n Bolfvar and other wealthy South American creoles congregated at the Trist4n home in Paris. When her father died without leaving a will when she was four or five years old, Tristan and her mother were left penniless. Tristan's matemal uncle gave them a small monthly pension which barely allowed them to survive. Tristan's father made no provision for his wife and daughter after his death. and his family in Peru did not acknowledge any of the letters Tristan's mother sent them. Her mother was unable to recover any of her husband's money or property after his death, because France and Spain were at war, and as a Spanish subject all of Tristan's property was confiscated by the French state. Tristan's mother often told her that her relatives in Peru were extremely wealthy. She created a mythical father for Trist'n, whom she raised with aristocratic expectations and beliefs about herself. but without the money and credentials necessary to maintain that life style: -Tristan's mother had brought her up to regard herself as a superior being by reason of her aristocratic birth, and the conviction was to remain with her all her life.-,. At the age of fifteen. Tristan discovered what it meant to be classified as a -bastard- socially. when the father of the boy she wanted to marry forbade his 131 Hawkes xi.

89

son to marry an -illegitimate- child. Her second romantic affair ended unhappily also; Tristan was rejected again. Instead of the romantic, true, love she hoped for, Trist4n married the owner of the print shop where she worked, out of economic necessity, and then blamed her mother for encouraging her to submit to -legalized prostitution.-. Trist4n's marriage to And" Chazal, a lithographer, was explosive, and, to her great dismay, permanent. Tristan felt that she had been forced by economic necessity into permanent incarceration with a man she found to be repulsive. Divorce, which had formerly been legal, was made illegal in France in 1816.1• It would not be made legal again until 1884. 1• Tristan presented a petition to Congress asking for the reinstatement of divorce in 1837. Two of Tristan's themes that recur frequently throughout peregrinations are the need for divorce and the need for the legal rights of -illegitimate- children. She chafed at the thought that it is the -illegitimate- child who suffers society's moral judgment of herlhis parents for their shortcomings. Even though as many as half of the children bom at this time period in Lima were classified as -illegitimate, - the contributors to the Revista were not discussing the legal rights of -illegitimate- children, or divorce in their magazine. By the time she was thirty, Tristan was separated from her husband, and embroiled in a vicious legal battle to win custody of their daughter; she had given Chazal custody of their second child, a son. Her first son had already died. Trist4n frequently had to scramble to find work in order to support herself and her children, and often had to take menial jobs. At times, she traveled throughout Europe and Great Britain as a companion and maid to wealthy 131 Doninique o.anti, A Woman jn AIyoI; A ~ gf FIqa IrietjD, Elizabeth Zelvin, trans. (New York: Crown PubIiahens,lnc., 1978) 12.

1.

Sandra 0ijIaIIra.. EIqa TWo; Press, 1992) 9. 138

Fa". jpn jn 1ba Ago gf G.".. Sam (London:

Desanti 48.

90

Pluto

British women. Chazal never shared the expenses of raising their children with Tristan. She spent many years of her life trying to avoid Chazal and to protect their daughter Aline from him by moving frequently and using assumed names. At one point, when Aline was eleven, she accused Chazal of trying to rape her. When Chazal and Trist4n came into contact with one another, there were frequently violent public scenes. Although assault and battery was illegal in France at that time between two unrelated adults; it was legal for a husband to hit his wife. Trist4n had no legal recourse to protect her from ChazaJ. After she separated from Chazal, Tristan was also estranged from her mother and matemal uncle, who had discouraged the separation. Trist4n writes frequently about the profound sense of isolation that accompanied her most of her life. Desperate to escape from her own marital and fiscal hell in France, Tristan decided to seek her fortune in Peru in 1833. Chazal had custody of her only surviving son at that time, and a teacher who liked Aline agreed to take care of her while Tristan traveled to Peru. Money signified many different things to Tristan at this point in her life: the chance to be a more stable parent to Aline, the ability to maintain a household in Paris, time to read and write, a bourgeois lifestyle, and perhaps even sexual freedom. However, money was not the only thing that Tristan sought in Peru. She also hoped to escape the stigma of illegitimacy by being recognized as lIfhe honored daughter of an honorable family.

·,40 This was Tristan's final attempt to try to make reality coincide with her

long-cherished fantasies of being welcomed into an aristocratic, extended family. Tristan writes in the Preface to p'rjgrjnatjons: .... resolvr ir aI Peru y refugiarme en el seno de mi familia patema, con Ie &speranza de encontrar allr una posici6n que me hiciese entrar de nuevo en Ie sociedad. 140

S1rumingher 25.

141

TriaIain, PIQISIinasigDII. Romero. 45.

91

·,4,

In my first

chapter. I wrote that many Latin American and Caribbean short stories and novels featured the drama of unknown parentage as a central theme; Tristan's life story was to be the drama of unrecognized parentage. The new bourgeois order that was becoming hegemonic placed great importance on the legality of patemity as part of instituting a secular racial and economic hierarchy. Most accounts of Tristain's life and examinations of her ideological projects by North American and European critics treat her trip to Peru in a cursory fashion. and do not delve into the text of pjrigrjnatjons itself in any detail.142 p'rigrjnatjons is often treated as an interesting footnote to her more overtly ·political· texts: prgmenades dans Lgndres (1940) and L'Unjon ouyritre

(1843). In Aora Trist6a. Sandra Dijkstra focuses her reading of p'rSgrinatjons on Tristan's psychological state. (•••• we must first of all view the book as an elaborate justification of her intense desire for rebellion and for revenge.·) 1G and the narrative structure of the novel. but virtually totally ignores Tristan's analysis of early republican Peru. and the reform programs she advocates. Although Dijkstra offers many valid. insightful criticisms of Tristan. she fails to grasp the basic spirit. the ·positive· thrust of Tristan's project as it was expressed in p'rigriaatjons. Most histories of Peru fail to mention p'r'grinatjoas at all. or dismiss it as 'sour grapes· from an illegitimate child who was denied her inheritance. In Hjstorja de la Ijtaratura peruaaa, cesar Toro Montalvo writes: ·Flora Tristan es pocas veces tratada en Ia literatura peruana ..• es poco 10 que sa ha escrito y valorado sobre ella.·1... Most of the Peruvians who have written about Tristan in 142 An ii~ elIC8pIian to this trend is PraII's ciect_ion of Tristan and Plrjgrjoaljons in Ingrial Eyes: Jean Hawkes' "Translator's IDIroductionI to Ptngri.'jona gf • pariah is aIao an exception to this trend. 143

DijIcsIra 30.

1... cas. TOiO Montalvo. twgrje de lallandum paruarw. vol. IV (Urna: EdtoriaI San

Marcos, 1994) 130.

92

the twentieth century still try to discredit her book by questioning her motives for writing it, and try to defend Peru from her judgment of it, rather than analyzing the political project that she outlines in Ptlrtigrinatjons, and her particular view of the state of the nation in 1833-1834. In this vein, Silvina Bullrich writes: ·Es entonces ambiciosa, codiciosa. malcriada, 58 empefta en reclamar 10 que las leyes Ie niegan por sar hija natural y ya, como hasta el final de su vida, maldice a quienes Ie niegan 10 que quiere obtener. Basadre classifies Trist4n as •

OI.

rebelde y de martir

I • ••

·1.

The Peruvian historian Jorge

una mujer con mezela de aventurero, de

in his introduction to the first complete edition of

peregrjnations in Spanish. 1• But he does not taker her humanitarian reform programs for Peru seriously. The overwhelming tendency for criticism of peregrinatjons by Peruvians is to emphasize the ·colorfulness· of Tristan's descriptions, and to dismiss her analysis of the social order as false and vindictive. Basadre praises Tristan's text for its vivid description of the civil war era, but does not address her ideological project: Cuando algunos sOiladores quieran embellecer aquella apoea, este libro servira para Ia necesaria tarea de desilusionar. EI lado pear de nuestras grises revoluciones esta pintado alii con rudeza no igualada. 10t7

In his commentary on peregrinations in Literature peruana, Augusto Tamayo Vargas dismisses Tristan's social justice project, and displaces the cause of the poverty of the Peruvian masses onto ·Ios tr6picos:·

1. 1.

SIvina EkA'ich, Bn I_a" yiejrmril (Buenoa Ana: Riela ediciones, 1982) 7. An abnIviated version d

en.. Romero'. tranaIaIian d

Nnigrirwtjons into Spanish

was first pamlished in SanIiago, aile in 1M1: the COfI1IIete edition d Romero'. translation of P6r1g rirwt jon. was published in Una in 1M1 wiIh a prologue tJ, Jorge Baaach tJ, EdiIoriaI C~ AnbUtica.

1.0 Jorge BasacInt, Pn5Iogo, paragrinacjgnas do yna garia, trans. Emila Rom8IO (lima: Editorial Cultura Ardrtica, 1946) xi.

93

Como escritora. el valor de sus obras se basa en la observaci6n cruda. a veces apasionada de Ia realidad. Como combatiente. suena con una Iiberaci6n econ6mica de las grandes mayorras y se espanta de Ia miseria. de la infelicidad. que no es proclucto de un pars 0 de una nacm. sino que prende en todos los tr6picos. al borde de todas las calles. junto a todos los caminos.'·

In La paria peregrina, published thirty years after Tamayo Vargas' book. Fe Revilla de Moncloa refutes his point of view: Independientemente de si muchos de los detallas de Peregrinaciones son ciertos 0 no. creo que Ia escritora capta bastante bien las limitaciones de los politicos de la nueva repllblica. y del Peru en general. Desgraciadamente. Ia situaci6n no parece haber mejorado mucho hoy. EI pueblo paruano no est' educado, los politicos, con honrosas excepciones, continllan buscando el poder y su propio enriquecimiento en vez de tratar de servir a la sociedad. La mujer y los pobres no disfrutan de igualdad ni ante la sociedad ni ante la ley.'.

In my analysis of perigrjnations, I examine Tristin's text by taking both her particular ideological background and the history of Peru at that historical moment into account, and by comparing her views with those of Peruvians who were engaged in the debate about how to consolidate the nation at mid-century, when some of the positivist ideas from her European. secular, school of thought were becoming popular in Peru. peregrinatjons is an extraordinary text both in terms of understanding Tristan's development as a politcal activist and social theorist, and in tenns of its unique contribution to Peruvian cultural history. Tristin's trip to Peru gave her the opportunity to analyze the current situation there using the political theories , . Augusto Tanayo Vargas. URhg paruarw. wi. II (I.ina: Univerlidad NacianaI Mayor

de San Marcoe, 1986) 436. , . Fe ReI6 de MoIICIoa, La paria pmgjrw (lima: Pordicia Universidad CaI6Iica del Peru, 1995) 152.

94

she had come into contact with in Paris. and to form theories and conclusions of her own. The Peruvian Republic was viewed by Tristan as a type of laboratory experiment in govemment. During the course of her trip to Peru. Trist4n began the intemal process of a profound political awakening; upon retuming to France. she became an active participant in social utopian intellectual circles. and she began publishing her writing. Her career as a social reformer culminated with the publication of Unjon ouyriire in 1843. which advocated the creation of a workers' union which would unite all of the working class men and women in France, and give them a voice in national politics. Tristan embarked on a grueling speaking tour in 1843 throughout the industrial centers in France to publicize and organize the workers' union she had written about. Tristan died of typhoid fever in 1844. at the age of 41. in Bordeaux while on her speaking tour. Tristan's Ideological Formation Although Tristan never had a formal education. by the time of her premature death at the age of forty-one in 1844. she had become recognized in France as an intellectual and proponent of her own social reform theories. Tristan was self-educated; she became immersed in the intellectual debates of her day by reading and participating in discussion groups. Before going to Peru. Tristan attended meetings conducted by the disciples of the French social-philosopher Saint-Simon. who was one of the early nineteenth century proponents of social utopia. The long sea voyage to Peru and back gave her time to read widely in French and English. to think. and to discuss current events with the other passengers on the ship. She read and admired Mary Wolistonecraft's pioneering feminist work on women's role in society, A Vindication of the Bights Of Women, published in 1792. Tristan also read the

95

works of two prominent French women ~ers. Madame de Stall and George Sand. After retuming to Paris from Peru. Tristan once again immersed herself in the ideas of the prominent utopian socialists of her day: Saint-Simon. Fourier and Owen. These three early nineteenth century reformers all included feminist initiatives for women's rights in their prescriptions for change. She met Charles Fourier. who claimed that -social progress could be measured by the degree of women's freedom from oppression. -150 Trist4n was also in contact with the British social philosopher Robert Owen when he came to Paris in 1837; she read his works. and met with him again when she was in London. Tristan did not want to be identified as merely someone's follower, however; she took great pride in creating her own theories. and in criticizing those of her predecessors. She wrote in 1837: -Afin d'eviter toute fausse interprtitation. je dticlare que je ne suis ni saint-simonienne, ni fouritiriste, ni owenienne.

-,5,

In a prefatory

essay to peregrinations, Tristan reproaches -el duque de Saint-Simon- for being more concemed with the aristocracy than with -las costumbres del burgutis.- 152 This pointed criticism was probably designed to demonstrate Tristan's awareness that times were changing. and that most of her readers were members of the upward-bound bourgeoisie. For the majority of his career, Saint-Simon was optimistic that social justice was feasible within an industrial society; Tristan also shared this conviction. Neither of them advocates overthrowing the Republican form of govemment and creating another social structure. Afthough they believed that it 1SJ

Strumingher 53.

151 Sttiphane Michaud,lntroduction, FIgra IrW;n (18Q3.1M4) (Paris: Lea ~ Ouvrieres, 1984) 18. 152

IriIIIin, PtragrjnacjoDlS. Romero, 34.

96

was seriously flawed, Saint-Simon and Tristan both accept Westem European civilization as the best form of social organization available. Tristan and SaintSimon suggest non-violent ways to carry out social reform programs; they are reformers, not revolutionaries. The memories of the Haitian revolution and the French revolution were still fresh in their minds. -Progress- is touted as a universal good for every member of society. When she is in Peru, Tristan never questions the validity of the French and British models for organizing society. She assumes that Peru is in such dire straits because its organization was based on a Spanish model. Tristan does not mention of the horrors of French colonialism in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, or the violence of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest and subsequent colonialism in the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central and South America. Tristan and Saint-Simon are both operating from an enlightenmentbased model; they assume that rational discourse will be sufficient to persuade the wealthy of the merits of raising the standard of living of the lower class. 153 Their model is based on the premise that people are fundamentally -good, -154 and actively deSire social justice for all; if someone perpetrates an injustice, all that will be needed to correct the problem will be to inform the guilty party of the error of hislher ways, and he/she will voluntarily change them. Tristan and Saint-Simon believe that there is such a thing as -the truth, - and they both think that they have found it. Dijkstra comments on the ideological framework found in Tristan's first published text, Ndcassit' de fair. un boo mu.1 aux femmes Stranger.s: -Because her analysis of society was still based on the perspective of the Enlightenment, her solution was to eradicate ignorance and replace it 153 0 . . . . 20-22.

154 This belief identifies Saint-5imon and TriIt8n 8Sseadar humanists. (even though they both quote the Bi»1e frequently. and refer to Christianity as supporting their reform programs.) as opposed to the tl1lditional Christian view of ·FaIen Mankind" 8S fundamentally sinful in nature.

97

with a religion of love. If only she could expose the problem. she could rid society of the twin evils of egoism and materialism.·1. Saint-Simon was bold enough to claim that he had discovered Christs one ·true· message: ·the most rapid improvement possible in the moral and physical well-being of the poorest class is the sole end of Christianity.·1. At the beginning of each of their respective careers. Saint-Simon and Tristan did not foresee that the upper class and the Church would resist their social reform programs so vigorously; both were persecuted by the French state. They believed that the members of the upper class would choose to share their wealth with the less fortunate if they were properly informed about the terrible poverty that the lower class lived in.157 Tristan and Saint-Simon refused to consider the possibility that some people prefer private gain to ·public good•• Saint-Simon and Tristan base their reform programs on humanitarian ideals. which they believe are not only compatible with progress. but constitutive of it. Tristan and Saint-Simon both advocate a model of social change based on cooperation rather than competition; they did not or could not foresee that industrial capitalism would foster individualism and competition as two of its principal components. Hawkes writes about Tristan's vision: • .•. she saw human progress as a co-operative effort whereby the more privileged helped their less fortunate brothers and Sisters to rise in the world. ·1. Tristan and Saint-Simon believe that industrialization will generate enough wealth for everyone to enjoy a decent standard of living; they did not anticipate that the

1. o,1cstra 1. 1.

20. Trilliin used this same framework when she wrote P4rtigrinations..

Ghita Ioneecu. ed., lb. pgiti;rel 'Tbgys;III of Seint-Sjmpn (london: Oxford University Press, 1976) 209-210. 157 Oijkatra, Chapter 2, 8A Feminist StaterneN,819-26 Hawkes xxiv.

98

vast majority of the profds from industrialization would go to the factory owners, bankers, and merchants, and not to the workers. Saint-Simon optimistically wrote: People will work with each other in love and joy, once they no longer exploit each other; collectively they will exploit the resources of nature; the latter will be inexhaustible when the new sciences and techniques are brought into play.'. .

Material redemption through progress and technology was espoused by Saint-Simon and Trist4n. among others, as the modem miracle that could redeem humanity from its enslavement to backwardness. They did not assume that progress was a component of nationalism in the same way that the Revjsta writers did; they connected progress with patriotism and the development of the nation-state. The pairing of civilizedlbackward created the same semantic force field in the nineteenth century that the pairing clergyllaity did in feudal Christian Europe according to Sytvia Wynter; she writes: ""e shift from the feudal telos of spiritual redemption and etemal salvation in the Augustinian civitas dei (the City of God) to that of a new this-worldly telos was aimed at securing the order and expansion and so to speak the rational redemption of the state as the civitas saecularis (the secular city).·'" Saint-Simon and Tristan both make material conditions a moral, and by extension ·religious· issue, rather than a purely economic one, just as the Peruvian intellectual and politician Manuel Pardo did in an article he published in the 8eyista in 1881: .... sin progreso material no puede haber hoy tampoco en las masas progreso moral ...·'11 Although they both cite Christian principles as components of their ideology,

1.

IoneIcu 40.

180

Wymer, ·ls'DeveIoprMnt a PIRIy EI11JiricaI Concept or also TeIeoIogical?,· 300-301.

111

I discu. this panaga in Chapler 1.

99

Saint-Simon's and Trist4n's reform programs are secular in nature; they were both militantly anti-Catholic. Trist4n and Saint-Simon selectively deploy Christian discourse when it supports their secular ideals. Although Trist4n and Saint-Simon repeatedly call for raising the standard of living for the poorest members of society. they did not advocate a leveling of the SOCial order. Their doctrines are compatible with a hierarchical social order. The distribution system that Saint-Simon proposed was not egalitarian by any means; it would function as a meritocratic hierarchy (an -aristocracy of talenr). so that each worker would benefit according to his contribution. In the Catechism. Saint-Simon explained clearly that 'each receives a rank of importance and benefits proportionate to his ability and position which amounts to the largest degree of equality possible and desirable.' This tallies with his general conception of the natural hierarchy of the ·abilities••,. It is clear in peregrinations that Tristan is comfortable with both the idea and the reality of a hierarchical society. However. there are a few changes that she advocates. Tristan brings up the fact that work opportunities for women were very limited. She comments on the fate of a woman who had escaped a horrible marriage in France and come to live in Valparaiso. Chile: -Quiso ganarse la vida. pero l,que hacer? Para las mujeres

l,no estan cerradas todas

las puertas?-1. In this way. Tristan introduces the issue of gender inequality. for European and creole women, and challenges the logic of Saint-Simon's distribution system. Since women were not always able to find work. they could not be guaranteed full participation in Saint-Simon's paradise, because if they were unemployed, they would not qualify for the benefits of the system that he

112

Ioneacu 28 and 81.

183 Tristain. P''''MIrinacjoOIS. Romero, 153.

100

proposed. Tristan was also shocked by the massive poverty that she saw in Peru; nothing that she had seen in England or France was comparable. She attacks the Peruvian structure of privilege, but never advocates collapsing the hierarchies of the social order. Hawkes, the first translator of p.[tigrinatjons into English, summarizes Tristan's personal philosophy: ..• Tristan evolved an original synthesis of the theories of the leading reformers of her day, Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen and the teachings of Christ and the ideals of the French Revolution; the principal element in her philosophy was the total emancipation of women, the prerequisite, as she saw it, for the liberation of the working class and the achievement of a harmonious society. Tristan's socialism was her religion and she was its solitary prophet. 161

Tristan believed that she had a special mission to accomplish during her lifetime. In her book promenades dans Londres. (1840) she boldly writes: -I have come to bring about the end of all servitude, to free womankind from man's slavery, the poor from the slavery of the rich, and the soul from the slavery of sin.

Nicessjti

-1.

de Fajre un boo Accuejl aux Femmes Etrangiras

In 1835, after retuming to Paris from her trip to Peru, and before publishing her massive two volume work Pi[igrinatjgns. Tristan published a short pamphlet titled:

Niceuiti de fajre yn boo secyejl ayx femmes

.trangiras . As she will in Pirigrjnatjons. Tristan sets herself up as an authority figure in Njcessiti; whatever her private doubts about herself may have been,

101

Tristan's narrative voice conveys a bold sense of seH-confidencs. Necessjt. is important because in her first brief text Trist4n spells out many of the ideas which form the basis of her belief system. In NAssit•. Tristan introduces one of her central themes, which she would reiterate in every subsequent teXl: she links the emancipation of women of all classes with improving the living conditions of the lower class. Trist4n argues in both NAssit' and Peregrinatjons that progress is not only necessary, it is also desirable and inevitable, and that when women are welcomed as equal members of society, they will be able to contribute to the common cause of progress. Tristan's concept of ·progress· included social justice as one of its primary components, whereas the Rayisla writers' concept of progress did not. II est bien generalement reconnu que Ia Societe tout entiere, et particulierement les femmes, eprouve Ie besoin d'ameliorer la condition generale, et de changer des habitudes sociales que ne peuvent plus convenir au d8veloppement que Ie progres lui a fait atteindre.· 1•

Tristan's call for creating a society to aid women travelers points to the growing number of ·respectable· women who were both traveling and entering the social order in a new way, not as mothers who remain in the bourgeois home with their children, but as workers, intellectuals and writers. As part of her transfonnation into an intellectual and political activist, Tristan took the risk of becoming a public figure. After separating from Chazal, Tristan had lived as anonymously as possible so that it would be harder for him to find her. Long before the assassination attempt, he had frequently stalked her. With the publication of Ntlcessjti. Tristan entered a new phase of her life. Although the

1. Flora TriItIin, N6s:r'i', de "jra III bgn rpejla", ftHll'Oll jlrangiras. Denys Cuche, ad. (Paris: Editions L'HarmaIIan, 1988) 56.

102

author of Necessjti is listed simply as -F.T.-, her next work, peregrinatjons, was published under her full [maiden) name. At the end of the main essay of NASSHe. Trist4n displays her ambivalent feelings towards French nationalism. Throughout Nticessjte and peregrinatjons, TristM wavers between a stance that regards French nationality as superior and an intemationalist stance that calls for the solidarity of all women (or all people) and that dismisses the importance of nationalism. She writes that after the revolution of 1789, French people have a special mission to carry out: - ... des circonstances heureuses ont pousse Ie premier dans !e progres, comprend sa mission de propager Ia civilisation dans I'univers. -117 This attitude is evident in pertKIrjnatjons, where Tristan frequently regards herself as a missionary of French culture in Peru. However, later in. Ntk;essjti, Tristan describes her dream of an intemational -brotherhood- of all of humankind: ... etendons notre philanthropie universellement, et ne formons plus qu'une seule at mime famille. N'etions-nous pas hommes avant que d'Atre Anglais, Italiens au FranCj8is? ... Dtisormais notre patrie doit Atre I'univers. Jesus a dit: Vous Ates taus frerest 1•

An Analyala of M'mol",

It

.[jgrlnatlon, d'un. parll

Narrative Strategies and Sources of AuthoritY

Tristan bases her claims for discursive authority in peregrinations on a variety of different self-classifications; she represents herself as a moral, French,

.

117

1.

TristBn. NO...." .. eta fail! yo bgn 'GRill,,,,

TrisIBn, Nfnm.. eta fijI! yo bgn

''''''ItIS 4IrangjrM, 68.

eqsyejI'''''1IIIDI$ ilrangjrM, 83 103

bourgeois, intellectual, outcast, woman, author. However, the Peruvian members of the ciudad letrada in Uma and Arequipa, especially those who favored burning Nr4grjnatjQDs, probably regarded her as an uneducated, illegitimate, immoral, un-Christian, opinionated, female, foreigner. Tristan attempts to establish her -innocence- and moral authority with regards to the violent excesses of European colonialism and its post-independence variants in Peru by means of a self-victimizing discourse, and her proposal for a humanitarian reform program of social justice. The success of this tactic with her reading public varied: pirSgrinatjons sold out in Paris, and was used for kindling in Peru. Although pir4grjnatjQDs is touted as non-fiction by Tristan, she un-selfconsciously describes herself playing many different roles over the course of this trip as the protagonist of her own 'rue-life- adventure story. Some of the personas which Tristlin adopts and improvises in pirjgrjnations appear to be contradictory; however, each one simply represents a different narrative strategy on her part. At various points in her text, she identifies herself as: a martyr for the public good; a pariah to the Peruvian and French upper class; a non-Catholic moral authority; a victim of both the French and the Peruvian legal system; a powerless woman with no ability to direct her own life, a romantic heroine; a French subject; a sophisticated, refined person of good taste; a commodity on the marriage market; an intelligent, politically astute woman capable of goveming Peru; and a wise person with good judgment who is able to reason critically and to analyze complex situations. Tristlin never claims to offer an -objective- portrait of Peruvian society; like the Reyjsta writers, she asserts that her particular subjective portrait of characters and events is valuable precisely because of the opinions she offers and the judgments she makes. Unlike N6c;essjti, in which the narrator used the

104

more impersonal

-we-. in pirlgrinatjons. Tristan writes in the first person.

She

will name names in this book; both her identity and that of her family. friends and foes will be laid bare in p'rtigrioatjoos. which was not customarily done at that time. Pratt makes the following statement about Trist8n. whom she classifies as a -social exploratress, - in Imperial

eras: -... the discourse of the

social exploratresses melds politics and the personal.-'. Tristan claims herself as the source of her own authority. She believes that her firsthand experiences are important enough to write about and publish. In short, Tristan feels that she has something to say. Dijkstra also calls attention to Tristan's -determination to fuse the private and the public, the personal and the universal, theory and practice. 170 Tristan is a master storyteller who skillfully constructs her compelling narrative by borrowing certain techniques from fiction writing and the novel to emplot her own adventures so that they are simultaneously entertaining and -educational. - As Pratt points out. Tristan's narrative does not proceed in a linear. goal-oriented. fashion; rather it circles back on itseH repeatedly: -Tristan's account is ernplotted in a centripetal fashion around places of residence from which the protagonist sallies forth and to which she retums.-'71 Her three principal locations are aboard a ship. in Arequipa, and in Lima. Pirigrjnatjgns does not cover Trist4n's entire round-trip voyage. Her narrative begins in France. as Tristan prepares to board the ship -EI Mexicano- which will take her to Chile, covers her stay in Arequipa and Lima, and ends when Tristan boards the William Rusthon to leave Peru. Her cabin for the retum voyage to France has just been vacated by one of the most fascinating South American

1. 170

Prall. Inwid n. 168. DijkaIra 19.

171 Prall. IrrpriaI Em. 159.

105

women of the nineteenth century. Dafta Pancha Gamarra. Tristan's adventures on the William Rusthon are not included in Ptirtigrinations. but her fascinating interview with La Mariscala is. The title of Trist4n's book provides additional information about her selfconception and her political project. By labeling herself as a pariah. Trist4n could lay claim to several sources of creative and moral authority: the romantic artist who chooses to remove herself from a corrupted society because of her superior morals172 and the outcast whose position as the scapegoat. the -liminal other, -173 enables her to -see- society as it cannot see itself from her vantage point at the outer limits of the social order. Madame de Stail wrote in De la littirature considir. dans ses ragggrts ayec las institutions sociales. published in 1800: - .•• a woman who has a superior mind ... leads her peculiar existence. like all Pariahs in India. in between all the classes to which she may not belong ••• -174

Both Tristan and her ideological mentor. Saint-Simon, read Madame de

StaAl's works. Tristan attempts to re-valorizes the word pariah, as Madame de StaAl did. to give it a positive connotation. The term pariah grants its bearer a measure of agency, if it is possible to choose to become a pariah, rather than waiting for society to designate you as an outcast. Another method Tristan uses to validate her own authority involves portraying herself as a victim of both the French and the Peruvian legal systems. Tristan's self-victimizing discourse attributes her with moral authority because she has suffered social, sexual and economic hardship because of the -lawand because of prevailing social customs, which functions as an adjunct of the legal code. This narrative strategy is quite effective; it creates a blameless 172

0....... 23-

113 Wynter, -Is 'OeveIapment' a 174

PtnIy eq,iricaJ Concept or also Telaalogical?,- 305-306.

Oijkstra 12.

106

heroine who unhappily finds herself at the mercy of an unjust judicial system. We agree with her that she has suffered at the hands of societies that do not grant women divorces. do not protect them from abusive husbands. and that do not recognize the legal rights of illegitimate (or -natural-) children. She complains about her fate in the -Preface-: •.• hacer todos esos sacrificios y afrontar todes esos peligros. porque estaba unida a un ser vii que me reelamaba como a su asclava•.•• Maldecfa esta organizaci6n social que opuesta a la Providencia. sustituye con Ia cadena del forzado ellazo del amor y divide Ia sociedad en siervos y en amos•.•• A esos movimientos de desasperaci6n sucedfa el sentimiento de mi debilidad. ••• Cafa de rodillas e imploraba aDios con fervor para que me ayudase a soportar Ia opresi6n. 175 Tristan values experience and intelligence over education. which is not surprising. given her remarkable intelligence combined with a lack of formal education. She also privileges her insight. i.e. experiential knowledge. as more valuable than that of those who have not suffered. which draws upon her moral authority as an innocent victim. Throughout her text. Tristan displays an affinity for the people that she meets who have also suffered. such as her cousins Carmen and Dominga Gutierrez and Pencha Gamarra. either unwittingly because of societal prejudice or because they have been blind to the realities they confronted. Tristan explains her point of view: Si 1610 sa tratara de presentar los hechos. los ojos bastarran para verlos. Pero para apreeiar la inteligencia y las pasiones del hombre la instrucci6n no es 10 unico necesario. Es preciso haber sufrido y sufrido mucho. pues 1610 el infortunio puede enseftamos a conocer en 10 justo 10 que valemos y 10 que valen los demas. ... Es preciso. en fin. tener en el coraz6n una fe de martir.17I

175

TristM. PeragrjneejgnM. Romero, 49.

178

TristM. f'aragrinacjonas, Romero, 35.

107

Tristan argues that women and men are fundamentally different in nature, but that women are in no way inferior to men: -Sa observa que el nivel de civilizaci6n a que han llegado diversas sodedades humanas ed en proporci6n a Ia independencia de que gozan las mujeres.-177 This is not a new idea; rather Trist4n is drawing upon the -Enlightenment metaphors on women's status as the index of the level of civilization.-111 As proof of her equality (or superiority) to men. Trist8n gives examples of situations in which men seek her counsel. She attributes her gender with giving her an altemate way of viewing the universe. One of these scenes takes place when there is an outbreak of fighting in Arequipa, and the local power brokers. including her uncle pro and cousin Althaus. are all trying to decide what their best course of action is. She claims that they all seek her advice. She has an opinion about everything going on around her, and is seH-confident enough to share her thoughts with others. Another source of Tristan's authority is colonial in nature. She grew up in France with a certain hierarchical model for viewing the world, which was the standard one of her era. This model assumed that there is a linear development of civilizations. and that the -younge" nations of the Americas would eventually -mature- into more Europeanized republics. This model placed the new American republics -behind- European nations on the yardstick used to measure the progress and development of civilizations. Tristan frequently compares Peru to France and England unfavorably. She likes the hotel where she stays in Uma, because the woman who runs it is French. Tristan complains that in Arequipa the people do not know how to wash their 177 TriItIin,

178

PortgjnacjgDII. Romero, 36.

Joan Landes, "Women and the P&bIic Sphere: A Modem Perspective,· JoymaI of

Ct4twaI and $QGje1 Pmc;ti;e. No. 15, August 1984, 23.

