(with Jean-Pierre Bastian) (Eds.) Protestant Educational Conceptions, Religious Ideology and...

MONOGRAPHS IN EDUCATION

XXII

Protestant Educational Conceptions,Religious Ideology and Schooling Practices:

Selected Papers

EditorsJean-Pierre Bastian and

Rosa del Carmen Bruno-Jofre

General EditorsAlexander GregorDavid Jenkinson

University of Manitoba

CONTENTS

Preface (i)

I Methodological RemarksJean-Pierre Bastian 3

II Schooling Practices as a Set of Political Relations, theClassroom and Beyond

The Argentinian Evangelical Schools, 1898-1910Norman Ruben Amestoy 15

The Pedagogical Characteristics of Protestant Schools andthe Ideological Categories of Liberalism

Jether Pereira Ramalho 61

Ideology and Protestant Religious Education in BrazilAntonio Gouvea Mendonga 76

III Moral Reconstruction, Educational Reform andProtestant Ideals of Womanhood

Ideals of Protestant Womanhood, Religious Ideology, andthe Education of Women in Mexico, 1880-1910

Jean-Pierre Bastian 107

The Ideal of Womanhood in the Context of ProtestantMissionaries' Concept of Education and Citizenship,1916-1929

Rosa del Carmen Bruno-Jofre 132

Contributors . .161

PREFACE

The Coordinating Committee for the Study of the History ofProtestantism of the International Commission for the Study ofthe History of the Church in Latin America (CEHILA) orga-nized the Symposium on Protestantism and Education in LatinAmerica that was held in the Faculty of Theology of theMethodist Church (Faculdade de Teologia da Igreja Metodista),in Rudge Ramos, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, Brazil,in February 1990. The organizers were motivated by the pauci-ty of writing of history of education and Protestantism in LatinAmerica and the need to place educational Protestant workwithin the context of the history of education in Latin America.The educational crisis affecting Latin American countries pro-vided a convincing reason for organizing the Symposium.

This collection includes some of the papers presented atthe Symposium. The paper by Norman Amestoy is the onlyone that was not presented. The translation of the papers, withthe exception of Rosa Bruno-Jofre's "Ideal of Womanhood inthe Context of Protestant Missionaries' Concept of Education,"was done by Dr. Servando Ortol, University of Colima,Mexico. I have done, nonetheless, extensive editorial workcomparing the translations with the original text, which inmost cases was not clear. I received help from Colleen Ross inthis endeavour.

This collection reflects, to some extent, the current theo-retical and methodological discussion regarding the writing ofhistory of Protestantism in Latin America. CEHILA'sCommittee on Protestantism has to deal with the reality thatmost of the work in the area is done by historians who areactive in Protestant Churches which even today represent areligious minority in Latin American countries. TheCommittee has encouraged innovative approaches and wel-comed a debate on methodological issues. This collection,however, does not reflect the variety of views expounded dur-ing the Symposium nor the lively discussions around thethemes of North American hegemony and the reproductiverole of Protestant schools. It is an eclectic and somewhat tran-sitional collection that I hope will generate a renewed interestin the topic.

This volume is the result of cooperation between theCoordinating Committee on the Study of the History ofProtestantism of the International Commission for the Study ofthe History of the Church in Latin America, and the History ofEducation Resource and Research Project, Department ofEducational Administration and Foundations, Faculty ofEducation, the University of Manitoba. Dr. Jean-Pierre Bastianwas the coordinator of the Protestant Committee and Dr. RosaBruno-Jofre is still the Director of the History Project. Theviews expressed in these chapters are the sole responsibility oftheir authors.

Rosa del Carmen Bruno-JofreFaculty of EducationUniversity of Manitoba

The Ideal of Womanhood in the Context ofProtestant Missionaries' Concept of Education

and Citizenship,1916-1929

Rosa del Carmen Bruno-Jofre

This paper explores Protestant missionaries' understand-ing of womanhood in relation to their concept of education andcitizenship, as expounded in the Reports of Congresses orga-nized by the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America andin La Nueva Democracia. a journal of opinion published by theCommittee.1 The Committee on Cooperation in Latin Americawas an interdenominational committee, founded in 1913. It hadits office in New York and brought together most Protestantdenominations doing missionary work in Latin America. Aspart of its mandate it organized three inter-American congress-es: the Panama Congress (1916), the Montevideo Congress(1925), and the Havana Congress (1929).

