Pamela Bastante (U Prince Edward Island) Flores y coronas de espinas: Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro y el santuario de Atotonilco El tema de la muerte permeaba todo aspecto de la vida cotidiana en la Nueva España del siglo XVIII. La preparación para su llegada era una preocupación constante y existían varias formas, fomentadas por la Iglesia, para asegurar una ‘Buena Muerte’. Para facilitar que dicho tránsito fuera exitoso, Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, sacerdote del Oratorio de San Felipe Neri en San Miguel el Grande, fundó un santuario en Atotonilco, donde los fieles podrían dedicarse al fortalecimiento de su fe por medio de una serie de estrictos ejercicios espirituales y duras penitencias. Hoy, el Santuario de Jesús Nazareno es mayormente conocido por su designación de Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad por la UNESCO, debido a su arquitectura barroca y los elaborados frescos en su interior, pintados por el artista de origen indígena, Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre. Los escalofriantes frescos de esta ‘Capilla Sixtina de las Américas’ retratan los horrores del infierno, la necesidad de purificar el alma y la Pasión de Jesucristo. Además, se incorporaron a éstos, versos poéticos edificantes compuestos por el padre Alfaro. Esta ponencia examinará la importancia del padre Alfaro, su proyecto de Atotonilco y su particular modo de fortalecer el discurso eclesiástico sobre la salvación del alma con las imponentes imágenes y versos pintados en los muros del Santuario de Jesús Nazareno.
Lauren Beck (Mount Allison U) Marital Materiality and the Empowerment of Women across the Spanish Atlantic, 1550-1650 The material gaze has recently redirected scholarly attention toward understanding how the value and possession of goods intersected with the subjects of gender, ownership, and power. Scholarship of this nature can importantly challenge the masculinist paradigm through which the possibility that women exercised power and authority in the past, particularly with respect to fiscal matters and the exchange of goods, is not often or seriously considered. Historical sources (dowry letters, wills and testaments, personal correspondence, and petitions) reveal a different picture of that gendered past in a Spanish transatlantic context because, as Jane E. Mangan observes, women’s lives during transatlantic separation often defied stereotypes that exist to this day concerning the abandonment and victimization of women by their husbands, as well as female obedience. This documented transatlantic milieu allows us to apprehend the degree to which both impoverished and better-off women exercised authority over men in the early modern period within and outside of the household. While examining the first hundred years or so following the Council of Trent, when marriage was redefined, this presentation also explores transatlantic separation between Spain and post-conquest Mexico in the same period in order to understand how marital materiality could empower women.
Stephen Rupp (U Toronto) Camacho’s Wedding and the Praise of Rural Labour (Don Quixote II, 19-22) Basilio’s success in winning the hand of Quiteria in the episode of Camacho’s wedding can be read as the triumph of love over the force of financial interest. Camacho’s suit for Quiteria rests on his wealth; the attribute of “rico” defines him as a character and material riches mark both his arrangements with Quiteria’s father to take her as his wife and the sumptuous provisions for his wedding. The masque staged on the wedding day presents a competition between Cupid, the god who holds sway from the earth’s center to the heavens, and Interest, a figure who claims to underwrite all profitable deeds and to exercise powers that surpass those of love. The ingenious gesture through which Basilio interrupts the marriage ceremony to assert his true claim to Quiteria appears to mark the victory of his love. Basilio’s positive qualities, however, reside in more than love alone. His skills of dexterity and strength are closely associated with village life and with physical work on the land, and his marriage to Quiteria demonstrates the moral advantage of labour over Camacho’s accumulated wealth. This theme in Don Quixote follows a literary tradition that celebrates farming and the skills of agricultural work.