108

dishes or how to cook. In contrast, in the French hotel in Uma: -Se juntaban la elegancia francesa y Is comoc::lidad inglese. .•• Los criados eran franceses 0 ingleses, de suerte que toc::lo sa hacCa con mucha prontitud y limpieza.-,.,. This is not to say that Trist*I universally denigrates everything and everyone that she finds in Peru. Howevef, her general tone is that of an ambassador from a superiof culture who finds it perfectly natural that she would be the center of attention in Arequipa and Uma.

A Special Message for peruvjans

Tristan addresses a special dedication to Peruvians in the first section of her book; this short text contains the core of her political message from peregrinations. I will analyze Tristan's paradoxical dedication, and compare her diagnosis of Peru's maladies, her attribution of the causes. and her prescription for their cure. with that of the Reyjsta writers. before beginning a more in-depth analysis of Tristan's particular criticisms of the Church. Tristan begins her letter with a condescending tone; thus, from the very first sentence. her dedication seems more likely to alienate her Peruvian audience than to entice it to read further. Tristan displays both her utilitarian bent and her -afan didactica- 1., here: -Peruanos: He creido que de mi relato poc::Irra resultar algun beneficio para vosotros. Por eso os 10 dedico. - The French -missionary- of civilization will now offer her backward cousins some words of advice. Even though their nation was in a chaotic, bankrupt state, middle and upper class 17'1

TriIIIin, P-mriuM;jooee, Romero, "78.

1.,

Revile de MancIoa , ..,. MancIoa cammenls on this tendency cI TriItIin's: -Hay que destacar au constant. lIMn did6ctico y au inltris en .. bwna organizaci6n. ... Adem8s, TrisI8n nunca pierde de vista que. aI mejarar los incIviduo8. Ia sociedad entera sale ganando y que de Ia previsi6n del sufrimiento reeuIa .., bien econ6mico.-

109

Peruvians still took umbrage at Tristan's offer of help. At the time that Tristan visited Peru, there was no national culture, and a discourse of patriotism had not yet been elaborated, because there was in effect, no national govemment. However. no matter what condition their republic was in. Peruvians resented Tristan's insinuation that they were incapable of solving their own problems. One of the main discourses that was manufactured and articulated in the Reyista was that of national identity. pride and patriotism.

Tristan next insults Peruvians by accusing them of being uncivilized and prone to unjustified self-love: -Hay pueblos que se asemejan a ciertos individuos: mientras manos avanzados estan. mas susceptible es su amor propio. - Although one Beyjsta writer characterized Peru as a nation that had only recently become -civilized. -181 Peruvians undoubtedly took offense when Tristan accused them of being backward, proud and vain. One of the recurrent themes in the ReviSia is that as an independent republic. Peru qualified to be considered on equal footing with other independent nations (as opposed to when it was a colony of Spain.) Europeans. (including Tristan) however, did not consider the new Spanish American republics tt! be in the same -league- with their nations. There is an interesting subtext to Tristan's dedication: she went to Peru to try to get at least part of what should have been a very substantial inheritance. Her father's brother. Pfo Tristan, sent her away with the promise of only a very small monthly stipend. and kept most of her inheritance for himself. This lends an ironic reading to TristBn's next assertion: -He recibido entre vosotros una acogida tan ben6vola que serfa necesario que yo fuese un monstruo de ingratitud para alimentar contra el Peru sentimientos hostiles.181 Enrique Tabouele deacrbIs Peru as: -un pueblo recien venido 81 banquete de Ia civilizaci6n,- in his essay, 8A1go sabre eI estudio de Ia historia peruana- La w e de l.jna. vol. I, 1860,276.

110

Tristan uges her readers to overlook their initial animosity towards her and accept her explanation that she has written her evaluation of the Peruvian nation for their own good, because she wants to help them. She is selfconfident enough to assert that what she has written is valid and valuable whether it offends her readers or not. The following statement also lends itself to several different possible readings: -Nadie hay quien desee mas sinceramente que yo westra prosperidad actual y westros progresos en el porvenir.· Tristan's protestations of sincerity and good faith are open to interpretation. Tristan concludes the first paragraph of the dedication by caUing attention to a fact Peruvians themselves commented on frequently at mid-century, but which they probably did not want foreigners to point out the SOCial order as a whole after independence, despite the growth of a small, successful, vociferous, urban, middle class, still greatly resembled colonial society for the majority of the impoverished population. To Tristan, the endless civil wars, massive poverty, and lack of ·progress,· were clear indications that the republican form of govemment was not compatible with an essentially colonial, rigidly hierarchical, social structure: • ••• al ver que and8is errados y que no pensais, ante todo, en armonizar westras costumbres con la organizaci6n polftica que habeis adoptado, he tenido el valor de decirlo, con riesgo de ofender westro orgullo nacional.· Ricardo Palma himself, one of the undisputed beneficiaries of the ciudad letrada's rise to power in Uma in the nineteenth century, confirms Tristan's observation regarding the fundamentally colonial nature of Peruvian society at the time of her visit; he wrote in a letter to a friend in 1909: Hasta 1850 se sigui6 viviendo, en Uma, la vida colonial, como en los dfas de los virreyes Abascal y Pezuela. Nada cambi6 en mi tierra sino 111

un tratarniento: al'excelentrsimo senor virrey' se Ie sustituy6 con el 'excelentrsimo senor presidente.' Continuaba, socialmente, dominando la aristocracia de los pergaminos y de la sangre azul ...

1.

If Palma believed that colonial lite remained the order of the day in Uma until 1850, how much more so in arch-conservative Arequipa, which is still widely known in Peru as a vary tradjtignal ely. In the next long paragraph TristM makes her concise diagnosis of the causes of what she viewed as Peruls national illness: ·el embrutecimiento del pueblo.· Trisl*' links the attainment of progress with the education of the lower class, and an improvement in their basic standard of living. She views the civil wars as a symptom of the problem, rather than as a problem in and of themselves. Trist4n attributes the civil wars to the short-sightedness and selfishness of the upper class and the Church, and the powerlessness of the lower class to resist forced recruitment. It is important to keep in mind that certain attributes of the Peruvian social order that Trist'n found to be indications of its fundamental unhealthiness were not viewed the same way by Peruvians. For instance, the contributors to the Reyjsta were not alarmed by the extreme poverty of the masses, nor was Ara;tegui, the author of EI padre Horin; rather these Peruvian writers complained about the inadequacies of the Peruvian labor force. When the Reyjsta writers and Arestegui discuss ·poor people,· it is always in terms of their worth as a labor force. The BaYista writers accused the upper class and the Church of monopolizing the labor force, and of trying to maintain the coloniaVfeudal rural social structure, but they did not object to the low or non-existent wages paid to laborers, or to their miserable living conditions. 1. Jose Miguel Oviedo, ·CronoIogra.· Ricardo Palma, Cjeo TrwflGjpnn Peruanas (Venezuela: Bibiotaca Ayacucho, 1980) 502.

112

Trist4n does not look at the lower class in Peru as a labor force; the refonn project that she recommends for Peru is utopian and emancipatory in nature. and while it has an economic aspect. it is primarily focused on educating the lower class and raising its standard of living for humanitarian reasons rather than patriotic-economic concerns. Although. Tristdn is also quick to point out that improving the standard of living of the lower class by educating it leads inevitably to the progress of the entire nation. Trist4n finds the immense discrepancies in wealth between the upper and lower class to be an indication of the immorality of the upper class; Peruvians who had grown up in a colonial society which condoned this unequal distribution of income did not view the wealth of the upper class as a sign of moral corruption in and of itself. at least not until the members of the ciudad letrada began their campaign to stigmatize the upper class' -uneamed wealth- in the middle of the nineteenth century. Tristan writes: He dicho. despuas de haberlo comprobado, que en el Peru la clase alta esta profundamente corrompida y que su egoismo la lIeva. para satisfacer su afan de lucro. su amor al poder y sus otras pasiones, a las tentativas mas antisociales. He dicho tambian que el embrutecimiento dal puablo as extremo en tgdas las raps Aua 10 compgnaQ. Esas dos situaciones se han enfrentado siempre una a otra en todos los paises. EI embrutecimiento de un pueblo hace nacer la inmoralidad en las clases altas y esta inmoralidad se propaga y llega. con toda la patencia adquirida durante su carrera. a los ultimos peldanos de la jerarqu(a social. 1• [my emphasis]

Tristan's attack on the upper class is aimed directly at the same people who entertained her as their guest while she was in Peru. The manner in which she frames her criticism of the Peruvian upper class lets her European readers know with whom she associated while in Peru. -He dicho, despues de haberlo 183

TriaIIin, Pfrasrirw;io. ., Romero, 27-28.

113

comprobado .•• - Tristan obviously questions the sincerity of her relatives' hospitality, since her Peruvian family members were courteous to her, but at the same time refused to honor her request for her inheritance. In some ways, peregrinatjons is the perfect revenge vehicle, although Trist8n repeatedly insists that it is not. Dijkstra writes the following critique of Trist4n's murky possible motives for writing peplgrinatjgns: Her manner of presenting this charitable effort, her organization and her omissions. lead us to suspect a secondary, unconscious project of vengeance and martyrdom beneath the expressed desire to 'rescue' the Peruvian people from the destructive aspects she had observed in their society.'M

Although there were probably multiple motivations that moved her to write peregrinations. I contend that Tristan's particular biases do not detract from her narrative, rather they add to it. Tristan undoubtedly judged her upper class, extended family and their friends with an uncharitable eye after it became clear that they would not welcome her into their fold with full membership privileges, but the disceming reader has this information in mind anyway. Emilia Romero. the translator of one of the Spanish editions of peregrinations. includes several footnotes in which she attempts to defend Peruvians from Tristan's judgments; even one hundred and forty-three years after Tristan published f'tirdgrjnatjgns, her criticisms of Peruvians still have the power to irritate. After Tristan writes - -Los peruanos son corteses en toda circunstancia, aduladores, bajos, vengativos y cobardes. - - Romero adds a footnote: -La pasi6n y el rencor de Flora, par no haber conseguido sus pr0p6sitos de lucro

'14

Dikatra 30. 114

en el Peru estan visibles en muchos de los parrafos de este libro. Nada es mas injusto que generalizar en cualquier materia.·'· Instead of accepting the massive poverty of the non-creoie people that she observed in Peru as ·natural· or inevitable, Trist4n calls attention to the fact that the upper class benefits directly and selfishly from Peru's social structure, and suggests that this arrangement is unjust. Rather than accept that this hierarchy was mandated by the Christian God, which had been one of its traditional justifications, Tristan questions it on both a moral and a practical level. However, she never questions whether European economic systems deliberately produced the poverty of the masses as part of their colonial strategies of domination and subordination.'. Rather, Tristan believes that (what she judges to be) the exorbitant greed of the Peruvian upper class has distorted the original Spanish colonial model. She weaves in the concept of progress as an accompanying theme to her denunciation of situations of radical social inequity. For example, although many upper class Peruvians thought that -the masses· were easier to control when they were uneducated, Tristan stresses that an educated lower class will make better citizens and better workers. The Revista writers at mid-century also accused the upper class of this same selfishness, and they blamed the upper class' victimization of the poor as a barrier to national progress. But the Bayjsta writers' argument was made within a discourse of patriotism, and progress as a source of national pride. Tristan's argument was based on humanitarian, social-utopian ideals, rather than on the patriotic ideals of a modem, developed nation. Also, there was a ,. TriIIIIin,

1.

P-.iaacionn. Romero, 185.

For an i1t....ing ditalllion of this IfAJject see: Steve Stern, pant. Inrfien PftlIl'" and the eMIle_ gf Spanjab Cgoguet· 1532-1840 (Madison, WISCOnSin: Univ8lSity of Wisconsin Press, 1993.)

115

subtext of the Bayjsta discourse on "e impoverished lower class as an obstacle to progress- which blamed the lower class itseH, in addition to blaming the upper class. In his article -lnstrucci6n primaria- in the Bevista, Tomas Davila refers to the rural indigenous population in a hostile fashion as -los idiotas proletarios,· and he suggests that there may be some inherent defect in this population group that will prevent it from ever becoming educated and -civilized. Comments like Davila's make Tristan's following assertion seem very unlikely: Cuando la totalided de los individuos sepa leer y escribir, cuando los peri6clicos penetren hasta fa choza del indio, entonces, encontrendo en el pueblo jueces cuya censure hab..is de temer y cuyos sufragios debereis buscar, adquirii9is las vlrtudes que os faltan.1I7

Does Tristan really believe that if the indigenous population is educated, the upper class will regard it on an equal footing with itseH?1 Nothing could have been further from the truth. Tristan underestimates the difficulty of combating the huge power imbalance between the upper and lower class in Peru. In peregrinations. she articulates a formula which she claims will enable the poor to attain some measure of political power, and thus engage in a dialogue with the wealthy. Her equation for change is: literacy + information = power. Tristan operates from the assumption that if people knew how to read and write, they would be able to read newspapers in order to learn what the cause of their misery was, and thus work together effectively against an exploitive production system, an unjust legal system and repressive social customs. Tristan believes that the root source of the inequalities would be readily apparent to all, and

181

TristIin, paregrjnac;jonea. Romero, 28.

116

victorious cooperation and non-violent political action would automatically ensue. Tristan acknowledges the racial hierarchy in existence when she visits Peru. however. she believes that education and the political organization of the masses will lead to a more -lever political and ideological playing field in Peru. 1•

Trist4n came from a relatively racially homogeneous setting in Paris to

a country where the minority population group ruled the majority populations groups. and the racial hierarchy was very rigid. Trist8n's egalitarian ideals were not the ideals of the Peruvian upper and middle class. although she assumes that they should be. While the creole population did actively fear race wars. they did not fear the masses' judgment of them in the intellectual. political sense that Tristan describes: -jueces cuya censura habrtiis de terner.Tristan had witnessed the power of the organized, militant, literate. lower class in Paris, and she advocated the development of a similar group in Peru. As a self-educated woman who taught herself to read. Tristan knew the

emancipatory possibilities of literacy. Tristan has great faith in the power of the press; however. she does not take several aspects of Peruvian society into consideration when making some of her predictions. The type of unity of the lower class through literacy that Tristan espoused was more feasible in France in the early nineteenth century than in Peru. where many of the inhabitants did not speak Spanish. let alone read it. Trist6n does not mention in p'[igrjnations that in order to leam to read Spanish. the vast majority of the indigenous population would have to leam to speak it first. France did not have the same .

racial dynamics as Peru. or the same geographic layout either. Much of the indigenous population of Peru lived in small, isolated Andean villages. which made organizing political movements directed in Spanish from an urban center

1.

Not level in the _ _ of doing tM8'f willi cIaIa IlructUres. or coIapeing IDCiaI hierarchies, but rather .. ~ of the masses such that they have a voice in national politics, and a sense of dignly and participation in their own lives as ciliza1s.

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difficult, if not impossible. When Trist4n was in Peru, only 4% of the population lived in urban areas. This is not to say that it would be impossible to organize the indigenous population that lived in rural areas, however. The Tupac Amaru uprising at the end of the eighteenth century convinced the creoles that the indigenous population was capable of organizing itself in a sophisticated, effective and deadly manner. Entonces el claro, para conservar su influencia sabre ase pueblo, reconoceni que los medios que amplea en Ia actualidad no pueden ya sarvirle. Las procesiones burlescas y todos los oropeles del paganismo sar4n remplazados por p*licas instructivas, porque despu6s de que la imprenta haya despertado la raz6n de las masas, sera a esta nueva facultad a que habra que dirigirse, si sa quiere ser escuchado.'.

Tristan predicts that the clergy will lose their power over the masses when they are literate; this indictment of the clergy assumes that they prefer that the masses are illiterate, and thus more easily manipulated and controlled. She links the clergy with the negative, self-serving, coercive power of the upper class, as Saint-Simon did. In one of the last essays that he wrote before his death in 1825, -Nouveau Christianisme, - Saint-Simon addresses himself to ·Princes·: ·Your conduct can also be excused on another score: because it was the clergy who should have stopped you on the edge of the precipice, but who threw themselves over it with you. -,. The relationship between the immorality of the upper class and the Church and the illiteracy of the lower class in peregrinations is introduced in this dedicatory essay, but it is not completely spelled out. The implication is that in the new secular, positivist, value system that Tristan advocates, it will be the moral and civic duty of the educated class,

1. 1&0

Tristain. pangjnacjonas. Romero, 28. lonescu 217.218.

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which included priests, to educate the illiterate. The debate about the merits of a public education system versus private Catholic schools raged throughout the nineteenth century in Peru. Tristcin apparently overlooks or is unaware of the incongruity of her position; she tells the upper class and the Church that it is their responsibility to educate the lower class so that it may then challenge their authority, or perhaps even overthrow them. She wants the people and institutions who currently benefit economically from the extreme imbalance of power to share their power voluntarily with those whom they have very systematically disenfranchised. Tristan assumes that it is common knowledge that large disparities in income distribution are not only morally undesirable, but that they hinder the formation of stable, participatory democracies. At this point in her dedication, Tristan hints at the potential benefits for the creole population if it cooperates in educating the lower class: Instruid, pues, al pueblo; es por allf por donde deb8is empezar para entrar en Ia vfa de la prosperidad. Estableced escuelas hasta en las aldeas mas humildes: esto es 10 urgente en la actualidad. Emplead en ella todos vuestros recursos. Consagrad a esto los bienes de los conventos, pues no padrfais darles destino mas religioso. Tomad medidas para facilitar el aprendizaje.

She suggests that if the upper class and the Church educate the masses, the nation as a whole will prosper because of it. Tristan does not explain exactly how the upper class will benefit economically from educating the lower class though. In The Colgnjal Heritage of Latin America. Stein and Stein PQint out that the upper class in Latin America has traditionally intentionally restricted access to education as a means to retain their position of dominance: -In most latin American countries then [in the nineteenth century] as now, the most effective means of ensuring rigid social stratification was curtailment of primary 119

education. ·181 Thus, Trist4n's admonition to the upper class that it would benefit from educating the lower class must have seemed quite strange. Stein and -Stein also cite a prevailing view among the upper class regarding educating the lower class: •

'00

literacy was not a prerequisite for manual labor••,. The issue

of education was not nearly as straightforward as Tristan assumed it to be. She must have known that recommending that the convents give away their money to educate the poor was a truly incendiary thing to do. Tristan envisionS Peru as a participatory democracy, with an educated citizenry (all of the adult population) who read the newspaper and are actively involved in politics. She points out in that an educated person is more likely to be self-supporting, and will make a better citizen:

EI hombre que tiene un oficio no as ya un prolet&rio. A menos que Ie hieran calamidades publicas, no tiene ya necesidad de recurrir a la caridad de sus conciudadanos. Conserva asi esa independencia de caracter tan necesaria de que sa desarrolle en un pueblo libre.

Stein and Stein emphasize the extremely limited number of participants in the new republican govemments: ·A generous estimate of the political participation of the male population in all Latin American nations would probably approach 2 to 4 percent during most of the nineteenth century.·'. Not many nineteenth century Peruvian creoles shared Trist4n's dream of an involved, independent citizenry with her; empowering the masses was never a goal of the AeVista writers. However, one topic that does appears frequently in the Beyisla is that of how to incorporate the non-creole, rural masses into the republic to such an extent that they would not rebel against the Uma-based, goveming elite, and, if 181

Stein and Stein 178.

182 Stein and Stein 177.

1.

Stein and Stein 171.

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they were given the franchise, how to persuade them to vote for liberal candidates. Lavalle points out the perils of neglecting rural constituencies when he reports that the inhabitants of a Peruvian amazonian province that bordered Brazil felt so ignored by the Urna·based govemment that they wanted to secede their territory to Brazil.Although Stein and Stein's statistics may suggest that some of Tristan's impassioned discourse in Pirtigrinations was unrealistic or naive, she was sincere in her beliefs about the enormous changes that could be brought about by education and involvement in the political system on both a personal and a national level. As can be seen from her career as a labor organizer, her book, Union Oyvrjire. and her national speaking tour, Tristan really believed that it was possible to organize laborers to such a degree that they gained political power and a voice in government. She devoted years of her life to that cause. She also was an advocate of women's right to work, which led her to question the Peruvian creole attitude towards work in general. On the topic of the need to re-valorize work in Peru, Tristan and Ar8stegui and the Beyjsta writers are in complete agreement. She writes: Desde que el trabajo case de ser considerado como patrimonio del esclavo y de las clases rnfimas de Is poblaci6n, todos har4n m8rito de 81 alglin dra, y la ociosidad lejos de ser un tftulo a Ia consideraci6n, no sera ya mirada sino como un delito de Ia escoria de Ia sociedad. 115

Twenty-three years after Tristan published Pertlgrinatjons, NarCiso Alayza wrote an article for the Revista which stresses the nation-building value of work. In ·Estudios Sociales: Faz de Decadencia,· published in 1861, he writes:

1M

1.

See pages 32-34. d the first chapter for the fuI discussion of this incident.

Tristain. p.agrjnac;jQ,.. Romero. 29.

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.•. el trabajo as un deber y un derecho en cuyo complimiento y respeto estriban Ia moralidad. dignidad y 6rden. triple base de Ia felicidad en una sociedad. Es por esto que el trabajo as el primer agente moralizador, la fuente mas pura de Ia riqueza y Ia mejor garantia del bien estar social. -

Trist6n ends her remarkable dedication to the Peruvians on a simultaneously optimistic and colonial note with the following ambiguous conclusion: En toda America. el Peru era el paiS de civilizaci6n mas avanzada a raiz de su descubrimiento por los espaiioles. Esta circunstancia hace presumir favorablarnente acerca de las disposiciones ingenitas de sus habitantes y de los recursos que ofrece. laue un gobiemo progresista Ilame en su ayuda a las artes de Asia Y de Europa Y pueda hacer que los peruanos ocupen aquel rango entre las naciones del Nuevo Mundol Este es el deseo muy sincero que me anima. Vuestra compatriota y amiga, Flora Tristan; Paris, agosto de 1836.

Throughout PSrdgrjnatjons. Tristan assumes that any European influence will be more benefICial for Peru than the original, Inca civilization was, or than the

colonial culture that developed. Although Tristan and later the Revista writers frequently characterized Spain as ·barbarous· rather than civilized, in her closing paragraph. Tristan writes that Peru was fortunate to be chosen as the viceroyalty because it then received a larger dose of Spain's civilizing European influence. Once again. Tristan looks outside of Peru for its source of help; she calls upon the ·arts· of Asia and Europe to help the Peruvians attain their rightful position among the Spanish· American republics. Trist6n believes that it is self-evident that the Peruvians do not know how to govem themselves. She assumes that Peru could never be considered on par with the European 198 Narciso AByza,

-Estudios aociales: faz de decadencia,- La a.y;a do Ljnw. vol. III.

1861,55.

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nations; Tristan always asserts that its best hope was to be preeminent among the other new Spanish American nations. Her -triendlY' dispatch at the end of this dedication was unlikely to win her back the affections of Peruvian readers who were insulted by the body of the text. In this concluding paragraph of the dedication of her book, Tristan is writing at the intersection of several different nineteenth century discourses: the pre-Darwin, pseudo-scientifIC racial discourse; the Catholic, conservative theory of divinely ordained social hierarchies; and the liberal, secular-humanist point of view. The pseudo-scientifIC racism in circulation before Tristan published peregrinations in 1838 held that certain races were inferior to others, and that since -man- is a primarily biological being, education could do nothing to -improve- those people who were bom in a racial category that was considered inferior. These same theories held that th~ members of the upper class of certain races were the only ones capable of mastering their animal nature, and therefore the only ones fit to govern. According to this argument, societal leaders needed to keep a tight reign on the lower classes, who were presumed to be unintelligent, dangerous, disorderly and incapable of benefiting from education. A participatory democracy which allowed most adult males (of any race) to vote was not compatible with this ~w of human nature. This school of thought was often co-articulated with Catholicism and the doctrine of the Fall. The secular-humanist school of thought, (based on Rousseau's ideas, among others.) to which Saint-Simon and Tristan subscribed argued in favor of the perfectibility of man: with the proper education and environment, people can change and progress to a higher level of functioning within society, and can be trained to become responsible citizens in a participatory democracy.

Condorcet was one of many Enlightenment thinkers who wrote about -perfectibilite:- -Condorcet divided European history into ten stages of

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development of which the present was the ninth .•• the tenth would be marked by infinite perfectibility.-'. In Nicessjti. Trist4n writes: -Marchons donc hardiment vers ce noble but de perfectibilit6.-. She affirms her belief in a rational world order, in which there will be more social justice after educating the members of the lower class, so that they can be in control of their own destiny, rather than the hapless pawns of the upper classes. She puts her faith in intelligence, education, and the humanistic belief that man is ultimately perfectible while on this earth, as opposed to the Catholic/conservative belief that after the Fall, Man is fundamentally sinful and wicked, and thus incapable of helping himself without divine intervention, or the pseudo-scientific, racist theories which held that certain races were inherently incapable of being educated and of becoming productive. The more pessimistic views of -Man'snature supported the argument that the hierarchical structure of Peruvian society was divinely ordained for fallen -Man- and the multi-racial Peruvian social order, and therefore was not to be tampered with, or disaster would surely ensue.

Tristan's Religion of Progress

Tristan follows her dedication of Pirigrinatjons to the Peruvians with another prefatory essay that further outlines her operating philosophy. In it she immodestly proposes that she is a modem prophet who has been sent by God or -Providence- (not the Catholic-Christian God but rather a nondenominational, all-purpose God) to enlighten the men and women that she 117 Roland Stromberg. An Int.!lactyal Hjllqy of Mgdtm Eu"lM' (New York: Meredith Publishing Company. 1968) 163.

1.

TriaIBn. Nfc=d' de fajra II! bgn ep;yajI 'III 'am"...ra".... 83.

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comes into contact with. Trist4n expresses her faith in a teleological, progressive history. and her active part in the unfolding of that history; the writers for the Rayjsta also held a teleological view of history, but they restricted their comments and predictions to the future of the Peruvian nation. rather than Tristan's world-wide. messianiC goals for all of humanity. Within the context of the Peruvian republic. however. the Rayjsta writers boldly asserted that they were the only ones capable of steering the nation towards its rightful destiny. Tristan writes: Todo esta coordinado y todo progresa hacra un fin. .•. cade [persona] tiene una misi6n a Ie que Ia Providencia Ie ha destinado .•• vemos a hombres que sobresalen de Ia multitud y que marchan como exploradores. muy par delante de sus contemporaneos. Agentes especiales de Ie Providencia, trazan la vra por la cual. despues de ellos, prosigue la humanided.'.

Gumbrecht explains the psychology that accompanies this manner of viewing history: ""e present is experienced as a transitional phase along a teleological line of progress. supposedly leading from a 'dark' early era into the (near or distant) future. - . Proclaiming herself to be the person that God sent to Peru to lead the Peruvians out of their darkness and into the light probably did not further endear Trist4n to the Peruvians that she had already angered with her dedicatory text. Tristan writes that unlike other -coward~ authors who did not allow their memoires to be published until after they had died. like Rousseau. Lafayette. Chateaubriand. etc•• she is brave enough to publish her book while she is still alive. because she believes that it will be useful to her contemporaries. The ,. TriatIin. P..,;nac;oDII, Romero, 31-32. 2IX) Johannes Ulrich Gumtnchl, An EMa go 1he HWnlY gf Spanjsb Unym, (forthcoming from Stanford University PI'8S8) 1"IIm~ copy, 23.

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issue of facing the wrath and judgment of one's contemporaries appears in the

Revist. also.

Although the first director of the magazine, Lavalle, claimed that

the names of all of the authors who published in the Beyjsta would accompany their texts, some of the most controversial topics are diSCUssed in anonymous articles. Trist," praises the genre that she has chosen, non-fictionautObiography, as the most effective for communicating ,ruths· to people; in the process she deliberately insults George Sand by writing: ·Las ficciones agradan, ocupan un instante el pensamiento, pero james son los m6viles de las acciones de los hombres." They may not have spelled out their philosophy regarding the politics of fICtion, but the Bevista writers clearly disagreed with Tri~ about the political possibilities of fiction. Tristan concludes this second essay by praising herself again. One of the possible explanations for the frequency with which she reminds readers of her intelligence and the importance of her book is that Tristan was not a member of the ·educat~ class in either Peru or France. She was an outsider to the closed circles of prominent upper class intellectuals no matter where she went, hence Tristan's constant need for self-promotion. Although they were always envious of the greater wealth of their upper class rivals, the

Revist.

writers had a keen sense of pride about belonging to a particular group of men, and a particular ideological movement. The first issue of the Revista includes a long list of the names of all of its ·contributors;· however, many of these men never wrote an article for the magazine. Thus, the list of ·contributors· functions more like a public announcement of the names of the members of a private club. The creole social circles in Peru were small enough that the readership of the Beyjsta probably knew all of the ·club· members personally. even if they did

2D1

TriatIin. Pengjnacjorw., Romero,37.

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not share the same political views. There was a great deal of camaraderie of the Beyjsta club members, unlike Tristan's perpetual, permanent state of isolation.Trist4n asks rhetorically: . -l,en ck5nde se encontraran esos seres llenos de fe y de inteligencia, cuya abnegaci6n intnlpida consienta en desafiar las recriminaciones, los odios y las venganzas y en exponer a tode luz las iniquidades ocultas y los nombres de sus autores?- Tristan herself, of course, has volunteered to carry out this mission. She viewed perigrinations as much more than simply a personal narrative description about her trip to Peru; Tristan optimistically believed that her text had the power to influence other people, to persuade them to take action, and thus to change the course of history. She is confident (or pretends to be) that she is a leader, that people will read her book, and that she will have followers, just as Saint-Simon did. Tristan wants to be acknowledged for her self-sacrifice, and applauded for her efforts on behalf of others. This tension between public service and the desire for equally public recognition is one of the conflicted aspects of p'regrinations that makes it such an interesting text. The following paragraph from the end of the second prefatory essay is a good summary of Tristan's operating philosophy:

La religi6n del progreso tendni sus martires, como todes las otras han tenido los suyos, y no faltarain seres suficientemente religiosos para comprender el pensamiento que me gura, y tengo tamb., conciencia de que mi ejemplo tendni imitadores. EI reino de Dios liege. Entramos en una era de- verded. Nada de 10 que panga trabas al progreso podni subsistir. La opini6n, esta reina del mundo, ha producido inmensas mejoras. Con los medios de ilustraci6n que aumentan cada drat las producini mas grandes alln. Despuss de heber renovado la organizaci6n social, renovara el estado moral de los pueblos.3D - AIhough TriItM was a part d larger eaciaI ,..,.".... at various times. her _ herself as someone who is pennanendy and irrevocably isolated from the rest d IOCieIy

accompanied her her whole lie. a

Tristan, Peregrinaciones, Romero, 39-40.