From the late nineteenth century, Protestant missionarywork in Latin America took on the characteristics of an educa-tional project; at the core of this project was the idea of theneed for the spiritual reconstruction of Latin American nations.Missionaries tried to generate through educational work and,in some cases through political interaction, a public culture,and a citizenry nurtured by liberal American Christian(Protestant) values. They were also responding to the chal-lenges of the industrial revolution as it reached Latin America.The Catholic Church with its Aristotelic and Tomistic view of

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the world could not offer, in the missionaries' view, more thana corporate - and oppressive - view of society. John Mackay,perhaps the most articulate Protestant writer of the time,referred in El Otro Cristo Espanol. published in 1933, to theneed for the spiritual independence of the continent.2

It is apparent that women had a relevant role to play in thereconstructive spiritual and social process that the missionariesenvisioned. Women were conceived to be by nature better thanmen and as having regenerating power. They were seen notonly as carrying on the generations but also as being the firsteducators to initiate new generations in the understanding ofthe world. Moreover, the missionaries clearly understood thatwomen needed to be educated to play that regenerating role.The understanding of womanhood, however, varied fromCongress to Congress, following the dominance of either pro-gressive or conservative theological tendencies. It appeareddirectly or indirectly influenced by the missionaries' concep-tion of education and its relation to public life.

The Panama Congress (1916) on Education and Citizenship3

The Commission on Education of the Panama Congressconceptualized education as a process of interplay of the willof the individual and the will of the social group, the interac-tion of a person with her/his environment. The Report of theCommission concluded that some individuals were able tomodify or to reform practices of others; nonetheless, educationwas for the most part the formation of habits, the acquisition ofknowledge, the development of character according to theneeds and opportunities arising from the process of adjustingpeople to the environment. According to the Report, the fami-ly, the community, the church, and the state played a major rolein impressing themselves upon the growing members of thesocial groups.4 The need for changing the community was amajor point in the Report.

In fact, the Report stated in its concluding remarks thatimportant aims of the missionary educational enterprise werethe "upbuilding of the Christian Community," "the development

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of Christian leaders of spiritual power," and "the permeation ofthe community at large with the highest Christian ideas andideals."5 The purpose of the missionary enterprise in generalwas stated as follows: "vto make disciples of all nations' - toraise up in every nation a truly Christian people, nourished byall the fellowships and institutions of a self-propagatingChristian civilization, and living in mutually helpful relationswith every other people. To this end schools are an indispens-able means."6 Education was analyzed in light of the need tobuild a truly Christian citizenry as understood by the missionaries.

The language of the Report reveals some influence fromthe doctrine of the Social Gospel, a doctrine that related secu-lar and religious thought and put emphasis on social and polit-ical issues.7 Furthermore, the relationship between religiouseducation and democracy was a dominant concern in the1910's. In 1917, Benjamin Winchester published ReligiousEducation and Democracy, a book specially written for theCommission on Christian Education of the Federal Council ofChurches of Christ in America.8 The Report made clear theattempt at building what missionaries conceived as a truly con-tinental Christian civilization based on an American Christian(Protestant) notion of democracy. Protestantism already repre-sented the religious aspect of Pan-Americanism, an ideologyof Inter-American solidarity having the United States as pointof reference.9

The Panama Congress on Women

Thirty-two Women's Boards of Missions, either indepen-dent or auxiliary, were represented at the Panama Congress.Most of the missions had headquarters in the United States.There were at the time 418 unmarried women and widows, notincluding physicians, working with the Boards in LatinAmerica. The Commission on Women's Work was made uppredominantly of North American women: 17 of them living inthe United States, six living in Latin America. There were alsotwo Latin American women and two representatives fromBritain.10

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What were the conception of womanhood and the under-standing of women's needs as reflected in the Commission'sReport on Women's Work? Within the concept of spiritualreconstruction, moral reform was strongly emphasized. Thus,male chastity as well as female chastity was advocated. TheReport paid particular attention to the role of the YoungWomen's Christian Association in building new moral founda-tions. For example, it stated, "a new basis of congenial com-panionship between the sexes is created - that they may workand play together as human beings, with equal standards ofpurity for men and women, which will result in a fuller andmore perfect life for both."11 This moral preoccupation wascentred in the notion that the home was safe while the worldwas bad. Women's daily work in public places put them at risk,"the new social liberty that has come to them, brings them intocontact with all sorts and conditions of people, and oftenhideous wrongs are perpetrated on them, because they are notsafeguarded from without, as well as forewarned and fore-armed from within."12 The building of character through the"knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior" and the pro-vision of social services would prepare women for the newreality.13 An organization such as the YWCA, "whose scopeembraces 'the young womanhood of the world'," was consid-ered indispensable.14

The Report of the Commission on Women's Work exam-ined the position and influence of women in Latin America. Itreferred to women from the upper classes as women of theleisure class. These women were seen (at least in this part ofthe Report) as the "natural leaders of their people." Missionarywomen felt strongly that they, the missionaries, had an obliga-tion in terms of religion "to give them [women of the leisureclass] something better than they have, so that they may nothave to repeat the pathetic cry of the woman of old at thesepulchre."15 They were described as having a pure domestici-ty, sincere love of children, honest in their attempt to lead a lifein accordance with their interpretation of God. Women fromtropical South America were described - according to an

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"authorized opinion" - as brighter than men, and those of theWest Coast as having more character. These differences wereattributed to the early immorality of men, which affected bothmind and body.16

