Religion and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Argentina: Teachings from the 1875 Anticlerical Riots

Abstract

Unlike most Latin American countries, Argentina never legally separated Church and State. Nor did the country witness religiously motivated armed conflicts during the nineteenth century, as happened in Mexico and Colombia. Despite this absence of a structural conflict pertaining to religious matters, archival records from both colonial times and the post-independence period contain numerous references to violent attacks on religious buildings and images as well as on members of the clergy. The chapter shows the trajectory of such anticlerical agitation in nineteenth-century Argentina. Its main focus is on the riots that took place in Buenos Aires in February 1875, the only large-scale violence of its kind to occur in the country. By showing the rioters’ preference for attacking symbols of Ultramontane Catholicism and Church–State cooperation, the chapter contributes to a better understanding of the manifold links between elite and popular anticlericalism as well as the latter’s peculiar masculine nature.

El capítulo analiza el motín anticlerical del domingo 28 de febrero de 1875 que derivó en el ataque, saqueo o incendio de varias instituciones eclesiásticas porteñas: la curia, el palacio arzobispal, las iglesias de San Ignacio y de San Francisco y el Colegio del Salvador.