127

d

The Church

Tristan boldly attacks the Catholic Church on many different fronts throughout p'rdgrinatjoos. The most immediate difference" between Tristan's harsh judgments of the Church, and that of the Rayjsta writers is that her text is non-fiction, and therefore directly accusatory; the Ravista writers, and Ar6stegui, use the medium of fiction, which somewhat softened their attack, since it was metaphoricaValiegorical in nature. Although the priests featured in the Revista stories and EI Padre Horin committed all sorts of dastardly deeds, placing these evil characters in fictional settings seemed to be a requirement for their creators, in order to avoid ostracization from the SOCial- order by the conservative creole members of the middle and upper class. Some of the charges that Tristan levels against the Church are: it absorbs the wealth of rich people without redistributing any of it to the poor; it teaches wealthy people that they have done their Christian act of charity by giving money to the Church, and they don't have to give any money directly to the poor; it is unintellectual; it fosters fanaticism and superstition and therefore is irrational; it entertains the illiterate masses with lewd, sacrilegious processions rather than teaching them to read and then instructing them in Christian doctrine; its celebrations encourage licentious behavior; the decorations used in Peruvian churches and private chapels are vulgar and pagan; its priests participate in political intrigues against each other, and in secular politics and civil wars; and it is allied with the upper class in order to obstruct progress and retain or increase its power and wealth by keeping the masses subjugated. Tristan attributed the Church and the upper class with a deliberate, diabolical,

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political plan; the Reyista writers would never go that far in their criticisms of the Church. Tristan's specific criticisms of the Church in Peru reflect her ideas of what she believed the Church should be doing. She states in her ·Dedication to Peruvians· that the Church should be delivering ·pr8dicas instructives· to the masses, and educating them. Those were the only two activities that Tristan sanctioned for the Church in Peru, given her appraisal of the dire state of the nation. Therefore, it was logical that Tristan find most of the Church's activities to be reprehensible. Given her mission of social justice, and her vision of what the Church's part in that mission should be, Tristan concludes that not only is the Church not facilitating social justice, but rather she aCcuses the Church of actively collaborating with the upper class to oppress the poor. Tristan judges the Church's parades, festivals, dramas, and celebrations to be cynical, deliberate attempts to keep the majority of the population in servitude. Her strident criticisms of the celebrations accompanying religious holidays must have baffled her Peruvian readers, who would not have viewed them in the same way. The Reyista writers and other creoles were counting on the Church as the most effective social control mechanism in republican Peru. Although they wanted to displace the landed aristocracy and the Church as the political and economic leaders of the country, (or join them,) the creole, urban middle class was as afraid of race wars as the upper class. Tristan was making a connection between Catholic culture and massive poverty that was not made by the Aevista writers. Although they don't specifICally comment on Church 'celebrations in the Revista, the common creole view of the masses was that they needed the entertainment provided by the Church to distract them from their drab daily lives. The Aevista writers were not in a position to openly attack

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the Church as Tristan does; they wanted the Church to cooperate with the State, and maintain order among the lower class. After accusing the Church of an unholy alliance with the upper class in Peru in the -Dedication- of Pirigrinatjgns. Trist" gives an example of the type of bad behavior that she says the Church encourages in her Preface. Her criticism of the Church takes on a personal tone in this case. Tristan criticizes her relative, M.-Goyeneche, (the brother of J0s6 Sebastian Goyeneche, who was the Bishop of Arequipa when Tristan was there) who lives in Bordeaux, for not offering to take her under his wing. She writes that he lives in a huge house the size of a hotel, without any family around, and has several servants. Tristan writes indignantly that he feels that he is carrying out Christ's mandate by throwing some change in the collection plate, while refusing to share his material wealth with his impecunious female relatives: ... me asombraba la expresi6n seca y agorsta del solter6n, del hombre rico y avaro que no piensa sino en sr mismo, que se considera el centro de todas las cosas y atesora siempre para un futuro que no alcanzara jamas.••. Se hace profesi6n de amar aDios, y es por la observancia de las pnicticas religiosas impuestas por la Iglesia, que se cree probarle ese amor. Lejos de creerse uno obligado a socorrer a sus parientes, sus relacionados y amigos, al pr6jimo en fin, sa encuentra casi sismpre motivos religiosos, tomados en la conducta del que raclama el socorro, para neg4rselo. Con largueza para la Iglesia y confl8ndole algunas limosnas, es como se imagina generalmente satisfacer la caridad predicada por Jesucristo.-

It obviously infuriated Tristan to come into contad with her father's extremely wealthy first cousin in France, and to not be able to derive any material benefit from him except for free dinners. She longs for the type of extended family system in which she and her mother would have been well-taken care of financially; now that she has a daughter of her own, she is anguished at the 3M

TrisCBn. Ptragrinacionu. Romero, so.

130

repetition of the cycle of poverty and the powerlessness that it engenders. Tristan stayed in Bordeaux for two and a half months in a rented room and saw Goyeneche daily while waiting for the right opportunity to go to Peru. Tristan believes that God does not condone poverty for some and wealth for others. She does not accept the unequal distribution of wealth to be either natural or Christian. After arriving in Arequipa, and listening to the town gossip about her relative Bishop GOyefJeche, Tristan carne to the conclusion that he was just as selfish as his brother in Bordeaux. Tristan criticized the first brother for being stingy in the amount of money that he gave the Church, and for not giving more of his money away directly, without the Church's intervention. Bishop Goyeneche's bad reputation confirmed Tristan's fears about the second Goyeneche brother that she encountered: rumor had it that Bishop Goyeneche did not redistribute much of the money that people donated to the Church. Tristan writes that the Bishop of Arequipa was given 100,000 pesos a year, which he was supposed to share with the poor. She reports that Goyeneche was very stingy and kept most of the money for himself and did not fulfill his obligations to the poor as their Bishop. The 8evista writers objected to the wealth of the Church, but not for the quite the same reasons that Tristan did. They wanted the state and the private sector to have access to some of the liquid wealth and the property that was controlled by the Church, but not so that they could redistribute it directly to the impoverished masses. Their discourse of modemization and progress assumed that when the middle class and the nation became wealthier, some of the benefits would trickle down to the masses, (like the infamous Reaganomic theory.) Tristan's first encounter with CatholiCism in Peru occurred when she took a nap in a small chapel at an inn during her arduous joumey by mule from the

131

port City of Islay across a vast desert to Arequipa. She wrote the following description of her impressions upon waking up: Consider. con admiraci6n los objetos que me rodeaban y cree en un principio que era Ia continuaci6n de un suano y no pocIra creer en la realided de 10 que vera. La capillita en Ia que me encontraba estaba tan burlescamente decorada como 10 est4n todes las del Pent EI altar estaba recargado de figuras de yeso, con una Virgen vestide extraftamente, un gran Cristo cubierto de gotas de sangre, candeleros de plata, fIoreros con flores tanto artificiales como naturales y una multitud de OIros objetos. Una aIfombra mu 0 menos buena cubrra el piso y una ventana pequana aclaraba este santo lugar, no dejando penetrar sino una luz cWbil que daba a este conjunto un tono p4lido y . melanc6lico.Tristan describes all of the churches and private chapels that she visited while in Peru in the same fashion: -En todas las iglesias se ven figuras groteseas de madera y de yeso que personifican los idolos del catolicismo peruano. - . She considers the style of decoration that the Peruvians use to be both unpleasant aesthetically and pagan in its tone. Tristan's comments about the lack of good taste used in fumishing and decorating religious settings sound condescending in a French colonial manner; she disapproves of the way that the Catholic Church has evolved in the Spanish colonies. She does not take into account the role that the Church playecl in acculturating millionS of non-European people into Spanish colonial society, which meant that in the nineteenth century the Spanish American Church no longer remained identical in form and function to the Church in Europe: Tristan notes that although the Peruvians appear to be extremely devoted Catholics, when the leaders of the different factions who fought in the civil wars ran out of money, they stole gold, silver, pearls and diamonds from the 315

TristIin. ParasriMMiiorws, Romero, 205.

2DI TristBn, P«egrinaciones,

Romero, 263.

132

richly adomed altars of churches in order to pay their troops and buy supplies. In her own off-handed manner, Trist4n brings up a topic of Peruvian history that has still not been fully explored: the role of the Church in the civil wars that

-

followed the revolutionary wars. During the intense military and political power struggles, the Church played a majOr role in both fomenting public opinion and contributing economic resources to fund the civil wars. Tristan did not believe that the Church should be participating in political or military conflicts in any capacity. Tristan writes about three priests from Arequipa who were involved in the political struggles of the day: Luna Pizarro, her relative Bishop Goyeneche, and Valdivia. She talks about the alliance of two powerful priests in Arequipa: Valdivia and Luna Pizarro. Luna Pizarro was Arequipa's delegate to Congress in Lima for many years. He participated in several constitutional conventions. Valdivia stayed in Arequipa and agitated against Goyeneche in articles in the newspaper he published. At the time that Tristan was in Arequipa, Valdivia was part of the caudillo Nieto's leadership team. Tristan comments disapprovingly on the priest and joumalist Valdivia's -misuse- of the press by writing articles to convince the young men of Arequipa to volunteer for armed service by flattering their vanity. They would have been forcibly conscripted anyway, but Valdivia knew that persuasion with words was easier, and less onerous, than going door to door. Valdivia, who was also an attorney, participated in some of the shortlived govemments of this period of civil wars. He was in charge of forcing the civilians to support the ~ar-time government of the caudillo Nieto when Tristan was in Arequipa. In addition to priests' direct participation in politics, Tristan attributes a political function to the Church's public parades and festivities. She describes and analyzes several different special holiday celebrations that she witnessed in Arequipa. She focuses on these public events as one of the principal

133

methods used by the Church to maintain its power and control over the population. She points out that Church-sponsored pageants are the only source of recreation for the masses. Tristan blames the Church for encouraging -fanaticism- and ·superstition· which she perceives to be irrational, and thus a hindrance to progress. She links Peru's enslavement to backwardness with the Church's public programs, which she judges to be one of the root causes of the problem. Trist4n associates a certain type·of intellectual and cultural life with progress and economic prosperity. She decides that the type of popular Catholicism that she witnesses in Peru is incompatible with the intellectual climate she deems necessary for fostering progress and prosperity. Tristan continually advocates intellectualism as the appropriate cultural climate for everyone, everywhere. The Beyjsta writers, in contrast, never imagine that the Peruvian masses will share their tastes, nor do they want them to. Tristan is attracted to the processions and pageantry of the Church; even though she writes disapprovingly about the events that she witnessed, there is a subtext in which she appears to be delighted with the exuberant, unrepressed nature of public celebrations in Arequipa. They were not orderly or solemn, rather they were chaotic, colorful and unpredictable. Tristan was very circumspect regarding her own romantic life. We do not know if she had affairs while she was in Peru or not, or when she lived in France before and after her trip to Peru. But she appears to be simultaneously fascinated and disgusted, attracted and repulsed, by the sensuaVcamal aspect of the Catholic celebrations in Peru. Tristan always comments on the very physical nature of Church events in which men and women of all ages and races mix together freely. Her attitude toward the sexual lives of Peruvians sounds bourgeois and puritanical. Perhaps Tristan was projecting her own repressed desires onto those Peruvians that she scolds for their -licentious- behavior.

134

The first festivity that Trist4n describes is a procession held in honor of -Nuestra Senora.· She comments acerbically that anyone who witnessed this procession would have a good idea what the pagan ·bacanales· and -satumales· used to be like. Trist4n judges the event to be ·un desfile escandalosamente imp(o.'" She is particularly horrified and fascinated by the troop of Afro-Peruvian and mestizo '!len who were dressed as harlequins and danced at the head of the parade. This parade was one in which the spectators could also join in. People touched each other, looked at each other, and propositioned each other; in short, it was not an orderly, contained, dignified religious ritual. The procession was a type of jubilant floating party in which men and women of all ages and races were invited to participate. Los cuarenta 0 cincuenta bailarines hae(an gestos y contorsiones de una einiea desverguenza y molestaban a las negras y a las muehaehas de color formadas en filas dirigiendoles tada elase de frases obscenas. ... Era una confusi6n grotesca en donde se oian gritos y risas convulsas y aparte los ojos con disgusto. ... Despues de los bailarines aparecia la Virgen. .•. En seguida venian los religiosos de todos los eonventos, reunidos aquel dia para ir juntos en el santo paseo. Las autoridades terminaban la fila oficial, a Ia que seguia en ningun orden la masa del pueblo que reia, gritaba y ereia estar nada menos que en oraci6n.-

Tristan finds the openly sexual male dancers to be incongruent with a religious holiday honoring the Virgin Mary. She is astonished that the procession that she watched was sanctified by the Church. Aevista writers would have found parades like this one to be simultaneously harmless and necessary. They knew that the Church provided the public ·escape valve- for the social energy and need for creative expression of the masses. Tristan is unfamiliar with the syneretization process that went on between the Church and ~ TriBIIIn,

-

paraqrinacionn, Romero, 229.

TriBIIIn, P-agrjnacionn, Romero, 229.

135

the religious traditions which were developed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas and the Africans who were brought to the Americas. She is operating from a European bourgeois faith system. in which Christianity has been influenced by the Reformation. secular humanism and nineteenth century economic trends. Bourgeois Christianity followed suit from the nineteenth century re-conception of what it meant to be human in economic terms: -'economics' made the individual the unit of society. lID Part of the Protestant influence on European and North American Christian religious life was to make each individual more directly accountable to God for hislher own behavior. Christianity became a more personal religion that was practiced privately as well as publicly on Sundays. There was no quick and easy weekly confession and automatic forgiveness for the Puritans and other Protestants. Much more emphasis was placed

on self-regulation of behavior and trying to avoid

committing sins in the first place. This was part of -the new rigid moral code that preserved and strengthened the bourgeois family.-21o On another occasion, Tristan claims that she attended a dramatic representation staged by the Church on another occasion only because her cousin Carmen forced her to go: -Doiia Carmen sa volvla Ioca por cualquier espectaculo y me

de~

arrastrar por ella a la representaci6n. - She writes that

the residents of Arequipa love any kind of public entertainment. and that due to their lack of education. they are incapable of telling a well-presented drama from a poorly staged one. The Peruvians were not the same disceming audience that Trist," had encountered in Paris. She states that the -Misteriothat she saw in Arequipa in the nineteenth century was the same type that was presented in Paris in the fifteenth century. Tristan accuses the Church of D

Stromberg 156.

210 DijIcstra 11.

136

fostering ignorance, superstition and fanaticism. She observes with disdain that people of all races and economic situations attended the Misterio with equal pleasLire. Although Tristdn championed the cause of the masses in Peru, she is clearly uncomfortable when she is in direct contact with the non-creole population. In La paria garegrina. Fe Revilla de Moncloa comments on Tristan's reaction to first-hand contact with the -masses-: -Intelectual y moralmente rechaza Ia opresi6n pera no siempre los individuos oprimidos Ie simpatizan ••• 11211 Her description of the spectators as -savage- links the Church and Peruvians with barbarism rather than civilization: .•• el espectaculo mas llano de ensei'ianzas, era Ia brutalidad, los vestidos groseros y los harapos de ese mismo pueblo, cuya extrema ignorancia y estupida superstici6n retrotra(an la imaginaci6n a la Edad Media. Todas esas caras blancas, negras 0 cobrizas expresaban una ferocidad salvaje y un fanatismo exaltado.212

After watching the Misterio, Tristan reports that she feels pity for Peru and Peruvians. She blames the Church and the upper class for the endless civil wars and dire poverty that she sees. Tristan appears to be completely unaware of the role that the Catholic Church played in Peruvian colonial society, however; it was the glue that held everyone together. The Church provided a common bond between creoles, indigenous peoples, mestizos, Afro-Peruvians, mulattos, and zambos, and justified the Spaniards' conquest and domination of Peru. She never takes the Church's original -Civilizing- mission in colonial Peru into account when judging the forms that religious rituals have taken. Tristan believes that the Church and the upper class have made a crass bargain in order to continue duping the masses: 211

Revilla de MoncIoa 142.

212

Trisf8n. pangjnacjones. Romero. 230.

137

Por 10 que pude vert fui la unica en regresar entristecida de ese espect8culo. ..• sentra un verdadero pesar por el embrutecimiento de aquel pueblo. .•. Si los gobemantes hubiesen querido realmente organizar una repUblica. habrian tratado de hacer gerrninar, por medio de Ia instrucci6n, las virtudes cfvicas hasta entre las ultimas clases de la sociedad. Pero como eI poder y no Ia libertad es el objetivo de esa multitud de intrigantes que se suceden en Ia direcci6n de los negocios publicos, continuan Ia obra del despotismo, y para asegurarse la obediencia del pueblo a quien explotan. se asocian con los sacerdotes para mantenerlo con todos los prejuicios de Ia superstici6n. Ese pars desangrado por veinte alios de guerras civiles, se halla en un estado deplorable y busca en vano, en Ia clase que por su fortuna ocupa el primer rango, la esperanza de un porvenir mejor. .•• EI verdadero patriotismo y Ia abnegaci6n no existen en ninguna parte.213

Not even the -liberal- contributors to the Bevista thought that the masses were eapable of ~rtudes civicas" The frequent debates in the BeyjSlI about how to restrict voting rights indicate the writers' uneasiness with the idea of a participatory democracy. They did not link ·el verdadero patriotismo· with social justice. Conyent Life in Arequipa

Tristan was especially fascinated with the large, fabulously wealthyconvents in Arequipa, because they were the site of the convergence of the power and wealth of the upper class and the Church. Tristan was able to observe convent life first-hand because some of the civil war battles were actually fought in and around Arequipa while she was there. Due to the threats to civilians from the impending battles, women and children were allowed to take refuge in the convents; ordinarily, the convents were strictly off limits to visitors. Trist*' went to stay in both of the two principal convents with her 213

TrisIIin, Pareminacjones. 233-234_

138

relatives: Santa Rosa and Santa Catalina. The Mother Superiors of both convents were Tristan's cousins. She uses two different sets of imagery when discussing the convents: convent as prison or tomb. and convent as female sanctuary. Trist4n describes one of the convents as hell on earth. and the other as a pleasant experiment in collective-female living. However. her negative view of convents is the more predominant one. Tristan begins by saying that one might imagine that convents are serene, happy. restful places to live. However, she claims never to have felt that way. Tristan writes that each time she walked by a convent: -Sentia por las desgraciadas victimas sepultadas vivas entre esos montones de piedras una compasi6n tan profunda que mis ojos sa llenaban de lagrimas. 1I214 After spending time in two different convents she writes that her suspicions were confirmed: -En el recinto de aquellos inmensos monumentos no sa encuentra mas que agitaciones febriles que la regia cautiva pero no ahoga. Sordas y veladas, hierven como Ia lava en los flancos del volc8n que la encubre. -215 Tristan notes with horror that once a woman entered a convent, she could never leave it, even if she wanted to; referring to her cousin Cominga Gutierrez, who escaped from Santa Rosa. she writes in true melodramatic fashion: - ..• un voto terrible, solemne, que ningun poder humano podia romper. la privaba para siempre del aire puro ..•

~I

Tristan was not exaggerating when she said -which

no human power could break;- at that time in Peru, the Church had its own separate judicial system. When a woman became a nun. she forfeited the few legal rights that she had under the govemmenrs civil legal code. Under Church law, a woman had a certain -grace period- in which. in theory, she could 214

TrisIIin. P-agrinacjolWl, 389.

r_,.

215 Ti~ JKISII1DICIQ"", P ..

389•

211 Triallin. PtngrinacjoIWl, 371.

139

change her mind about taking her vows as a nun, and leave the convent, of her own free will. However. it would be difficult to find statistics or factual evidence on whether the Church actually honored the requests of all of the women who asked to leave convents once they had been admitted. Convents were the ultimate prison for women. since they could be forced to enter one by their parents, husband. etc. against their wishes. and prevented from ever leaving. Tristan found the convent of Santa Rosa to be depressing. frightening and hypocritical. She is surprised to discover that the racial and class hierarchy of Arequipan society is mirrored in the convent; Tristan thought that all of the nuns would be on equal footing. with the Mother Superior above them, and their slaves and servants below them. However. she found out that each nun knew exactly what rank she held in the Convenfs hierarchical pecking order. The nuns may have all been equal in the eyes of God, but not in this convent on earth. Because of her feminist and egalitarian leanings. Tristan was dismayed by how viciously the nuns treated each other: Alii reinan con todo su poder las jerarquias del nacimiento, de los titulos, de los colores de Ia pial y de las fortunas ... AI ver marchar en procesi6n por el convento a los miembros de esta numerosa comunidad vestidos con el mismo habito, sa creerra que la misma igualdad subsiste en todo. Pero, si sa entra en uno de los patios. queda una sorprendida del orgullo empleado por la mujer que tiene un titulo en sus relaciones con la mujer de sangre plebeya; del tono despectivo que usan las blancas con las que no 10 son.2I7

Tristan was also dismayed by the grueling schedule that the nuns kept. They had to get up at 4:00 a.m., and participate in a series of religious practices that lasted until noon. The nuns rested from noon until 3:00 p.m.; then they prayed all afternoon. Tristan found their living quarters to be stark, ugly, dimly 217 TrisIBn,

P_agrinacjones, 372-373.

140

lit. depressing and uncomfortable; the name for the tiny. unlit rooms where each nun had her individual bed was -18 tumba. - She reports that when two nuns met each other the only greeting they were allowed to give each other was the following morbid dialogue: the first nun would say. -Hermana. tenemos que mOrir;- the second would respond: -Hermana. 18 muerte es nuestra Iiberaci6n.· Although the nuns in Santa Rosa seemed to have innumerable strict rules that govemed every aspect of their lives. TristM ndes that some of the rules could be broken. while others could not. Upon entering the Carmelite order, the nuns take a vow of poverty and Silence. but Tristan observes that the nuns do find ways to talk to each other on the sly. and that some of them do not observe the vow of poverty. For instance some nuns have more than one slave to wait on them in the convent. while they were offICially allowed to bring no more than one slave. Tristan is shocked by the -unChristian- conversations that she overhears in Santa Rosa: La critica, la maiedicencia y hasta la calumnia reinan en sus charlas. Es dificil formarse una justa idea de los pequeftos calos. de las bajas envidias que alimentan unas contra otras y de las crueles maldades que no cesan de hacarse. Nada menos piadoso que las relaciones que entre si mantienen esas religiosas. En elias se revela la sequedad, la aspereza, elodio.211

Tristan thinks that the nuns of Santa Rosa are even more unlucky than the nuns of other convents. even though Santa Rosa is considered one of the wealthiest convents in Peru. She does not like the Mother Superior of Santa Rosa: - .•. su fanatismo religioso pasaba tados los limites de la raz6n.· As proof of this, Tristan reports that the Mother Superior told her that if she were younger, she would go to Spain and re-establish the Inquisition. For non-Spanish 211

1i~

P

..

--.. -'SI'"'QODIS·

376 •

141

Europeans, the Inquisition was proof of Spain's fanaticism and backwardness; thus the mere mention of the Inquisition conjured up this image of Spain for Tristan, along with the whole -Ieyencla negra.- She found a correspondence between her impressions of ~e Mother Superior, and the nuns' feelings towards her. Trist4n writes that the Mother Superior govemed the nuns with an iron fist; they respected and obeyed her, but they did not like her. The Mother Superior referred to Dominga GutNirrez as -possessed by the devil, - which offended Tristan, since she admired GutNirrez. and liked her (based on her reputation) before she had even met her. Unlike Trist4n's cousin in Santa Rosa, the Mother Superior in Santa Catalina is beloved by the nuns as their friend and mother. The nuns of the convent are allowed to elect their own Mother Superior. The priests who oversee the convent always try to remove Trist4n's cousin as Mother Superior because they think she is too lenient, but the nuns always re-elect her, and the laws that govem the convent give them the authority to elect their own Mother Superior without outside interference.21I Tristan liked this system of seH· govemance. She clearly preferred Santa Catalina, which has many fewer rules, and a much more relaxed atmosphere. At Santa Catalina each nun did whatever she felt like. The nuns were not forced to participate in rigorous spiritual exercises. The nuns' private rooms looked like -boudoirs, - instead of tombs. They did not take a vow of either poverty or silence when they entered Santa Catalina. At Santa Rosa Trist4n was forced to get up at 6:00 a.m. every day and go to mass with the nuns. However, at Santa Catalina she could sleep in as Iol1g as she wanted. Trist4n especially liked the food at Santa Catalina. She wrote:

218 TriatIin,l'eragrinacjolM, 385.

142

-Era una serie continua de banquetes.· Trist., said that she ate the best food of the whole time that she spent in Arequipa at Santa Catalina. She enjoyed her stay there very much. Trist4n described the relations among the nuns as warm and affectionate. She found her cousin the Mother Superior to be charming, elegant and intelligent. The nuns at Santa Rosa were more up-todate with what was happening in the outside world, and they had an interesting intellectual life. Tristain enjoyed discussing current events from Europe with the Mother Superior, who was quite an accomplished musician and music lover. Tristan concluded after staying at Santa Catalina that she now understood why some women would want to become nuns. She reported that the most interesting conversations that she had with women in Peru (except with La Presidenta and Gutierrez) were with the nuns at Santa Rosa. Tristan retells Gutierrez' story in her own romantic, melodramatic fashion. She was enthralled by the story of her cousin's escape from Santa Rosa. Tristan refers to Gutierrez several times throughout pirigrjnatjons. She relished Gutierrez's daring and highly unusual feat. Tristan undoubtedly compared her own fate with that of her cousin's, because the vows of a nun were considered to be -permanent, just as Tristan's marriage vows were in France. Gutierrez had escaped from her prison, but Tristan could see no way to get free of Chazal. When Tristan wanted to meet Gutierrez, she had to go to her house secretly, because societal prejudice dictated that after her escape, she was to be treated as a pariah. Gutierrez had been engaged to marry a Spaniard at a young age (15 or 16), but he left her to marry a wealthier woman. There is disagreement on the next item in the story; the version of the story that Tristan relates is not the same as the one written down by Gutierrez and by her biographer. Tristan, of course, was told her cousin's story by the same family members who tried to force Gutierrez back into the convent after she had

143

escaped. They told Tristan that after Gutierrez' fiancee had left her. she begged her parents to put her in Santa Rosa; they (allegedly) tried to talk her out of it. but were unsuccessful. Gutierrez herself writes that her mother and one of her uncles, who was a priest, forced her to enter a convent against her wishes. In any case, Trist4n sympathized with Gutierrez' desire to escape shortly after she had entered Santa Rosa; Trist4n writes: -Cada dra pasado en el convento, el que Ia religiosa ya 1610 consideraba como una prisi6n, debilitaba su salud antes tan excelente.- Gutierrez heard the story of a nun in Salamanca who put the dead body of another woman in her cell and escaped. She spent the next eight years making the plans for her escape. Her slave smuggled the body of a dead woman into the monastery, and a friend of hers left the front gate open so that Gutierrez could just walk out. She put her habit on the corpse, and . then set fire to it. Gutierrez then put on street clothes and snuck out the front door. In Chapter four. I discuss the events that followed Gutierrez' escape in more detail. There was both a civil and an ecclesiastical trial regarding Gutierrez' escape and its legal and financial ramifications. The story is made even more interesting by the fact that the Church authority in charge of prosecuting and punishing Gutierrez was one of her relatives, the infamous Bishop Goyeneche. Although Gutierrez eventually moved to Uma, met a companion and had a daughter, when Tristan was in Arequipa, Gutierrez was still in the middle of the legal trials and was quite miserable. Before leaving Arequipa, Tristan finally pays a visit to her infamous cousin. Gutierrez' mother completely rejected her after she had escaped from the convent. One of her brothers and one of her aunts gave her a house and spending money. Gutierrez tells Tristan that she is even more unhappy now than when she was a nun trapped in Santa Rosa. She cannot re-enter society because of people's prejudices against her:

144

Si voy a participar de Ia alegrfa cornun en una reuni6n. me rechazan diciendome: INo es este el sitio en donde debe encontrarse una esposa del Senor. Entre en eI claustro. regrese a Santa Rosa •••

1'"

Ironically. Gutierrez tells TristM that she is lucky because she can marry the man of her choice. The wealth of the convents made a huge impression on Tristan. When describing some of the nuns that she met at the two convents. she includes the amount of money that each one gave to her convent. Tristan observes that some women have as many as eight slaves to wait on them. She also notes that wealthy women in the convents send presents to their friends in the outside world. which are delivered by their slaves. In her ·Dedication to Peruvians· message. Tristan reveals her opinion that the convents have too much money; she urges the Church to voluntarily take the excess money from convents and open schools for lower class children with it. Tristan was either totally oblivious to the way the Church operated. or she was merely engaging in wishful thinking.

Camachols Tradlcl6n:

·EI Nov.no Mandaml.nto·

This tradici6n illustrates the symbolic role that convents played in the nineteenth century Peruvian creole imagination. with a focus on their potential use as prisons for disobedient wives and daughters. ·EI noveno mandamiento· (The Ninth Commandment from the Bible: Do not covet your neighbor's wife). by Juan Vicente Camacho, is based on the mysterious death of -el Excelentfsimo Senor Don Diego Lopez de Zuniga y Velasco. Conde de Nieva. Z!)

TristBn. paagjnaejonas, 451.

145

cuarto Virey del Peru- in 1561. who was engaged in an adulterous affair with a married woman at the time of his death. In this story. the worst penalty for adultery is not death. The -wrongecr husband thinks of a harsher punishment for his adulterous wife. His choice of punishment. imprisoning his wife in a convent for the rest of her life - against her wishes. conjures up a society-wide trope that was centuries-old in Peru, which Trist4n noticed and commented on: convents as the ultimate penitentiaries for women. -EI noveno mandamiento.· which was published in the Aayjsta in 1880, illustrates Tristan's view of convents as frightening prisons, which women could be confined to. permanently. against their wishes. Although this tradici6n was set in 1561. Gutierrez' experience shows that even in the nineteenth century. Peruvian women were still being forced into convents, against their wishes. The author of the tradici6n. Camacho. does not view convents in exactly the same manner as Tristan and her cousin. probably because there was much less danger of a man being imprisoned in a monastery against his wishes. or maybe because he approves of this efficient. socially approved mechanism for expelling women scapegoats from the social order. Camacho's tradici6n illustrates the wisdom of obeying the ninth commandment. Of course. in this story it is the wife. not the husband. who is adulterous. just as in Camacho's tradici6n regarding incest. -Furens Amoris. - it is a mother who tricks her son into sleeping with her. Although there are no statistics available on this subject for colonial and nineteenth century Peru. culturally it was much more acceptable for men to engage in adultery. and much more prevalent for fathers to molest their daughters than for mothers to molest their sons. Camacho assures us at the beginning of the story that he knows who is to blame. regardless of the situation: - •.• ya par rectas 0 par curvas las

146

lindas hijas de Eva han de ser la causa, origen y m6vil de todas las acciones humanas.-a1 The story begins with a group of Umeftos gathered on the street discussing the Viceroy's curious new order that men may not wear their -capaafter 10:00 at night; the Viceroy did not give any explanation as to what prompted him to issue this order. The action of this tradici6n is set in motion when a -common- woman insults a nobleman who was part of this group discussing the new edict. Camacho does not reveal the last name of the aristocrat, because, like Lavalle in -EI Capit8n Doria, - he coyly alerts us to the fact that the family in question still lives in Lima, on the same street where their ancestors lived in the sixteenth century. So, both the family's last name and the street name where they lived are designated with abbreviations:

-Marqu~s

de

H--. - In addition to their other merits, the tradiciones inspired countless curious Limeiios to brush up on their colonial history in the hopes of discovering the identities of the protagonists of these juicy stories. The woman on the street implies that the

Marqu~s

de H-'s wife is unfaithful to him. perhaps even with

the Viceroy, who had just issued the strange edict, although she doesn't really know that at all. Camacho writes that this woman was evil and envious of the aristocrat's wealth, so she baited him with the most offensive insult possible: ... se propuso tomar del Marqu~s Ia m4s senalade venganza que jam4s satisfizo el 4nima de una tan aviesa criatura. Nadia se poeUa imaginar que S. E. (the Viceroy) hacra el papel de gal4n de capa y espada con la Marquesa y mucho menos 10 pensaba la dama, pero venra a cuento y lanz6 aquel dardo envenenado al infeliz Marqu~s, como la serpiente que muerde al que topa a su lado y luego sigue su camino en pos de nuevas vrctimas.ZR

211 J.V. ean.cho,-EI Noveno Mandamiento,- La Beyjete de un, vol. I, 1860,377.

-

Camacho, -EI Noveno Mandamienlo,- 413.

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Camacho adds that the lower class woman also said other things to the nobleman, but that they would be inappropriate to offer to the reading public. The Marques took the bait. He believes the -serpiente.· So the author of one woman's downfall was ••• another woman. The husband's violence is socially sanctioned, while the crime of the lower class woman, insulting a member of the upper class, and the crime of the upper class woman, adultery, are unforgivable. There are three women characters in this story: the envious, lower class woman who insulted the Marques, the adulterous wife, and her maid. After describing the her sumptuous room in minute, nostalgic detail, Camacho describes the beautiful, sensuous, unfortunate Marquesa. All of the descriptions of desirable women in the 8eyjsta are very stylized and romantic, and designed to show that the ideal woman is of pure European descent, although her non-creole maid may be attractive also, but, necessarily in a different way: Era la tal una real moza si las hubo, cenceiia de cames pero con la morbidez y frescura de la juventud mas lozana; de rostro ovalado, ligeramente agudo con la barba rematada por un hoyuelo tentador, nariz fina y de ventanillas abiertas y m6biles, ojos nsgros con el brillo humedo que solo se encuentra en Andalucfa 0 en Uma, cejas arqueadas, color triguei'io y una profusa cabellera n~ra y sedasa, abandonada en aquel momento en manos de una mulata como las hubo entonces ... Tentaciones nos han venido de hacer una pintura a la vez de la criada, de ese tipo de Ia mezela de la Europa y del Africa que ha producido a veces tan seductores resultados, pera serfa peesr de descortesra poniendo a Ia Senora con Ia criada, siendo asr que esta se hallaba detras del sill6n en el momento en que las conocimos a las dos.-

In addition to this homage to the Marquesa's physical charms, Camacho also heightens the sensual atmosphere by describing her alluring outfit: ·Vestra la ZD

Camacho, -EI Novena Mandamiento,- 378.