The Report referred to immigrant women, women fromthe middle class, business women, and school teachers asself-supporting women. In contradiction with the previousgeneral statement about upper class women, the Report statedthat the hope, for example, of Peru lay with these middle classwomen and not with the upper class women. A Mexican leaderwas quoted as saying: "The highest moral development is tocome from the middle class."17 Still, the outside world wasseen as bad and the need to protect the weak sisters was seenas a mission. For example, "May we be able to help theseyoung and heedless spirits, who are venturing into untried andunknown paths, in the complex and difficult times in which welive."18

The third group of women was identified as the women of"humble" class. The working conditions and daily life of thesewomen were described with painful images; the emphasis wason sin and the dominant morality. The assumption made by themissionaries who wrote the Report, that 60 out of every 100women in the whole continent had lost honor, self-respect, andhope, is appalling. In the missionaries' view these women borenot only the physical loads of life, "but the cruellest burden ofall - that of sin." Reference was made to births out of wedlock,"brought about by the lack of any high standard of male chasti-ty."19 The Report quoted Miss Smith, a missionary working inChile, pleading for "these poor fallen girls": "Immoral?Perhaps, as we count immorality. But who of us dares to saythat, given their heritage, their ignorance, their temptations, weshould not have sunk so low?"20 The quotation was followedby an obvious question: "Who will deny that there is a work tobe done for the women of Latin America?"21 The fourth groupdescribed was that of "Indian women." The Report assertedthat with few exceptions "Indian women" were "still in hea-then darkness and in primitive savagery."22 The missionaries

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clearly believed there was a great need to carry the Gospel tothese women "who are born in paganism and who die withoutany knowledge of the Christ who died for them."23 To the mis-sionaries, conversion meant personal, spiritual, and socialredemption; there was little room for the Aboriginal people'srecovery of their own culture. The various forms of integrationalluded to by some historians do not obliterate the essentialistand totalizing form of rationality that permeated the mission-ary ideology-24

Women were perceived as largely fashioning the nationalideals. They were the mothers of the race, the first educators ofwomen and men.25 Their education was then at the very core ofthe process of reconstruction and was essential to the develop-ment of a liberal-minded national citizenry.26 There was agree-ment at Panama that the national systems of education werenot by and large adequate to provide for the needs of women.The Methodist Episcopal Church (North), through theWomen's Board, was considered as doing pioneer work withEvangelical girls' schools. Other denominations such as theMethodist Episcopal Church (South), the Presbyterian Church,the Congregational Church, among others, maintained schoolsfor girls.27 In order to be effective, the missionary work amongwomen was expected to address the areas of social service(including nurses, home visitors), education, and evangelization.

The Report on Women's Work also acknowledged thatthere was an urgency to train Latin American women to be ableto do the work. The Report made clear that it should be policyto give Latin American women positions with increasingresponsibilities; those with the qualifications should be atequal rank with foreign missionaries.28 The sharing was, how-ever, tainted by the notion of American women working forLatin American Women. In discussion of the Report, this situ-ation was realized by the representative of the Women's Boardof Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, N.J., when shesaid: "Possibly we should make the women of Latin Americafeel a certain share of interest and responsibility in the workdone for their countries thereby bringing unto our counselssome of the natural leaders."29

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Women carved their place in the missionary world andfought for recognition of the needs of their services. When dis-cussing the Report, a female member of the Committee onCooperation in Latin America complained of the misunder-standing about Women's Boards prevalent in the missionaryfield abroad. She said that she had even heard that there wereno such Boards. She went on to say: "but there are severalindependent [women's] Boards wholly responsible for the con-duct of the work. Time has surely passed when women andtheir Societies are only collecting agencies for Boards made upof men."30 A comment was also made indicating lack of repre-sentation of women on Mission Boards.31

Current readers of the Report are justified in asking towhat extent the women missionary work was done at theexpense of Latin American women's rights, primarily the rightto do things in their own way. Women missionaries carried outtheir mission not only in the name of religious truth but in thename of progress, their ideal of womanhood, expert knowl-edge, and education. In fact, the Report and subsequent dis-cussion revealed an emphasis on the ignorance of LatinAmerican mothers and the assumption that the missionaries'own cultural vision was the right one. For example, the Report,when speaking about Evangelism through literature, includesthe following condescending description that apparently refersto Peru:

Hygiene and sanitation as we understand them, arealmost unknown among the poorer classes, espe-cially in the interior. Children are very poorly caredfor, so that the death rate among them is very high;this is due to the ignorance of their mothers. Theyare also poorly trained. Houses here are decoratedwith furniture and other articles which are neitheruseful, comfortable, sanitary nor ornamental.32

In the context of the Report presented at the PanamaCongress, it is interesting to note the thesis advanced by

