The construction of female
citizenship is read as a paradox by Joan Scott when she points out that “the
history of feminism is the history of women who have only paradoxes to offer” (Scott, 2012, p. 21). Insofar as Western democracies constructed
citizenship based on the equivalence between individual and masculinity, Scott
points to the paradox involved in simultaneously defending the importance and
irrelevance of sexual difference when demanding rights such as voting or
education.
This key
paradox in the construction of equality and difference in modern times also
marked the gendered character of both national and civilizing projects, largely
articulated by the sexual division of labor and by a family-focused and
domestic iconography that differentiated roles, discourses, and practices in
sex-gender terms (McClintock, 1993). As Yuval Davis and Anthias
(1989) point out, although women
who participated as civilizers in the architecture of these projects often
faced the same or more risks as their male counterparts, they have been
represented from a pre-political conceptualization of affects, in a
relationship of love or support towards conquerors, soldiers, or missionaries.
Thus, once the war was over, the discourse of national sentimentalism calls
upon these civic mothers to build peace among all those who were previously
enemies, that is, to embody “the gentle hand of power” in order to construct a
society (Vera, 2016).
The first decades of the 20th century in Chile
correspond to a period of rhetoric of national unity that advocated for the
need to integrate social and ethnic sectors which had been explicitly excluded
since colonial times. This period also coincides with the significant unfolding
of female professionalism (midwives, social workers, nurses, teachers), which
Lavrín conceptualizes as “scientific motherhood”: women who were key for social
change as they would be in charge of “sanitizing and moralizing the sexual
sphere in order to build a healthy and strong nation” (Lavrin, 1995, p. 88;
Illanes, 2007; Vera, 2016). This period was also defined by alliances between
the Catholic Church and elite women’s philanthropy (Yeager, 2005), the feminization of education (Egaña et al., 2003), and, globally, the feminization of missions (Haggis, 1998; Semple, 2003; De la Fuente, 2023).
We propose paradoxical strategies as a key approach to interpreting the
discourses of a subject who is little or problematically integrated into the
reflection on female and eventually feminist genealogies in Chile: religious
women (Haggis, 1998; Vera & Valderrama-Cayumán, 2017). As Haggis
points out, such genealogies have generally tended to consider religiosity as
“an unfortunate conservative influence” in women’s history (Haggis, 1998, p. 173). In the case
of Chile, Yeager argues that religion was a key tool for integrating women into
modernization processes. Far from secular feminism, religious women who were in
charge of the education of girls and teachers since the late nineteenth century
fostered, however, a female self-awareness. This would have allowed to
politically intend the idea of female moral superiority in order to form
“guardians of national morality” (Yeager, 2005, p. 243). One of the subjects that
emerges from this reading, against the grain of women’s histories and
feminisms, are the missionaries.
Haggis´s work on British evangelical missionaries points out that within
the intertwined discursive framework of religion and empire, “rather than an
emancipatory struggle to break through the bounds of convention, it was
precisely convention which enabled the making of the female missionary (Haggis, 1998, p. 172). Through this “flexible and
subtle reordering of existing norms and values”, the author asserts that
missionaries achieved a result quite similar to that of the feminism of the
time: “professional women living independent lives outside the prescriptions of
filial or marital dependency for women provided by Victorian middle-class
culture.” (Haggis, 1998, p. 172).
Alongside what we could broadly term as the patriarchal nature of
monotheistic religions, the discourses and practices of missionaries also prove
problematic due to the obvious power asymmetry from which their relationship
with the pagans to be “civilized” and evangelized gains meaning. Both the
historical-political context and the passionate nature of faith frame what may
have been a genuine conviction that pagans would be “happier” upon converting
to “the true religion” (Stornig, 2013). However, it
is clear that the figure of the infantilized Other who needs to be “helped” and
“saved” was the rationale that enabled the rhetoric of sacrifice and, to that
extent, legitimized these women’s quests and practices for autonomy (Haggis, 1998).
In the case of the Araucanía
Region, Serrano argues: “public education was practically
nonexistent in the area that comprised the province of Arauco until the 1850s”
(1995, 451). The State chose to entrust educational work to Catholic missions
that had accumulated experience since the conquest. After the expulsion of the
Jesuits in 1767 and the prosecution of the Franciscans who resisted the
independence cause, in 1848 President Bulnes negotiated with the Congregation
for the Propagation of the Faith (FIDE) for the sending of the Capuchin order.
These had the greatest impact on the education of Mapuche children at the end
of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (Azócar, 2014; Serrano et
al., 2018). Thus, after a long history of missionary efforts organized successively by
Jesuits, Franciscans, and Capuchins, the military occupation of Araucanía in
1883 resulted in the Mapuche people being decimated by policies of settlement
and reduction,[3] leading them to practice subsistence agriculture, similarly to peasants.
In this context, the State perceived schools as instruments of civilization,
but they also represented a strategic literacy opportunity for the Mapuche,
offering them some leverage in negotiating land dispossession.
From here, the education of Mapuche girls and boys
would work towards a new cultural and racial (mestizo) pact, which would
redefine gender relations in the Araucanía Region. This redefinition will
determine the strategic role of Mapuche girls as future biological and cultural
reproducers, and to that extent, it will also deliniate the call for Catholic
nuns, Protestant missionaries, and female teachers as educators and
evangelizers.
Interestingly,
the role of women in the educational and civilizing projects of Araucanía has
been scarcely studied. Most research on this matter has focused on the
alliances and influences among men: priests, missionaries, state agents,
chiefs, and Mapuche leaders (Azócar, 2014; Donoso, 2008; Menard & Pavez, 2007;
Montecino & Foerster, 1988; Serrano, 1995).