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marquesa una elegante bata de tisu abierta en el delantal por un centro de sada blanco con blondes negras.The flowery descriptions of the room's decor and the Marquesa's attire point to the new, nineteenth century, romantic, male hero. Camacho, Lavalle and Palma all describe people, their clothing, and locationS with a stereotypically -aninine- attention to detail, which indicates a new, ideal type of man, who was quite unlike the rough, violent men who were busy killing each other in Peru's endless civil wars. It is also interesting to note that unlike Gorriti, who wrote fiction that dramatized the horror of the post-independence civil wars in Argentina and Peru, Camacho, Lavalle and Palma's stories in the Revisla stick to -safer, - romantic tales in pleasant, aristocratic, colonial settings. They leave the messy, bloody battlefield scenes of death, despair and carnage to their female colleague, Gorriti. However, although this new, romantic, role model for men was gaining in popularity, it did not mean that women were going to be relieved of their duties as narrative scapegoats. Most of the ReYista stories portray women as unequivocally guilty, no matter what the crime, real or imagined. After bidding her maid goodnight, the Marquesa blew out all of the candles in her room except one. When she heard footsteps on the street below, she threw down a rope ladder for the Viceroy. Camacho writes that he wilileava the love scene between the Viceroy and the Marquesa to his readers' imaginations. The Marques was out gambling all night, every night, which gave his wife the opportunity to entertain the Viceroy. His vice unwittingly enabled hers. The husband and the wife each gave in to their -sensual, - irrational nature. This is a classic middle class portrayal of the upper class as morally bankrupt. Tristan is shocked and fascinated by the Peruvian passion for gambling that she witnessed. Nearly three hundred years after the events of -EI noveno

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mandamiento· allegedly took place. Tristan writes about the prevalence of the same vice. One of her cousins. Carmen. married a man who gambled away all of her inheritance. had innumerable affairs. then died young of a venereal disease. leaving his wife and daughter peniless. Tristan was so curious about gambling that she even snuck into the military headquarters of one of the local caudillos with a cousin's husband. Althaus. to spy on the military officers gambling. Even as she is criticizing something that she regards as a vice. Tristan often sounds vaguely admiring when she is theoretically aiming for a tone of disapproval. Tristan and Althaus spied on General Nieto and his highest ranking officers playing cards. Valdivia. the political priest that Tristan criticizes for his involvement in politics and the civil wars. wasn't playing cards; he just stalked around the room. thinking and plotting: Vimos a Nieto. Carrillo. Moran. Rivero y Ross sentados alrededor de una mesa con las cartas en la mano. ante un rimero de oro. Sobre la mesa habia botelias y va50S lIenos de vino y licores. La cara de estos personajes expresaba 10 que la pasi6n del juego tiene de mas violento: la rabia reconcentrada 0 esa codicia que nada puede saciar y se acrecienta aun mas con el alimento que el azar Ie arroja. Todos tenian un cigarro en la boca y la luz pelida que atravesaba la atm6sfera de humo. daba a estas fisonomias algo de infemal. •.. Permanecimos largo rato contemplando esta escena. Nadia nos vio. Los esclavos de servicio dormian. los bravos defensores de la patria estaban absortos en el juego y el monje en sus pensamiantos.ZM

Another aspect of creole life in Uma that had not changed much from colonial times was the ruinous power given to gossip. After the Marqutis' honor has been insulted by a woman that he doesn't even know. he immediately believes her accusation of his wife. In all of the 8evista tradiciones, if there were even the slightest appearance or suspicion of dishonor, the female character in question had to be rushed off to a convent, or become fatally ill, 21M

TriItain, paqgjnacjgnM. Romero, 362.

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even if she had actually done nothing wrong. Tristan's cousin Oominga Gutierrez was forced into a convent because her fiancee had -disgraced- her by marrying another woman, even though she had done nothing wrong. In -EI novena mandamiento,- on the other hand, the Marquesa is truly guilty of the crime she is accused of committing. The Marqu. comes storming home and accuses his wife of adultery with the Viceroy; to his amazement, she admits everything, and begs for mercy. After she has admitted her guilt to her husband, the Marquesa awaits her sentence. The Marques leaves the house, after locking his wife in her room so that she cannot escape. He then devises the most awful possible punishment for her. When the Marques retums, later in the day, he calmly tells his wife: Esta manana pensaba matarte, pero la muerte es un castigo muy ligero para la mujer adultera. Te encerrare en un convento, te privare de la vista de tus hijos para siempre y allf en las sombrfas arcadas de un claustra, entre las desnudas paredes de una celda, viviras entregada a tus remordimientos, teniendo siempre delante la imagen aterradora de tu amante ensangrentado y fa idea de tu esposo vendido - aUf moriras como un perro, devorada en vida por el gusana de tu conciencia, y tu cadaver sera arrojado al osario cornun para que manana tus hijos no puedan hallar tu sepulcro y no se averguencen de las liviandades de la madre.225

The Marquesa agrees that being locked up in a convent is a fate worse than death. She begs her husband to kill her: -Carlos, Carlos ...... Imisericordial matame por piedad ......••-. He refuses to kill her, and instead forces her to watch the murder of her lover, the Viceroy. At the stroke of twelve. the Marques threw the rope ladder over the balcony; when the Viceroy began to climb up it, the Marques yelled at him Zi!5

Cernacho, -EI Novano Mandamiento,- 417.

ZillCamacho, -EI Noveno Mandamiento,- 417.

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-L1eg6 tu horae Virey - hoy no te espera la mujer infame sino el demonio de la venganza, - and threw a heavy, sack of sand on him. Then eight men (that the Marques had paid in advance) each came and threw a heavy sack of sand on the Viceroy until he was pummeled to death: .•• se desprendieron de las paredes como sombras ocho fomidos negros cuyos blancos diantas brillaban en la oscuridad y cada uno arroj6 contra el Virrey un pesado costal de arena dej8ndolo en el acto magullado y muerto.--

The identity of the assassins was not casual; on an allegorical level, they represent the creole fears of both a race war, and the fear of armed men of color in the employ of one of their enemies. One of the most prevalent fears of any particular group of creoles during the era of the civil wars was that their political rivals would successfully recruit an army from the non-creole population. The Civil wars always involved large numbers of armed, non-creole men, which made the creole military leaders nervous, but not nervous enough to quit fighting each other. Camacho concludes this tradici6n by stating that although a few people knew that the Marques had killed the Viceroy, they thought that he was justified in doing so. Thus, the Marques was never prosecuted or punished for killing the King's appointed head of the colony. Gender solidarity outweighed political loyalty in this case. In -EI noveno mandamiento. - adultery is stigmatized. as it will be in other ReyiSla stories, because it conflicted, in theory, with the bourgeois ideology of the -legitimacy of patemity.· If married women are having sex with men who are not their husbands. who knows whose child they may be carrying. If Tristan had been alive to read this story when it was published. she

'iI!Z1 C8rnach0,

-EI Noveno Mandarniento,-

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undoubtedly would have been more sympathetic to the Marquesa. by pointing out that when divorce is not legal, it leads to all sorts of desperate behavior. Tristan would probably also argue that the Church should playa more positive role in women's lives than to merely be their appointed jailer. The nineteenth century image of convents as houses of torture was quite far removed from the colonial image of convents as a desirable place to be in order to assure one's chances of going to heaven, and as the only designated space for women intellectuals.

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Chapter 3

Nineteenth Century Peruvian Morbid Erotica «IDe todo es capaz un mal frailel>~

In 1848. a twenty-five year old. unknown author. Narciso Anistegui. wrote what later came to be known as the first Peruvian novel. EI padre Honio:

Ego,s de fa Vida del Cuzcg. which was published serially as a Inovela por entregas,IS in the leading Uma newspaper. EI Comarcjo. and then republished in its entirety as a 600 page volume. The main crime featured in El padre Horin was based on an incident that took place in Cuzco in 1836 in which a priest, Father Or6s. murdered Angela Barreda. the daughter of a wealthy family. Or6s, Barreda's confessor. was protected by the ecclesiastical 'fuero,I which granted priests immunity from the civil legal system; however. regional authorities intervened in this case because of the public uproar. The Church hierarchy pressured Barreda's parents to drop the case against Or6s, but they persisted. The ecclesiastical fuero. the Church's private judicial system, was one of the most contentious national issues at this time. and

.

appears as a topic of discussion in the Beyjsta in both fiction and non-fiction texts. Although he was prosecuted and found guilty by the civil authorities, Father Oros was given a 'Iightl sentence. perhaps in an attempt to pacify the Church hierarchy: he could not leave the city of Cuzco for ten years - that was

ZJI

Narciso Araitegui, B padre HgnIn. vol. II, (Lina: EdtoriaI Universo, n.d.) 264.

B ~eIa por ani. . .• refers to a very popular way d ptjJIishing novels in the nineteenth century in Spain as wall as in Latin America: they were publ'1Shed in daily or weekly installments in newspapers or magazines, and tended to be melodramatic styIiIticaIIy.

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his entire punishment.- Incidents like this one gamered sup~ for the revocation of the ecclesiastical fuero, which did not actually take place until 1856. under General Castilla. The conservative coalition of Church and landed aristocracy tried to reinstate the -tuero- in the compromise constitution of 1860; they were unsuccessful. Although EI

Padre Honlo has been discounted by some critics as a lurid

historical melodrama, perhaps because it is written in a truly flamboyant ·folletinesco- style, Ar.tstegui's novel is invaluable as both a literary and a historical document. It clearly lays out the political, cultural and economic agenda of the dominant faction of the creole elite during General Castilla's first term in office as President, and it establishes several strongly recurrent narrative pattems for nineteenth century Peruvian fiction. Ar.tstegui has several of the characters in his novel make long ideological speeches. There are many parallels between Arestegui's serialized novel and the serialized short stories in the Bevista. which was first published eleven years after EI padre Horan. during Castilla's second term in off'lee. I will analyze EI pactre Ho[in and three short stories from the Beyjsta in this chapter: -Si haces mal, no esperes bien. - by Juana Manuela Gorriti; -La hija del Oiclor,· by Ricardo Palma; and -Furens Amoris,- by J.V. Camacho. All four texts feature the bourgeoisie'S discourse of displacement which sought to narratively delegitimate the landed aristocracy and the Church. I will also comment on some of the differences between Arestegui's world view and that of the Beyjsta writers. The tragic endings of all of these literary works make a strong statement about the hopelessness many Peruvians experienced after more than twenty five years of continuous civil war, and its accompanying violence and chaos. Two of the stories end with the ZI) Mario Castro Arenas. La Godard, n.d.) SO.

nczvaa ..... v" eri er;jOO eq;jel (Uma: 155

Editor Juan

heroines' rape and murder; the other two end with the unfortunate realization that the newlywed couple consists of the incestuous alliance of brother and sister. The themes that I will explore are: nationalism and patriotism; the consolidation of the nation; gender; the sexual economy; rape and the eroticization of the female corpse; incest and illegitimacy; the Church; the figure of the corrupt priest; race; class distinctions; and commerce and the secularization of national life. Arestegui, Gormi, Palma and Camacho narrate the shift in values from the colonial social order to the republican social order. In so doing, they redefine the -optimal- Peruvian subject, and reconceive the original civic humanist conception -virtue,·. which was now embodied in its highest forms in -patriotism- and a -Work ethic.· The former loyal subject of the King has become the ideal republican citizen, and the .good. Christian of the colonial era has become a productive, hard-worker. Arestegui, Gormi, Palma and Camacho. as members of the restless, up-and-coming middle class, faced the difficult task of stigmatizing those who do not work as useless parasites. and praising those who do work as noble and patriotic. This represented a sharp change in the Hispanic creole attitude toward work; for centuries, work had been considered the exclusive realm of the lower class. The main goal of the members of the upper class was to avoid work altogether if possible. They might engage in political activity, or manage their own plantationS or dabble in commerce, but this was not considered ·work.· ·Work" was manual labor, which was traditionally performed by non-creoles. AAistegui and the Revista authors were • By -optirnaI.mject- I am referring to the idealized c:oncaption of the -good" man or woman of a particular 8DCiIII order. as defined ." one of the _IIi IBN groups. For an exc:el*d discussion of this tepic (the shift in VIIIuea flam one IIOCiaI order to the next. and the accompanying ntdefiniIian of the -optkMIlUbjecI., ...: Sylvia Wynter. -on Disenchanting Discourse: 'Minority' Literary Crilicillm and Beyond.- IIw Nettp arxI Cgntlll gf MiPilY Discourse. ad. Abdul R. JanMohamad and David Lloyd (Oxford: Oxford University Press,199O) 432-469.

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faced with the narrative challenge of portraying the -idle- rich in as negative a light as possible. (which they do quite well.) while elevating the concept of work as dignified and noble. rather than as contemptible and unfortunate. These liberal bourgeois writers differentiate between the useful and useless members of the upper class. The -goocr members of the uPl)8r class are those who are not enamored of the Church. who believe in -patriotism. - the -work ethic. - and who recognize the wisdom of joining forces with the industrious middle class. through the convenient mechanism of marriage. Marriage and the legality of patemity serve as metaphors for the consolidation of the nation in all of the texts that I examine. Doris Sommer discusses the relationship between patriotism and marriage found in nineteenth century Latin American novels in Foundatjonal Sctjons: -... after the creation of the new nations. the domestic romance is an exhortation to be fruitful and multiply.-ZJ2 Procreation thus became a patriotic gesture. Sexual desire proved to be a force for democratization in the new Spanish American republics; in particular. it granted new agency to middle class men and women. In order for men to desire marriage. however. they had to undergo a -narrative makeover;the heroes of nineteenth century fiction were -tem in ized. - The bourgeoisie seized upon the romantic themes of natural liberty and natural love as proof that the upper class. and its ally the Church. were -tyrannous and unnaturalbecause of their system of arranged marriages. which the urban middle class claimed blocked the fuHiliment of natural liberty and natural love. Natural love and natural liberty also served as metaphors for capitalism. since the bourgeoisie wanted access to the labor force that they accused the landed aristocracy and the Church of unfairly monopolizing. to the detriment of the nation.

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In this chapter I will refer to the work of three literary theorists. Elisabeth Bronfen's book. -Ovw Her [)ead Body: Death. FerninjniLY and the Aesthetjc. calls attention to the complexity of the image of the -dead female body. - and to its use in a variety of different art fonns as a metatrope. She explores the many possible meanings of the female corpse. and highlights the obsessive frequency of its appearance in Western art. beginning in the nineteenth century. Bronfen's discussion of one of the functions of the repr8S81tation of a female corpse is also applicable to the type of gothic literary style that Arestegui uses in EI Padre Horan: both surface the repressed. Broofen writes: Given. then, that representations of death both articulate an anxiety about and a desire for death. they function like a symptom. which psychoanalytic discourse defines as a repression that fails. ••. If symptoms are failed repreSSions. representations are symptoms that visualize even as they conceal what is too dangerous to articulate openly but too fascinating to repress successfully.-

All four of the texts that I examine in this chapter delve into the role that repressed. forbidden desire plays in the Peruvian social order in both a literal and an allegorical manner. The literal meaning of some of the scenes in El padre Horan, -Furens Amoris. - -Si haces mal no esperes bien, - and -La hija del oidor,- has not been explored. perhaps because it would be'oo terrifying.However, in retreating immediately into allegorical readings of these texts. part of the original impact is lost. and the power of the texts is unecessarily diffused. I will examine both the literal and allegorical readings of key scenes. Judith Butler's hypothesis that gender is constructed. and therefore -performatory- in nature in any given social order provides a useful theoretical

ZD

EfIS8belh Bronfen. 0,,« Hac Dead Bodv· DMth, famjnjnil)r and the ''''betic; (New

York: Routledge. 1992) x-xi.

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framework for my analysis of the sexual economy in Peru. In Gender T[ouble. she writes: ... the substantive effect of gender is perforrnatively produced and compelled by the regulatory practices of gender coherence. Hence, within the inherited discourse of the metaphysics of substance, gender proves to be perfonnative • that is. constituting the identity it is purported to be. In this sense, gender is always a doing ••• There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is perfonnatively constituted by the very 'expressionS' that are said to be its results.-

Butler encourages her readers to carefully examine the way that images of women are constructed and deployed, since gender will be defined differently in every sociaVcultural order because of its intersection with particular -raCial, class, ethniC, sexual, and regional modalities.-. Doris Sommer's book FgY0datjonal Retjons; The Natjonal Romances of Latin America demonstrates the unmistakable relationship between cultural and political hegemony in nineteenth century Latin America. She convincingly shows -the inextricability of politics fro", fiction in the history of nation building. -. Sommer's thesis was the starting point for my own work, and is especially applicable to this chapter. In FoyndatjMal Fictjons. she seeks: ... to locate an erotics of politics, to show how a variety of novel national ideals are all ostensibly grounded in -natural- heterosexual love and in the marriages that provided a figure for apparently nonviolent consolidation during intemecine conflicts at mid-century.--

2M Judith Buller, Gaodar TrgMt; Ftmjojlm and tba SWvtpjpn gf IdanliIY (New York: Routledge, 1990) 24-25.

-

Buller 3; see also chapt. 1: -Subjects d SexlGenderlDesire.-

-

Sornmer~. Sornnw 6.

ZJ1

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It is significant to. note that the civil wars in Peru had such a destructive effect on national morale that virtually none of the fiction being written at this time featured a -happy ending.- The heroes and heroines were usually all dead at the end of the story. or at the very least locked in a convent for the rest of their lives. which represented a type of social. if not physical. death.One of the aspects of nineteenth century fiction that most interests me is the narrative construction of the sexual economy in republican Peru. In the bourgeoisie's frame of reference. the post-independence sexual economy. (as it is constructed symbolically in fiction.) is a misogynist. CathOlic one of repressed. forbidden. desire, which ultimately produces rape. incest, illegitimacy and death as its tragic outcome. and not the ostensible national goal of increasing the number of marriages. and by extension. the number of -legitimate bourgeois children-· being born. One of the most effective ways for middle class authors to discredit the upper class and the Church was to portray both groups as guilty of -heinous- sexual crimes; they sought to demonstrate that the results of the secret. colonial, sexual crimes of the upper class and the Church- were poisoning the present social order.•' In that way. the bourgeois intellectuals hoped that their reading public would come to aSSOCiate the landed aristocracy and the Church with -negative- sexual behaviors, that were stigmatized in the

231 The idea of a person's palential -social death- is auggeated by Elisabeth Bronfen and Sarah Webster Goodwin's disct II8ion of Orlando Patterson's definition of slavery as aociaI death in the -Introduction- to the voUne they edited. [)taIb and eqrm:rCe!jon (BaIIimont: Johns

Hopkins University P...... 1993) 8.

•

Sonlner. 18.

240 The bourgeois writers judged the ctuch to be -~- of sexual crimes either through the miadeeds of corrupt priests, or through tdly condoning. or even facilitating. the sexual crimes of the upper dua.

. , Pratt. personal cornrIU'I~ion. JuIy.1997. Stanford University.

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new sexual economy: illegitimacy and incest. In fact. the Revista writers tried to show that illegitimacy produces incest.

Plot Summaries

EI Comercio published hundreds of ArHtegui's short (six to eight pages) chapters. thus making his work a commercial, if not artistic. success at the time of its publication. Given the considerable length of EI padre Horin. Arestegui faced a challenge that Camacho. Gorriti and Palma did not. how to keep his readers -hooked- for almost one hundred chapters. He relies heavily on ominous foreshadowing as a narrative technique to engage his readers' curiosity and build narrative tension. Arestegui employs several different tropes to produce a suspenseful atmosphere in his novel: death is omnipresent; the Church is described in a sexual and sensual manner; phallic imagery and language abound. Arestegui's political opinions were not offered

i~

a SUbtle,

veiled manner; he spelled everything out, both at the level of plot. and through dialogues between characters, so that anyone who was literate would have a firm grasp on Arestegui's point of view after reading EI padre Horin. I do not mean to imply that EI padre Horin is a -Simple- text; it is not. There are many layers of meaning, numerous complex metaphors. and an interesting allegorical reading of the novel. but it is important to keep in mind that it was originally written for the widest possible readership of a daily Uma newspaper, which included many barely literate readers, hence its over-determined plot and characters who sometimes seem more like caricatures. Although EI Padre Horin received m~ed review from literary critics at the time of its publication, or shortly thereafter, by the end of the nineteenth century it was being hailed as the first and best Peruvian novel. Ricardo Palma publicly

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praised Arestegui's novel. However. Jose Antonio de Lavalle. the founder and first director of the Reyjsta. totally snubbed the text. In a review that he wrote

about a friend's novel which was published in the Bayjsta in 1861.- Lavalle complains about the lack of Peruvian novels. Apparently EI Padre Horin did not fit within his narrow definition of what a novel should be (an instruction book on morality for teenagers.) In the process of writing literary criticism, Lavalle champions the liberal, urban. bourgeoisie's tifamily values.- which he assumes are standard for all of his readers: the nuclear family. a marriage-based social order. legitimate children. eamed wealth. knowing one's position in life, etc. Lavalle and company stigmatize the system of SOCial relations developed earlier by the landed gentry, in which. for example. the system of concubinage was taken for granted as a natural male privilege. extended families all lived together, and -Ia fidelidad del matrimonio- was mandatory for wives. but obviously not for husbands. The bourgeois patriarchal system insisted on the -legality of patemity,- which meant acknowledging all of one's offspring, formally and informally. In order to participate fully as a respected member of the new social order, one had to be able to name both parents, and be recognized by both of them publicly. l,Es Ia novela util y nacesaria en las sociedades modemas? ... T6mese par fin de una novela la demostraci6n practica de una gran verdad religiosa y moral: Ia fidelidad del matrimonio. los inconvenientes de esas alianzas subrepticias .. ilegales que ni Dios ni la sociedad santiflC8l1, los peligros de Ia ambici6n 0 del lujo. por ejemplo; indudablemente que todes eses son verdades. que se demuestran desde hace largo tiempo en el pilipito y en los libros de religi6n y de moral; paro eI j6ven que no oye jam4s un senn6n. que no recorrerfa sin dormirse cuatro p4ginas de un libra mfstico, ... aprenderfa pr4cticamente en una novela. lefda por pasatiempo y distracci6n 10 que su indolencia a su pereza Ie impiden ir a saber en otra parte ... Considerada. pues. bajo 242 Lavalle reviewed Luis Benjamin Cisneros' novel Jute· E...... de II yjda an UII& which was ptbIished in Paris in 1861.

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el aspecto que llevamos enunciado, la novela es util, y su falta en nuestra sociedad, deja un vacCo sensible y conveniente de llenar. l,Ese vacCo existe realmente entre nosotros? Indudablemente si. De tados los ga,eros literarios, ninguno ha sido menos explotado en el Peru que Ia novela; y aun, entre las pocas que sa han escrito, ninguna corresponds a Ia especie que llevamos indicada.-

EI

padre

Honin was undoubtedly too lurid, too gothic and too -wlgar" for

the refined tastes of the founder of the 8eyjsta de Lirila. However, unlike Lavalle, Clorinda Matta de Tumer, author of the most famous nineteenth century Peruvian anti-clerical novel, Aves sjn njdo, which focused on the -trinity of terror- that oppressed the rural indigenous population - the village priest, the landowner and the local govemment official, called attention to Arestegui's novel, and urged other Peruvians to read it, after it had been ignored for years. She wrote about EI Padre Hor4n in 1890: -La mejor novela peruana, quizas la unica novela que tenemos en 81 pequeiUsimo reportorio nacional, es, EI Padre Horan ... -20M In EI Padre Horin Arestegui develops several romantic, finanCial and moral intrigues; it is the erotic possibilities contained in each of these intrigues that drives the narrative. Doris Sommer comments on one of the most striking characteristics of nineteenth century, Latin American, fICtion: -It is the erotic rhetoric that organizes patriotic novels." The title character, Hor,", is a lascivious, corrupt priest who is doubly dominated by his twin obsessions, whic~

frequently merge into one and the same passion: sex/money; Padre

Horein is quite anxious to seduce Angelica, the fourteen year old heroine of El

243

Lavale, -Juia,- La BavjIta de LirrII, vol. III, 1882, 481-492.

244 KriaIaI quat.. Mallo de Turn. from an unIiUed article I¥ her in EI pen;; ,....." (Aug. 30, 1890, p. 638); The AndM VIIWId frqm tbe CiIY. 44.

245

Sonmer 2.

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padre HQnln. and to acquire additional funds. He directs all of his attention towards pursuing these two goals. Horan's lecherous desires initially set the plot in motion. He devises a simple plan to gain access to Angelica: he will become her confessor. Hordn's profession, the priesthood, provides him with a socially acceptable means for spending time alone in the dark with a fourteen year old girl without a chaperone; however, the same institution that allows Horan to engage Ang6lica in a relationship with him prevents him from fulfilling his real dream, to marry her. Since he cannot approach Angelica himself, and offer to be her confessor, Horan has to rely on the services of an intermediary; he hires a nineteenth century Peruvian -Celestina, - a -beata- name Brigida, to lay the groundwork for his evil designs. Brigida's motives are both emotional and financial; she adores Horan, and wants him to like her, and he also pays her for doing his bidding. At the time that the novel begins, we learn that Brigida has successfully persuaded Angelica's mother (Paulina) that her daughter is on the highway to hell, and that the only possible solution is that she begin confessing her many sins to Father Horan as soon as possible. Arestegui's intricate plot construction reveals as much about nineteenth century literary and social conventions as it does about his imagination. The ·rules· about who could talk to whom, and under what Circumstances, conveniently allow Arestegui to introduce additional characters, who frequently play roles in either triangulating desire. or by serving as a foil or double to either Horan or Angelica. Although there are many characters in EI padre HQrin, who are intricately connected to each other, Arestegui maintains narrative coherence through a series of doubles. The two principal characters who drive the plot, Angelica and Horan. each have two foils and several ·siblings· (i.e. fictive twins.) Angelica and Horan are themselves foils for each other. since they define the two ends of the moral spectrum between pure good and

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absolute evil. Castro Arenas comments on A.-.stegui's lack of subtlety in sketching out the characters in his novel: Antes que criaturas humanas son conceptos de una sola pieza: Ang6lica encama el concepto de Ar6stegui sabre la castidad de las j6venes donceltas .•• EI Padre Hor6n representa Ia sintesis de las abominaciones morales del narrador: el vicio, Ia corrupci6n, Ia insinceridad, la falsificaci6n moral y sentimental.-

Arestegui seeks to re-define .good. and ·evil· in terms of a secular moral system; he uses the metaphor of ~e natural· to this end. Angelica is ·natural~ good and doesn't need to confess with a priest in order to become pure. She is already, naturally, ·sin-free.· In fact, her parents sexualize her by making her go to confession. A'-'st8Qui writes that Ang6lica didn't even know about or understand most of the ·sins· that were listed in the ·Cotidiano· that she was ordered to read to prepare for confession; she learns about these ·sins· for the first time from spiritual literature. Arestegui believed that this type of reading material had a bad effect on young girls: Criatura de tan puros sentimientos, de tan delicada sensibilidad. no era posible que comprendiera esa especie de enigmas, que explicados, sin duda habrian alarmado su inocencia, profanado su candor. Noticias tan abundantes de la depravaci6n del coraz6n humano, consignades en un LlBRO DE DEVOCION, que par su pequeiiez, por su lujo y sus bellas y finisimas estampas, as una aspecie de alhaja para las j6venes; l,c6mo no excitani" su curiosidad, haste el extremo de saber 10 que ignoraban, a fuerza de pensar y preguntar?247

Each main character in EI padre Honin also has a same-sex foil: Angelica's opposite is a spoiled, vain, upper-class girl named Amalia, who -

castro Arenas 50-51.

'2A1 Ar8stegui, Torno 1,162-163.

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hopes to ·conquer" the heart of an upper class ~y (who is not really interested in her.) Wenceslao. through an arranged marriage; Amalia is as seHish as Angelica is seHiess. Angelica's modesty and inner and outer beauty stand in sharp contrast to the arrogant Amalia's obvious character defects. Horan's foil is the -good- priest Fray Lucas. Although Lucas' motives are always impeccable. he suffers from the delusion that evil should be ignored. rather than rooted out and destroyed. His -feminine· traits of cautiousness. passivity and forgiveness are exploited by the more actively -male- Hor4n. who continues to run amuck without even worrying that Lucas might try to stop him. The other male villain is Tadeo. the miserly moneylender. Brfgida and Paulina are the two female villains; they are Honin's -helpers.- ArHtegui did not believe that a woman was capable of aspiring to true treachery on her own. This is a synopsis of EI Padre Horin: Angelica'S parents force her to go to confession. Her mother Paulina picks out her confessor. following the advice of the devout beata Brigicla. The priest. Horan. to whom Angelica confesses her (nonexistent) sins is a lecherous. midcll.aged man who is consumed by his lust for her. Angelica receives mysterious anonymous letters from an unknown ·protector- [Horin] who has paid off her parents' loan from a usurious moneylender [don Tadeo.] Tadeo had raped and murdered a young girl. Mercedes. before the action in this novel takes place; he was never imprisoned for his crime because of his wealth. Paulina and Juan Bautista had to borrow money from Tadeo at a very high interest rate to be able to buy seeds to plant on their small farm. Angelica is introduced to -class differences- and romantic love at the same time when she and her mother pay a visit to an upper class home [Gertrudis. Bonifacio. and Amalia] Where they are snubbed by the women of the house. because of their middle class status, but not by the men. Angelica and

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Wenceslao. the intended of Amalia. meet each other for the first time; their brief. erotic. highly charged. visual exchange awakens Angelica to her sense of herself as a woman and not a girl. ANstegui establishes Angelica as the model for the ideal woman in his New Peru. Wenceslao would have been the perfect candidate for Angtilica's husband and the position of ideal man. but he makes the -mistake-- of falling in love with Doloritas, Ang4ilica's lower class, indigenous friend, instead of falling in Iova with Arjstegui's dream girl. Angelica. Angelica befriends several women and families from the lower class. against her parents' wishes; she visits them secretly. Her motive for associating with people from the lower class is one of compassion. Arestegui describes Angelica as the model of civic/secular duty. She intuitively understands that the members of the emergent bourgeoisie must perform the acts of charity toward the lower class that the upper class had traditionally undertaken. even if her parents are too short-sighted to see this. Angelica brings her dying friend Casimira food and finds a doctor to treat her. and another lower class family. free of charge. Angelica's interactions with her lower class friends supply several of the subplots. When her indigent indigenous friend. Casimira. dies. Angelica goes to the convent where her confessor lives to ask Fray Lucas (Horan's foil. the -good- priest) for the donation of a funeral shroud in which to bury Casimira. Horan sees her at the convent before she reaches Fray Lucas. however. and seizes this opportunity to lure her into his -cell. - lock her into it. and try to seduce her. She resists his verbal and physical advances and escapes when Fray Lucas. who saw Angelica go into Horan's cell, summons Horan to his own - Accoipapacy texts was written by Jose Ignacio Moreno in 1831; his -Essay on Papal Supremacy- went through six editions.:m Although Goyeneche enjoyed a warm rapport with Rome, Peru did not celebrate its official agreement with the papacy regarding control of the much coveted -regio patronato- until 1874, after Goyeneche's death, due to internal disagreements in Peru over the terms of the concordat with the papacy. Every constitution written after independence authorized the President of the Republic to celebrate a -concordato- with the papacy, subject to the approval of Congress, regarding the state's exercise of the -regio patronato, - which the papacy had giv.. to the Spanish monarchy, and which the secular state now 3315

Thomas Bokenkatter, A <jm;jee HjltQIX gf" Qethplis Cbun;b (Garden City, NY:

Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1977) 297. 331 One fIX8II1'Ie is Francisco de Paula GonzIiIez Vigil author of -Defense of the Authority of Governments and Bishops agant the Pretensions rI the Roman Curia;- see footnote 1 for more details.