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American historian Robyn Muncy. She concluded that earlythis century, women working in organizations and agenciessuch as the Children's Bureau in the federal Department ofLabor and analogous public agencies in the United States werecaught in a contradiction between commitment to democracyand commitment to expertise.33 They were more than willing,she wrote,

...to impose middle-class practices on those whomthey believed in need of expert intervention. Suchhard lines against cultural pluralism were hardlydemocratic, and they set the policies of the domin-ion within a larger cultural project wherein mid-dle-class professionals were attempting to estab-lish their own authority over all aspects ofAmerican life.34

According to the Report, the missionary women - like thewomen referred to by Muncy -also gave great value to theexpertise they offered and showed little or no recognition ofwhat Latin American women could contribute. The womenmissionaries' attitude was part of an overall ethnocentricapproach, but it helped to make women missionaries and theirnational counterparts very important in the life of the Church.Interestingly, the Report suggested the need to familiarizeLatin American women with the work and lives of leaders innew lines of social service: Florence Nightingale, ElizabethFry, Frances Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, andJane Addams.35 Illustrative is a general letter to friends of theMethodist Episcopal Mission in the United States, dated 11March 1924, signed by Clyde Brewster, that reported, amongother things, the work among Peruvian women:

The Lima High School for Girls has at the presenttime 165 enrolled and a boarding department oftwelve girls from various parts of the country. Theschool has a teaching force of five American girls,all college graduates, and they are doing a work forthe advancement of the country that can hardly be

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MONOGRAPHS IN EDUCATION Bruno-Jofre

estimated. The progress of missions is often heldback by the women because they do not have theopportunities that men do to get out and get newand liberal ideas. But in this school the Peruviangirls are coming in contact with the very finesttype of American womanhood and are being influ-enced by a newer and finer type of good whole-some culture than they have ever known before.These American girls are also doing a good workin the Epworth Leagues (Temperance Leagues)and Sunday schools of our Peruvian churcheswhere they are faithful and efficient workers. Besure and support the Women's Foreign MissionarySociety as they are doing a great work here and aredeserving of the support of the whole church.36

The emphasis in this letter as well as in the Report was onhow missionary women could generate a new sense of com-munity permeated by Protestant values, rather than on the con-tribution that Latin American women could make. In practice,according to historians like J.P. Bastian, there were complexarticulations with Latin American world views and values; butthese articulations were not reflected in the proceedings of thePanama Congress.

The Montevideo Congress (1925) on Education andCitizenship 31

At this Congress, the concern with the concept and aimsof education was in relation to the meaning of religious educa-tion and its impact on public life. It was believed that religiouseducation would develop the character of the individual citizenand generate social consensus. The Report on ReligiousEducation declared that

...freedom and order, the corner stones of democ-racy, are not maintained by police forces but by theability of the citizen to govern himself among his

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fellows with justice, honor, and good-will - andthese are the traits of character. Loyalty to thecommon weal must be not a passing emotion but atrait of character. Religious education wages battle"with spiritual blindness, superstition, vice, sin inany form," in this sense it is conceptualized as the"spiritual conquistador."38

How was this desirable end to be achieved? By a processthat emphasized faith in present active spiritual forces and con-ceived education as a process of life and conduct and not oneof knowledge - as pupil-centered rather than material-centered.The organization of curriculum activities and materials wouldtake place around the pupil's moral and religious needs, whilebeing related to the pupil's environment and experience. Theprocess of character-training of the child was understood astotally unified, with all formative elements dependent uponone another.39

The approach to religious education - which was not sep-arated from the general process of education in the ProtestantSchools - contained elements not only of the Social Gospel butalso of Progressive education, and the theories of John Dewey.The ideal citizen would be informed on public matters and ableto contribute to the creation of social consensus. The mainpoint seems clear: that the process of character traininginvolved an attempt to generate an alternative culture, a newset of values more in tune with American capitalist develop-ments, and a new religion. This approach would affect the cur-riculum as well as the pedagogical practice in the schools.

At the Congress there were strong arguments in favour ofand against the use of English language text-books. While thearguments in favour of nationalizing mission schools concen-trated on practicalities, the arguments for an English orNorth-American policy focused on the impact of Protestanteducation in English. For example, it was said that an Englishprogram attracted a better class of Latin Americans, "raisingthe general moral tone of the student body and accomplishingresults which are far-reaching."40 A representative of Crandon

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Institute of Montevideo (Uruguay) argued that mission schoolsamong the poorer classes needed education in the language ofthe country and in the national course of studies; but schoolsthat attracted the upper classes should have more subjects inEnglish. The representative strongly argued that the use ofnational textbooks would imply the delegation of the majorpart of the work to nationals, many of whom were notProtestant and did not share the same ideals. This representa-tive concluded by asking: "What right has a mission school ofthat sort to exist?"41 The representative of Crandon seemed toemphasize the cultural role of the schools and the potentialimpact of attracting the future leaders of the country. Majorinvolvement of nationals in Evangelical schools was discussedat length and appeared to be an unsettling question.