The present
text will focus on analyzing the discourses of the first German candidates who
applied to the emerging congregation of Catechists of Boroa between 1932 and
1934. Our hypothesis is that in these women’s discourses we can identify
paradoxical strategies which were deployed in the pursuit of recognition and
autonomy.
In
methodological terms, the systematization and cross-referencing work of
archives located in the Araucanía Region -Historical Archive of the Diocese of
Villarrica (AHDV); Archive of the Catechist Congregation of Boroa (ACB)- and
Eichstätt -Magazines Ewige Anbetung and Altöttinger Franziskus Kalender,
Eichstätt-Ingolstadt University, Germany- included letters, magazines, calls,
and other documents in three languages[4]. These were organized into Excel spreadsheets,
transcribed, translated, coded in Atlas.ti, and analyzed from a gender
perspective as culturally coded “texts”, bearers of discourses that coexist and
mutually address each other (Rojo, 2001).
The first part
of the text describes the context in which the congregation arises and analyzes
documents that show how the Capuchin mission summoned and constructed the
missionaries” profile. The second part analyzes letters from the candidates,
highlighting different codifications and self-discursive markings that show
exceptionalism and the tricks of the weak as paradoxical strategies. We will
conclude with a reflection on the limits and possibilities of these strategies,
which constitute part of female genealogies.
Summoning the
Candidates
The origins of the Catechists of
Boroa Congregation can be traced back to 1928 and 1931, after the proposal of
the Capuchin missionary Wolfgang Emslander von Kochel to Guido Beck, Apostolic
Vicar of Araucanía. The foundation of this congregation responded to the lack
of pastoral personnel, explained by Beck using a military metaphor:
[...] the
officers are in their respective posts [...] but we lack junior officers and
combat troops, which are indispensable in a mission territory [...] [We need] a
handful of missionaries and a legion of catechists (Noggler, 1972,
p. 179).
In this regard,
von Kochel argued that the religious instruction of the Mapuche people could
not yet be fulfilled “by the children of the same race” and even less by the
“indigenous catechists” who were trained and between twenty and
thirty-years-old, because “at that age they are already married and have a
family, and thus they no longer move from their hut” (Noggler, 1972, p. 183).
The history of
the Catechists was also linked to the Swiss congregation that had until then
focused its work on the education of Mapuche girls and boys: the Sisters
Teachers of the Holy Cross of Menzingen (HSC). This congregation had settled in
Río Bueno in 1901, deploying its work as prestigious pedagogues across
Araucanía. Such prestige earned them two formal invitations from Santiago to
direct Normal Schools and a dispute between the hierarchies of the Church:
Ángel Jara (bishop of the Diocese of Ancud) and Bucardo de Röttingen (apostolic
prefect of the missions at the time) (Noggler, 1972).
At the request
of the Vicariate, the HSC agreed to train the Catechists both in religious life
and in apostolic activity until 1936.
By 1923, Von
Kochel was the spiritual director of Elsa Metzler, originally from Munich and a
lay catechist in the Boroa Mission. The Capuchin highlighted Metzler’s
“on-the-ground” style in instructing and evangelizing children and adults “from
hut to hut”, a factor from which his proposal would emerge (Noggler, 1972).
In 1932
Teresita Klumpp Streck (daughter of German settlers), Bertina Dachs (Sister
Cecilia), María Baumert (Sister Isabel), and the chilean Juana Norambuena
(Sister Bernardita) joined the first formation of the congregation and took
charge of the first school in Las Dichas.[5] In
1937, Sister Teresita would take the role of superior of the Catechists (Noggler, 1972). The congregation was quickly joined by Chilean and
also Mapuche[6]
women, who evangelized, taught literacy, cared for the sick, and administered
emergency sacraments both in Araucanía and on Easter Island.[7]
Figure 1. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Meanwhile, in
the devout city of Altötting, a stable relationship had been forged between the
Provincialate of the Bavarian Capuchins of St. Anne’s Convent and the
Kreszentia Mission House of the HSC. It was named in honor of Krescentia Löffer
(1828-1910), a benefactor widow of the HSC who bought the land on which the
mission house was built. Löffer would spend her final years there (Ewige
Anbetung, March Issue, 1910, p. 96).
Before
departing by ship from Hamburg or Antwerp to the Port of Corral-Valdivia, the
candidates received their initial training at Kreszentia House in tasks
directly related to what would be their work in the mission: horticulture,
dressmaking, handicraft, and Spanish classes (Ewige Anbetung, May Issue, 1924, p. 145). In this same house the first candidates selected to
join the emerging congregation were received between 1932 and 1934. In Boroa,
Nueva Imperial, they would be welcomed at the Elisabetinum house (“¡Hacia los ideales de San Francisco y de Santa
Isabel!”, n.d., AHDV), led in its
early years by the Sister of the Holy Cross, Sister Hildegardis (Historical
Archive of the Diocese of Villarrica - AHDV).
Figure 2. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Figure 3. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the
right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
What was expected of
future missionaries?
The young German women learned about
the Mission in Araucanía through writings that Capuchin priests
addressed to the faithful in Bavaria (Noggler, 1972). The document “The Congregation of Catechists of
Boroa as leaders for Christ” (“Die
Kongregation der Katechistinnen in Boroa als Führerin zu Christus”, n/d,
AHDV), dating around
1932, was addressed to “the benefactors of our beautiful mission in Araucanía”.