-

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desperately wanted. Even in 1874, the civil govemment disagreed with some aspects of the papal bull, sent by Pope Pius IX, and did not grant its formal approval (in the form of an exequatur) until 1880: Since the terms of the bull were regarded as being incompatible with the prerogatives of national sovereignty. the govemment of Peru refused to accept it. It was not until Nicol4s de Pi6rola became president, or rather dictator, the the exequatur was granted on January 27, 1880.-

After independence, communication between Peru and the Papacy was severely impeded. In a letter to Goyeneche, Pope Gregory XVI informs him that it will now be his duty to send information to the Pope conceming his

recommendations for priests qualified for the open bishoprics. priests who should not be appointed to vacant bishoprics. and other timely and sensitive manners. Pope Gregory XVI knew that sooner or later representatives of the civil govemment would contact him with their candidates for vacant clerical positions. even though nothing had been worked out conceming the ·regio patronato· yet; he wanted to have Goyeneche's list in hand as well. The first direct contact between the papacy and the new Spanish American nations took place in 1823; Pope Leon XII sent Juan Muzi. as an Apostolic Vicar, to Chile and Argentina on an informal papal mission to reestablish ties with Rome. It was not a formal diplomatic mission. however, since the Pope had not offiCially recognized Argentina and Chile as independent nations. One of the young priests who accompanied Juan Muzi was Jose Maria Mastai. who would later become the powerful Pope Pius IX. Although he did not go to Peru. Mastai's first-hand knowledge of South America undoubtedly had an impact on his future dealings with Bishop Goyeneche. Muzi and his J. L.Ir¥t Mecham, Cbtrc;b and State jn l etin ArnIric;a. A HWory rI PaljIjgp: Ecclrj'stjppl 8fIetir; ..... (Chapel HiI, He: The UniYeIsily cI North Carolina Pr8sa. 1966) 170. 338

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delegation received a cold welcome in both Argentina and Chile, and the mission was a failure; they-retumed to Rome without having accomplished any of their objectives. As Pope Pius IX, Mastai was a much more successful diplomat and

politician than Muzi on their trip to South America. The Church historian Bokenkotter comments on the intemal political significance of one of the Church's important nineteenth century doctrines, which was authored by Pope Pius IX: The proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854, represented a distinct triumph for the Ultramontanes, as the whole affair was deliberately staged to dramatize the authority of the Holy Father, who read the decree with the bishops looking on as simple spectators.-

The culmination of Pope Pius IX' bid to increase the power of the papacy, also known as ·ultramontanism.· was the declaration of ·Papallnfallibil~ at the First Vatican Council in 1870; this dogma deprived the bishops of their former role as a type of check on the power of the Pope. After the implementation of ·Papal Infallibility· the Pope no longer needed to consult with the Bishops of the Church before proclaiming Church doctrine. Given the conservative nature of the Church in Peru, as opposed to the liberal Catholicism that flourished in the German universities and many parts of France at this time. it is not surprising that the relations between the Church in Peru and Rome were harmonius. Goyeneche was also a masterful politician. By remaining in Arequipa, Bishop Goyeneche soon held the desirable position as the most senior member (in fact. the only active member) of the Church hierarchy for fIVe different countries: Ecuador, Peru. Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Goyeneche was the -

Bokenkalter 300.

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papacy's only reliable contact with Peru for fifteen years after independence. Even after the vacant bishoprics began to be filled in the mid 1830·s. Goyeneche retained his position as the senior clergyman in Peru. the spokesman for the Church, and the point person for legal disputes with the State. Even though the position of Archbishop of Uma theoretically was· a higher rank than that of Bishop of Arequipa, Goyeneche had carved out a niche for himself (when he was the only member of the Church hierarchy in Peru) that he did not give up when the vacant bishoprics were filled. In a letter that Goyeneche sent to Pope Gregory XVI, Pope Pius VIII's successor. he asked the Pope for permission to allow the -religious- clergy to leave their orders and their vows of poverty in order to become secular clergy with parishes of their own. The term -religious- or -regular- clergy refers to those priests and nuns who took special vows and joined a religious order, like the Franciscan order, in which all of the members live together in a monastery or convent. The term -secular- clergy refers to priests who do not belong to a special order, and who serve the public by working as parish priests, or teaching, or as a member of the Church hierarchy, etc. Secular clergy did not have to take vows of poverty. Some secular priests serving indigent parishes lived in poverty, while others with wealthy parishes, or a guaranteed income, like a bishopric, lived quite well. The -regular- clergy almost always lived in luxury, since their families had to make such large donationS to their monasteries or convents in order for them to join an order, their vows of poverty notwithstanding. The Pope sent Monsenor Ostini to the court of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil in June of 1830.3otO Ostini asked Goyeneche whether the Pope should send a -Nuncio Apost6lico- to Peru. Goyeneche answered that unless some type of 3«)

Vargas Ugarte 109.

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written agreement was reached with the civil govemment first, it would be useless to send a papal diplomatic mission to Peru.341 Goyeneche may have had other motives for discouraging the visit of a -Nuncio Apost6lico- to Peru then he would not be the senior clergyman in residence anymore. Pope Gregory XVI wrote a leiter to Bishop Goyenche in 1832, informing him of his -nombramiento de Delegaclo Apost61ico y Visitaclor de los Regulares de ambos sexos en tada Ia Republica. - . Thus, in addition t~ the powerful position he already enjoyed as the only bishop in Peru, Goyeneche was given special authority by the Pope to oversee even more of the Church's business. The title of -Visitador de los Regulares de ambos sexos- was especially signifICant, because Canon law states that the regular, or -religious, - clergy are only subject to the authority of the heads of their order, and the Pope; they are not subject to the authority of the local Bishops or Archbishops, who are members of the secular clergy. The Pope was departing from standard Church policy in officially granting Goyeneche power over the regular clergy as -Visitador de los Regulares.· In 1832, after receiving his new titles, Goyeneche made a two month tour of his diocese.sa

341 Vargas Ugarte 113-114. 342

Vargas Ugarte 116.

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Rada YGarrio 458.

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Gutl'rrez' Escape from Her Convent and Other Contentious Legal Issu•• The -Befann of the Regulars- and Other Laga"sauas pertaining ta the Church Covered in tbe Civil Law Code

Bolivar was the first Peruvian ruler after independence who tried to drastically reform the Cburch, and bring it under the control of the state in 1826. The importance of Bolivafs laws regulating the Church is that there was not another massive effort to bring the Church uncler the state's control until the Constitution of 1856. He was an unsuccessful precursor to that -radicaldocument which appeared almost thirty years later. Although San Martin forced the Archbishop of Uma and several other Bishops to leave Peru, and suppressed some religious orders that he suspected were royalist, he was not as ambitious or thorough as Bolivar in his attempts to curb the power of the Church. Goyeneche refused to relinquish his bishopric and leave Arequipa when ordered to do so by Bolivar, who bad been informed of Goyeneche's royalist sentiments. The letters exchanged between Bolivar and Goyeneche reveal Goyenecbe's preferred method of dealing with the civil authorities, politely agreeing to obey orders from them, while actually refusing to cooperate.3M Goyeneche's strategy usually worked, since the civil and military authorities had such short terms in office. In Iglesia y podsr en el perU contemparineo. 1821-1919, Pilar Garcia Jordan offers her theory about why Goyeneche was not driven out of Peru: she classffies him as master politician, 3M

Vargas UgartelOG-101, 361-354.

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an -hombre posibilista en extremo, - who swore his allegiance to every constitution and ruler in post-independence Peru.Bolivar's -Constituticc5n,- ern effect only six months between December of 1826 and June of 1827) met with stiff opposition from the remaining clergy in Peru, and from their conservative allies, as did his decree aRefonna de los regulares, - also issued in 1828. Bolivar legislated the following reforms: he set a fee schedule for religious services performed by the clergy;- he reduced the number of offICial religious holidays; he ordered the regular clergy to submit to diocesan authority;M7 he set a minimum age limit for taking vows to join a religious order; he mandated that there could be only one convent or monastery of each religious order in each city; and he established the minimum number of inmates needed to maintain a monastery or convent at 8.Bolivar tried to solve the problem of vacant Bishoprics by appointing men to serve as -Bishops-elect- until the Republic could establish diplomatic relations with the papacy; Bolivar hoped the Pope would simply approve the men that he had already chosen to be Bishops without question. This was Bolivar'S least popular provision regarding the Church. After Bolivar left Peru, there was a backlash against the 8foreigners- who had tried to govem Peru. Congress voted to annul Bolivar's nominations, and all ecclesiastical authority 345

GaIda JoftMn 22-

- BoIrvar ....,!pIed to pnwent the ct.gy from charging indigent Peruvians exorbitant rates for performing baptiIms, weddings.. bIerafa, and other eccIesiaSlicai celebrations because this was a frequert ~ flam indigenouI and mestizo Peruvians who lived in nnI areas. This is the same . . . that Ar6stegui writes about in EI pm HonIo. 3C7 BoIrvar tried to change c:anor1law wilh his civil decree, since canon Iawaxpl"lCiIIy stales that the regular clergy ant nat U1ject to local BiIhapa or Arct1biIhope. BoUv. wanted the bishops to be responsIJIe for ~ng the c.nuly regulars. This cid happen when the Pope awarded Goyeneche with the special ..Ie d 'VlliliadaI' de loa raguIares. in 1832.

- BoIrvar COilfilcated the money and poperty d the convents and monasteries that were closed (becaLM there eight monica or nun living in them, or becaLM there was already another convent or monastery of the same order in that town) for the national treasury. Mecham 163.

waren'

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again reverted to Goyeneche, since he was the only remaining Bishop who had been installed by the Pope.The -reform of the regulars- was a more complicated venture than Bolfvar had anticipated. Even in colonial Peru, the conduct of the regular clergy had worried the Archbishop of Uma, Las Heras; he acknowledged that a -reforma de los regulares- was needed. Las Heras wrote to Pope Pius VII in 1813 stating that he had tried to make the regular clergy honor their vows, especially their vow of poverty, with little success. Since the regular clergy were not governed by the local Church hierarchy, they frequently engaged in behavior which the Bishop or Archbishop of their diocese did not approve of, but was powerless to prevent. 3I5D Each monastery or convent had its own set of rules that accompanied the vows taken when someone entered the order. The regular clergy usually came from powerful, wealthy families. Therefore, when a monk or a nun objected to a condition placed upon hirnJher, he/she could either simply choose to break the offending rule, with little fear of punishment, or appeal to a family member from outside of the monastery/convent to put pressure on the head of the order to relax the rules a little. Manuel Lorenzo de Vidaurre, one of the most strident nineteenth century Peruvian critics of the Church, wrote in his -Plan del Peru,- which he published in Philadelphia in 1832, that monasteries were -asylums for the lazy and ignorant.-351 Tristan writes in p'rigrjnatjons that the nuns of Santa Catalina always elected her cousin to be their Mother Superior, and that the priests who were nominally in charge of overseeing Santa Catalina always tried to depose her, because they thought she was too permissive with the nuns, but to no avail, 3048

Vargas Ugarte 97.

3I5D Vargas Ugarte 8. 3151

KIaiJer 43.

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since the founding charter of Santa Catalina gave the nuns of that convent the power to choose their own Mother Superior without outside interference. Klaiber writes the following about Chavez de Ia Rosa, the liberal Spanish Bishop of Arequipa from 1788 -1804: ·Chavez de Ia Rosa failed in his efforts to reform the convent of Santa Catalina in Arequipa because of the opposition he faced from ihe nuns and their upper-class families.-. Bolrvar's constitution of 1826 included a minimum age requirement for when one could take vows to enter a religious order, because wealthy families frequently placed their sons or daughters in a convent or monastery at a young age without their consent. This appears to have been the case with Tristan's cousin Dominga Gut~rrez. who claims that she forced to enter a convent at the age of fourteen, against her wishes. In addition to any humanitarian concems Bolivar may have had for children's rights, he also knew that when the son or daughter of a wealthy family became a member of the regular clergy. their family had to make a substantial contribution to the order they joined. thus funneling money and land that could be used to revive Peru's depressed economy directly into the coffers of the Church. One of the most contentious of the state's laws passed after independence, was the provision which made it much easier for monks and nuns to renounce their vows, (the term in Spanish is -exclaustracioo.·) to leave their monastery or convent, and to become ordinary citizens again. subject only to the laws of the state, and not to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Each nun or priest could change herlhis mind and leave the order within five years of taking herlhis vows. after that shelhe would need special permission from the Pope to leave the order. However, this -escape- clause was not universally known. and may have even been concealed from those who joined an order. as can be seen in -

Klabw13.

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the case of Dominga Gutierrez. Goyeneche frequently laments the fact that some of the religious clergy renounced their vows after independence; he was in opposition to any legislation that made it easier for priests and nuns to leave their orders.

1831 Dominga GytMaez EnD" frpm hlr Conyant in Araguipa

In peregrinations, Flora Trist4n writes about her cousin Dominga Gutierrez, known in popular legend in Peru as -La monja quemada, -3153 who had escaped from a convent in Arequipa in 1831, by placing a corpse in her cell, dressing it in her habit, and setting it on fire. The scandal that followed Gutierrez' dramatic escape had national repercussions. The Supreme Court became involved in the dispute between the Superior Court in Arequipa and Bishop Goyeneche over Gutierrez' legal rights, and whether the civil judicial system had any jurisdiction over her case, or whether it fell exclusively within the domain of the ecclesiastical judicial system. The Congress even discussed some of the legal issues that were raised by Gutierrez escape and subsequent trial. Gutierrez's relatives, the vast majority of whom sided with Bishop Goyeneche in judging her GUlLTV of many unforgivable sins, complained to the President of the Republic, and the President of the Supreme Court about local govemment employees in Arequipa, who took up Gutierrez cause on her behalf in the secular judicial system. Her family, especially her mother and a matemal uncle who was a priest, were irate that outsiders took an interest in Gutierrez's case, and prevented her swift condemnation, silencing and re-imprisonment. It is interesting to note that Trist4n's version of Gutierrez's story differs from that presented in Bustamante's biography La Monia Gutitirrlz y Is 3&3

Bustamante 2.

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ipa just Arequipa de ayer y de hoy. especially because Tristan arrived in Arequ te topic of two years after her cousin's escape, when Gutierrez was still the favori side. conversation, and also because, like Bustamante, she was on GutNirrez' n's According to Trist4n, who undoubtedly got her information from Pio Trista fiancee family, Gutitirrez begged her parents to let her become a nun after her a nun; left her for a wealthier woman. Her family did not want her to become she did so against their wishes: a Declar6 a su familia que Dios Ia llamaba a si y que estaba resuelta entrar en el monasterio. Todos los parientes de Dominga unieron sus esfuerzos para quebrantar su resoluci6n ••• Todo fue inUtii. ••• La resistencia encontrada en su familia s610 die por resultado que su la obstinada temeridad Ia Ilevase a entrar en el convento ma rigido de orden de las carmelitas.3154 as Bustamante, however, claims that Guti8rrez' mother, whom he casts a priest, the villain in this drama, and her uncle, Dr. Mateo Joaquin de Cossio, he also forced her to enter a convent against her wishes at the age of fourteen; century blames the atmosphere of Arequipa at the beginning of the nineteenth for encouraging religious fanaticism. Bustamante attempts to vindicate if he is Gutierrez as an early defender of human rights; however, it sounds as nineteenth projecting late twentieth century concerns backwards on to his early es una century great-aunt when he allegorizes her escape by writing: - ella no

Iibertad y defensora de los cterechos humanos, con gran valor para defender su ci6 la de no meraca condena alguna de los hombres, como estoy ciarto no mere su Creador. - . As proof that Gutitirrez's guilt or innocence was still being to write debated in Arequipa, Bustamante writes that his sisters begged him not 354 TristIin. PtmginacioDM. Romefo, 395. 365

Bustamante 3.

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this book because they considered Dorninga GutMirrez to be an embarrassment to their family, even more than one hundred and forty years after her escape. If GutMirrez were forced to enter a convent, as Bustamante insists, then her escape could be classified as justified (after her involuntary imprisonment) rather than as apostasy. Although Bustamante defends his great-aunts escape, he does so only after trying to establish her opposition to entering a convent in the first place: Dominga Gutierrez Cossio .•• fue enclaustrada cuando 5610 tenia 14 anos de ectad Y era aun una nina, sin vocaci6n religiosa, en el Monasterio de Santa Teresa. por una madre fanatica y cruel que desoyendo las objeciones y protestas de su joven hija, quiso continuar con Ia costumbre de Ia 4ipoca de Ia Colonia segun la que toda familia, que se considerase bien nacida, debia tener un hijo sacerdote, otro militar y una hija mujer, monja, aunque carecieran de vocaci6n para esas carreras. Arequipa, era entonces una ciudad monacal, imbuida de profundo espiritu religioso, fanatica e intransigente y en la que apenas sa vislumbraban los primeros albores de libertad de conciencia, tolerancia religiosa y defensa de los derechos humanos .•.-

Bustamante raises a legal issue that is pertinent to Gutierrez story; nobody told Gutierrez that she could renounce her VOW$ at any time during the first five years after taking them. Gutierrez could have left the convent of her own free will, but that information appears to have been deliberately withheld from her. Gutierrez herself appears to take responsibility for becoming a nun in a letter that she sent to Monseftor Pedro Ostini, the ·Vicario Apost61ico y representante de Ia Santa Sede,· in Brazil in 1831 after her escape. At that time, Ostini was the highest ranking member of the Church hierarchy in South America. Gutierrez asked Ostini to plead her case before the Pope; she wanted to renounce her vows and regain her secular status. In a curious parallel with her cousin Rora Tristan, Gutierrez actually seems to believe that if she can -

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explain her plight convincingly, then Goyeneche and the papacy will have mercy on her and release her from her vows, in the same way that Tristan believed that her Uncle pro would take pity on her after reading her letter. After her daring, dramatic escape to remove herself physically from her monastery, which brought a lot of negative attention to the Church, Gutierrez still thinks that she can work within the Church's judicial system, to make her escape legal, official and complete. If the Church had allowed her to renounce her vows, merely because she wanted to, it would have sent a message to other nuns that Gutierrez' behavior was sanctioned by the Church. Gutierrez ostensibly explains her entrance in the monastery to Monsenor Ostini (the letter was written by a scribe, not by Gutierrez): Mi entrada fue dirigida por un capricho propio de la poca edad que tenIa y creyendo que con ella satisfacra una venganza por un desaire que recibf de un joven.357

However, Gutierrez attached a hand-written note at the end of the official document. She wrote the note herself, which contradicts the official letter that was probably dictated by her family members, and written down in their presence by the scribe that they had hired. Gutierrez writes in her own hand: Debo anadir a todo 10 expuesto, una raz6n que no he podido confiar al amanuense de quien me he servido para este memorial y es la violencia con que entre en el Manasterio dimanada del terror, p4nico que he tenido a mi madre por Ia excesiva severidad con que fui educada, cuyo temor era tan excesivo que fue la causa principal de mi precipitaci6n en el empeno de ligarme con los votos porque yo sabra con evidencia que era la voluntad decidida de dicha senora mi madre y Ia misma que me manifest6 igualmente mi tro el Dr. On. Mateo Joaqurn de Cossio, Cura en este Obispado.51

Bustamante 51.

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Bustamante 55.

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Gutierrez's plea to Ostini did not produce any results. She did not receive the papacy's ruling on her request until eight years later, in 1839. The clash between Church and state was inevitable in a high profile case like this one. After her escape, the Mayor of Arequipa and another city functionary wrote a letter to the head of the Superior Court in Arequipa asking for protection for Gutierrez from her family and the Church. These two would-be defenders of Gutierrez argued that the government needed to intervene because both the Church and her family were conspiring to deprive Gutierrez of her civil rights. The Church had begun the proceedings to try Gutierrez for apostasy, in an ecclesiastical court, with her family's permission and cooperation. Also, Bishop Goyeneche had ordered Gutierrez to stay with one of her aunts and uncles, and forbid her to leave their residence. Her family was happy to cooperate with Goyeneche in punishing Gutierrez by re-imprisoning her on the other side of the convent walls. The Mayor and the ·Sfndico· write: ..• en oposici6n con Ia evidencia de los hechos, con 10 sagrado de los derechos de esta joven sacrificada a los caprichos de su familia, con la opini6n publica y respeto de las autoridades del pafs, protectoras de la libertad individual, se sigue causa de apostasfa, calificando arbitrariamente de tal el acto inocente de haberse puesto por sf misma en posesi6n de su libertad despues de haber experimentado la incapacidad de recobrarla par otros medios.-

These two men argue that Gutierrez' family does not have her best interests at heart, and that Bishop Goyeneche is acting illegally by confining her to a type of in-house arrest. As evidence, they state that Gutierrez's mother was more upset by the news that her daughter was alive, and had escaped from the convent, than by the news that she had died; as proof of that, they refer to the -

Bustamante 45.

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fact that Gutierrez' mother continued to wear mourning clothes, and act as if Gutierrez was dead, when the whole city knew that she was alive. They also claim that Gutierrez was not strong enough to defy her family, and that she was incapable of expressing her own opinion and making judgments on her own behalf since she was being held prisoner by her family, both physically and mentally. Since the Mayor and the Srndico want the Superior Court to get involved, they portray GutNirrez as defenseless and powerless: l"Que derecho tienen los que hoy disponen de ella para influir exclusivamente sobre su suerte futura poniendo trabas a su libertad y defensa? I"Quien los faculta para mantenerla· separada de todo un pueblo sensible que se interesa en su suerte? ••• Ella al salir ha implorado con su acci6n Ia protecci6n de la sociedad en que estaba V.S. debe protegerla para ello. Se halla en el mismo estado, respecto de su actual causa que una pupila indefensa.-

The Mayor and Srndico conclude by asking the head of the Superior Court to designate a neutral place where Gutierrez can stay without fear of being imprisoned by her family, and that he also assign her a lawyer to defend her best interests against the designs of her family and the Church. Three judges from the Superior Court in Arequipa, Cuadros, Laso and Davila, sent Bishop Goyeneche a letter the same day that they received the aforementioned letter from the Mayor; they informed Goyeneche that Gutierrez would be moved to a neutral house, and that they had assigned her a lawyer: -para que libre de opresi6n y sugestiones, entable los recuros que Ie competen en defensa de sus derechos. -., The judge that the Mayor and the Srndico asked to escort Gutierrez to the -safe house,- Benito Laso, was criticized on numerous occasions by Goyeneche, and later, by the Church historian Vargas Ugarte, for 3IID

Bustarrante 48.

381

~e47.

265

being extremely anti-clerical. It appears that in addition to any genuine concems that these local officials had regarding Gutierrez's welfare, they also seized upon her as the perfect cause ceN»bre in their on-going territorial squabbles with the Church over civil and ecclesiastical legal domain. Gutierrez declared in person, and in writing, that she would prefer to stay with her relatives, and that she did not want to be moved. However, the local govemment employees in Arequipa ignored her requests, arguing that she had been forcec:l to make them by her family under duress. Goyeneche immediately directed a strident reply to the President of the Superior Court in which he angrily declared that as a nun, Dominga Gutierrez's case fell exclusively within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. and that the message sent to him by the Superior Court represented a serious transgression on the part of the local govemment. He wrote: veo atacada la inmunidad eclesi8stica de un modo bastante estrepitoso e ilegal. La manja Sor Dominga se halla fuera de su Monasterio par las causales que no puec:len ignorar dichos senores, como no 10 ignora todo el publico. Su salida la clasifica de ap6stata de la religi6n. Aun cuando trate de S8Cularizarse, 10 debe hacer ante mi, seglln el Decreto de regulares de 28 de setiembre de 1826••••• Puntos son estos bastante comunes. autorizados par los Concilios. cainones de la Iglesia y leyes civiles.312

Goyeneche argued that in legal terms, the Superior Court was attempting to violate the ecclesiastical fuero, and that all of the judges and local govemment officials involved with this case knew that they were violating the ecclesiastical fuero, but chose to do so anyway. He concludes by stating that he has nothing personal invested in this case, but rather he is merely performing his duties as Bishop:· .•• debo sostener •.• 10 que pertenece a la dignidad episcopal y el 312 Buatamanle 48.

266

fuero eclesiastico de todes modos. ••• mi deseo 5610 es evilar toda monstruosa confusi6n entre ambos Poderes, en el orden prescrito par derecho.-" Goyeneche attempts to hide behind the alleged impartiality of his position as a member of the Church hierarchy. However, Gutierrez' case was distinctly personal to him; she was a close relative of his, and her behavior drew unwanted attention to Goyeneche's inability to -reform the regulars- in any meaningful way. The public already looked disfavorably on the reported lack of discipline among the ·rich girls· in some of the convents of Arequipa, which were infamous for their immunity to outside control. Goyeneche was not one to be bested in public, though. He played his trump card with the Superior Court by including as an attachment to his indignant letter a copy of a letter sent to him by Gutierrez. stating that she did not want the protection offered to her by the Mayor and the Superior Court, and asking Goyeneche to grant her permission to get her own lawyer for the proceedings in ecclesiastical court. What is not mentioned in Gutierrez's letter, or by Bustamante, is that she was staying with relatives, and was almost certainly forced to decline the help offered to her by the Mayor and others. She was in the clutches of the same people who had forced her to join a convent fourteen years earlier, and she was in an even worse position the second time around, since the convent remained in possession of her dowry, and she had no access to money of her own. Her mother condemned her, publicly and privately, and wanted her to retum to the convent. When Gutierrez's wealthy mother died in 1858, she excluded Dominga, and her children who had defended Dominga, from her will. Dominga's brothers and sisters who sided with their mother against her were rewarded generously for their loyalty to this unrelenting matriarch." Gutierrez . , Bustamante 49. . . Bustamante 37.

267

was clearly not free to choose whether she would rather pursue the annulment of her vows in secular or ecclesiastical court. In her letter to Goyeneche, Gutierrez acknowledges that she is under his jurisdiction until she has gone through the legal process of secUlarization. Bishop Goyeneche did give. Gutierrez permission to get a lawyer. It is curious that Bustamante seems to ignore the probability that Gutierrez acted under duress when he writes: Como es natural, la Monja no acept6 Ia intervenci6n de las autoridades S8Culares, y se puso de parte del Obispo Goyeneche, ya que de este dependra su secularizaci6n y Ia posible recomendaci6n que hiciese al Vaticano para que fuera aceptada Ia relajaci6n de sus votos.-

Throughout his book, Bustamante walks a fine line between defending Gutierrez, and refraining from too sharp a criticism of Goyeneche or the Church; even at the end of the twentieth century, the Church still casts a long shadow in Peru. Bustamante frequently avoids pronouncing judgment himself by simply publishing the documents associated with Gutierrez's case without comment, thus allowing the reader to reach her own conclusions. By bringing to light letters and other invaluable texts produced in connection with Gutierrez's escape and subsequent trial, which had been buried in archives in Arequipa and Lima, Bustamante is providing modem intemational readers who do not live in Arequipa with previously unavailable information. It is clear that Bustamante is counting on his readers' identification with, and sympathy towards Gutierrez; this is his project after all. Gutierrez's uncle, Mateo Joaqurn de eossro, wrote to Goyeneche asking him not to prosecute Gutierrez. The Bishop's curt reply is that since all of Arequipa was discussing Gutierrez's fate, it was his duty to proceed with the

-

Bustamante 56.

268

court case against her, or else he would be held in contempt by the general public for failing to fulfill his ecclesiastical duties. Goyeneche clearly wants to avoid any charges of nepotism: ..• hoy es Ia conversaci6n del plblico Ia salida de Ia Monja. Esto supuesto, I,c6mo quiere Ud. que tados hablen y que el prelado guarde inacci6n y 58 desentienda? y en este caso cualquiera censurarra mi silencio como en efecto ya sa ha censurado.-

The judges of the Superior Court complained to the Prefect of the Department, General Cardena. that Goyeneche refused to accept delivery of documents from the Superior Court. and asked him to name an attorney to mediate between the court and Goyeneche. General Cerdena sent Goyeneche a letter asking him to meet with a neutral third party at his home in order to resolve the differences between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. However, Goyeneche had no intention of conceding even the smallest point, since he was determined to maintain his stance that the government had no jurisdiction whatsoever over anything relating to Cominga Gutierrez. Therefore, his polite reply to the General clearly indicated his refusal to cooperate, without saying so directly; his message was expertly worded in convoluted, formal, bureaucratic double-talk. Goyeneche stated that he would name someone to represent the Church at the proposed meeting, meaning that he would not go himself, which was what the Prefect and the Court wanted; however, since it was Holy Week, every priest in his diocese was currently busy. Goyeneche promised that at some point in the unknown, unnamed future, one of them would attend this meeting.

-

Bustamanle 51.

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The Bishop's veiled threat of excommunication intimidated the vast majority of govemment employees into backing down when they were in a confrontation with him. All he had to do was either drag his feet or insist that canon law supported his position, and wait out his opponent~. The weight of the Church, and all that it represented, was on his side, which stopped most civil servants cold in their tracks. In a society which was founded upon and as thoroughly saturated with Catholic culture as Peru, the number of people willing to challenge Goyeneche openly or denounce him publicly was so small that Vargas Ugarte can list these men by name in his history of the Church in Peru." Most of the people who voiced opposition to Goyeneche did so by publishing anonymous articles in newspapers, or if they were really daring, voting on legislation that could be seen as anticlerical. Even those brave enough to dare to engage Goyeneche in legal disputes found out that they could not count on other govemment employees to back them up. Every time a law suit involving Goyeneche actually made it to the Supreme Court in Lima, which was rare, no matter what the issue, the verdict was always in his favor in the end, which suggests the unwillingness of the judges to rule against the ·spiritual father- of the Americas, rather than Goyeneche's perfect grasp of the canon and civil law codes.After Goyeneche's refusal to cooperate with the Superior Court and the Prefect, the Superior Court issued a statement accusing Goyeneche of ·abusing his author~ and usurping the legal rights of the state. Goyeneche's clever -

Vargas Ugarte 165-171.

- Two C8I8I in particuW come to Rind: The s....,. Court ruled in favor of Bishop Goyeneche, against Doninga GUIWmtz, and when Goyeneche was Archbishop in Lima, the state brought suit agahIt him for plMIhing and diltrlUing • _haul waiting for the state's -ex~ (approval) of this dacunent. The ~ Court ruled in favor 01 Goyeneche, which contradicted the cwranIlawa on the books in Peru regarding the governments right to read and approve all papal documenIs before they were ptblished and distriMed to the general

papaI"""'-

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response was that in cases of doubt regarding jurisdiction, like this one, the only body authorized to make decisions was the Supreme Court. Several of the judges of the Superior Court of Arequipa, Cuadros, Laso and Davila, sent a letter to the Supreme Court, in which they depict their conflict with Goyeneche in epic terms as the quintessential battle between Church and State, which the Supreme Court, as the highest representative of the national, secular, judicial system, could not afford to overlook. These three attomeys complain about Goyeneche's -illegal conduct, - and accused several local government officials of subverting the process of justice out of their fear of, or loyalty to, Bishop Goyeneche. Cuadros, Laso and Davila write: Es verdad que el Reverendo Obispo ha encontrado un apoyo para sus abusadas pretensiones en el senor Fiscal de esta misma Corte y en anteriores condescendencias que a expensas de las leyes Ie ha dispensado en otras ocasiones Ia indiscreci6n de alguno de los Vocales.These Superior Court judges describe Goyeneche as -altarnente equivocado,- -maliciosamente imbuido en sus aspiraciones,- and -lleno de la magia de la superstici6n wlgar. -310 Their language is impassioned and dramatic. They ask the Supreme Court to help them fight against their largerthan-life adversary, Goyeneche, who is portrayed as so wily and seductive that he is capable of luring govemment employees to his side. Cuadros, Laso and Davila ask the President of the Supreme Court to inform Congress that it will be necessary to write a law that more clearly defines the limits of Church and State jurisdiction, and that will reign in the Church's tendency to usurp the state's rights and -enslave- the people. This request strikes modern readers as over-

-

Bustamante 60.

370 Bustamante 61-62.

271

simplified in an almost humorous fashion. given the complexity of the on-going territorial struggles between Church and State. The Arequipan judges conclude their letter with the following strongly-worded plea: AI concluir este informe se lisonjea Ia Segunda Sala371 de que V.E. 58 penetrara de 10 grave que es la materia, de que 58 trata. Ella nada menos importa que la decisi6n del triunfo del peder eclesi4stico contra los derechos de la Naci6n, Ia libertad de los pueblos, Ia seguridad de los individuos, el sometimiento de tode poder y todos los derechos a los jefes eclesi4sticos, 0 en el sost*, de Ia soberanra Nacional contra las etemas aspiraciones, de que no han desistido jamas los Ministros del Santuario para dominar temporalmente a los hombres y a los pueblos, por ello solicita Ia Segunda Sala recornendar con encarecimiento de V.E. este asunto; pues que siendo V.E. el Supremo Tribunal al que la Naci6n ha confiado de un modo eminente Ia protecci6n de los derechos del ciudadano y fa aplicaci6n de las leyes en el ramo de Justicia. jamas permitira que unos y otros se sujeten al odioso sistema de privilegios que han labrado las cadenas de Ia humanidad y que han santificado al despotismo, que mil veces ha canonizado Ia rebeli6n y que han inhumado en sangre y horrores pueblos y naciones enteras. En una palabra en manos de V.E. esta por hoy la conservaci6n de los respetos y autoridad del Tribunal. 0 su abyecci6n total ante la opini6n publica, que hara inUtil su existencia.371

Apparently the requests of Cuadros, Laso and Davila had .some effect on Goyeneche. He eventually bowed to govemment pressure, and appointed a priest. Manuel Cuba, to represent the Church in the legal proceedings in civil court. The first thing that the priest did was write a letter to the head of the Superior Court protesting the ·enemistad notoria que profesa al lIustrisimo senor Obispo· of Cuadros, and the well-known friendship between the Mayor and Sindico and Laso. which Cuba said prevented the impartial dispensation of justice. He requested that Cuadros, Laso and Davila be removed from the ease. and that all of the paperwork that they had submitted be declared invalid 371

Cuadros. lMo and D8viIa want judges i'I the Segunda SaIa of the Superior Court in

Arequipa. 312

Bustamante 64.