The language used in the reports to describe the peopleand their cultures reflect the contradictory and ethnocentriccharacter of the missionary message. On the one hand, mis-sionaries were expected to adapt in some degree to the peopleof the countries in which they worked. On the other, there werereferences, for example in the Report on the Church and theCommunity, to the "so-called backward peoples such as thoseof Africa" and to "wild peoples (primitive races)," mainly theAboriginal people of Latin America.42 In fact, the destructionof the belief system of the Aboriginal people was seen as a civ-ilizing process, as progress, as a missionary goal. The mis-sionary was a brother or a sister but it was acknowledged that"not infrequently the national Evangelist has been treated as aninferior by his foreign colleague."43 The various reports did notcontain an in-depth discussion of the reconciliation of liberalvalues and a Protestant world view with national cultures (notjust the sympathetic liberal elements in those cultures).General acceptance of the idea that (Protestant) Christianity isa superior religion would have made this articulation difficult.Some historians have revealed, however, a modicum of eclec-tic articulation in practice, especially through the involvementof national teachers in Protestant elementary schools.44

At the Congress the belief was strong that ProtestantProgressive education would help to overcome the cultural lag

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of Latin Americans who were perceived as lacking modernideas, including that of a democratic biblical Christianity, andof women being receptive to change. Education would alsohelp women to become less attached to the Catholic clergy andto play a transformative role as mothers and as members of thecommunity. As Professor Holmes, one of the representatives,put it, "South America lived too much in past traditions, tradi-tions that were false."45 Education, especially, social educa-tion, along with the generation of a spiritual basis for nationaland personal life, would make change possible. The SocialGospel provided the theological elements. But before the mis-sionary could touch the inner spirit of the multitudes, it wasargued, the outer conditions had to change. The Report on theChurch and the Community stated:

Minimize the environment all we please, the factremains that until the outside of some lives ischanged there is not much chance to get at theinside. There is a flat contradiction between theideals of the gospel and the conditions underwhich multitudes of men [and women] live, andthat contradiction closes the minds of men [andwomen] to the gospel ... Still, the worker is notaiming at the relief of human beings as sufferinganimals, but at their relief as persons.46

The participants in the Congress struggled to keep both con-ceptions, individual and Social Gospel, together.

The political dimension of the application of the SocialGospel to the missionary field took various forms: work withreformist elements including women educators such asAmanda Labarca, Gabriela Mistral and Elvira Garcia y Garcia;the development of critical-minded students who had to dealwith the limitations of their socio-political context; introduc-tion of new progressive ideas on women's education in soci-eties characterized by rigid social patterns; adherence to Pan-Americanism, while encountering nationalistic and anti-impe-rialistic reform movements in Latin American; adherence to

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reformist policies that could accommodate to a NorthAmerican liberal world view and interest while questioninginterventionism; and internal dissention generated by the rangeof positions among Social Gospel leaders.

The Montevideo Congress on Women

If the Social Gospel dominated the educational and polit-ical discussion with strong reformist overtones, the equalrights tradition in feminism also had a strong presence at theCongress. What should be the place of women in education forpublic life? The resolutions of the Commission on SocialMovements recommended that the mission work towards theachievement of equal rights for women and men: "Since Christhimself made no unequal distinctions between men andwomen, the Evangelical forces should educate public opinionto stand square for equal rights and duties of men and womenbefore the law, and for an equal standard of morality in itshighest interpretation."47

The Congress put great emphasis on the feminist move-ment in Latin America. This emphasis appeared not only in thespecific report devoted to the feminist movement under SocialMovements, but also in discussion of unoccupied fields. Forexample, the Report on Unoccupied Fields said in typicalSocial Gospel language:

In the phenomenal rise of the feminist movementthe passion for social justice has reached its fairestflowering, and gives promise of distinct ethicalenrichment and increased social efficiency toSouth-American culture. It is perhaps the moststartling movement on the horizon and is alreadyaffecting the most radical changes in the socialstructure. It is in general self-restrained, dignified,less belligerent than similar movements in othercontinents, yet quite as bent upon its goal.48

Most denominations had schools for girls and/or coeduca-tion in their schools. Progressive pedagogical practices that

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linked knowledge to experience, and the school to the commu-nity, were used in many Protestant classes with the participa-tion of both boys and girls; however, the concept of woman-hood was strongly rooted in the cult of domesticity and moth-erhood and permeated school curricula. The aims of one of themost progressive schools, Lima High School in Peru, whichwere explained by the principal on the occasion of the cele-bration of the fiftieth anniversary of the school, serve as a pow-erful illustration.