This document outlined what was expected of a catechist, the tasks to be
carried out and the living conditions in Araucanía:
From the
Secular Third Order of Saint Francis has arisen a new, ideal and beautiful
flower […] it cannot and should not be a monastic foundation with narrow
limits and nuns in the proper sense of the word […] It is the Congregation
of Catechists in Araucanía, something new of its kind […] Everything is
arranged […] the Elisabetinum in Boroa, the home where these spiritual
troops are trained. It is located in a marvelous place […] with a
panoramic view of the snowy Andes” volcanic range […] a delightful terrain
of cultivated fields, shrubs, and trees, with peaceful indigenous huts
and herds of grazing cattle […] Here they mainly study the two
missionary languages, Spanish and Araucanian, catechism, and biblical
history [...] they are instructed on how to teach both in schools and in huts
[...] Educated in this manner, they become educators of the simple and poor
people around them [...] Their humility must bend the upright pride of
the Araucanian man and straighten that of the downhearted Araucanian woman
[...] Their apostolate should not be loud and strident, but silent and
hidden, like that of a mother in the home, where she never rests [...]
There are already two catechists in the beautiful paradise area of Lake
Ranco [...] one alongside a second lay teacher in Molco, which is very much
disputed by the Protestant sects [...] On Sunday [...] Mass is
celebrated at a distance [...] Weekdays are dedicated to the education of the
men and women of tomorrow, to the children. They are the most
receptive [...] I only wish to add that [the catechists] actively
participate in the administration of all the sacraments [...] They are even
involved in the sacrament of Holy Orders, as they seek authentic vocations
everywhere [...] In the chapel, they faithfully care for beautiful folk
singing, keep the sanctuary clean and orderly, and take care of the cleaning
of the church. In the cabins, the sick and dying are prepared to receive
the sacraments and eternal life. A sacred fire burns in these religious
women consacrated to the service of God in the world, a fire of blissful
joy, [...] When the awareness of saying “I am a missionary, I am at the
service of the struggling, suffering, and triumphant Church, I must fight and
suffer for God’s cause, even if only as a poor and weak instrument in the hands
of the Almighty” [...] sinks deeply into the soul, it becomes clear that
one must forget, so to speak, personal demands, homeland and mother tongue,
comfort, and local customs [...] in order to gain the trust of those
whom one wishes to bring to the beloved God. Chileans and Mapuches are
especially easy to win over when they see that one is like them [...]
German girls should not believe that they can simply walk around the cabins
[...] It is not that easy [...] they must show concern for the care
of the sick, set a good example, perform acts of love, be receptive to
the desire for religion, and, without emphasizing their superiority,
they must humbly and with caution and kindness immerse themselves in the
new environment [...] And surely it would be a sublime, longed-for, and
radiant grace for centuries to win over for the humble faith and Christian life
the proud and self-sufficient Araucanian people. Their conversion would be
worth the sweat of the noblest (“Die Kongregation der
Katechistinnen in Boroa als Führerin zu Christus”, n/d, AHDV).[8]
Although it is
not possible to identify the author of this call or exactly how it circulated
in Germany, it was most likely drafted or at least reviewed by Beck himself. It
should be noted that secondary sources describe Beck as an extremely
detail-oriented man (Noggler, 1972; Umbach, 2017). In any case, this first call, drafted by Capuchin
missionaries, envisions for this “new in its kind” work women who are not
necessarily nuns. They were to be women of faith who had to be willing to
“forget” their homeland, language, comforts, and customs, who had to tolerate
“Mass at a distance”, learn two languages, and work diligently for the pagans
and the Church. The call also offers a whole series of proposals for
identification, from the “marvelous landscape with a panoramic view of the
snowy Andes volcanic range”,[9]
to a model of feminine epic (“struggling, suffering, and triumphant”) that
articulates sacrifice and humility but also power (administrators of
sacraments, evangelizers of a proud people, soldiers fighting against
Protestant sects).
Stoler (2004) argues that concerns about the distribution of
sentiment (its excess and its lack), by control techniques and affective
modulations, characterized (post)colonial European administrations. Such
concerns were not only aimed at the subjects to be civilized, but also at the
most vulnerable representatives of European power: poor whites, “mixed-race”
children, and women. By making cultural and gender expectations explicit, the
call outlines a whole series of “correct feelings” for the future missionaries.
This way, it is expected that they will organize, clean, sing, and care “like a
mother who never rests” but in whom also burns “a fire of blissful joy”.
Through a female apostolate that is “silent, hidden, humble, cautious, and
kind” that does not “emphasize their superiority”, the missionaries must “earn
the trust” of the pagans, “show concern” and “be receptive”.
Considering the
strategic racial and cultural place held by these women as symbols and models
of “good femininity” in the missionary project, the call outlines the norm of
legitimate femininity: the domestic ideal is articulated with the rhetoric of
female moral superiority through modulations of what constitutes correct
feelings, of what is shown and what is hidden to convert the pagan Other. From
this “silent” and “loving” female superiority, great rewards could be expected:
the conversion of the “proud and self-sufficient Mapuche people would be worth
the sweat of the noblest”.
On the other
hand, the document “Greetings from God!” (“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d, AHDV) drafted by the Missionary Secretariat of the
Capuchins of the convent of Santa Ana in Altötting, mentioned that “once their vocation
has been clearly understood through fervent prayers and mature reflections”,
a series of certificates should be sent: medical, birth, baptism, confirmation,
completion of primary and/or secondary school, of singleness, of “release,
officially sealed by the convent superiors, in case they have belonged to an
order or congregation as a postulant, candidate, novice, or sister. The
certificate should also indicate the reasons for their exit”, a “certificate
of good conduct enclosed by the corresponding parish priest”. And also a
“handwritten autobiography”, “attached questionnaire, completed truthfully, and
a photograph”.[10]
The document
also requested covering at least part of the travel expenses (800 marks) and “depositing
any owned property (at least 3,500 marks) in Chile. However, given the current
uncertain circumstances, (“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d, AHDV)[11] we advise not to make any arrangements in this regard
without consulting with the Apostolic Vicariate first”. Likewise, it was
suggested to maintain “insurance in case of illness or disability, at least
during the two-year probationary period”. The document specified that Bishop
Guido Beck would be responsible for the admission decision: “the final
notification will be received, along with detailed instructions for traveling
to Chile, in approximately three months. Until then, spiritual preparation
for the missionary vocation should be the most prioritary and important task”
(“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d, AHDV).[12]
Some of the
questions from the questionnaire attached to the application are also
interesting to highlight: “What are the reasons that lead you to want to be a
catechist?”, “Physical disabilities (myopia, deafness, etc. Do you suffer from
nerves? Or have you suffer from them previously?)”, “Mental illnesses or others
(epilepsy, nervous diseases, tuberculosis) of direct family members”, “Current
or future dependence on your parents” (“Fragebogen für Bewerberinnen zur Katechistinnen-Kongregation in
Araukanien (Chile)”, n/d, AHDV).
