Domestic Devotions and Sacred Domains: Gendered Ideals and Religious Practice in Guatemala City, 1750–1850

Recently, scholars have explored how post-Independence political discourse formulated new ideals of Republican Motherhood and the home as a sacred domain.  In the case of Guatemala City, this ideal largely began to take shape a full generation before Independence.  By the late colonial period, reformers in Guatemala City were emphasizing the social utility of moral mothers, critiquing the celibate option, pressuring mothers to nurse their own infants, and opening schools for girls of all races in order to help women steer their families towards progress.  But just how successful were these attempts to reform feminine ideals towards virtuous motherhood?  Did changing gender ideals mark the home as a new kind of gendered sacred space in the late eighteenth century?  Did domestic devotions increasingly reflect new ideals, emphasize women’s roles as wives and mothers, and separate private and public space?  This paper argues that gender did shape devotional life within the home in important ways by the late colonial period, but not necessarily in the way that reformers imagined.  A close analysis of male and female wills suggests that women were much more likely than men to pay special attention to household saints and assume greater responsibility for certain household devotions, but these devotional practices often blurred the lines between public and private and did not necessarily reinforce new visions of the virtuous wife and mother.  Contrary to the vision of reformers, the urban context of Guatemala City regularly deemphasized the husband/wife relationship, while simultaneously allowing women greater opportunities for individual spiritual expression and female-based networks.  While the ideal of the pious wife and mother gained discursive ground over the nineteenth century, overall marriage rates for women in Guatemala City declined and there is little indication that religious practice became more domesticated or that stricter boundaries separated public and private devotions.