Marianismo, Part 3

I feel its necessary for you to understand what marianismo is so that you have a clear view of how infulential the Cathloic Church has been on the lives of Hispanic women more specifically, their family life and marriages.

Throughout the colonial period and through the twentieth century Hispanic women have been viewed as a symbol of virtue. They were the models for all that was clean, pure and holy in the family and marriage. Marriages were usually arranged, many times a business transaction. A dowry presented by the brides family was expected. A young women's virtue was seen as a valuable dowry. Her virtue was a symbol of honor for her family. An unmarried young woman who lost her virtue was a disgrace to her family. There were three reasons for a young woman to become a nun: she wanted to serve Christ; to get an education, such as Juana Ines de la Cruz; or because she lost her virtue.(Lecture notes by Professor Salomon, 7 April 2010).

Marianismo, is the modern term for an ideology of women in Latin America that suggested they had to be like the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. "The phenomenon encompasses sacred duty to family, subordination to men, subservience, selflessness, self-renouncement and self-sacrifice, chastity before marriage, sexual passivity after marriage and erotic repression." Although women were viewed as more spiritual than men, that perspection came with a price. (http://couselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vista08/Jezzini.htm) According to this model, women who stayed true to it would go to heaven. The public sphere belonged to the men the private belonged to the women. Men were of the world, they were allowed to get dirty, commit sin, therefore they would go to pugartory. Their wives, mothers and sisters were to cry and pray for them to get to heaven. (Lectures Notes).

This is the standard by which the Californio were expected to live. Marianismo has its roots in the Catholic teaching of Mary, the long-suffering mother, expected by the men and yet, it was perpetuated by the women themselves.

Pulling Things Together, Part 2

The Law and Women

The Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown were tightly intertwined for hundreds of years. The views of the Church filtered through to the Crown. Recently, I spoke to you about the effect of the Real Pragmatica of 1779 had on women and marriage. Changes in the Real Pragmatica was the Crown's way of maintaining power over the Church and the people. It set the standards or rules by which Spain's subjects, in the old and new world, would live. In regards to women, marriage and New Spain, "marriage policies allowed parents to control their children, husbands to control their wives, and mission priests to control the Indians." (Bouvier, 114) With these policies in place, the Crown could maintain some control over who its subjects married and assure that the blood line would remain pure. Being far removed from the headquarters of New Spain, presented the citizens of Alta Califronia with difficulties enforcing the policies.

Mexico's independence from Spain brought very little change to those in Alta California, in fact, they had become self-sufficient from Mexico and were of low priority to the government. The real power was with the large Spanish families and the alcaldes of the towns. Who as we know was like a jack of all trades: a highly respected man, "mayor, justice of the peace, and godfather." He "heard all the compliants and passed judgement according to the traditional local social and religious mores." (Bastian,313) Those of pure blood were considered the elite. For this reason, intermarrying among the elite families was necessary, in addition, having large families ensured that the family blood line would continue. The Californios were proud of their large families. It's important to mention that although the Californio women had a dozen of more children, in most cases the children did not live to maurity, as in the case with the Peralta family.

Okay two love stories then I'll move on to marianismo. So hang in there!

Josefa Carrillo-Fitch: 1810 -1893

The story of Josefa Carrillo is fun. She is the maternal grand-daughter of the famous Maria Feliciana Arballo, who came on the 1775 Anza expedition with Father Font. Being a widow it was discouraged for her to travel alone, but she did it anyway and brought her two daughters with her. She was criticized by the Father Font for participating in a fandango one night around the campfire. The man she traveled with with upset when she stood up and sang a few verses which were "discordant" (that's what Father Font calls it) and he struck her. Father Font defended this man's actions but Captain Anza stood in her defense. Josefa inherited this fiesty character from her great-grandmother.

They met in 1826 when she was only 16 and he was 27. Henry Delano Fitch was a American merchant seaman who came into San Diego on the Maria Ester. They became attracted to each, so when he proposed marriage, she accepted. It was becoming an acceptable practice for the elite Californio women to marry Anglo-American businessmen. Her father gave his approval and as expected Fitch was baptized Catholic the day before the wedding. The following day the ceremony was interrupted by a messenger who said that Governor Echeandia had forbidden them to get married. The priest immediately stopped and, he and all guests quickly left the wedding. Carrillo says they quick departure was consistent with "people, who by character and upbringing, were used to blindly obeying all governmental orders." Needless to say, the ceremony did not take place. According to Carrillo, the governor stopped the wedding because he claimed that Fitch had not completed the requirments for becoming a Mexican citizen but she says it was because he was a "disappointed suitor for her hand."

