Literatas, Education and Secularization in Peru, 1870-c. 1900

• In Event: Beyond Nation: Feminism and Protest in Nineteenth-Century Latin American Print Culture

Abstract

Between 1845 and 1870 Peru experienced a period of prosperity as guano fertilizer sales produced an economic boom that generated immense wealth and the emergence of a small middle class. The expanding middling classes demanded diverse reading materials which triggered the publication and distribution of novels, newspapers and literary magazines in Lima. In the 1870s female writers became active participants of this dynamic print culture. By the end of the decade, however, Peru entered a period of economic stagnation and political crisis as guano revenues declined. The country also joined the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) which resulted in Peru’s military defeat, a lengthy occupation and the loss of Peruvian territory. In the following years, Peruvian political elites jostled over government control. Intellectuals blamed the national crisis on Peru’s deficient and archaic educational institutions which remained under the control of religious orders. The present research addresses women’s roles in the social criticism that emerged during the War of the Pacific and the following decades of reconstruction. It focuses on several writers, including Teresa González de Fanning (1836-1918) and Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1845-1909). An analysis of their work reveals that they played a central role in the ideological and material reconstruction of the nation. During the reconstruction years between 1883 and 1900, influential female writers adopted a positivist and patriotic discourse that curtailed the power of the Church in the sphere of education and redefined Peruvian collective identity.

Author

• Gracia Solis