In the
“Declaration”, signed by their own handwriting, candidates affirmed their
voluntary entry into the congregation, whose main task was “the pursuit of personal
sanctification” as well as “teaching religion to young people and adults”,
adhering to “the Rule of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, together
with the simple vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity” and submitting
to “a trial period of two years, consisting of one year of postulancy and
one year of novitiate, and after that time, making annual vows for six
years to finally making perpetual vows”. They also agreed to “cover the
travel expenses to the mother house in Boroa” and in case of “leaving
the congregation before making perpetual vows”, “to reimburse, to
the best of my ability, the expenses incurred by the congregation on my behalf for
the journey to Chile and back” (“Erklärung”, n/d, AHDV).[13]
Other key
documents included in the application dossier were the “references” that
accredited work or pastoral experience and the “certificates of moral conduct”,
usually provided by the parish priest from the town where the aspirant resided.
Here, it is possible to identify common institutional codes regarding the
candidates” character, judgment, or disposition, highlighting characteristics
such as: “very apprehensive”, “unclear judgment”, without “adequate
understanding of religious life” (Sister
Superior Leonarda Welsh, 1932, AHDV), “conscious and with character” (Sister Superior Engelmann, 1932, AHDV), “solid, mature, and firm character qualities” (Father Räglau, 1933, AHDV).
Figure 4. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Priests and
nuns also emphasized, when applicable, the aspirant’s participation in Catholic
women’s organizations such as: the “Institute of English Ladies” (Sister Superior Engelmann, 1932, AHDV), the “Association of Catholic Domestic Workers” (Father Räglau, 1933, AHDV), or the “Association of Marian Virgins” (Pastor K. Arnow, 1932, AHDV). Reputation was also a relevant indicator,
highlighting the quality being an “exemplary virgin” (Parish office of Saarbrücken, 1932, AHDV), of “impeccable reputation”, deserving of “the trust
of her superiors” (Father
Caedilian, 1933, AHDV) or the “lack
of inclination” towards “worldly pleasures”, nor “contact with persons of the
male sex” (Pastor K.
Arnow, 1932, AHDV).
Figure 5. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige
Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Finally, the
“guarantee of a true vocation” (Parish office of Saarbrücken, 1932, AHDV) in the candidates was identified based on a “weekly”
or “daily” frequency of confession and communion (Father Caedilian, 1933; Pastor K. Arnow, 1932, AHDV), the presence of the “longed-for missionary ideal” (Sister Superior Engelmann, 1932, AHDV), their election “of supernatural reasons” (Father Caedilian, 1933, AHDV), the potential to “accomplish much in honor of God
and for the salvation of souls” (Father
Räglau, 1933, AHDV) or the
“chaste, constant, and serious pursuit of perfection” (Parish office of Saarbrücken, 1932, AHDV).
Figure 6. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
The application
of the young women was closely monitored by Father Eduard[14]
from the Convent of Santa Ana in Altötting and by Vicar Guido Beck in San José
de la Mariquina. Concerns about money and the socio-political crisis permeated
that exchange of letters.
Father Eduard
expressed his concern about the candidates” economic and health conditions,
considering what National Socialism could mean for the funding of missions:
It is important
to clarify how sisters are cared for in case of illness or old age [...]
We expect terrible things from the Third Reich [...] our
well-informed sources predict devaluation under Hitler [...] I beg
[...] to return all certificates, as people may also need them to obtain
authorization for exit or entry (Letter from Father Eduard to Guido
Beck, 1932, AHDV).[15]
Beck responds
rather more concerned about the funding of travels:
I wish you to
take as a general rule that nobody will be able to come until they have at
least half of the travel fare. If people have to pay for themselves, there
is already some guarantee that they will take the matter seriously and stay.
What costs is more valued (Letter from Guido Beck to Father Eduard, 1932, AHDV).[16]
Two years after
this exchange, we find ourselves in 1934 with a distressed Father Eduard
proposing to reevaluate the relevance of continuing to offer German candidates
to the congregation:
Is it really
necessary to hire German girls after abandoning the previous plan of forming
a congregation of sisters without vows? [...] Couldn’t local forces try
to be recruited with the considerable sums that must be spent on transportation
and care of German girls, especially after enough Chilean women have
already shown up and considering that there are already German sisters who
can balance the situation? [...] The current mode of accepting people is
completely unsustainable. We have only been spared by a fortunate coincidence
of avoiding transporting someone with tuberculosis, mental illnesses, or
divorced with questionable backgrounds (Letter from Father Eduard to “his Reverence”, 1934, AHDV).
In this
exchange of letters, we also identify examples of Beck’s criteria for selecting
candidates: “has talent. Knows a foreign language. Has very good
recommendations. Has 500 marks”, “pious”, “years in a girls’ education school
[...] Firm character. Good age: 24 years. Has resources”. And also, his
elimination criteria: “she is very poor and does not have much education or
talent”, “she is too old (41 years)”, “she was already with the Good Shepherds.