Fitch turned to Pio Pico, a relative of Carrillo, who helped Fitch come up with a plan. Pico went to Carrillo's home and convinved to go with him to meet Fitch. He took her by horseback to meet Fitch and that night they sailed away on the Buitre to Valparaiso, Chile, where they were married. Fitch faithfully, Carrillo testifies, kept his promise to Pico that he as "long as he(Fitch) was alive, his wife would be happy." (Beebe and Senkewicz, 69-81).

Their romanitc story became popular and was known by many. Painted by Charles Nahl in 1875

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton: 1831 - 1895

The life of Maria Amparo is full of many historical stories of her day. She was a binational who was caught in the middle of a changing world. Frustrated by a country, religion and culture that held men in higher regard than women, she exclaimed in her writings, "Ah, if I were a man! What a sorry thing a woman is!" (Sanchez and Pita, xi). She was a landowner and an accomplished writer. Through her writings, we can see the discrimination that women and Mexicans lived through after the takeover of California by the United States in the mid to late nineteenth century.

One story in particular that illustrates how the law and Church influenced the lives of the Calfornio women was in relation to her marriage to Captain Henry S. Burton of the US Army. Under the Mexican and Catholic laws marriage was a sacred covenant made between two baptized Catholics by a Catholic priest. As it happens, Governor Pico, received a chastisement by Bishop Garcia Diego for allowing inter-faith marriages. The new vicar, Franciscan Jose Gonzales Rubio, wrote to the military governor petitioning his support in not allowing inter- religion marriages. Colonel Mason agreed to respect the Mexican laws and policies until others were established.(Sanchez and Pita, 10).

On July 9, 1849, Maria Amparo Ruiz, a Catholic, married Captain Henry S. Burton, a Protestant in Monterey, California by a Protestant minister. This, of course, shocked the Church and the Californios, especially the women. The couple had sought the blessing of Friar Ramirez, nonethless she was banished from the "Catholic society." Maria was a strong, independent woman who would not shy away from, "countering social prescriptions for women." She sought counsel from the Church and was told that she would need a dispensation, a relaxation of the law by a superior who has the authority to enforce such, to be recognized as a married woman in the eyes of the Church. Rubio agrees to give her a dispensation with the agreement that she will continue attending he Catholic Church, teach her children the Catholic religion, and convert her husband to Catholicism. (Sanchez and Pita, 11).

Rubio asks the new governor of California, General Bennett Riley, to please respect Catholic marriage laws and adhere to the original understanding made by Colonel Mason. The acting Secretary of State, Henry W. Halleck, informs Rubio that Riley has no authority to keep that agreement because it was made as a "temporary wartime provision" and its enforcement would be in direct inviolation with the "spirit of the Constitution of the United States." (Sanchez and Pita, 11).

Maria's need for a dispensation from the Catholic church became a moot point when at the end of 1849, the California Constitution clearly stated in Article XI, Miscellaneous Provisions, Section 12: " No contract of marriage, if otherwise duly made, shall be invalidated for want of conformity to the requirement of any religious sect." (Sanchez and Pita, 14).

Pulling Things Together

As I have begun to pull all my material together I have asked myself, "what does these all mean?" Thinking about the role Maria Luisa Peralta has played in my research has lead me to ask, "why is her life silent?" and "what is the cause for this silence?" I have been searching for a significance in all that I have researched, read, and seen. Can it be that the opinions and views of the women in Alta California were of no consequence that they are omitted from history? My research has lead me to answer a resounding "NO!" In fact, I have unearthed mounds of information, it might not all be in their words but it tells about who they were and it reveals lives that greatly contributed to the building up of California. My research also leads me to claim that the social status of the Spanish-Mexican women of Alta California was greatly influenced by the Catholic Church and its views on the role of women in society. Further, the Spanish Crown and later the Mexican government promulgated these views by supporting the Church as the an absolute power. I will use the examples of women from Alta California to illustrate the views of the Catholic Church regarding women, the political views that affected these women and the cultural customs which preserved this social status. Also, I will show how all these three areas worked together to keep women in their assigned sphere. Lastly, I will address how my research has affected Bay Area History.