Thus, we have tried to guide them to choose anoble and serving vocation, to inculcate in themthe highest ideals of the dignity of the home, tocultivate good habits of self-discipline and intel-lectual independence, to awaken in them respecttowards all races, to recognize the right of eachindividual to enjoy social, economic and religiousfreedom and finally to teach them to accept theirsocial responsibility without prejudices or discrim-inations, with love to humanity in its entirety.49

Florence Smith, a missionary working in Chile, pointedout the problem of womanhood as one of the five principalsocial problems of South America. In her discussion of theReport on Social Movements, she said that some women inSouth America were idealized and treated with extravagantcourtesy, but that in general there was a lack of respect forwomanhood. She went on to say that "the problem is not par-ticularly to secure suffrage rights, but to get fair treatment."50

She also contended that it was necessary to go beyond con-tentment with Evangelistic meetings or organization meetings.It was important that missionaries share more fully in thesocial life of their own people. She recommended thatChristian women show an interest in milk depots, joinwomen's clubs, organize dispensaries, fight illiteracy, organizestudent hostels, and support the women's leagues which werespringing up in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.51

Missionary women and Church women in general, espe-cially teachers, social workers, nurses, seemed to feel part of

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and recognized by the Church organizations and by theMissionary Boards. The Social Gospel, that had a dominantplace in the entire Congress, also encouraged the movementfrom charity to collective solutions and remedies in whichexpertise would play a role. The Report on Social Movementsand the resolutions, however, do not give any hints of the var-ious layers of the missionary women's consciousness. Thereseemed to be a strong sense of obligation to reach other womento whom missionaries and converts would preach religioustruth and work toward their social improvement. The questionof equal rights and duties, strongly addressed in the resolu-tions, coexisted with the cult of domesticity, and with thenotion of the woman as guardian of the social order. This coex-istence generated tensions as revealed in the debate that wenton in La Nueva Democracia. the journal published by theCommittee on Cooperation. The place of women in the liber-al, Social Gospeler notion of citizenship that relied on a pro-gressive conception of education remained somewhat unclear.

The Havanna Congress (1929) on Education, Citizenship,and Womanhood 52

This Congress was mainly devoted to Central Americaalthough there were also representatives from a few LatinAmerican countries. The sessions did not focus on education-al theories, or on the ideal citizen. The basic tenets of SocialGospel and progressive education were again acknowledged,but a politically conservative tone permeated the deliberations.There were concerns with American political and economicpractices in Latin America, but there was also a clear "we mustnot talk of yanqui imperialism" tone throughout.53 The propos-al that the missionary work take a strong evangelizingapproach, the stance for the latinization of the church, and theemphasis on community work seemed to be conditioned by therealization that Protestant churches had been unable "to buildties with our people," that is, the Latin American people.54 Thestatement, "We are strange to our race," expressed the deep

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conviction that Protestantism was a foreign import.55 Therewas also the recognition that in reacting against Catholicism,Protestants had rejected the Christian elements that were partof the religious experience of most Latin American people.56

The concept of education and the ideal notion of citizenshipappeared to be on shaky grounds as a result of what mission-aries perceived to be their failure in actual practice.

The role of women was also restated, but there was no ref-erence to rights. There was, however, unanimous agreementthat the emphasis should be on "the uplifting and dignifying ofLatin American women through the effort, love, and exampleof their Evangelical sisters."57 The role of women as mothersand caregivers at home and the expansion of their caring to thecommunity were at the core of the notion of evangelical wom-anhood. The main objectives behind the resolutions were:

First:

Second:

a) to awaken in the Evangelical andnon-Evangelical women the con-cept of the responsibility, first, inthe home; second, in the church;third, in the nation; and fourth, inthe world.

b) To unify the general work ofEvangelical women.

c) To develop a sysem to interchangeideals, literature, etc.

d) To develop a planachieve these ideals.

in order to

That Christian women have the noblemission of helping to develop a betterhomeland and that no nation canachieve moral and spiritual greatness,if their women are subsumed in igno-rance and superstition.58

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It was resolved that the role of women societies(sociedades femeninas) would be to work for temperance, andto instill in young women the ideal of a pure and simple life -moving them away from frivolity, and other modern tenden-cies that affect their Christian development.59 The HavannaCongress embodied a very conservative approach to womenand to the understanding of the role of the church in mouldinga citizen. There was little in it to support the concept of wom-anhood beyond the centrality of the woman in the home, andher role as guardian of society and builder of morals. The idealof a liberal education for women was marked by a strongemphasis on domesticity, and the role of women in the privatesphere, extending that role to the community mostly throughthe Church.

La Nueva Democracia and the Feminist Debate

La Nueva Democracia (1920-1964) was a journal of opin-ion, published monthly in New York, in which philosophical,political and literary questions were discussed. In the decade ofthe twenties and in the early thirties it was the forum for a fem-inist debate at the interdenominational level. Many of the con-tributors were Latin American women. The editorials and con-tributions reveal an ongoing debate regarding the acceptanceof a division of work on the basis of gender, the emphasis onthe maternal mystique, and the search for equality of womenand men. The journal reflects the characteristics of the feministmovement of the time, more specifically, the attitudes of evan-gelical women: attention being given to moral reform, charac-ter education, and women's regenerating power.60

The need for an integrated education, a balance betweenan education that might become too masculine and an educa-tion for the home, was an important theme. The following quo-tation set forth the dilemma: "Never to lose sight of women'sfuture life: home;"61 or "to educate women to build an idealsociety since women create and form the race."62 The maternalmystique and the cult of domesticity emerged as another recur-rent theme; it appeared related to women's regenerating power.

