Creole Religiosity in Colonial Mexico: Devotional Cultures in Transition

doi:10.1017/9781108976893.012

Chapter 11 - Creole Religiosity in Colonial Mexico: Devotional Cultures in Transition

from Part III - Belief Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2022

Stephanie Kirk

Edited by

Rocío Quispe-Agnoli and

Amber Brian

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Rocío Quispe-Agnoli: Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Amber Brian: Affiliation:
University of Iowa

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Summary

This essay examines the textual representation of creole religiosity as it developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries during its transition from a transplanted, transatlantic belief system into a hybrid American faith. Various textual genres attest to this Creole faith in transition including spiritual life writings, chronicles of religious orders, sermons and tracts dealing with miracles and portents, as well as more formal literary genres including theater and poetry. Creole religiosity was a highly gendered phenomenon, and these texts reveal the contours of the exemplarity the Church demanded from men and women as well as the challenges launched against these ideals. Authors studied here include the canonical like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, as well as nuns and clerics whose names are less familiar but whose texts bring New Spanish devotional culture to life.

Keywords

Creole religiosity New Spain colonial Catholicism gender masculinity syncretism rituals evangelization indigenous beliefs Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Type: Chapter
Information: Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800 , pp. 166 - 179

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976893.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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References

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