She couldn’t handle it” (Letter from Guido Beck to Father Eduard, 1932, AHDV).
Beck’s
missionary profile implied the twenties as the ideal age, health, good
certificates, ideally not having been and/or left other congregations, and
possessing some education. His insistence on the issue of money for the trip
seems justified not only by the constant struggle for Mission funding but also
as a show of solidity in the candidates: “what costs is more valued”.
On the other
hand, in the critical context of Hitler’s rise to power, we can identify a
sense of responsibility from Father Eduard for the economic fate of the
candidates in old age and illness and also for concrete details such as the
cost and practical value of certificates. However, his reluctance to continue
sending German candidates was also justified by a certain distrust in the
selection process, whose vulnerability could lead to problematic choices of
young women “with tuberculosis, mental illnesses, divorced with questionable
backgrounds”. Probably to reassure Beck (with whom he seems to share a
certainty about the cultural superiority of their common homeland), the priest
adds that “recruiting local forces” would not be a bad idea considering that
“there are already German sisters who can balance the situation”.
Based on the
systematization, cross-referencing of files, and secondary sources, (“First candidates to the Catechists of Boroa
1932-1934”, AHDV; “Date of birth and religious profession of the missionary
catechist sisters”, ACB; Noggler, 1972) we have generated the following summary table of the
candidates” profile (Table 1):
Paradoxical strategies
Exceptionalism and
border crossing
Mobility as a force of identity
transformation holds a gendered history that speaks of practices that open and
close possibilities for creativity, agency, and autonomy (Ahmed, 2017; Dorlin, 2003; Stornig, 2013; Vera &
Sáez, 2022). Stornig (2013) asserts that missionary nuns” (self)representation as
“essentially mobile figures” demonstrates how the practice of crossing
geographical borders through travel also transforms into a crossing of gender
borders.
Young
candidates responded enthusiastically to the promise of being “mobile
ambassadors of an expanding Church [...] bringing faith to non-Christian
peoples” (Stornig, 2013, p. 94), invested by a
“fighting, suffering, and triumphant” Church.
The dossier’s
“autobiographies” were young women’s presentation letters, in which, along with
facts from their lives, we could identify desires, silences, and
self-representations that we propose to read under a strategic discourse
framwork.
As we can see
in Table 1, those who write are Catholic women living in a predominantly
Protestant country, residing in rural areas, from poor or impoverished
families, single, with basic levels of education, and limited prospects for
stimulating employment. Their country had recently experienced a war in which
some relatives had already perished, and was undergoing economic, political,
and social crises, moving towards the Nazi regime.
Lina Koch, for
example, tells us:
In 1910 [...] I
still had three brothers and four sisters. My older brother died in 1913 in
the novitiate of the Capuchins in Bolzano at the age of 19 [...] In
1917, my second brother died in the war [...] Then, I spent a year in
Switzerland working in a large farm. However, as the entire region was
Protestant, I suffered greatly [...] My second sister also got married, so
I had to take over the household chores [...] I got a job in Baden-Baden,
as I wanted to learn to manage a high-class home. A year later, my
mother fell ill, and I returned home to take care of her [...] I still
couldn’t leave my home (Lina Koch, 1933, AHDV).[17]
The letters
reveal a difficult time in which death, war, poverty, caring for sick family
members, and hard work define these women’s life experiences. In that context,
and similarly to the Capuchins, the women express concern about the costs of
the journey:
For a long
time, I have had the desire to serve beloved God in a convent as a nun [...] My
parents are very poor, they have six children and all of them are still young [...]
they depended on my income. But when God calls, He also clears the way. Two
of our dear little ones are already in heaven and now it is more possible for
me to enter [...] I do not have a high school education, but that should
not be so necessary, I believe I have enough knowledge and the beloved Savior
has provided me especially with courage and sacrifice. But I must repeat
what I mentioned at the beginning, we are poor, and my parents can’t give me
more than what is necessary in terms of clothing (Elisabeth Schneider, 1932, AHDV).
I want to go on
the mission with all my heart and soul, to win many immortal souls […] It
is said that each candidate should strive to cover half of the travel
expenses. Unfortunately, I cannot ask my parents, after all they have done
for my education, to give me now 400 marks […] They can barely make
ends meet and cannot save any money (Maria Renninger, 1933, AHDV).[18]
I may have some
difficulties with the travel expenses, if they must be
covered at the time of entry. We do not have cash and my father is a war
veteran with a very low pension (Gisela
Eckstein, 1933, AHDV).[19]
These
experiences emerge as background to the manifestation and modulation of the
desire to depart to a country they do not know, probably never to see their
homeland or family again. In this context, the magazines Ewige Anbetung
and Altöttinger Franziskus Kalender play the important role of enabling
the imagined projection of another life, an illusion that takes the form of a
missionary vocation expressed vehemently:
I wanted to be
a missionary nun or join a contemplative order [...] I read
in the new Altöttinger Franziskus Kalender the call to healthy and generous
girls who wish to serve the beloved Savior in the indigenous mission. This
seemed to me a sign from God, as I immediately felt a great desire to follow
this vocation. And now I am turning to you with trust, asking to be
admitted to the newly founded Congregation of Catechists. I am 22 years old,
healthy and strong (Elisabeth Schneider, 1932,
AHDV).