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However, for most evangelical contributors instinct was notenough. Women needed to be instructed in their duties, and onmoral issues, in order to be able to fight evil and become vir-tuous.63 Aurora Herrera from Mexico described the woman asthe human being who forms souls and repairs humanity, as theeducator of a generation, as the one who works for the realiza-tion of the social ideal. In her view, Mexican women needed toreeducate their will and character.64 For others, like VeraZuroff, women's instinct towards peace and love became a sci-ence, the science of love. She said: "If the responsibility of aman leading a country is big, the responsibility of the motherwho raised that man is even bigger."65 Chilean feminists whocontributed articles, like many other feminists of the time,based their argument for political rights on the inherent moralsuperiority of women. Elvira Santa Cruz, under the pen nameof Roxanne, wrote: "Women are instinctively disposed towardpiety and abnegation. Women who extend their maternalinstinct to other spheres will lift the morals of humanity."66

Celinda Arregui de Rodicio, also a Chilean, expounded inmore than one article the often repeated argument that therecognition of women's political rights would imply the imple-mentation of laws against vice, the improvement of the eco-nomic situation in the homes, and the end of social diseases.67

It seems clear that moral reform took a new form in themissionary field. It included temperance and sexual puritywithin a strong ethnocentric frame of reference that com-pounded the inherent class distinctions. For example, the mainobjective of evangelical women "was to fight the ignorancethat permeated the life of our peasant women. Superstition andfanaticism have impeded any movement toward progress."68

From time to time, La Nueva Democracia also stated itsown editorial position on women's issues. A 1922 editorialread:

The true feminism does not denaturalize women;on the contrary, it makes them better maidens,more noble spouses, and more expert mothers, andespecially excellent citizens. This is a powerful

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social unit working for the true progress of human-ity. ... The lack of women's involvement is counterproductive; the future mother of the human raceneeds to understand, even in a rudimentary way,the universe surrounding her in order to clear hermind of superstition, fanaticism, skepticism,credulity, and prejudice. Either her irrationalcredulity or her morbose credulity moves her awayfrom the point at which reason coincides with faithand both relate morally.69

Concha Romero James in charge of the women's sectionat the time, wrote that the woman usually called a feminist isin fact a humanist; her devotion to the women's cause is basedon the belief that humanity as a whole will not develop untilwomen and men work together as equals, "until women - whohave held back the march of progress - take their place not inorder to enjoy rights but to serve others."70

Toward the end of the twenties, the editorials - in line withThe Havanna Congress - adopted a rather conservative tone.They still assumed that evangelical women had the mission tolead the weakest toward a world of goodness, justice, andrights. One editorial referred to the helpless women who, in thewriter's view, lived in misery, ignorance and vice. Meanwhile,there was some reluctance to advocate women's political rightsbecause, as stated in an editorial column, "We [LatinAmericans] are tied to old theories and to uproot them wouldcreate social disequilibrium."71

The reaction generated by an article written in 1927 byGabriela Mistral, a Chilean writer, later a Nobel Prize winner,is illustrative of the differences among feminist women. It alsoshows the difficulties these women had in clarifying the notionof personhood when dealing with conflicts between rights andduties.

Mistral wrote that women should look for an occupationwithin the framework of their natural place in the world, thatis, close to suffering children. Women's natural professionswould be teaching, nursing, practising medicine, writing

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children's literature, engaging in crafts and toy making, etc.She supported the idea of having a women's council to super-vise elementary schools and a women's council to invigilatefactories that, given the nature of the work, employed onlywomen.72

The response to Mistral generated a lively debate.Georgina Fletcher characterized Mistral's proposal thatwomen do specific jobs as absurd. Fletcher pointed out that inmany cases women were as well prepared as men to performjobs that men had invaded and taken as theirs. At the sametime, she acknowledged that the home and the duties related tomotherhood were women's first obligation. Single mothers orthose women who could not become mothers should, howev-er, have the right to work at whatever was possible for them.73