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and thrown out. This did not happen. However, Goyeneche had allies on the Supreme Court, who ordered the Superior Court in Arequipa to deliver all of the material regarding this case to it, at the expenses of the Arequipan judges. Needless to say, Cuadros, Laso and Davila balked at these orders, and fired back a confrontational letter, asking such testy questions as why the Supreme Court referred to Goyeneche as -Uustrfsimo Obispo- instead of the tenn dictated by civil law, -Reverendo Obispo.The written comments of other judges were sought: some elq)ressed opinions in favor of Goyeneche, and the exclusive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts for Gutierrez's case, while others favored the point of view of the Mayor and the Superior Court of Arequipa and ·recommended the involvement of both the civil and ecclesiastical judicial systems. Bustamante reprints letters from several judges. Judge Mariategui wrote a detailed argument in favor of the civil judicial system's jurisdiction in Gutierrez's case. Several of his points merit further comment. Mariategui argues that the -derecho de protecci6n, - the law that the Arequipan officials cited as proof that they could move Gutierrez to a more secure house, had always existed in Spain, and in Peru after independence. He cites as proof of this the case of a Dominican monk who was wrongfully imprisoned in a jail within his monastery until the civil court system -rescued- him.373 Mariategui states that Bishop Goyeneche has deliberately mis-applied the dictates of a papal bull, -Ia Bula Intema Domini- to Gutierrez's case. He writes that this papal Bull did not deprive monks or nuns of all of their civil rights, and that the govemment [the Spanish monarchy originally, at the time that this Bull was issued] always maintained a relationship with all of its subjects, which implied that it would defend them if the Church overstepped its bounds and illegally imprisoned 373

Bustamante 72-73.

273

them, even if they were members of the religious clergy. Thus, Goyeneche had acted illegally when he imprisoned Gutierrez in her aunt and uncle's house. los jueces eclesi'sticos no pueden imponer otras penas que las can6nicas, que todas son espirituales, ni proceden de otro modo que can6nicamente conforme al texlo: Siperaverit frates buns. No pueden apremiar ni encarcelar a los peca~res.374

Despite opinions like Mari'tegui's, Goyeneche succeeded in defending his territory in this case. Apparently the Mayor, Srndico, and the Superior Court judges in Arequipa were either overly idealistic, or they did not have an accurate idea of whom their opponent was. Based on Goyeneche's track record, they never stood a chance. Any -victories· that were won over Goyeneche did not usually corne from one-on-one court cases like this one; rather, Goyeneche's ·'osses· in defending the Church's domain were usually motivated by larger societal trends, which could be backed by a majority in Congress, such as the economic reasons behind abolishing the eccleSiastical fuero, or the state's appropriation of certain bureaucratic and social· control mechanisms from the Church, such as instituting a public education system, or building municipal cemeteries in which non-Catholic or indigent people could be buried. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Goyeneche, and reprimanded

the Superior Court judges and the Mayor and Srndico for their involvement in Gutierrez's case: haga entender a Ia Municipalidad de Arequipa que no debe salirse jam's de los estrechos Irmites de sus atribuciones, habi8ndose visto con el mayor desagrado, que su imprudente celo ha dado merito a providencias indecorosas a la respetable dignidad de los Prelados de la Iglesia cuyo honor y fuero estan obligados a mantenerse y conservarse par Tribunal Secular.37S 374

Bustamante 73.

37S Bustamante 74.

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The President of the Supreme Court, Manuel Lorenzo Vidaurre, who did not sign the aforementioned letter, sent one of his own to the Minister of Justice and Govemment regarding GutNirrez's case. Vidaurre's letter is quite remarkable given that he was widely judged to be one of the most publicly anticlerical men in Peru, yet his ruling in this case is in favor of the Church. Just one year after writing his opinion on Gutierrez's case, Vidaurre published in ·Plan del Peru· in the U.S., in which he fiercely criticizes the Church. Vidaurre decided that the Arequipan municipal officers did not have any legal basis for requesting that the Superior Court become involved in the case by moving Gutierrez and assigning her legal representation. He ruled in favor of Goyeneche that Gutierrez's case fell entirely within the exclusive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical judicial system. Vidaurre reprimanded the Arequipan judges and city officials: Se quebrant6 la Constituci6n allanando la casa de un ciudadano, se usurp6 una jurisdicci6n que no Ie correspondfa y sa insult6 al Obispo con amenazas, palabras duras y descomedidas •••378 Vidaurre writes that the President of the Republic ·no puede desentenderse de tan escadalosos excesos.· He concludes with a waming that the President will make sure that govemment employees follow the law and do not try to overstep their bounds and meddle in affairs that are out of their jurisdictiorr. The Arequipans attempted to protest the Supreme Court's ruling against them, by petitioning for the creation of a special tribunal of seven judges, (this legal recourse was available to anyone who disagreed with a Supreme Court ruling,) who would evaluate the case again. However, the President and the Supreme

3M Bustamante 75.

275

Court did not want this case to be re-opened; thus it was conveniently buried by bureaucratic obstacles. The tribunal of seven judges never acted on the case. Meanwhile. back in Arequipa. the criminal case against Gutierrez, and her two servants who helped her escape. was dropped. However. Gutierrez's struggles were not over yet. With Goyeneche's help, she received a partial annulment of her vows from the papacy in January of 1832. This partial annulment allowed her to recuperate some of her civil rights; however, it still held her to a perpetual vow of celibacy. Gutierrez continued to pursue a total annulment of all of her vows. She was represented at the papacy by a Peruvian priest. In 1839, eight years after-her escape, Pope Gregory the XVI gave Gutierrez his permission to continue to pursue the total annulment of all of her vows, but he added that she would have to do so within the ecclesiastical court system in Peru. Gutierrez's great-nephew concludes that given the difficulties that she had encountered in dealing with Bishop Goyeneche, and his opposition to her secularization. she took the Pope's reply to mean that she would never be able to completely renounce her vows.. Thus. according to canon law. Gutierrez was bound to honor a life-long vow of celibacy, which obviously ruled out marriage. Gutierrez decided to move to Lima in January of 1834, after recovering some of her dowry from the convent through civil court proceedings in Arequipa. However, she sought the protection of the civil authorities because her family opposed her move and tried to prevent her from leaving Arequipa. Gutierrez sent a letter to the Minister of Justice and Govemment in Uma: ha acaecido que mi familia. llevada por la ominosa idea de considerar mi salida del Monasterio, como una perpetua ignominia en su decoro y honor, se prepara a oponer una firme y decidida resistencia a la verificaci6n de dicho viaje. En tan grave conflicto me parece conveniente implorar sumisamente la aha potestad que reside en vuestra Excelencia para alzar las fuerzas a los oprimidos y preservar a

276

los ciudadanos de toda opresi6n y violencia, a efecto de que sa digne disponer que el prefecto del Departamento no s610 me libre el correspondiente pasaporte, sino tambi," me imparta y franquee todos los auxilios necesarios, que est," en su peder y facultades para que pueda efectuar libra y especificamente mi marcha.:JIT

Gutierrez's efforts to move to Urna were successful; the Minister of Justice and Govemment ordered the Prefect to help Gutierrez leave Arequipa. She established her residence in Urna in March of 1834. She defied her family, the Church and public convention by refusing to adhere to her lifelong vow of celibacy. Although she could not legally marry, GutMirrez lived with a physician, Dr. Jaime Marfa Colt; they had one daughter, Marfa de los Dolores Colt. When Colt died, he left haR of his money to his daughter, and the other haR to Gutierrez. Bustamante concludes that GutMirrez was never allowed to fully renounce her vows due to Goyeneche's stubbomness, and her lack of funds to continue petitioning the papacy, in order to bypass Goyeneche. Until Gutierrez found out in 1839 that Goyeneche would not release her from her vows, she maintained a submissive, obedient, affectionate tone in all of her correspondence with the Bishop. She thought that the papacy would grant her permiSSion to become fully secularized. In 1839, Gutierrez leamed that the papacy deferred to Goyeneche's judgment; ultimately he prevented her from being legally married, although her partner recognized her during his lifetime. and in his will. The tone of Guti_ez's letter to the Minister of Justice and Govemment in Lima is determined, insistent, and clear, unlike the eerie, reverent, abased tone Gutierrez employed in her letters to Goyeneche. We have no way of knowing whether all of her letters to Goyeneche were dictated by her mother, or other relatives, but there is a marked difference between

:JIT

Bustamanle 81.

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Gutierrez's style when she is writing on her own, and when she is writing to a family member who was also the authority figure who could set her free, if he so chose. There are some fascinating parallels between Gutierrez and her cousin Flora Tristan. Both sought salvation from a mighty patriarch who resolutely denied them his aid; both hoped to win over a male relative by adc::lressing him in letters in respectful, affectionate tones. Trist8n and GutiMez attempted to work with 'he system,· only to discover that the system had no tolerance of unconventional, outspoken young women, who broke societal taboos. Tristan never got even a fraction of her inheritance from the stubbom, stingy Pio Tristan, and Gutierrez was never set free by the proud, inflexible Bishop Goyeneche. Bustamante, who was trained as a lawyer, concludes at the end of his biography of his great-aunt that the only error Goyeneche made, legally, was confining Gutierrez to her aunt and uncle's home. Bustamante agrees with Mariategui that Bishops and Archbishops were never given the legal authority to imprison monks and nuns physically, rather they were given the unlimited ability to punish them spiritually. However, Bustamante also-writes that Goyeneche. the papacy, most of her family, and the town of Arequipa were unnecessarily harsh with Gutierrez. He believes that her vows should have been completely annulled so that she could marry and retum to a respectable standing in society. Perhaps the most direct criticism that Bustamante makes of the Church in the entire book is the following: ... la Santa Sede se mostr6 cruel e injusta con mi pariente, probablemente porque la pobre monja no tuvo dinero para pagar 10 que necesitaba para que se declararan relajados sus YotoS.371

371 Bustamante 4.

278

Bustamante does not point his finger at Goyeneche, but rather at Rome. Even though Goyeneche won his case in the Supreme Court. in another sense the Gutierrez case was a public relations disaster for him, personally and professionally.

Oppo81tlon to Goyeneche

1834: A Disastrous year for GOyaneche

1834 was a bad year for Bishop Goyeneche. In a letter that he wrote to Pope Gregory XVI in 1834, Goyeneche informs him of some of the trials that he had suffered. He was threatened with deportation twice in 1834, once by the national govemment in Lima, and once by a caudillo in Arequipa, attacked by the press, and someone tried to assaSSinate him. Goyeneche gave Eusebio Nieto, a relative of the caudillo Nieto. a canonship of the Cathedral of Arequipa, which was reported in the newspaper ·EI Republicano.· As soon as this news reached Lima, the Consejo de Gobiemo issued a decree. dated June 6, 1834, calling for Goyeneche's exile. However, several conservative supporters of Goyeneche were able to bring up his pending exile before the whole congress, which voted to let him stay in Arequipa. Goyeneche had apparently underestimated the consequences of awarding

an important position in his

diocese to the relative of a powerful Arequipan caUdillo. Given that the Presidency of Peru changed hands more than four times during 1834, (it was a particularly bloody year in terms of civil war activity,) it is easy to understand why the last name ·Nieto· was not popular with some of the Lima politicians. Rada y Gamio indignantly points out, in defense of Goyeneche's choice of priests. that he was above following politics, which is patently false. given

279

Goyeneche's lifelong history of astute interactions with political and military figures.In a separate incident, the caudillo General Nieto threatened Goyeneche with exile and the confiscation of all of his property in June of 1834, unless he could come up with 100,000 soles of gold in four hours. Goyeneche balked at paying Nieto, however; on several other occaSions he did pay the amount demanded of him by military leaders. It was widely believed at the time that the assassination attempt was Nieto's way of seeking revenge on Goyeneche for not paying him; Vigil Miller, the would-be-assassin, was a soldier in Nieto's troops. Goyeneche describes the response of the faithful in his diocese to his impending exile in a letter to the Pope in a melodramatic (if not entirely convincing) manner: En la tarde del dia 26 de junio, apenas se divulg6 en la poblaci6n la noticia de que se iba a clesterrar a su Prelado con sus inocentes hermanos s610 por no poder pagar la enorme cantidad de oro pretendiado, los feligreses de tada edad, sexo y condici6n se levantaron, lIenando las plazas y publicas oflCinas, llarando y dando. voces de estar listos a morir antes de que se realizara tan sacrilgeo crimen contra su Pastor. Entre tanto creimos oportuno dejar el palacio episcopal y ocuHamos por pocos dias, para que por nuestra causa no se derramara ni una gota de sangre.-

In addition to threats from the govemment in Uma and from local caudillos, Goyeneche also feH that he was under attack from the press. One of the perennial criticisms of Goyeneche was that he did not redistribute enough of the money that he was given as Bishop to the poor. Goyeneche's accusers claimed that he saved the majority of the funds for himself, thus cheating the poor and failing to fulfill his prescribed duties. Flora Tristan discusses this

m

RadayGamio312-314.

-

Rada YGarnio 317.

280

complaint about Bishop Goyeneche in perigrinations. Although Tristan cannot be described as an impartial observer. her comments are interesting

nonetheless. She also brings up an aspect of Goyeneche's meteoric career path that is ignored by those who have written glowing biographies of him: his brother had a lot to do with his nomination for Bishop of Arequipa at such a young age; it was not just Goyeneche's sterling moral qualities and keen intellect that won him that position. She writes: Don Josti Sebastian de Goyeneche obtuvo la sede episcopal de Arequipa mediante Ia todopoderosa influeneia que en los asuntos del Peru tenia su herrnano don Manuel, conde de Guaqui, muy en favor entonces en Ia corte de Femando. EI obispado de Arequipa producia anualmente cerca de 100,000 pesos; pero el obispo estaba obligado, s&gun las disposiciones impuestas por la ciudad al coneederla esta sum a, a distribuir entre los pobres una parte de ella. Esta obligaci6n que serra injuriosa para el C8racter apost6lico de un obispo y, si la caridad fuese infaliblemente Ia virtud de los prelados nombrados por las cortes, fue para los desgraciados de Arequipa una garantra insuficiente de la beneflCencia del senor de Goyeneche. Va he dicho que el vieio dominante de esta familia es-Ia avaricia. En el obispo llegaba a una escandalosa exageraci6n ..• Esta horrible avaricia atrajo sobre al y sobre su casa el desprecio publico hasta tal punto que se habra hecho proverbial decir, cuando alguno comelia una mezquindad: es a la Goyeneche.3I1

Tristan also gives a long list of examples of poor people who allegedly asked Goyeneche for a tiny amount of money, which he either refused to give them at all. or gave them much less than they asked for. It is not surprising that Tristan does not paint a flattering portrait of Goyeneche, given that she is resolutely anti-Church throughout partigrinatjons. However. even his supporters were forced to acknowledge this criticism of Goyeneche. and respond to it.

381

Flora TristM ~1.

281

A contemporary supporter of Goyeneche addresses this point in a pamphlet that was written, published and distributed in 1834, after the unsuccessful assassination attempt; it had ~e following title: Manifiesto que ofrece, dedica y consagra a la magnMima naci6n peruana un ciudadano en contestaci6n al folleto titulado 'Interesente', que se reparti6 en Arequipa eI dra ocho de octubre de este ano, tres dras antes del sacrflego homicidio, intentado en Ia persona del ilustrfsimo Seftor Doctor Don J. Sabast" Goyeneche y Barreda dignrsimo obispo de aquella di6cesis: en el que sa refute s61idamente el suplemento al Jenio del Rimac numero 283, dado a luz por D. Juan Antonio Vijil, considerado reo del referido crimen.-.

The author of the -Manifiesto- writes a diatribe against the anonymity of Goyeneche's accusers in the pamphlet -Interesante;- however, ironically, he also remains anonymous. He attributes -Interesante- to Vigil. Two different schools of discourse intersect in the controversy regarding Goyeneche's financial practices: the newly formed secular press, freed from the traditional censorship of the Inquisition, accuses Goyeneche, among other things, of failing to fulfill his duties as Archbishop. According to colonial standards, which Goyeneche strove to retain and maintain whenever possible, it was not feasible for a lay person to publicly challenge the integrity of a member of the Church hierarchy; a Bishop's title protected him from criticism, unless it came from his superiors within the Church or the Spanish monarchy. However, after independence, priests were fair game for public sCrutiny. The -Manifiesto's- author mentions the names of newspapers in Arequipa that have been hostile to Goyeneche with horror; one can imagine his fear of the increasing number of uncensored publications. The Church and its supporters

-

I will rat. to this pamphlet as ~nifiesto· forthe ramai1der of this chapter. 1beaar's

arctives, 175 (0), vol. XII, p. 29

282

were forced to practice a new behavior after independence: engaging in dialogue with their opponents. The ·Manifiesto's· author cleverly associates loyalty to Goyeneche with loyalty to the ·magn4nima naci6n peruana,· which is interesting given that Arequipa was the premier ·pueblo caudillo,· which continually destabilized the Uma-based republic. The pamphlet was published in Uma. a detail worth noting. given the traditional antagonism between Arequipa and Uma. In 1834, Jorge Benavente was the Archbishop-e~ of Uma. General Gamarra's government nominated Benavente for the position in 1833. but because of the delay in communications with Rome. he was not installed until 1835. The Archbishopric of Umahad been vacant for fourteen years. during which time Goyeneche had directed the church from Arequipa. The author of the ·Manifiesto· asks a rhetorical question: ·l,Es poderoso el acusado? [Goyeneche) l,Sois debiles y miserables? No: no.· To claim that the head of the Church in a Catholic culture like Peru's is not powerful strikes the twentieth century reader as ridiculous. It fails as a rhetorical strategy. Goyeneche is portrayed as a blameless victim of malicious persecution by enemies of the Church. who exploit the new avenue of mass communication provided by newspapers and pamphlets. The ·Manifiesto's· author states that Vigil arrived in Islay (the nearest port to Arequipa.) on the same boat that the caudillo Nieto. who had tried to deport Goyeneche unsuccessfully. boarded en route to Callao, the port closest to Uma. Thus one of Goyeneche's enemies left town, and another one arrived. The author argues that Vigil's pamphlet ·'nteresante· had the potential to motivate people to take action against Goyeneche. He also comments on the power of public opinion and the difficulty of maintaining one's good reputation when it is attacked by the press:

283

Este libelo estaba preparado para asasinar su honra. y con ella su vida civil. Este libelo era eI funesto presagio. de 10 que sa Ie esperaba despun de algunas horas. pues ya estaba empunado por una sacrilega. asesina mano. el parricida punal que el dra once a las siste de la manana habra de cortar el curso de Ia existencia del infamado y perseguido obispo.-

The anonymous author resorts to elaborate name-calling and colorful descriptions of Goyeneche's enemies. rather than answering the specifIC charges leveled at Goyeneche. He refers to the authors of an article against Goyeneche that was published in the BepubljcanO de Aregujga as: semejantes a Ia contagiosa mortal espuma que pande de la rabiosa boca del hidr6fobo mastrn que ladra y ahulla por herir con diente cruel:

asf arrojan por sus blastemos e inmundos labios injurias. diatribas. sarcasmos. porque sus negras entranas se hallan henchidas del veneno en que nada su coraz6n impfo.For his defense of Goyeneche. the -Manifiesto's- author relies on repeating the obvious about Goyeneche's qualifications. as if the titles of priest and bishop carried with them an automatic. comprehensive. ecclesiastical immunity - he argues that Goyeneche cannot ever have made a mistake. because all of his actions are divinely inspired. based on the authority vested in him by Rome. Goyeneche's defender reproduces the charges against Goyeneche. but never specifically answers them: -EI R. obispo tiene mals de 200.000 pesos pertenecientes a los pobres. es el peruano mals rico. no da limosnas etc.-. Instead. the author of the Manifl8sto repeats the traditional ecclesiastical discourse which is based on the unquestioned authority of the Church and all of its officers. He responds to the new secular technocrats by accusing them of

-

Manifie&Io vi-Yii.

•

Manifiesto xi.

284

being impious hypocrites and pharisees, and by refusing to contest any particular accusations. Because Goyeneche has the weight of divine backing. his supporters can always claim that his opponents are merely possessed and inspired by the devil; this line of argument was standard for nineteenth century ecclesiastical discourse. The author of the pamphlet claims that it was· God's hand that stopped Goyeneche's assailant from killing him while he was in the middle of saying mass: •.•• el brazo fuerte del omnipotente. desarm61a impia diestra del inicuo en Ia maftana del once, cuando acababa de ofracer la inmaculada hostia pura, al mismo Etemo.·. After this stressful year, Goyeneche biographer writes that he entrusted the governance of his diocese to the ·Chantre· of the Cathedral of Arequipa and went to a country house to rest. Basadre, the Peruvian historian, reports otherwise; in the ·Prologo· to peregrjnacjones, he suggests that Goyeneche had a nervous breakdown: ·La locura del Obispo al ser denunciada su avaricia.Sf

apposition to Goyenecbe from Wlthjn Ibe Church

Although Goyeneche gave the appearance of serenity in his role as Bishop. he was not without enemies; in fact, there was even some dissension within the ecclesiastical ranks. One aspect of nineteenth century Church history that is rarely discussed by anyone is the opposition to Goyeneche from within the Church; his clashes with the state, the secular press, and the caudillos have received much more attention. Flora Tristan provides us with a view of ecclesiasticallHe in Arequipa that is not presented in the standard, pro-Church histories; she describes the intense competition between Bishop Goyeneche -

Manifieato vi.

.., Basadra, PnSIogo, Paragiw;jgnM de una poria, Romero, xv.

285

and the two rival priests from Arequipa who constantly schemed against him, Francisco Javier de Luna Pizarro and Juan Gualberto Valdivia. Luna Pizarro played a major role in shaping the Peruvian republic in its early days. He first observed politics in action at the Cortes de C4diz in Spain as a young man. Ch4vez de Ia Rosa, Bishop of Arequipa from 1786-1804, took Luna Pizarro with him to Spain as a companion from 1809-1812. After retuming to Peru, Luna Pizarro distinguished himself as a liberal politician. He was one of several young priests who were part of a liberal contingent in the national Congress; they had all read Enlightenment literature, and were excited about the new possibilities brought about by independence from Spain. This group was not replaced by the next generation of priests, who came into being under the watchful eye and iron fist of Goyeneche. At the time of independence, being a priest was not synonymous with being conservative; by the middle of the nineteenth century it was. Luna Pizarro was elected to the Peruvian congress four times, as a representative from Arequipa; he presided over several constitutional conventions. Luna Pizarro had to flee to Chile in political exile three times in the first decade of Peru's existence as a republic. He began his political career as a ·Iiberal- and ended it as a ·conservative.· At the first Constitutional Convention in 1822, it was not Luna Pizarro, who presided over the gathering, or one of the other 20 priests who participated, who insisted that the constitution of Peru must forbid any religion other than Catholicism. The first version of the Constitution, which was agreed upon by all of the delegates, simply read: '7he religion of the nation is the Roman Catholic.· Luna Pizarro favored freedom of WOrship. The next day, however, several prominent Umeilos, who were not delegates to the convention, insisted that the Constitutional article should read: ""e religion of

286

the nation is the Roman Catholic with the exclusion of any other. - . Only three of the priests present voted in favor of the more restrictive clause. Luna Pizarro and most of the other priests were more liberal than their secular counterparts, who voted for the more restrictive wording. Luna Pizarro's turbulent political career ended in 1834, after he presided over the Congress that elected Orbegoso president. Bloody civil wars followed that election. JaM Antonio de Lavalle, founder of the Ravista de Lima and author of several histories of Peru, writes that after Luna Pizarro was swom in as Bishop of Alalia in 1837, he withdrew from the national political arena altogether.-

By the time Luna Pizarro was nominated to be Archbishop of

Lima in 1843, Goyeneche did not have to worry about his politics anymore; Peru's leading liberal priest at the time of independence had been thoroughly converted to conservatism. Luna Pizarro was Archbishop of Lima until 1855. Tristan writes that Valdivia was Luna Pizarro's co-conspirator who stayed in Arequipa to run the opposition campaign against Goyeneche. She claims that what Luna Pizarro really wanted most of all was the bishopric of Arequipa. Valdivia participated in some of the short-lived govemments of this civil war period. He was in charge of forcing the civilians to support the war-time govemment of the caudillo Nieto when Trist4n was in Arequipa 1833-1834. Tristan criticizes Valdivia bitterly for taking part in the bloody civil wars, not as a soldier, but as a strategist; she thought that priests should stay out of secular politics, especially when they lead to

~

of life. Trist4n comments

disapprovingly on the priest and joumalist Valdivia's -misuse- of the press by writing articles to convince the young men of Arequipa to volunteer for armed service by flattering their vanity. They would have been forcibly conscripted

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Vargas Ugarte 148.

287

anyway, but Valdivia knew that persuasion with words was easier, and less onerous, than going door to door. He also used his newspaper to criticize Goyeneche. Later in his ecclesiastical career, Valdivia failed to win papal approval after the Peruvian state wanted to appoint him Bishop of Cuzco. Valdivia's partisan participation in the civil wars, and his well-known opposition to Goyeneche, who was always in favor with the papacy, probably worked against his nomination as Bishop of Cuzco. Trist4n writes: Valdivia entr6 en Ia carrera civil, se hizo abogado, escritor y periodista sin dejar de ser sacerdote. Sa puso asr en situaci6n de aprovechar de todos los acontecimlentos, r8S8rvandose el cubrirse, en caso necesario, de su canider sacerdotal y servirse de 6ste, segun las circunstancias, como medio de agresi6n. Luna Pizarro, diputado par Arequipa ante el Congreso Nacional. intrigaba en Lima y aprovechaba todas las ocasiones para fomentar las discordia•• excitar el desorden y provocar las revoluciones. mientras en Arequipa Valdivia hacra. como sacerdote. las predicaciones m4s furibundas contra el obispo. irritaba contra 61 a toda la poblaci6n y arrastnindole por el Iodo. Ie quitaba todo prestigio y el respeto con que el prelado habra estado rodeado hasta entonces. EI monje tenra tanto esprritu l6gica y vehemencia que cada artrculo lanzado en su peri6dico contra el obispo Ie hacra a 6ste perder uno de sus miembros. como deera Althaus. Pero si la voz del impetuoso Valdivia tuvo tanto podsr contra el obispo. fue porque habra mucho de verdad en sus ataques. Valdivia y Luna Pizarro no se mostraron mas duros e implacables contra el prelado, de 10 que 6ste habra sido durante docs anos con los desgraciados a quienes los deberes de ap6stol. las condiciones que la ciudad Ie habra impuesto y. en fin, las consideraciones sociales y religiosas Ie exigran como rigurosa obligaci6n consolar.The peru/Bolivia Confederation

In 1835. Orbegoso. (who had been elected President. but whose election touched another round of civil wars.) himself came to Arequipa. which supported his claim to the Presidency. to evaluate his chances of military and -

TristBn, f?armrinacjgDII. Romero, 340.

288

political victory. After meeting with a gathering of the leaders of Arequipa, which included Bishop Goyeneche and pro Tristan, Orbegoso sent two messengers to the military leader Santa Cruz in Bolivia, proposing the ·PeruvianlBolivian Confederation· and asking for military assistance. Santa Cruz began his military career as a junior officer under the command of JaM Manuel de Goyeneche. After Santa Cruz had defeated his Peruvian opponents, executed their leaders, and assumed control of the new confederation, he founded an order based on the French Legion of Honor; he named Bishop Goyeneche -Comendadof of the Legion of Honor of the PerulBolivia Confederation. Goyeneche went to the Congress that Santa Cruz convened in Tacna on May 1, 1837 as a ·Ministro Plenipotenciario,· and the head of the Southem delegation. Each of the three regions of the confederation, Southem Peru, Northem Peru and Bolivia sent representatives. The purpose of the Congress was to draft a new constitution. Rada y Gamio praiSes the idea of the confederation: -Era el imperio de los incas que renacia, paro no al amparo de la encamada borla real, sino a la sombra de Ia civilizaci6n cristiana. -311 The Confederation was short-lived. After several skirmishes, Gamarra teamed with Chilean armies to overthrow Santa Cruz. who went into exile first in Guayaquil and then in Paris. It is interesting to note that the PerulBolivia Confederation is regarded by the contributors to the RaYista as an extremely unfortunate chapter in Peru's national history. They were quite contemptuous of Santa Cruz. and described his mestizo status and dark skin in negative, racist tones. The Limeiios regarded Lima as the only rightful center of the republic; Arequipa was out of the question as the capital. Bolivia was held in even lower esteem by the Limeiios than Arequipa. This topic also appeared in EI padre Horan; even though Cuzco is much closer geographically to Arequipa and Bolivia than to 311

Rada y Gamio 389.

289

Lima. Arestegui viewed Bolivians as enemies to Peruvians. and Uma as Cuzco's true ally.

The ·Uberal· Conatnutlon of 1151. the ·Comproml. .• Conalltutlon of 11&0, .nd the Bayllll cit Unw

The -Liberal- Constilutjoo of 1856 and Castjll,'s Admjnjstratjoo; the Abolitjon of Fuargs and TdbM

As has been mentioned before, Arequipa was the site from which many of the armed rebellions were launched (against whichever faction happened to be goveming in Uma) in the nineteenth century. Castilla. who would ultimately

achieve several periods of relative stability in mid-century, both attacked Arequipa. and led his own rebellions. based in Arequipa. against Uma govemments. In 1841 he suppressed an armed insurrection against Gamarra led by Vivanco. who was based in Arequipa. More than a decade after he defeated Vivanco. Castilla rebelled against Echenique and the Huancayo Constitution of 1839 from Arequipa in 1853. He ascended to the presidency for the second time in January 1855, after defeating Echenique in battle. In July of 1855 Castilla issued a type of temporary constitution. the -Estatuto Provisorio.- that would remain in effect until a national convention had been met to draft a more thorough new constitution. Although Castilla had not been elected to office, he was careful not to give his term as President the appearance of a dictatorship. The temporary constitution of 1855 did not abolish the ecclesiastical fuera. nor did it have a provision regarding diezmos. the word in Spanish for the Church's mandatory tithing system. The idea to abolish mandatory tithing and the ecclesiastical fuero was first brought

290

up in Congress by several representatives in 1849, during Castilla's first presidency; the idea was raised for a second time in 1853 during Echnique's presidency. Nothing came of these first two attempts to restrict ecclesiastical power and privilege. Castilla's temporary constitution did authorize him to carry out the main functions associated with the -regio patronato-: -presentar para Arzobispo y Obispos;- and granting the govemments approval to papal communications, commonly referred to as the exequatur: -Conceder el pase a los decretos conciliares, bulas, breves y rescriptos pontificios ••• -s Castilla's temporary constitution also authorized him to celebrate -concordatos- with the Pope, with Congress' approval. However, these were not new prOvisions; many constitutions before this one, including the Constitution of 1839 which Castilla .hated, had identical articles.=- The papacy always maintained that the secular state could not give itself these privileges just by writing them into the constitution; Rome contended that the state had to be awarded these rights by means of an official agreement with the Pope. But both conservative and liberal politicians ignored the papacy-s protests when writing new Peruvian constitutions. Garcfa Jordan comments on the role that economie changes played in the conflicts between Church and state in the middle of the nineteenth century; she explains why it was inevitable that these conflicts would take place: EI proceso de desarrollo econ6mico y la integraci6n del Peru a la economfa de librecarnbio pareci6· exigir Ia vertebraci6n de un estado modemo, incompatible con Ia existeneia de fueros personales y corporativos, esclavitud, tributo indfgena, y de todas las cargas que S

JuM AanciecoOliYo, CorwIlucjonll R

Aguirre, 1922) 24&•

. , Olivo 220-221.

291

b

, del

peru, 1821-1919. (Lina:

Tones

pesaban sobre Ia tierra en forma de diezrnos. cansos. capellanias. vinculaciones. que no &610 frenaban Ia incorporaci6n de tierras y mano de obra al mercado capitalista. sino que 58 presentaban tambien como f'cil recurso financiero para un Estado con permanente necesidad de medios econ6micos. Si a tado ello agregarnos eI intanto estatal por asumir funcfones hasta entonces desempeftadas por Ia Iglesia. tales como el control demognlfico del pars a traWl del Registro Civil. el choque con Ia instituci6n eclesial parecra inevitable.-

Goyeneche began his opposition movement to Castilla's govemment before the Constitution of 1856 had been drafted: -Even before the constitutional convention was seated. the Catholics of the -White Ci~ [Arequipa's adopted name] had sent a statement of protest against the liberal tendencies of Castilla's govemment. The statement contained ten thousand signatures. - . In November of 1855 Vivanco led an armed uprising against Castilla from Arequipa, with Goyeneche's support from the pulpit. Castilla eventually defeated Vivanco, but it took him eight months to do so. Castilla's Constitution of 1856 is considered the most liberal that has ever been written in Peru. One historian comments: -In fact. the constitution of 1856 was undoubtedly the most radically democratic instrument which has ever served Peru as an organic law ••• -. This Constitution provided for direct popular elections and greatly expanded the number of men who could vote by granting suffrage to men who were literate, or who owned a small business, or who owned property or who had served in the military. It also abolished capital punishment and shortened the President's term from six years to four years. However. the two most contentious provisions of this Constitution were the

. . Garda JordIin 9&99. •

KlalJer84.