A few weeks
ago, I received the latest issue of Ewige Anbetung and found the
article about the Catechist Missionaries in it. I only have the desire to
become one of them as soon as possible. I also firmly believe that I am
suitable for it [...] Ever since my childhood I have had the desire to
enter a convent and at the age of 14, the missionary vocation awakened in me
[...] I am full of energy and enthusiasm to work. [...] I beg you,
please, to shorten the waiting time for a response and write to me as
soon as possible. They have already given me all kinds of appetite
stimulants, but I know that I will not be able to enjoy food or anything if
I do not find a place soon [...] I am willing to give everything a young woman
can give (Maria Renninger, 1933,
AHDV).
The reverend
told me that if I had such lofty ideals, I should wait patiently, pray much to
recognize God’s holy will and not hesitate to respond [...] When I received the
brochure from Ewige Anbetung in February, I was immediately excited
and could not keep still. I have only one desire [...] to be able to
dedicate myself to this noble vocation [...] After careful reflection
and fervent prayer, I have decided to embrace the profession of catechist [...]
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus grant me the strength and grace to assume with
great courage this difficult life of sacrifice (Lina Koch,
1933, AHDV).
Figure 7. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Passionately
so, the young women say they are “excited”, “unable to stay still”, “feel a
great desire to pursue this vocation”, want to depart “with all their heart and
soul”, “cannot even enjoy food or anything” until they have the certainty of
being accepted, asking for the “waiting time for a response to be shortened”.
Even the end of family dependence that hindered their departure is interpreted
as part of divine design: “two of our dear little ones are already in heaven,
and now it is more possible for me to enter”.
To the
historical and political conditions that may have shaped the desire to depart,
it is also important to add that Catholic young women seem to have been
attracted by the proposal of epic identification offered in the calls,
therefore producing the corresponding self-representations: “to bravely take on
this difficult life of sacrifice”, “the beloved Savior has provided me with
special courage and sacrifice”, “I want to win many immortal souls”.
With insight,
the young women read between the lines that the desire to depart should not be
presented in their letters as mere anxiety, and to that extent, they make sure
to point out that such desire has been the product of discernment, of “careful
reflection and fervent prayer”, of “praying much to recognize God’s holy will”.
In a coded
language of sacrifice, courage, vocation, discernment, character, and absolute
commitment, the candidates” letters constitute a moving example of a
paradoxical strategy in the quest for recognition that we propose to read as
exceptionalism.
Riot-Sarcey and
Varikas affirm that this strategy “lurks in female and feminist writings” and
is often “at the origin of the paths taken by self-affirmation” (Riot-Sarcey & Varikas,
1988, pp. 79-80). Thus, “insofar
as the free human being is from the outset and by definition situated at the
antipodes of being a woman, access to this status is only possible through a
constant and systematic effort of differentiation in relation to the gender of
women ... : “I am not like all women” [...] dissociating oneself from members
of one’s gender is the “guarantee” [...] that the exceptional woman seems to
owe to patriarchal society” (Riot-Sarcey & Varikas,
1988, pp. 82-86).
Elisabeth Horán
argues that in the hostile sociopolitical framework of national fraternity in
which the body is the obstacle to recognizing women as citizens, the rhetorics
of female exceptionalism will strive to appeal “to the importance and value of
women outside the sexual sphere” (Rosa, 1996, p. 98). Comparatively analyzing the use of this strategy and
its self-markings (habit, mask, armor, uniform) in the “rhetorics of sanctity”
of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and of Gabriela Mistral, Horán affirms that
exceptionalism is usually configured by a series of “carefully coded” masks in
which suffering, persistence, humility, self-denigration, and sacrifice allow
for the representation of female heroism and victory over one´s own flesh.
In the case of
the missionaries, the quests for recognition and autonomy through the material
and symbolic crossing of borders depended on investing a racial, cultural, and
gender hierarchy among women. Differentiating oneself from “women in general”
by sacrificing oneself for “the pagans” seems to be, then, the double movement
of this heroic saga. Like the uniform and armor of celibacy, the habit and veil
that would clothe them when taking their vows would constitute “the social
skin” of celibacy, the key to Catholic female exceptionalism (Stornig, 2013).
Tricks of the weak
The careful modulation of what is
said, what is not said, and how what is said is said emerges as a crosscutting
anxiety in the letters of the candidates. We propose to interpret this anxiety
in light of what Ludmer - analyzing Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s “Reply to Sor
Filotea” – refers to as tricks of the weak:
Knowing and
saying, demonstrates Juana, constitute confronted fields for a woman; any
simultaneity of those two actions entails resistance and punishment [...] In
this double gesture, the acceptance of her subordinate place (women should keep
their mouths shut) and her trick combine: knowing but not saying, or saying
she doesn't know and knowing, or saying the opposite of what she knows.
This trick of the weak, which here separates the field of saying (the law of
the other) from the field of knowing (my law), combines, like all tactics of
resistance, submission and acceptance of the place assigned by the other, with
antagonism and confrontation, withdrawal of collaboration (Ludmer, 1985, pp. 48-52).[20]
The modulation
and negotiation of anxiety, however, did not always succeed. Such was the case
of Klara Mergler,[21]
who despite applying in 1932 with recommendations that highlighted her “solid
character”, that she is “hardworking and deeply religious”, “modest”, of “noble
discretion”, that she “attends daily Mass in our church” (Father Johannes, 1932, AHDV), that her “reputation”, “behavior”, “moral and
religious conduct were always excellent” (Father Feuerbach, 1932, AHDV), is not selected. Mergler will write letters from
1932 to 1934 requesting explanations and insisting on her admission. The
priests involved in the process interpreted this as “extravagant” stubbornness,
emphasizing “how little can be trusted in recommendations and references, even
from confessors” (Letter from
Father Eduard to ‘His Excellency’, 1933; Letter from Father Eduard to Guido
Beck, 1934, AHDV). Somewhat more
indulgent, Father Suitbertus explained:
[...] the
good girl already had many hopes placed in her work as a catechist among the
pagans [...] I could hardly understand her rejection [...] I
would like to ask you to write her a few lines personally and clarify to her
why, according to your assessment, she can no longer be considered suitable for
the mission (Father Suitbertus to
Father Eduard, 1933, AHDV).[22]
Mergler’s
remarkable determination is interesting to think about as one of the forms that
the desire to depart acquires:
In response to
your esteemed letter, Your Excellency, most worthy sir, I cannot allow myself
to make any judgment, as I am not allowed to know in what sense it is to
be understood [...] Also in my homeland I want and can do much good, and I have
shown it; but I do not love half measures; I want to devote myself
completely to the beautiful missionary vocation. However, I am not given
that opportunity here [...] I have great self-esteem and willpower [...]