Religion and Women

It is impossible to speak of Alta California without mentioning the influence of the mission era on women. As we all know, the different orders of Cathloic priests split the land in Latin America and set out christianize the Native Americans. Between 1769 -1823, Father Junipero Serra and other Spanish friars established missions throughout California.


We are all familiar with the plan to build missions then lure the Indians into the missions using beads or food. Once in, the Indians would be baptized and expected to forsake their old ways. The priests were convinced that with long-term exposure to a Christian life the savage Indians could be converted. In the essay, "Sifting the Evidence: Perceptions of Life at the Ohlone (Costanoan) Missions of Alta California," by Russell K Skowronek, he claims that after "more than sixty years of missionary efforts," comprehensive studies reveal that the Ohlone, "maintained aspects of their precontact culture."

One reason for which Hispanic women were recruited to Alta California was for the express purpose of serving as role models for the neophyte women in the missions. Their role was to instill European habits of personal hygiene and etiquette and train the Indian women in the practical tasks of weaving and sewing. They served as "supervisors." More importantly, they were to prepare the neophytes for Christian marriage.

Eulalia Perez: Life of a Llavera

Eulalia Perez is significant to the story of the Californio woman because she was an eyewitness to the life of the neophytes living in the missions. She presents a female perspective on mission life. She lived in a house by Mission San Gabriel(in present day Los Angeles) and was keeper of the keys for tweleve to fourteen years. She described the "nuts and bolts" of mission life to Thomas Savage who interviewed Californios for the Bancroft Project in 1876. At the time of the interview, she couldn't remember how old but did remember when San Diego had "no other houses at the presidio except the comanders house and the soldier's barracks." (Beebe and Senkewicz, 100) Some say she was older than Spanish Alta California and others claim that she lived to be 140 years old.

She raised her family at the mission. Her daughters married and their husbands worked for the mission. Her son served as a guard. Eulalia's whole life was involved in the upkeep and success of the mission. In her testimonio, she speaks clearly and in detail about her responsiblities in organizing the processes for cooking and serving the meals for the laborers of the mission. She speaks in detail about the food that was cooked and how she kept track of all the comings and goings of the Indians assigned to her care. The internal operations of the mission, she felt, were "directed largely by her and her daughters." She witnessed the punishment the priests inflicted on the Indians for their disobedience. Most of all, "she celebrated the Spanish and Mexican women of Alta California. They educated the children, they cured diseases, and at Mission San Gabriel, they administered the largest population center in the Los Angeles area." I believe that it is safe to say that mission life was "her responsibility and her joy." Secularization "was painful to her as it had been for any of the clergy." (Beebe and Senkiwicz, 98)

Eulalia was living and working at Mission San Gabriel when Ferdinand painted this picture of the mission in 1832.

Perez's experiences in the mission are a positive testimony for those who are researching mission life. This was not the case with other Hispanic women serving in missions. Although the Hispanic women were greatly needed they were not trusted. Typically, one of the first buildings to be erected in the missions was the monjerio, the dormitories were where the single neophyte women slept. At the Santa Barbara Mission, no one was allowed to enter the monjerio without the keys of the "prelate, the alcalde, and the corporal of the mission guard. And no one was allowed in without the consent of the mission priest."(Bouvier,84)

Part of the preparation for expeditions, specifically in recruiting women for Alta California, Anza, Moncada and Rivera were instructed by the priests to take special care in selecting the women who would come to settle the new area. First of all, they had to be willing to relocate. They looked for Hispanic women who were of a pure blood line. Women who had a "good character" since they and their "daughters" would become the wives of soldiers. To set a proper example of a Christian woman for the neophyte converts, the expedition leaders were cautioned to look for virtuous women, this being the most important quality to the priests.

The Law and Women: See next post

• Example from the personal letters of Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton

Marianismo: See next post

• What is this? and How did this affect the lives of Spanish-Mexican women