-

GrahIm SUIt. Tba GoytmnardaI !!inhn gf P.N (Washington: The Carnegie

Institute, 1925) 14.

292

abolishment of the ecclesiastical fuero and mandatory tithing. The·constitution of 1856 met with opposition from many different sectors of society, not just the Church, which considered it to be untenable. The Church objected strenuously to the abolition of its traditional ecclesiastical fuero. Article six of the Constitution of 1858 reads: ·En Is Republica no se reconoce privilegfos hereditarios, ni fueroa personales ..• .., The ecclesiastical fuero was a holdover from colonial Peru. Both the military and the Church were granted the right to maintain their own separate judicial systems by the Spanish monarchy. Merriman Stanger explains the significance of the fuero: ..• the -mero· was a source of influence and prestige to the church. ·Fuero· in its strict legal sense signifies a special law or jurisdiction, and in this connection refers to the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. These tribunals held as exclusively theirs all cases having to do with the persons or property of the clergy. Ally civil case between members of the clergy or in which a cleric was a defendant, as well as ordinary criminal cases against clerics, must be tried in church courts and by canon law. ... the ecclesiastical -mero· ..• was considered necessary to preserve the dignity and sanctity of the clergy. It made them a privileged class. immune from the action of civil govemment and from the ordinary duties of citizenship. In its broad sense, as interpreted by the church, the ·fuero· meant immunity from the domination of any civil power •.•-

Article 40 of the Constitution denied Peruvian citizenship to the regular clergy.Article 47 prohibited Bishops, Archbishops and parish priests from running for elected office.'"

. , Olivo 254. -

Merriman Stangar413-ot14.

-

0fiv0259.

40D orlVO 260.

293

Castilla refused to enact the provision regarding the abolition of ·diezrnos· that was included in the Constitution of 1856. The original legislation conceming diezmos, in the Constitution of 1858, states that they will be abolished when the State has the funds to pay the secular clergy their salaries. The govemment promised to replace the income lost to the Church from diezmos with govemment funds. The final law regarding the abolition of diezrnos was promulgated and enforced in May of 1859. The govemment drew up elaborate lists with the names of each ecclesiastical position in each diocese, and the monthly salary that the person occupying that position would be paid.401 The Church, in addition to other objections, protested that the

govemment was cutting clerical salaries by substantial amounts. However, in this case, there was very little that the Church could do to fight this new law. Goyeneche's letter writing campaign with President Castilla only served to delay the inevitable. The Church historian Vargas Ugarte summarily dismisses the Constitution of 1856; he expresses the common conservative point of view that equates liberalism with anticlericalism. The Church always refused to acknowledge the economiC basis behind any changes in its status that were legislated by the Congress. This ecclesiastical school of thought attempted to keep the focus exclusively on ·spiritual- issues, while stating that political and economic considerations were invalid in connection with the Church, and could not be admitted as evidence. The Church unsuccessfully tried to prevent the societal shifts that took place before Peru entered the world market by attempting to constrict the debate to a narrow moral realm of good and evil:

401 For a more daIaiIed disctlSSion of the laws regarding diezmos and the government's salary Ists see Franciaco Garda CaIdan5n. Ojgcjonario de II Pen.ana. vol. I • 758-761.

"*'ri'5n

294

La Constituci6n del ano 56 .•• no pudo satisfacer a nadie; prov0c6 la

resistencia de los conservadores, que apoyaron luego eI movimiento de Vivanco en Arequipa, las protestss del clero por Ia supresi6n del fuero eclesijstico, y aun las del Gobiemo mismo de Castilla .•• Como dijo, con raz6n sobrada, eI Diputado por Angaraes, Manuel lrigoyen, aquella Constituci6n fue letra muerta desde el dra en que naci6. Ademjs, Ia titulacla Convenci6n, pese a au tinte liberal, no hizo nacla por Ia autentica libertad y por elevar eI nival moral y social del pars•.•• Los liberales habran hecho un esfuerzo por constituir Ia naci6n sagon sus principios, paro fracasaron en su intento. Su liberalismo ••• no vino a ser otra cosa sino anticlericalismo .••-

There are some parallels in Church history between France and Peru. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that all priests. who were to be paid by the republic like civil servants. had to take an oath of allegiance to the state, or forfeit their office; this split the Church in France. In Peru. Goyeneche acted as spokesperson for the Peruvian Church as a whole; he infonned President Castilla by letter that Peruvian priests could not swear allegiance to the constitution of 1856 in good conscience. and that no priest WOUld. Klaiber comments on Goyeneche's challenge to Castilla's authority: -This act of defiance by the clergy was the most serious act of disobedience of the church to the state in all of Peru's history.-... It is interesting to note that the priest Valdivia, Goyeneche's swom enemy, was Arequipa's representative at the constitutional convention of 1856; he signed the document which Goyeneche found so offensive." Another political response to the Constitution of 1856 was the organization of the ·Sociedad Cat6lica Peruana· by Monseftor Teodoro del Valle. in Uma in 1857. He stated that the mission of the society was to: . . Vargas Ugarte 225-226•

... Klablr64. . . orIV0278.

295

·sostener Ia Religi6n Y el orden y salver al pais de la catastrofe.·· Given the chaos of early republican Peru, the Church always tried to associate itself with the idea of stability, order, and permanence, in order to distinguish itself from the many mercurial military regimes. The Church could then claim that all that independence had produced in Peru was disorder, and that any attempts to curtail its privileges would lead to mora upheaval, which would benefit no one. Garcia J0rd4n discusses the reaction of the clergy to threats to their power and areas of operation: Frante a las reformas liberales ••• gran parte de los sectores eclesiasticos plantearon una fuerte defensa, tanto de sus bienes como de su ideologia; en consecuencia, las jerarquias eclesiales presionaron sobre el peder politico, legislativo y ejecutivo, bien directamente, bien a traves de organizaciones para eclesiales como la Sociedad Cat6lico Peruana....

Klaiber makes the connection between the abolition of mandatory tithing and the dramatic decline in the number of men who wanted to be ordained as priests in Peru." Following the abolition of the fuero and diazrnos, there was a dramatic shortage of priests and nuns in Peru, which has continued until the present time. Klaiber writes: • .•• after the suppression of the tithes, a priestly career in Peru meant entering a lower economic scale and living a life of far greater insecurity than in previous periods.·... He also acknowledges that Peru's entry into the world market in the middle of the nineteenth Century opened up many new opportunities for young men: ·Unlike the colonial period, when the priesthood was one of the few 'prestige' careers that a creole could «15

Vargas Ugarte 227.

-

Garcfa JoftMn 99.

«IT IQdJer 47.

-

1QdJer52.

296

follow, the capitalistic society .•• offered a much more expanded horizon of possibilities for a young man from the middle and the upper classes.-'"

The Church. the Comprornjsa Conllitytjgo of 1860. and the Revista de Urn.

In 1858, President castilla nominated Goyeneche to fill the position of Archbishop of Uma. Pope Pius IX sent his written confirmation in 1859. Goyeneche was installed as the Archbishop of Uma in 1860 by the Bishop of Trujillo. Other Presidents of Peru had asked Goyeneche if he would like this position, but he had always declined. He told Castilla that he was not interested, but Castilla nominated him anyway. Castilla was an astute politician; he knew that Goyeneche had encouraged the people of Arequipa to rebel against him in 1855, and had ordered priests not to pledge allegiance to the Constitution of 1856. By removing Goyeneche from his seat of power and transferring him to Uma, Castilla could keep an eye on him. He could also discourage Goyeneche from preaching rebellion from the pulpit by forcing him remain in Uma, which was unfamiliar territory. Goyeneche left Arequipa for Lima on August 6, 1860. Castilla's govemment agreed to convene another convention to draft a compromise Constitution. A conservative, ultramontane priest, Bartolome Herrera, presided over the 1860 convention, which was ordered by Castilla to produce a more acceptable document that both the liberal and conservative goveming elite could agree to abide by. Herrera was the Bishop-elect of Arequipa, and was an ally of Goyeneche's. The Constitution of 1860 was a successful compromise document; it remained in effect until 1919 with only -

KlablrS1.

297

minor changes. Basadre classifies the Constitution of 1860 as -centrista;- he writes: EI proyecto no satisfizo ni a los liberales ni a los conservadores. A los liberales porque marcaba un paso atm en relaci6n con Ia Carta del 56. A los conservadores porque no iba a un reaccionarismo franco y antes bien, dejaba en pie algunes de las doctrines liberales m4s combatidas. Represent6, pues, una soluci6n iltermedia.410

The Constitutions of 1858 and 1860 were frequently the topics of essays in the Reyjsta. 1 will analyze a two part essay by Luciano Benjamfn Cisneros. ·Una palabra sabre el proyecto constitucional dellllmo. Opispo de Arequipa,· which attacks Herrera's proposal for the Constitution of 1860. Cisneros' analysis of the Constitution of 1860 covers many of the most prevalent opinions of the Revista writers regarding politics, law govemment, suffrage rights, and education. Cisneros worked as an attomey. taught law, and served as a congressman several times. He definitely qualifies as a member of the emergent bourgeois class; Cisneros is described as -Elevado por su propio esfuerzo ... - In 1859 Cisneros and some other young. liberal congressmen accused President Castilla of breaking Peruvian law by failing to attend a session of the Congress; Castilla was not amused. He briefly jailed Cisneros. In his essay on Herrera's .constitutional project. Cisneros is adamant that Herrera must be stopped; he begins in a dramatic manner: Una voz rabusta y poderosa se ha elevado en el seno de la Representaci6n Nacional. lanzando un reto de muerte contra el sistema democnitico. Los que pertenecemos a '" y amamos sus doctrinas no podemos quectar en silencio. porque no 10 consienten nuestro deber ni nuestros dogmas.411 410

Bn die..... Mil do " npMca del Pwu, wi. III. 171.

411 Luciano Benjamin Cisneros, -Una paIabra sabre eI proyecto constitucional delillmo. Obispo de Arequipa,- La ReriIta do l.jma. vel. II, 1860, 221.

298

Cisneros continues by attacking Herrera harshly and sarcastically for using his role as a priest for nefarious political purposes: EI IIImo. Obispo de Arequipa, una de las notabilidades polfticas del pars. e indudablemente una de aquellas poderosas inteligencias que tado 10 alcanzan y dominan: ese esprritu vigoroso arnaestrac::lo en las lucubraciones filos6ficas, agitado en los combates de la polftica, robustecido en las mUimas yen Ia ensel'ianza de Ia Iglesia: ese ingenio que en su perseverancia verdaderamente ejemplar saba aprovechar los momentos para asaltar al enemigo y derribarle sin piedad, pasanc::lo sucesivamente del pulpito a la ctitedra, de esta a la prensa y de la prensa a Ia tribuna sin retroceder jam's en su misi6n de propaganda antidemocnitica, ha puesto en circulaci6n un ·Proyecto de Reforma Constitucional· que no podemos dejar correr sin observaciones, por 10 mismo que la autoridad moral de tan eminente eseritor y el ascandiente de su canicter sagrado. presidiendo el Congreso, hacen peligrosas las ideas que allr se contiene.412

Cisneros accuses Herrera of not -tighting fair,· of abusing the moral authority that his identity as a priest gives him. The liberal protests what he views as the conservative's (metaphorically) violent methods of conducting politics. This is anti-clerical discourse of the Rayjsta at its finest. Cisneros next describes his view of Peruvian republican history, which summarizes that of the vast majority of the Rayjsta writers, who believe that Peru as a nation is just beginning to try to ·organize· itself after decades of continuous intemecine warfare. He captures the despair of discouraged ·patriots· who feel that the nation has made no progress in the thirty-nine years of its existence: EI Penl despu6s de largas, sangrientas. terribles y misteriosas contrariedades que Ie han hecho pasar por todas las transformaciones de los pueblos de larga vida aunque sin aprovechar de su experiencia y 412 Cisneros. ·Una paIabra sabre eI proyecto constiIucionaI del lImo. aHspo de Arequipa,· 221-222.

299

de los amargas frutos del dolor. se encuentra hoy por uno de esos acontecimientos ya ordinanos en los Estados americanos. en situaci6n de organizarae definitivamente. Los cruentos sacrificios de otras epocas de nada han servido: hoy estamos como en 1821 sin que a la sombra de una independencia tan cararnente conseguida hayamos Iogrado otra cosa. que asombrar aI mando con nuestros esc4ndalos y agitamos sin descanso en eI cfrculo vicioso de Ia revoIuci6n. Vamos a comenzar una nueva vida. Ia vida rapublicana y democmtica que conquistaron nuestros padres yel modelo que se nos ofrece para aleanzar esos preeiosos bienes. tras los que hemos corrido fatigados y jadeantes durante treinta y nueva aftos es una Constituci6n que de todo puede tener, menos de republicana y democratica."'3

Cisneros' pasSionate language is quite different from one of the other legal commentators for the Rayjsla. Toribio Pacheco. Pacheco uses a restrained. elegant. cerebral. gentlemanly tone in his essays. Cisneros. however. employs a more gripping. colorful. dramatic. aggressive style when attacking his political enemy. He writes that the liberal Constitution of 1856 was written as a reaction to the conservative one of 1839. and that he hopes that it will not be necessary to overreact to the Constitution of 1856 when writing the new one. Cisneros judges Herrera's constitution to be a ·utopia irealizable y esteril. - because Herrera wants to re-instate many of the Church's privileges that were [rightfully] taken away from it in the Constitution of 1856. Cisneros uses romantic and positivist terminolOgy when he writes that the citizens of Peru. who want to live -free and rational- lives. will not agree to -go backward-: tQuien puede creer. en efecto que sea posible restablecer en las costumbres y en la pnictica, sin costosos sacrificios. el diezmo. los fueros personales. el principio de adquisici6n de las manos muertas y las vinculaciones eelesiesticas. instituciones a las que el proyecto consagra y sobre las cuales Ia ciancia y la pnictica de los pueblos civilizados han fallado ya. arrojaindolas al osario de los grandes errores?

413 Cisneros, ·Una paIabra aobre at proyecto constiIucionaI deliRmo. Q)ispo de Arequipa.· 222.

300

Although he does not agree with all of the provisions of the Constitution of 1856, as we will see later, Cisneros does believe that the new constitution should uphold the curtailment of the Church's privileges that was first introduced in 1856. Herrera's proposal for the new constitution includes several provisions that were clearly designed to be of benefit to the upper class, such as a -permanent Senate- whose thirty members would serve for life as representatives of the -intereses permanentes- of the nation; they would be elected by the representatives from the other legislative body, the -Camara de Diputados.- Cisneros is outraged by what he perceives as Herrera's veiled attempt to create an ·oligarquia monstruosa.- He complains that this Senate would not fairly represent all Peruvian citizens; one group that Cisneros says would be neglected are artists. It is interesting that this is the only group he names. Does he conSider himself to be an artist? The permanent Senate would engage in many different activities that were usually dMded between the Executive. the Judicial and the Legislative branches of govemment: it would write laws. serve as a tribunal, approve promotionS for military offICers. elect the President. be able to suspend and interpret laws, and also suspend constitutional rights. Cisneros concludes: -Vo entiendo pues, que nada serfa mas funesto para el pafs que un Senado tal como 10 consagra el Proyecto •.. In addition to his objections to the Senate, Cisneros believes that Herrera's constitution gives too much power to the Executive branch of govemment; he writes: ·En cuanto a Ia organizaci6n del Peder Ejecutivo, necesario es confesar que habria sido imposible otorgarle mayor suma de

414 Cisneros, ·Una paIabra sabre at pn7f8ctO constitucional delilimo. Obispo de Arequipa,· 225-226.

301

-414

autoridad.·.15 Herrera's President would be able to: veto legislation, dissolve Congress, convene special sessions of Congress, run for re-election as many times as he wants, and appoint and fire judges, in addition to other responsibilities. Cisneros and the liberal bourgeois elite vehemently opposed unlimited re-election possibilities; they feared long-term military dictatorships, disguised as ·Presidencies.· The lack of independence of the Judicial branch of the govemment in Herrera's plan is especially disturbing to Cisneros, since he believes that the law and its application to national life is sacred in a democracy. Cisneros reveals the reverent attitude toward ~e laW- that was common with the urban, liberal, bourgeoisie, for whom the rule of law acquired a mystique that located it on an almost religious plane. In certain ways,

~e

laW- would provide the same

type of moral guidance in a secular universe that religious doctrine did in the colonial era. Cisneros reverently describes the importance of judges: EI lIustrrsimo Senor Herrera no puede desconocer las altas funciones de la magistrature. ni oMdar que esta ejerce un sacerdocio tan sagrado como el altar, debra haber procurado preservarla del contaeto impuro el poder Ejecutivo, -elandole todas las condiciones posibles de independencia.··

Part of the secularization of national life involved convincing the citizenry that the nation's secular justice system funetioned fairly and effectively, and that it could replace the Church'~ justice system. In another essay, in which Cisneros reviews Pacheco's Tratsclo de paracha Ciyil, the first thorough examination of Peru's civil law code, (which is 415 Cisneros, -U.. paIabra soble .. proyecto constilucional del limo. Obispo de

Arequipa. - 228• • 18

Cisneros, -U.. paIabra sobnt eI proyecto constitucional deliRmo. Obispo de

Arequipa,- 229.

302

still required reading for Peruvian law students) he articulates the urban, liberal creole elite's vision of the law functioning as the rational discourse that binds all of the citizens of the nation harmoniously together (and serves as a replacement for the Church and Catholic discourse). Cisneros expounds on the wisdom of reading Pacheco's Tratado de Derac;hQ Civil: ..• la necesidad de canacer una obra tan Util para todas las clases de la sociedad y en que sa interesan los derechos de cada hombre. Todos necesitamos conacer Ia ley civil: la universalidad de sus preceptos nace de las relaciones que nos ligan en Ia vida social Y del car4cter general de los derechos primordiales que de elias se derivan: y unidos todos por esas relaciones, que son como la gran red que envuelve nuestra vida, todos necesitamos conacer los principios que las reglan, asf en su letra como en su espiritu, tanto en su origen como en sus propias omisiones.·17

Cisneros concludes the first part of his evaluation of Herrera's constitution by calling on the romantic concept of freedom: EI rspido anslisis que hemos hecho hasta aqui del Proyecto del Reverendo Obispo de Arequipa, demuestra pues, que en Ia parte relativa a la estructura de los poderes nos aleja mucho de las gloriosas conquistas alcanzadas por el Peru en el camino de la libertad.•18

He argues that the reinstatement of the Church's special privileges would not compatible with a republican, representative democracy, and that it would be backward, (one of the Reyjsta writers' favorite code words for describing the Church, because it signified the opposite of ·modem- and also implied the prevention ·progress.· )

.17

Luciano Ben;amfn CianeIoe, "Tratado de derecho civil,· La e.y;e de Lina, wi. II,

1860. 171 . • 18

Cisneros. ·Una paIabra sabre eI proyecto constitucional dellUmo. aHspo de

Arequipa,· 230.

303

..• los fueros personales falseando Ia verdadera igualdad democratica, las vinculaciones ecles~sticas haciMdonos retrocecler el camino andado en mas de un siglo, Ia propiedad de las manos muertas, que la civilizaci6n modema ha proscrito, como contraria a los grandes intereses de Ia sociedad, los diezmos que son Ia contribuci6n mas injusta por 10 mismo que es esencialmente exclusiva; entonces decimos, no puede dejar de tomarse por un amargo sarcasmo la definici6n contenida en el mismo proyecto sabre Ia form de Gobierno del Peru, declarando que es republicano democnitico representativo••

t.

Cisneros makes a pitch for public, primary education as his closing argument; he says that without public education it will be impossible to eradicate despotism from Peru. The bourgeois Beyjsta writers subscribe to the belief that it is possible to -educate and improve- the lower class, as opposed to the more traditional upper class belief that it was hopeless to try to -elevate- the lower class, and that the only solution to the -problem- of the lower class was to rule them with an iron fist. Mientras no pensemos en arrojar la semilla de Ia instrucci6n popular y de la moralidad publica, mandando en el texto constitucional que en cada aldea se organ ice una escuela y que las casas de instrucci6n se crucen, confundan y multipliquen como una red inmensa extendida por todos los 4ngulos de Ia Republica, seni intitil que nos esforzemos por localizar el despotismo en este 0 en el otro poder. Solo la libertad racional, preparada por medio de la educaci6n ofreceni a los pueblos los bienes que apetecen.CD

It is important to add at this point that the Bayjsta writers did not believe that the education of the lower class alone would 8fiX' Peru's multitude of problems. There are several articles in the Reyjsta, suggesting that Peru needed to begin -importing- European immigrants.to Peru as soon as possible 41'Cisneros. ·Una paIabra sabre .. ~edo constiIucionaI deliRmo. aMspo de

Arequipa,· 23().231. 43)

Cisneros, ·Una paIabra sabre eI proyecto constitucional dellUmo. Obispo de

Arequipa,· 231.

304

in order to -improve- the country. In the second half of his essay on Herrera's constitutional project, Cisneros discusses the advantages of European immigrants, and criticizes Herrera for making the requirements for Peruvian citizenship too difficult to obtain for European immigrants. En Amjrica todo as vrrgen: Ia cianci.. las artes y Ia industria: aqur no se conocen los grandes crimenes, ni las granc:les virtudes. Los pueblos conservan Ia inocencia tradicional de los Incas, y su cai'4cter se presta tanto a la saludable influencia del ejemplo, que nada serra tan facil como asimilarlos a las Naciones europeas, sirvijndose del prolifico y poderoso elemento de Ia inmigraci6n. Las constituciones americanas deben ser Ia expresi6n de esas grandes necesidades que todos conocemos .•• y par 10 mismo creemos ••• que con los extranjeros, elias deben ser generosas y pr6digas hasta el exceso: deben atraerlos con toda clase de concesiones, y darfes cuantas facilidades sean posibles para ganar Ia naturalizaci6n.

It is ironic to note that while Cisneros opposes special constitutional concessions for members of the upper class or the Church, he is in favor of awarding European immigrants special treatment in order to entice them to move to Peru (-81 anhelado objeto de atraer a nuestro suelo una inmigraci6n moral Y civilizadora-). He believed that massive European immigration would

be benefICial to the entire Peruvian nation, which is probably how he justified offering Europeans constitutional guarantees of their rights and privileges. At last Cisneros found a topiC where he shared some common ground with Herrera: suffrage rights. Cisneros explains which aspects of Herrera's constitutional provisions for suffrage he agreed with, and which he disagreed with: Vo no vacilo en creer que Ia adopci6n del sufl'agio universal en paises como el Peru, seria el mayor y el m4s irremediable de los males, puesto que comunicando a los poderes polrticos la impureza y los vicios de su propia naturaleza, seria Ia fuente de la desorganizaci6n mas completa; y si la cr6nica electoral de Ia Republica desde 1855 hasta estos ultimos dras, registra tantos y tan abominables escandalos, no es precisamente

305

por la naturaleza del sufragio 0 por ser directo, como creen algunos, sino por su exagerada extensi6n, pues Ia ley ha reconocido tan aventajado derecho en quienes no podran comprender ni la elevaci6n de sus funciones, ni su alta significaci6n y trascendencia pr4ctica.42'I

Cisneros parts company with Herrera on the question of whether ·criados y sirvientes- should be allowed to vote or not. Cisneros- urban preferences are apparent; he agrees with Herrera that rural laborers should not be allowed to vote, but he would like urban -laborers- to have the vote. It is interesting to note that the Constitution of 1856 specifically gave suffrage rights to anyone who had ever served in the military (which covered most men in Peru;) Herrera's plan prohibits soldiers and sailors from voting. Bajo este aspecto, yo aplaudo srnceramente Ia parte del Proyecto de Su Senona lIustrrsima en que restringiendo el sufragio, 10 niega a los vagas, a los soklados, marineros, agentes de policra y jomaleros de los campos. Ciertamente que estas personas no ofrecen las mejores garantras de independencia en el ejercicio de esa funci6n social. Pera declaro con no menos sinceridad que se ha tocado el extremo opuesta quitando ese derecho a individuos que, como los criados y sirvientes, est4n muy distantes de sar confundidos con los que en otro tiempo tenian las tristes pnicticas del vasallaje, como funesto legado de la vida colonial. ... Los domaticos consagrados al sarvicio, que no son pocos en toda Ia extensi6n de Ia Republica, no sa hallan en la humilde condici6n de los jomaleros del campo.422

Despite his prominent role at the convention, Herrera could not convince a majority of the participants of the wisdom of reinstating mandatory tithing and the ecclesiastical fuero. Those two provisions of the 1858 Constitution, which enraged Goyeneche and the Church, were allowed to stand. Basadre comm~~s

on the voting for this provision of the Constitution: -los clericales

"'Cianeroe, ·U. . peIabra sabre .. prayecto constIucionaI dalllrno. 0biIIp0 de Arequipa,· 261. GRCisneros, ·U. . paIabra sabre eI prayecto constiIucionai dalllmo. Obispo de Arequipa,· 261.

306

fueron vencidos por 65 votas contra 35, quedando suprimidos los fueros eclesiastico y militar." Herrera was so discouraged by his -milure- to change civil policy regarding the Church that he retired from politics. He also refused to sign the Constitution of 1860, he was so unhappy with it. After the Constitutional Convention was ewer, Herrera went to Arequipa. where he was Bishop until his death in 1864. In the Bishopric in Arequipa. one outspoken conservative priest traded places with another equally conservative Church leader. Goyeneche had been optimistic that with a conservative priest, Herrera. as the head of the 1860 Constitutional convention, the ecclesiastical fuero would be reinstated. Therefore. he was disappointed to leam of Herrera's inability to change that provision of the constitution. Goyeneche wrote a letter to Pope Pius IX about this issue: ... la peligrosa cuesti6n del juramento de la nueva Constituci6n de 1860 que habia dejado subsiste el respectivo articulo de la Constituci6n de 1856 relativo al desafuero del clero; que en tal virtud habia pasado una nota al Ministerio del Culto manifest8ndole que ni el Arzobispo ni su clero podian jurar dicha Constituci6n de 1860, Y que los obispos sufraganeos asumirian igual actitud ..•-

However. Castilla let that provtsion of the Constitution of 1860 stand, Goyeneche's protests notwithstanding. Goyeneche was unequivocally defeated regarding his efforts to reinstate the ecclesiastical fuero. Nobody engaged in armed rebellion with castilla over this Constitution. however. Goyeneche continued his battles with the civil authorities from his new position as Archbishop of Uma. On Feb. 26, 1860, Pope Pius IX named

CD

Bas Ettra. La hjeIqja eta !a npjbIi;;a del peru, wi. III, 1172.

-

Rada YGamio 493-494.

307

Goyeneche ·Visitador de regulares,· for the second time, in a papal brief; on April 20 of 1861, Goyeneche circulated an edict that he wrote ordering the ·religious· clergy to refonn their errant ways." However, the head of the Supreme Court, paz SoleMn, challenged the legality of Goyeneche's edict, given that he was supposed to wait for the govemments ·exequatur- of the papal brief, in accordan~ with the state's exercise of the regia patronato, before acting upon the new authority granted him by the Pope. Paz Soldan initiated a court case against Goyeneche, and tried to force him to appear before the Supreme Court. Goyeneche refused to appear, stating that the civil courts had no authority over him, and that it was beneath his dignity to respond to paz Sold4n's orders. He sent another priest to represent him, and demanded a private audience with President Castilla, which he was granted. Goyeneche. of course. was loathe to acknowledge the insertion of the secular state as an intermediary between the Archbishop and the Pope. As could have been predicted, Goyeneche sidestepped the whole question of whether he had to wait for the govemment's exequatur before acting upon a Papal Breve. He insisted that he was not creating new rules regarding the conduct of the regular clergy in his edict; rather he was merely attempting to enforce the vows that they took upon entering their respective orders. Goyeneche resolutely argues that the state has no business at all in the ·reform of regulars· that he is undertaking: • ... el arreglo del

r~imen

interior de

los Regulares es un asunto puramente espiritual que no tiene relaci6n alguna con 10 que compete a Ia autoridad secular.·. The state obviously had an interest in the rules and regulations of convents and monasteries, since they were the repositories of vast amounts of money and landed property, which G5

RadII YGamio 498-503.

-

RadII y Garnio 509.

308

were under the control of the head of each order. As in the case of Dominga Gutierrez, and other nuns and monks, the question of whether one relinquishes all of one's civil rights upon entering a religious order remained an unresolved issue in 1861. Thus, Goyeneche's claim that the state had no interest or jurisdiction in the intemal workings of religious orders reads like most of the texts that he wrote over the course of his leadership of the Church in Peru. The laws and govemments changed frequently, but Goyeneche's line of thinking and argument remained essentially the same. Perhaps that is one cause of his enduring popularity and staying power: he was utterly predictable, and very persuasive. He repeated himself so vigorously and tirelessly that he eventually wore down most of his opponents. Goyeneche was always able to avoid appearing ambitious himself by arguing that he was merely a divine representative - he was not seeking fame or glory for himself, but rather he was defending and promoting the Church's interests for the good of all believers. In the end, Castilla's Attomey General, Alzamora, concluded that Goyeneche's Edict should be allowed to stand, as it is, because he was not proposing any new regulations, he was merely enforcing rules that had already been made by both the Church and the State regarding the conduct of the Regular Clergy. Alzamora cites several laws made by the State that uphold the legality of Goyeneche's Edict. The Supreme Court backed down after Alzamora's report came out. However, Goyeneche was told to wait for the govemment's exequatur of the papal brief before acting upon the new powers vested in him. Goyeneche wrote to Pope Pius IX about his proposed Reform of the Regulars, and included copies of the state's decrees and laws regarding the same topic. The chief concems of the state appear to be: the age necessary to make one's vows permanent; the possibility of reversing these vows; placing regular orders under the authority of the Bishop or Archbishop of their diocese;

309

and allowing regular clergy to become secular clergy. The issue that most troubled Goyeneche was the state's insistence that nuns and monks be allowed to renounce their vows and resume their citizen's rights and civil status at any time. Goyeneche writes that he has included a copy of: el decreto que permite por graves motivos de conciencia Ia suspensi6n de las leyes religiosas, decreto que ha puesto en grave caso a los prelados que no 10 acepten, de manera que no pudieron impedir que muchos regulares que pretestaban motivos de conciencia relajaran la disciplina monastics, ni posible las fue reprimir tan grande mal ...Goyeneche continued to oversee the convents and monasteries in Uma until 1867, when his term as Visitador de Regulares expired. Several years later, the

govemment reached a compromise agreement regarding the legal status of the regular clergy with Monseiior Serafin Vannutelli, the papal -Delegado Apost6lico· in Peru, by incorporating the regulations for the Regular clergy that he had written as part of the civil legal code.

pope Pius IX and the -Syllabus of Errors- (1884)

Goyeneche informs his -flock· in a pastoral letter that he wrote in 1866 that he did not publish Pope Pius IX's message, written in 1864, earlier because of the political uproar going on in Peru. The title of this collection of documents that Goyeneche published in 1866 is: ·Publicaci6n del Jubileo Universal .

.

Concedido por nuestro Santrsimo Padre el Senor pro IX en su Carta Enciclica del 8 de Diciembre de 1884, Que hace eilimo. Senor Arzobispo de Lima.-. Goyeneche's documents have two principal messages: one concems the

-

Rada Y Gamio 516-

-

·PubIicaci6n del JWHIeo Universal,· Father TiJesal's archives, 59 (0), vol. V, p. 26.

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Pope's announcement of a -Jubilee, - a special month-long general amnesty in which the faithful are exhorted to repent, confess their sins, do penance and retum to good standing with the Church; the other message is Pius IX's identification of the principal -errors- of -modem times, - which I will refer to as -Syllabus. - I will focus on the letters written by Pope Pius IX and Goyeneche that specifically refer to his -Syllabus, - and to the text of the -Syllabus- itself, and not on any of the texts regarding the Jubilee. Both Pius and Goyeneche use inflated, melodramatic language throughout their texts in an effort to rouse their readers to participate in the Jubilee, and to fight against the -pemicious- ideas of modemity. Archbishop Goyeneche addresses his opening letter, dated August 25.