with the grace of God and my own effort, I will overcome this obstacle
indeed [...] I have reflected my spiritual state of mind in a simple and
modest way; I am not a saint [...] I repeat [...] I wish to be
admitted as a candidate to the Congregation of Missionary Catechists [...]
My last confession [...] I have failed in the love of God by not preventing
the diversion of my disorderly thoughts [...] I had especially intended
to break my own will and master my self-love [...] Mercy, my Jesus. I
ask for repentance and absolution (Letter from Klara Mergler to ‘His
Excellency’, 1934, AHDV).[23]
In this letter
addressed to “Your Excellency”,[24] Mergler tries to navigate a fluctuation of emotions.
Strategically, Klara does not directly question the decision and instead
confirms that she would not be qualified to pass judgment or “know”. Klara
“knows” but says “does not know”. There are also things she does not “say” but
“knows”, she “knows” there is something unfair about her situation, and while
she accepts the suggestion to deploy her apostolate in her own country, she
also emphatically marks her will and identity: “I do not love half measures”,
“I am not a saint”, “I want to devote myself completely”, “I have great
self-esteem and will”, “with my own effort, I will overcome this obstacle”. And
while those gestures of self-affirmation “say” her strength, simultaneously,
Klara denies it. She submits, repents, asks for forgiveness: “I had intended to
master my self-love”, “I have failed to avoid the diversion of my disorderly
thoughts”, “I ask for repentance and absolution”.
This
fluctuation shows the helplessness in the face of the denial of “an
opportunity” to embody the proposed epic, an injustice experienced turbulently.
In what is evidenced as an internal battle against this helplessness that has
lasted at least two years since her application, Klara closes her letter
admitting defeat.
Paradoxically
so, the “weakness” of these “tricks” that avoid direct confrontation coexists
with the candidates” great confidence in their strength, courage, and capacity
for work:
Regarding the
learning of the two languages, I suppose it won’t cost me my head. If others
can do it, why couldn’t I also achieve it? And I am not scared of work either (Gisela Eckstein, 1933, AHDV).[25]
Figure 8. From “Catechist
Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.
Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p.
148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
The candidates
are convinced of “being fit”, being “qualified”, being “healthy and strong”,
“not being afraid of work”, being “full of energy and enthusiasm for work”,
“willing to give whatever a young woman can give”.
However, the
sharpness with which the candidates identify and shield their aplications” weak
points also reflects a strategic awareness marked by ambivalence. For example:
I do not want
to hide that I was already a candidate at the home of the
Sisters of the Holy Cross in Altötting [...] I was dismissed from
there for once expressing that I had insomnia at night. They took that
statement so seriously [...] I still regret very much today having
made that statement in my sincerity at the time [...] My most fervent
desire is to be able to work soon in foreign missions and I will not stop
praying for this great grace (Margareta Maier, 1934, AHDV).[26]
I intended to
join the Sisters of Mary. I sent the required documents, but they were returned
to me with the observation that they do not accept people who have been in
another convent before. It hurts so much to hear that. If I had committed
any offense, I could understand it (Maria
Renninger, 1933, AHDV).[27]
I am 37 years
old. For 14 years, I have been a nurse [...] I was in Sofia, Bulgaria, also
in Romania and Turkey from 1923 to 1927 [...] I wanted to enter a monastery
[...] but unfortunately my father and brothers did not allow it [...] I
am aging and the thought of completely surrendering to God and offering my
strength and health to others does not leave me in peace. My spiritual
guides tell me that I should not lose hope, since there are also late
vocational priests, so why wouldn’t God take me as a nun in my more mature
years for his service? [...] My current work is very unsatisfactory and
boring, as I am taking care of a young lady who suffers from spinal cord
disease and also taking care of the whole household (Franziska
Schmid, 1932, AHDV).[28]
My grandfather
had a brewery [...] where supposedly my mother’s brothers would have spoiled
themselves with a cold drink in the summer [...] My mother has always been
healthy [...] as well as my brothers and I [...] Therefore, it seemed to me
somewhat insignificant and I did not mention anything about it when I was with
you, because all that happened ten to fifteen years before I was born [...]
I even spent money and had an X-ray examination to make sure, with a
very competent and sought-after surgeon [...] I can even send you the X-ray
that I took if you want to check it [...] Please forgive me, I did not
want to hide this matter [...] I just ask you not to reject me
immediately. Please let me know if I can still be admitted (Ottilie
Winter Maier, 1934, AHDV).[29]
It is quite
clear that the candidates are aware that they are not only object of
examination but also of suspicion. We propose that the candidates identified in
the incisive questions of the questionnaire and the requirement for information
about belonging to other congregations, their dependence on parents, health,
and illness; the institutional codes against which they had to armor
themselves, explicitly stating that they did not want to “hide” information
such as the illness of a family member’s or having been in another convent
before. The attempt to ward off suspicion and become worthy of trust would be
to be sincere, apologize, show oneself.
