Abstract

CASTIGLIA, Pablo. Popular religiosity as a factor of identity in rural Uruguay. The case of Santa Teresita in Chamizo (1907-1960). Humanidades (Montevideo. En línea) [online]. 2023, n.14, pp.151-183.  Epub Dec 01, 2023. ISSN 1510-5024.

Popular religiosity not only constituted a manifestation of faith, but it also became an important identity element in the colonial period and the early decades of independent Uruguay. However, since the 19th century, there has been a strong secularizing impulse in the country, which included the construction of what can be called "civil religion" by the State, which according to Caetano and Geymonat, has "alternative symbolisms and doctrines, civic rituals and liturgies oriented towards reinforcing identity and social order". State powers stopped conceiving religion, especially Catholicism, as a factor of massive adherence, and that role was assigned to civil religion. This work seeks to show how in Chamizo, a rural town in Florida, popular religiosity continued to be, throughout the 20th century, an important identity factor. The people of Chamizo, without renouncing the symbols common to the republic as a potential binding factor, created their own local identity rooted in the devotion to a French saint. Different elements, both symbolic and material, contributed to creating that bond, which persists to this day, between Saint Therese of Lisieux and Chamizo.

Keywords : Uruguay; Identity; Popular religiosity; Saint Therese..

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