1866, to: -A tados los fieles de esta Ciudad y de nuestra Di6cesis salud en el Senor:- The first sentence of his letter reads as follows: Nuestro Santfsimo Padre el Senor pro IX, que con tanta firrneza como sabidurfa, gobiema Ia navecilla de Pedro al trayes de las racias tempestades que par todas partes suscita el Intiemo para sumergirla. si fuera posible, en los abismos del error y del vieio; colocado en la eminente C8tedra Apost61ica sabre Ia turbia atm6sfera de las malas pasiones, y lleno de confianza en Ia Yirtud del Altrsimo, en medio de las asechanzas que astuta y perficlamente tienden a Ia Iglesia Cat61ica y a la Santa Sede sus encamizados enemigos, abra sus labios de Maestro universal para ensanar a las naciones palabras de Yerdad, y extiende su mano de Padre cornun de los fieles para derrarnar sabre ellos celestiales bendiciones.-

With this remarkable opening, Archbishop Goyeneche sets the stage for the Papal documents that follow his introductory letter to the members of his diocese. He contrasts disturbing words and phrases with negative connotations like -racias tempestades, - -Intiemo, - -abismos del error y del vicio, - -Ia turbia atm6sfera de las malas pasiones, - -encamizados enemigos,· with the words of GIl

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the Pope, which he promises deliver calm, -celestial benedictions· to their recipients. Goyeneche alerts his readers that both his letter and the Pope's messages will deal with the on-going, heated battle between good and evil, a clever narrative ploy to interest the faithful in reading both texts. Goyeneche describes the Church with a diminutive, -navecilla de Pedro,· to indicate its alleged innocence, and to emphasize the skill that the Pope must have in guiding such a delicate vessel through such stormy seas. Hell on earth is described as embodied in errors, vices, and turbulent paSSions. As if to emphasize that these ·errors· are not innocent, Goyeneche depicts the Church as under attack from enemies who seek to destroy it. Thus, the nineteenth century scientifIC and political revolutions are not simply new historical developments, rather they are movements that have been specifically designed by the Devil to assault the Church and its believers. Goyeneche's combative tone parallels that set by Pope Pius IX. Bokenkotter, a Church historian, writes: .•• Pius continued his policy of intransigence toward modem secular liberal cuture and showed clearly that he was unable to adapt the Church to the profound social and political transformations going on around him. At his death in 1878 the Church was left in a virtual state of war with the rest of society.-

Goyeneche followed the same strategy as Piux IX with remarkable success; he refused to alter the Church's policies despite the changes taking place in the society around him. Goyeneche represented the Catholic -hard line· in Peru very consistently over his half a century of leadership of the Church. Goyeneche claims that the ·pernicious errors- that the Pope refutes in his ·Syllabus· work against: revealed truth, the authority and rights of the Church, justice and the law, and the foundation of both the Catholic religion and civil G)

Bokankott.308.

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society. In a deliberate attempt to cast the Church as an ally, and not an enemy, of the state, Goyeneche writes that the same errors that damage people's spiritual lives also represent a -grave cletrimento de la estabilidad, orden y prosperidad. verdadera de las naciones.-.. Considering how chaotic and violent life in Peru was during its first 50 years as a nation, the stability, order and prosperity Goyeneche mentioned probably sounded very desirable, if somewhat unlikely, to his readers. After Goyeneche's opening letter, and the reprint of a papal letter from 1848 explaining what a Jubilee is, there is a letter from Pius IX that prefaces his -Syllabus.- The Pope's letter is addressed to -hennanos, patriarcas, primados, arzobispos y obispos, - not to all of the faithful, just to men. Pius writes that this letter is directed to the male leaders of the Church in order to help them understand the Significance of the -Syllabus of Errors.-· Pius begins his letter by stating that historically, it has always been the job of the Pope to identify and condemn heresies and errors; therefore, he is merely fulfilling his apostolic duty by publishing his -Indice de los principales errores de nuestra epoca, censurados en Alocuciones consistoriales, Enciclicas y Otras Latras Apost61icas de Nuestro Sanifsimo Padre pro IX. - Pius warns of the dire consequences that will follow if these errors are not denounced and corrected: the Catholic religion and civil society will be undermined, virtue and justice will be destroyed, hearts and minds will become depraved, and followers will be separated from the Church. Pius uses the metaphor of disease when he urges his readers: -eviten con horror el contagio de tan cruel pestilencia. -- After reading his list of errors, the faithful will be 431

-Publicaci6n del Jubileo Universal, - 4.

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-Publicaci6n del JLDleo Universal,- 15•.

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-Pmlicaci6n del Jubileo Universal,- 16.

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better able to avoid -falling ill· by coming into contact with these ·perverse, monstrous opinions.· The Pope claims that not only are these errors contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, but also to the ·ley natural etema.· Thus, Pius states that these errors violate something that predates the Church, the sense of right and wrong that God has allegedly installed in each human being as part of their intemal moral framework, ·naturallaw.· Pius cites natural law as additional proof that confirms the errors that he has identified based on God's revealed truth: • ... opiniones que no solo son contraries a la Iglesia cat6lica, a su sana doctrina y venerables derechos, sino tambien a la ley natural etema, grabada por Dios en todos los corazones ...... He insists throughout his texts that civil govemments have no authority over the Church, and that canon law, (which always agrees with natural law, since they have the same creator,) because of its divine origin, always takes precedence over the secular law codes devised by individual nations. Pius writes that the Church and its laws have dominion over men, nations, peoples and princes. He argues that freedom of religion, and freedom of the press are actually harmful and constitute ·libertad de perdicicSn.·... Pius argues that justice cannot be separated from religion, and that if the link between Church and state is broken, and a secular society is established, men will ·seguir el indomable deseo de entregarse como esclavo a sus propios

deleites y comodiades.·'" He says that for this very reason, ·public opinion· is not a valid criterion for govemments to follow when establishing their policies, since Fallen Man will always be guided by his camal desires. Pius specifically 434

·Publicaci6n del Jubileo Uriv....I.· 18.

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·PubIicaci6n del Jubileo Universal.· 18.

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·PLtJrIC8Ci6n del Jubileo Universal.· 18.

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criticizes books. pamphlets and newspapers as the vehicles used to transmit these ·impious doctrines.· Pius ends his prefatory letter by reminding his readers that it is the ·cMcimo aniversario de Ia definici6n dogmatica de la inmaculada concecpci6n de Ia vrrgen Marra. madre de Dios. y cMcimo nono de nuestro pontificado.·" The ·Syllabus· gathers together and catalogues errors that Pius had already identified and written about in other papal documents. The format is uncomplicated: the error is written out; after each error. there is a reference to the name and date of the papal document that first discussed this particular heresy. There are no refutations of the errors in this text; rather they are simply listed. with the clear understanding that since the Pope has designated them as errors. there is no room for debate. Thus. no further explanation is necessary. Pius is not really offering any new information in this ·Syllabus.· rather he is articulating the Church's views in response to certain new ideas that have developed in the secular world. many of which challenge traditional Church beliefs. Pius reconfirms official Church policy for the archbishops and bishops and priests throughout the world who read this ·Syllabus· by printing its antithesis. what it is not. Reading through the ·Syllabus,· it seems as if the Pope would like to tum back the clock. and ignore or deny the reality of the world he lives in. He attempts to lift the Church out of history, and establish it as a separate. timeless. eternal. unchanging entity that is n~ affected at all by any events that take place ·in the world.·. What is striking is not any particular error that is listed. most of which are predictable. but rather the Pope's determination to fight modemity and maintain 4:JT

·Publicaci6n del Jubileo Universal,· 25.

GI This point was made I:rf Gumbracht in sevemI conversations with tim in 1996-1997 at Stanford University.

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the Church's right to exist as an independent entity with its own law code and doctrine which is not subject to any other laws anywhere. Pope Pius IX's message is clear: the Church will not alter or adjust its doctrine in response to the dramatic nineteenth century changes in social orders all over the world. The last error, the eightieth, makes this clear in case anyone had not gotten the picture from reading the first seventy-nine errors: -EI romano pontifice puede y debe reconciliarse y arreglarse con el progreso, con el liberalismo y con la civilizaci6n modema.- Pius has divided the eighty different errors into nine different categories; the subheadings he uses are (in the order in which they appear): -Panteismo, Naturalismo y Racionalismo Absoluto; Racionalismo Moderado; Socialismo, Comunismo, Sociedades Secretas, Sociedades Biblicas. Sociedades Cl8rico-Liberales; Errores Acerca de la Iglesia y Sus Derechos; Errores acerce de la Sociedad Civil, Considerada ya en Si Misma ya en Sus Relaciones con Ia IgleSia; Errores de Moral Natural y Cristiana; Errores acarca del Matrimonio Cristiano; Errores acarce del Principado Civil del Romano PontrflC8; Errores que 58 Refieren al Uberalismo Medemo.-· The -demons- that Pius tries to fight are many; his Syllabus of Errors presents a fascinating view of what this Pope, whose term in office extended from 1846 to 1878, considered to be the main problems that the Church was facing in 1864. Some of the topics that Pius addresses are: atheism; agnosticism; Protestantism; rationalism; the secularization of personal and national life around the world; the classification of the Bible as a literary text. rather than the source of the revealed truth of God; the explosion in scientific knowledge; the foundation of secular nations which claimed legal jurisdiction over the Church; public education systems; state -interference- in communication between archbishops and bishops and the papacy; the state's -

·P..mIicaci6n del Jt.DIeo Universal.· 27-39.

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ability to either nominate and install or to remove bishops without the papacy's knowledge or permission; the right of each national govemment to determine a minimum age before nuns and monks could take their vows and enter a religious order; skepticism about the veracity of catholic doctrine; the classification of Catholicism as one religion among many. all of which are equally valid; the study of Christianity using the same criteria applied to the philosophical analysis of other belief systems; the denial of religion as the defining factor in legal codes and judicial systems; freedom of religion; laws disentailing Church lands; abolition of legal immunity for priests; the state's claim to approve papal documents before the Church can publish and distribute them; divorce; the location of the papal seat - it does not have to remain in Rome; the legitimacy of national Catholic churches which do not acknowledge the authority of the papacy; the unlimited power of the state; secular govemment regulation of seminaries;. the accumulation of personal wealth; rebellion against the governing authorities; marriage as a sacred sacrament; civil marriage licenses. Three Bishops from Peru went to the Vatican Council in Rome in 1870: Manuel Teodoro del Valle of Huanuco. Moreyra of Ayacucho. and Juan Ambrosio Huerta of Puno. Goyeneche did not go because of his age. eighty-six years old. and his health. However. he agreed with the most important business of the Vatican CounCil. the Declaration of Papal Infallibility. Goyeneche continued working until the time of his death. in 1872. when he was eighty-eight years old. after serving in a leadership role in the Church hierarchy for fifty-four years. Goyeneche met the difficult task of charting the course for the Church in the Peruvian Republic with unquestionable resolve and energy. When everything else in national life was chaotic and uncertain. the Church remained thoroughly predictable with Goyeneche at the helm. He tirelessly

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defended the -rights- of the Church, and opposed the secularization of national life at every tum. It is largely due to his efforts that the Church maintained as much of its ability to influence govemment policy as it did. Although the number of Peruvians who wanted to be ordained as priests dropped dramatically in the nineteenth century, and the Church lost its monopoly on education, cemeteries and the census, and its legal -ruero,- the Church retained its prominent position as moral arbiter and guarantor of the social order.

Camacho's Tradlcl6n:

-De Qulen a Qulen-

Juan Vicente Camacho's tradici6n -De quien a quien- is based on a duel that began in Spain and ended in Peru. camacho writes that two Spanish noblemen, Don Francisco de Borja y Aragon, Prrncipe de Esquilache, and Don Alvaro Sancho Davila, were walking down a crowded street in Madrid in 1614. when Davila's dog attacked and killed Borja y Aragon's dog. When the Prince ordered one of his servants to interrupt the fight, and save his dog, Davila punched the servant in the face so that his dog could kill the other one. The Prince was so angry about this latest development that he challenged Davila to a duel on the spot. They began a sword fight, but it was broken up by the King's soldiers, since dueling was strictly forbidden. Davila was thrown in jail. The higher ranking Prince talked to the King, who asked him to desist from continuing the duel; however, Borja y Aragon replied that he could not. So the King sent the Prince to Lima to be his Viceroy, so that he wouldn't have the chance to continue the sword fight that he had begun. According to this fictionalized historical piece, the criteria the King employed in selecting the Viceroy of Peru was nothing more substantial than the fact that he needed to get ·rid- of the Prince temporarily.

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In this story, the Prince represents the upper class, and Davila serves as a double signifier, (like Capitan Doria in Lavalle's tradici6n) he represents both the middle class and the military. When the Prince asks one of his servants about the identity of the man that he has been fighting; the servant replies: ·es un cabo de los tercios de ltalia a quien titulan Don Alvaro Sancho Davila ••• Oon Alvaro poco ha.estado en la Corte y sa ha hecho hombre peleando por Su Magestad en Randes y en ltalia.·...., Although the Prince holds a higher post in the Spanish social order, Davila's rank as an officer in the Crown's troops qualifies him as a ·caballero,· which means that he is ·equal enough· in rank to fight with the Prince. Davila is not a member of the ·plebe.· One allegorical reading of this story is that it may be taken as a symbolic message from the emerging bourgeois class to the upper class, that they would now have competition for the positions of power in running the nation. It is Davila's dog who kills the Prince's dog. When the two men began their sword fight, it was only after each of them had recognized that the other was a worthy and ·valid· opponent. The bourgeoisie want to be taken seriously as rivals- to the upper class. Davila, who was furious at being thrown in jail like a ·common· criminal, found a way to escape; he simply bribed the jailer, Romo, who then became his personal servant. Davila could not have escaped without Romo's help. Romo, who is of the lower class, is described as being • ..• uno de los tipos mas feas que pueden presentarse entre las caricaturas humanas.•"', Camacho adds that Davila did not know ·Ia clase de animal a que pertenecra aquel individuo no clasificado todavra por ningun naturalista.·442 The lower class is depicted as .., Juan Vante Camacho, -0. quien a quien: La Bavjata de Ljrrw. vol. II, 1860, 161.

"', Camacho, "De quien a quien, - 162. 442

Camacho, "De quien a quien, - 164.

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indispensable, but gruesome. Romo is a colonial Peruvian Sancho Panza-type character. In the stylized manner of colonial tradiciones, the Prince and Davila are portrayed as being quite handsome, naturally. When Davila leamed that the Prince was going to Peru, he and Rorno followed him there: -AI verse preso en un inmundo calabozo como un criminal vulgar resolvi6 dejar para siempre su patria y buscar en remotos climas el habla y las costumbre nacionalas lejos de la corte corrompida.-441 According to Davila's code of conduct, an officer in the Crown's troops should not be treated like a regular criminal. When the Prince enters Uma as Viceroy, there is a parade in his honor to welcome him. Camacho describes the Prince's horse and the outfit that he wore in great detail; the tradiciones all emphasize the luxury, beauty and elegance of the colonial epoch. A beautiful young woman, Margarita, presents the new Viceroy with the keys to the city: AI son de una musica alegre y bulliciosa se cant6 un villancico adecuado al caso, y la matrona present6 al Prfncipe en un cogin de seda las Ilaves de oro de la ciudad. Arap con suma galanterfa se baj6 del caballo, y besando la mano de la apuesta nina transformada en ciudad tom6 las Ilaves asegur4ndole que se tenia por muy honrado de recibirlas de tan hermosa ninfa.4t4

The Prince is captivated by her beauty; his evil servant Juan figures out who Margarita is, and where she lives, and decides to court her on the Prince's behalf, without telling him. Davila watched Margarita give the keys of the city to the Prince; he too fel~ in love with her at first sight. Romo finds out who Margarita is for Davila. After the Viceroy recognizes Davila as the man who has followed him the whole day, throughout all of the festivities, he tells Juan: -tarde 443 ,,_. L. \JCII1'I8CHO, 4t4

De· .-~ quMH'I a~, c.~.

Camacho, • De quien a quien,. 189.

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o temprano hemos de ajustamos de cuentas.- . It has been a year since their duel was interrupted. Camacho reports that Margarita's parents' names were not known to her. or anyone else, because she was the product of an adulterous affair. Her mother, an upper class creole woman, had married a man who was more than three times her age. This was the same dynamic that Camacho described in -Furens Amoris.- Camacho reports mysteriously that he cannot tell us this woman's name because her descendants still live in Uma. A relative from Arequipa asked her to take in a young man who was studying for the priesthood. Naturally, the two young people in the house had an affair. Once again, a priesfs sins are featured in a tradici6n published in the Beyist8. In this case, a representative of the upper class and a representative of the Church literally collaborate on a joint venture. After she had her baby, Margarita's mother paid an old nun, Pacoima, to raise her. So Margarita had upper class. creole parents, but she never knew who they were. or that her father was a priest. Her mother paid Pacoima once a year; after Margarita's mother's death. the person who administered her estate continued paying Pacoima. Although Margarita meets many of the requirements of a desirable wife according to the Peruvian middle and upper class standards of the day (she is under twenty years olel; she is a virgin; she is beautiful; she is a creole), her secret, scandalous origins do not bode well for her future; they undermine the optimistic tone Camacho uses when initially describing her. The sins of the colonial fathers and mothers continue to haunt the republic. Camacho reports that the only time Margarita leaves the house is to go to mass at six in the moming, and that she never receives visitors. She is as hidden, and well· guarded as if she were in a convent. This theme of cloistering young, . . Camacho• ..... _· . • _ ... ~ quMJn a quMtn. C~.

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unmarried, virgins also appears in Lavalle's tradici6n -EI Capitan Doria;- he comments that girls who were not put in convents were still subject to a type of permanent -house-arrest' in their parents homes. in order to ensure that they l

will remain virgins until their wedding day. In both stories, the bourgeois creole authors judge the earlier. aristocratic colonial era in order to hint that nineteenth century middle and upper class creole women have much more freedom than their colonial ancestors did: Eminentemente aristocratica. de f6rmulas severas. dominada por el espiritu religioso. Ia sociedad de Uma era poco comunicativa. poco dada a reuniones ni a espect8culos. y aparte del diario paseo y de ceremoniosas visitas, solo salia de su habitual retiro, cuando en los dias de Semana Santa los suntuosos templos que Ia piedad espanola sembr6 en Ia Ciudad de los Reyes. convidaban a los fieles con las imponentes ceremonias que en ellos sa celebraban con gran pompa y esplendor. En una sociedad asi organizada. no era extrano que la juventud de las mujeres se deslizase tristemente en el hagar domtistico repartida entre trabajos de aguja y practicas de piedad, hasta que un matrimonio, de antemano concertado, venia a sacarlas de alii para ponerlas al frente de otra familia, en la que a su tumo se reproducian esas costumbres que se perpetuaron de generaci6n en generaci6n, hasta la tipoca en que una revoluci6n politica y social vino a trastomar Ia obra de 300 anos....

Although Pacoima has protected her -virtud, - Margarita is still in a precarious position, because she doesn' know her parents' identities, and she has no one to protect her, or to arrange for her marriage. One of her would-besuitors. Davila is forty-five years old; and the other, the Prince, is thirty-five years old. Margarita is eight~ years old; all of the women who are portrayed as desirable in the tradiciones are between fourteen and eighteen years old. Camacho paints a romantic picture of her extraordinary beauty that informs readers that Margarita is a creole woman:

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Lavalle, .CapiI8n Daria,· 87-88.

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Dos grandes y decidores ojos pardos que hubiera quericlo Byron para su virgen de Atenas, lanzaban miradas sublimes veladas por largas y crespas pestaftas; una nariz cuyas ventanillas de rosa trasparentaban la luz antecedia a unos Iabios gruesos, humedos y delineaclos con los tintes que Rafael dio a Ia Vfrgen de Ia Silla. EI 6va1o perfecto de Ia cara rematado con un picarezco hoyuelo salfa de un marco de flotantes cabellos de seda, cuyos refIejos azulados sa percUan por unos hom bros y una garganta pura cuya frescura y lozanfa inventaron los italianos la palabra morbidezza. EI seno era turgente y de blanco de m4rmol y el cuerpo ligero, flexible y contomeaclo era un recuerdo de esas esclavas griegas que llenaban Ia copa a los emperadores romanos en sus festines hom6ricos.44'T

Margarita instinctively dislikes Juan, the Prince's servant, and she instinctively likes D4vila. Juan's visit to Margarita's house is disastrous. Davila's servant Romo has better luck at paving the way for his -master.Disguised as a priest, Romo pays a calion Margarita and Pacoima and warns against Juan and the Prince: ••• 10 importante es, que Don Juan Estuniga no asome por estas puertas, pues el enamigo del alma no excusa medias para nuestra perdici6n etema, y en esta coyuntura ha tornado Ia forma del tal Secretario, para dano y perjuicio de este angelitoa~

Both women are completely fooled by Romo's disguise; they believe that he is a priest. It is ironic that Margarita's (unknown) father was a priest, and that a false priest tries to arrange for her to meet his master. Romo lures PaCOima out of the house by promising to take her to a shop that sells Spanish fabrics at reasonable prices; he succeeds, leaving Margarita home alone. After watching her in Church every moming, D4vila finally pays Margarita a visit. When he appears at her door and she asks who he is, Davila replies: -Yo soy un hombre W

Camacho. "De quien a quien•• 237.

. . Camacho. "De quien a quien•• 280.

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que te ama, Margarita, yo soy la sombra de tu cuerpo, yo soy un infeliz que no vive sino para pensar en tr y ac:iorarte como aDios.- . Of course, Margarita and Davila immediately fall madly in love. Angry that he did not succeed in his secret mission on behalf of the Viceroy, Juan devises a plan to remove Dlivila from the scene. He simply goes to confession and hands the priest a list of thirty-two heresies and says that they were given to him by Datvila, who is then promptly thrown into the Inquisition's prison. There is a symbolic parallel between the list of heresies and the Peruvian constitutions. Although there is no longer an Inquisition in the midnineteenth century in Peru, the Church and its supporters frequently put liberals on trial by publicly denouncing their legislative proposals, laws and constitutions as immoral, anti-cierical and anti-Christian. The Church did not stop judging -heresies· with the demise of the Inquisition. By depicting the Inquisition depriving a heroic, innocent man of his freedom, Camacho portrays the Church as an institution that fosters fanaticism, ignorance, deception and hypocrisy. At this point Camacho interrupts the narration of the· story to interject the following text: Antes de seguir adelante, el autor se permite un aparte que serli muy oportuno en estos tiempos de susceptibilidad evangelica. AI describir una escena de la Inquisici6n de Uma en 1617, no es mi linimo excitar odiosidades contra los dignos ministros del altar, ni contra la santa religi6n que tengo Ia inapreciable fortuna de profesar. Yo soy el primero en creer que los horrores de Ia Inquisici6n fueron el resultado del fanatismo de los tiempos y de los errores de la epoca. Aquellos hombres, algunos aunque pocos, muy ilustrados y respetables crefa de la mejor buena fe que las vfctimas inmoladas en el Quemadero, eran un homenaje agradable aDios; y Ilenos de fe y de unci6n asistfan al suplicio de millares de infelices, cuyo martirio habr6 tenido Oios en cuenta para Ia remisi6n de sus pecados en el mundo. Yo que me deleito con el Padre Ventura, San Ger6nimo y el celebre juez de paz de Burdeos, leo con profunda I4stima los crfmenes de la Inquisici6n, cuyos . . Camacho,

-De quian a quien,. 282.

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sombrios ministros sacrificaban multitud de victim as, cuyo error muchas veces era unicarnente ser m4s ignorantes que sus perseguidores. Este caprtulo as indispensable a nuestra historia, que tiene por objeto hacer ligeros estudios de algunas costumbres limns en el siglo XVII, y no lIeva en sr eI sello de Ia impiedad.-

The problem with Camachols historical disclaimer is that he is having too much fun gleefully recounting the Inquisitionls gruesome deeds and accusing the Inquisitioners of being -ignorant,- fanatical, and usually wrong. Just as Camacho claims that "e Inquisition was frequently wrong in its judgments about some onels guilt or innocence as a-heretic, - the current Church may be guilty of mis-judging the liberalsl constitutions and their dreams for the Peruvian republic. His protest that this tradici6n is not anti-clerical is ironic. Camacho elicits a negative reaction to the Church when he describes what the Inquisition has done: the -Vrctimas inmolades,- their role as martyrs, and their probable innocence. Although he claims no impious intent, Camacho portrays the Church and the Inquisition in a dubious light at best. Despite his protests that he does not mean to stir up any trouble for the Church, both the literal and the allegorical reading of -De quien a quien- depict the Church as self-serving, harmful to innocent bystandersl and unpatriotic. Davila was not a man to stand for false imprisonment, as we know. He resolved to free himself from -el brazo sangriento de estos frailes fanaticas- and take revenge on the Prince and his servant, whom he blames for his imprisonment. During his trial, Davila tells the Inquisitors: -Bien veo que la torpe y ruin venganza del Prrncipe de Esquilache me ha arrojedo en vuestras garras, como presa digna de vuestra feroz sed de sangre.

4S)

Camacho,· De quien a quien,. 834-836.

..s1 Camacho,· De quien a quien,. 337.

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-.1

Davila is

sentenced to a session in the torture room. Meanwhile, his servant Romo has gotten a job with the Inquisition as a torturer. -Romo only pretends to torture Davila; while the two men are alone in the torture room, there is an earthquake. Romo and Davila escape; on their way out of the Inquisition's prison, Romo kills a priest who tries to prevent them from leaving. Davila and Romo flee up the coast, north of Uma. The Inquisition tells everyone that Davila died in its prisons. When Margarita found out where Davila was, she went to the Principe to ask for his help. Camacho's describes Margarita as even more beautiful than ever in her profound state of grief; she is in a state near death - the death of her spirit. Like Arestegui, Camacho also praises the beauty of women who are in a deathly pallor: Margarita, hermosa como era, estaba doblemente bella y seductora en su dolor. Las mejillas p4lidas dejaban entrever Ia sangre de sus venas azules y los ojos dilatados por el pesar, mostraban en negras ojeras la huella de sus constantes lagrimas.-

Margarita tells the Prince the rumor that it is he who had Davila falsely charged with heresy and imprisoned, (-•.• me han dicho que una rivalidad inconcebible de parte de V.E. ha hundiclo a Don Alvaro en los calabozos del Santo Oficio ••••)- and that his servant Juan has given her messages of love on behalf of the Prince. The Prince denies sending her -love messages,- and promises to free Davila as soon as possible. He declares that although Davila is his enemy, he would not resort to tricks to punish him, or abuse his position of power to seek vengeance upon him.

-

Camacho, • De quien • quian,- 337-338.

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Camacho, • De quien • quien, - 338.

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Meja enemistad me separa de tu amante, y mals de una vez la venganza se ha presentado a mis manos, como el manjar suculento a un goloso; pero yo Ie he rechazado con 4nimo entero y decidido••.• si bien tengo enemiga, respeto como cumplido caballero que es ••• 454

The Prince gives Margarita a letter to give to the Inquisitors regarding Dalvila's innocence, and promises to ensure his release from prison as soon as possible. However, the Prince's letter was not attended to immediately, and in the interim, the Prince had to come to the aid of his subjects after the earthquake. By the time that the chief Inquisitor pays a visit to the Viceroy, Romo and Dalvila had already escaped. The chief Inquisitor agrees to drop the charges against Dalvila and to keep the death of the Inquisitor that Romo killed a secret. After they have galloped ten hours North of Uma, up the coast, Dalvila and Romo run into the British pirate Izten, with 2000 sailors/soldiers. This pirate had already gone on a -looting and pillaging- rampage at the expense of landed estates along the coast, but what he wanted most of all was to capture Lima. Davila wanted revenge on the Prince; therefore, he offered to lead the pirates to Uma, in order to punish the Prince, and to give him the opportunity to finish his duel with the Prince. A personal desire for revenge motivates Dalvila to betray his country. A royal spy brings the message to the Prince that Dalvila is leading the British pirates down the coast to attack Uma. The Viceroy gallops up the coast, finds Calvila, and the two men resolve their differences amicably. After assuring Dalvila that he had no knowledge of Juan's devious activities, and that he had tried to rescue Davila from the Inquisition's prisons, the two men shake hands and become friends. Davila is now free to marry Margarita; his enmity with the most powerful man in colonial Peru is over. An allegorical

. . Camacho, • De quien a quian,· 338-339.

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reading of this scene would be that the middle and the upper class agree to a cease-fire in the civil wars, and join together to defend the nation from the British, who played a dominant role in financing (and indirectly goveming) the Peruvian republic in the nineteenth century. While D4vila and the Prince are resolving their differences north of Lima, Margarita is in mouming because she has been told by both Juan and the chief Inquisitor that Davila has died. Even though the Chief Inquisitor knows that Davila is alive, he allows Margarita to believe that he is dead. She is inconsolable. Margarita decides to become a nun as soon as possible: Ahora, Senor Inquisidor, no me queda mas que consagrar el resto de mi vida al culto de ese dolor que ofrecere a Dios en espiaci6n de mis culpas. Yo quiero tamar el velo en el convento de las Madres de la Encamaci6n...

The Inquisitor urges Margarita to wait before becoming a nun; he reminds her that once she has become a nun, her decision is permanent, and that becoming a nun will not heal her broken heart: •.•. el claustro y la penitencia no impondran silencio a los latidos del coraz6n cuando se vea asaltado por las ideas mundanas.-.. However, although he discourages her from taking her vows, the priest never tells Margarita that Davila is alive, even after she tells him that they were engaged to be married. One second after Margarita has taken her vows to become a nun, (••.• pronunci6 Margarita con voz clara y sonora los terribles y solemnes votos que Ia alejaban para siempre del mundo·) Davila storms into the Church, shouting for them to stop the ceremony: ·Deteneosl Deteneos par misericordial.- But he is too late. The

... Camacho, "De quien a quien,. 634. . . . Camacho, "Oe quien a quien,. 635.

328

Inquisitor who lied to Margarita and told her that Davila was dead tells him: -Hijo mfo, ya as tarde, la infeliz pertenece aDios. Tu amor as ahora una profanaci6n y tu delirio un sacrnegio.'" The Church played a decisive role in Margarita's life. It was originally due to a priest's -sin- that she was bom. The Church also facilitated her upbringing: Margarita's Mother's upper class status allowed her to hire a nun to raise Margarita. The secrecy surrounding Margarita's birth, and the identity of her parents signified a tacit agreement between the Church and the upper class to hide the sexual escapades of the members of both of these dominant groups. Camacho thus casts a disapproving eye on the hijinks of the -conservativealliance of the upper class and the Church. Unfortunately for her, Margarita's illegitimate status, and her unknown parentage mark her as an unacceptable candidate to be a (legitimate, bourgeois, creole) wife; although, she does not understand this. Camacho writes that Davila spent a lot of money trying to track down Margarita's parents' identities and could not. Margarita's mother's money bought her anonymity. After the Inquisition imprisoned Davila under false charges, a priest compounded the harm done to the innocent couple by lying to Margarita about Davila's death, and allowing her to become a nun without the usual waiting period of a year. Rather than facilitating the young lovers' marriage, the Church deliberately separates them, permanently. Ironically, it is Davila's money that allows Margarita to make the necessary -donation- to the Church to become a nun; she tells the Inquisitor that he has given her a sizable amount of gold. Thus, the Church not only impedes Margarita's marriage, it also makes a profit by doing so. Although the Viceroy and Davila have resolved their animosity peacefully, and have worked together to foil the British pirates, the Church has 451

Camacho, "De quien a quien,· 636.

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prevented this story from having a happy ending. By blocking the marriage of Margarita and D6vila, the Church has acted -unnaturally.- The -marriage- of Margarita to the Church by taking her vows to become a nun is depicted as extremely -unnatural, - and unnecessary, whereas in earlier eras, becoming a nun was praised as the ultimate blessing for women. Becoming a nun was stigmatized by the fiction writers of the RayisbL By keeping the lovers apart through lies and deceptions, and taking their money in the process, the Church is portrayed as greedy, self-serving and harmful to the nation's health. The Church has prevented Margarita's happiness from cradle to grave. In Camacho's melodramatic, Bevista tradici6n, the upper class and the bourgeoisie have called for a cease-fire in their civil war, and joined forces, but there is no bride waiting for the bourgeois creole hero Davila when he returns to Lima; the Church has stolen her, thus wrongfully depriving both the young lovers and the republic of the benefits of the fulfilknent of their natural love and nation-building union. From Flora Tristan's harsh, non-fICtion critique of Peruvian society, to Artistegui's depraved priest Padre Horan, to the romantiC, serialized stories of Camacho, Gorriti, Lavalle and Palma in the Beyista de

Li.ma. the Church and its upper class allies are depicted as preventing Peru's fulfillment of its -natural- destiny as a nation where peace, patriotism, prosperity and progress prevail.

330

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