Ottilie Winter,
who will finally profess in Araucanía as Sister Rafaela, not only apologizes
but also offers the evidence of her body (an X-ray) as proof of sincerity and
repentance. This gesture of self-exposure could be read through what Rivière
called “femininity as a masquerade”. Faced with the terror of being discovered
and punished for believing to possess or know something that dominant
masculinity does not possess or know, women can manage the anguish “by
pretending to be castrated women or innocent and harmless creatures [...] just
as a thief empties his pockets and asks to be searched to prove that he has not
stolen anything” (Rivière, 1929, p. 221).[30]
Other
candidates show some disagreement with the standards that would negatively
label the fact of having belonged to and left other congregations: “I regret my
sincerity back then”, “if I had committed any offense, I could understand it”.
Meanwhile,
faced with the urgent requirement of paying for the trip, Margareta Maier turns
the age standard to her advantage: it would not be convenient to wait longer
“due to my advanced age”. In turn, aware of her aging, the globetrotter
Franziska Schmid requests equity by appealing to the institutional authority of
her spiritual guides who would have encouraged her “since there are also late
vocational priests”. Even more astonishing, and we dare to speculate that
precisely because she has already crossed geographic borders (Sofia, Bulgaria,
Romania, Turkey), Schmid crosses gender boundaries and “says” what should not
be said: boredom and personal dissatisfaction also represent motivations to
leave.
In a framework
of gender relations that distributes suspicion in a generalized and class-based
way, the awareness of fault is presented and modulated through a strategic back
and forth of strength and weakness. Thus, submission or repentance coexist with
rebellious interpellations that - very carefully - evidence the contradictions
of the gender norm.
Final reflections
In this work, we set out to reflect
about the missionary efforts in the Araucanía Region, a political subject that
has been scarsely researched as a constitutive part of the history of missions,
education, and women. Specifically, we worked with the application dossiers of
young German women who, in the context of the establishment of the Third Reich
(1932-1934), applied as candidates to the newly formed congregation of
Catechist Missionaries of Boroa.
Thus, we
analyzed the calls for applications and requirements set by the Capuchins who
directed the Mission, identifying how these documents outlined the
missionaries” profile through specific requirements (money for the journey,
independence from parents, health, youth) and a subtle modulation of behaviors
and “correct feelings” (character, humility, sacrifice, vocation). We concluded
that these documents displayed proposals of identification for the candidates
which involved everything from the “paradisiacal landscape” of southern Chile
to a feminine epic that articulated the domestic ideal with the discourse of
female moral superiority.
On the other
hand, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the documents written in the first
person by the candidates (autobiographies, letters). This allowed us to
identify both exceptionalism and the tricks of the weak as two paradoxical
strategies that sought to respond to the expectations of the “missionary”
profile and its implicit promises of recognition, autonomy, and mobility.
These Catholic,
rural German women, impoverished amidst a severe sociopolitical crisis, encoded
various presentations of themselves that included desires, silences, masks,
ambivalences, and rebellions with the strategic aim of shielding themselves
from suspicion and having an opportunity to start a new life.
We therefore
conclude that exceptionalism and the tricks of the weak were responsible, on
the one hand, for presenting strength (both physical and of character), youth,
courage, and a vocation for sacrifice as guarantees of the candidates” triumph
over their own flesh, a matter that would invest their cultural and racial
hierarchy with the pagans. On the other hand, in parallel with this
demonstration of strength, the candidates outlined a series of simulations of
innocence, harmlessness, and submission that - in their attempt to avoid
possible conflicts with the priests - confirmed the gender binary and
hierarchy: childish and suspicious femininity versus rational and
self-controlled masculinity.
However, for
some candidates, this paradoxical and careful encoding between strength and
weakness achieved the feat of crossing gender boundaries. An achievement in
autonomy and recognition legitimized through a hierarchy among women. The
traces of these discursive juggling acts as ways of departing towards a new
world, run through women’s stories: stories that are never evident, and always
problematic.
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Antonieta Vera Gajardo
Chilean. Has a PhD in Political
Science with specialization in Gender Studies, Université Paris VIII. Professor
of the Department of Philosophy-Center for Gender and Cultural Studies in Latin
America, University of Chile. Lines of research: Feminist Political Philosophy
and Gender Studies, Strategies and Politics of Difference, Intersectionality,
Discourse Analysis and Postcolonial Feminist Theory. Recent
publications: “Champurrias, awinkadas y warriaches: interpelaciones al
‘mapuchómetro’ desde las coves de mujeres mapuche contemporáneas en regiones
Metropolitana y Araucanía” (2024) and Aguilera, Isabel; Vera, Antonieta &
Fernández, Rosario (2023) ‘Un estallido animal: Animalización y
antropomorfización en el conflicto político chileno’.
Camila
Stipo
Chilean.
Master’s in philosophy, University of Chile. Professor at the University of
Santiago. Research interests: feminist political philosophy, feminist
posthumanist theory, sustainability and water crisis. Recent publications: “Feminismo posthumanista y
crisis hídrica en la obra Kowkülen de la Seba Calfuqueo” (2024) and “Vivir y
pensar con otras: La experiencia de un violador en tu camino. Los espectros de
la dictadura a medio siglo del golpe” (2024).
Rosario
Fernández
Chilean. Has a PhD in Sociology at
Goldsmiths-University of London. Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and
Humanities, University of Chile. Lines of research: feminist philosophy and
gender studies; affects and emotions; power; dance and movement. Recent
publications: Fernández, Rosario and Chan, Carol (2024) “We are not equal”:
Beyond shared desires for horizontality and disillusionment in relationships
between employers and internal and international migrant domestic workers in
Chile and Julieta Kirkwood in Colección Cuadernos Pensadoras Feministas
Latinoamericanas (2023).