Mary Mejfas, in charge of the Feminine Section of themagazine, compared what she called Mistral's argumentagainst feminism with the argument put forward by partisansof divine rights against universal suffrage: the working andilliterate masses were born to work, not to discuss public mat-ters. She said that Mistral identified maternity as the essentialand indispensable function of the female sex. In Mejias' view,maternity was not and had never been universal and indis-pensable to women's life. It was the development of person-hood that was universal. She considered the development ofthe person, female or male, was important regardless of gen-der. She argued that both women and men were rational beingswho deserved the same education, the same exercises aimingat full development of the personality at the moral, social,intellectual and religious levels. In the author's view, the homewas not a closed place; progress and civilization invaded thehome and vice-versa. Mejfas agreed, however, with the con-cept of the regenerating power of women, and the need toextend the maternal qualities to the social sphere and to socialjustice in order to develop a universal humanity.74 Delia Weberde Coicou wrote that the separation of work according to sexwas a beautiful hope and nothing more. In the same article, sheembraced feminism and urged women to be involved in multi-ple activities and jobs.75

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Mistral complained of aggression by feminist women,misrepresentations and personal attacks. She argued thatwomen should not be doing brutali/ing work. Instead,women's jobs should be light and caring. She was not opposedto women having the right to vote although, in her opinion, thiswas a secondary issue, because customs, she believed, weremore important than law.76

The reactions to the white American Protestant construc-tion of womanhood varied among Latin American authors con-tributing to La Nueva Democracia. For example, the PanAmerican Women's Conference in Baltimore generated con-trasting comments. Some women praised American advancedideas, their progressive and liberal spirit, and complained thattheir own people worshipped idols and were not interested inprogress. They also praised American women for their interestin Latin American women.77 Others were aware of the need toassert the separate identity of Hispano-American women.Jesusa Alfau cautioned that the Hispano-American womanshould relate to the American woman not as a subordinate butas an equal working cooperatively. She went on to say: "It isnecessary that our women know themselves, their history, theiridiosyncrasy, if we want feminism to achieve its goals. Theprogress of nations is like those of individuals. Therefore theprogress of women should be a natural progress within theframe of their own racial and cultural identity. Women shouldtake only the necessary elements of innovation and convertthem into molecules of our organism."78

Concha Romero James, the editor in charge of the section,decided to respond. She pointed out that Spain had committeda major cultural heresy by isolating herself and the coloniesfrom the influence of other European cultures.79 In this defen-sive argument Romero James actually revealed the lack ofunderstanding of Latin American women's attempt to developtheir own identity as feminist women.

Bruno-Jofre

Conclusion

The notion of womanhood expounded in the documentsproduced by the Congresses and the articles published in LaNueva Democracia strongly relied on the idea of women ashaving regenerating power. Women were carrying on the gen-erations and initiated and created an emotional and intellectu-al setting. The reports and the articles agreed that Christian(Protestant) education for women was essential to developcharacter and virtues for a biblical democratic society, becausewomen fashioned the ideals of a nation. The cult of domestic-ity permeated the Panama Congress and is evident in La NuevaDemocracia. It opened the way for an understanding ofwomen's public life as an extension of their role in domesticlife, as socially construed and regulated at the time. Femalebiology was used to bolster the explanation of the uniquenature of women's contribution to social and public life.

The Panama Congress, still placing emphasis on individ-ual change, did understand the social role of women as com-munity builders. The protection of the weak, a tenet of evan-gelical feminism, seemed to be associated at the time of thePanama Congress with the expertise that women missionarieswere bringing. This expertise asserted their role in the Church,while neglecting even to consider the ways in which LatinAmerican women did things.

The Montevideo Congress was a unique historical event.Social Gospelers, progressive educators, as well as evangelicalfeminists who favoured the rights tradition within the contextof moral reform, were a strong presence at the Congress. TheReport on Social Movements included the feminist movementin Latin America. The resolutions recommended education ofthe public regarding equal rights of men and women before thelaw and equal standards of morality for both sexes.80 Therewere obvious contradictions between the ideas of an activeeducation aiming at full citizenship, and the notion of woman-hood rooted in the cult of domesticity that was dominant inevangelical circles and even in the schools that provided train-ing for the labour market. The Montevideo Congress had a

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loud militant tone. It showed a strong preoccupation with theeducation of women, including preparation for the work force.For some reason, the Reports did not include materials thatmight have revealed concepts of womanhood dominant in theChurches. Nor was there any attempt to draw together or givespecial attention to the collective voices of the Latin Americanwomen participants speaking from a Latin American perspec-tive.

The Havanna Congress (1929) was a setback for feministEvangelical women. The emphasis was on the role of womenin the evangelical work. There was no reference to women'srights or to issues of social welfare. Meanwhile, in the decadeof the twenties, La Nueva Democracia brought another dimen-sion to the debate. The regenerating power of women,women's superior moral qualities, women's education, moralreform, protection of the weak by fighting ignorance andsuperstitions and bringing knowledge, political rights, andequal rights before the law were clearly delineated as leadingissues and generated powerful exchanges. The contradictionsbetween rights and duties, and between domesticity and liber-al education, that seem so evident to today's reader, were neveraddressed.

The ideal, as expounded in the documents explored in thispaper, even in its more radical forms, represented a white, mid-dle class understanding of womanhood. It was an ideal thatwas conceived as superior, an expression of progress that LatinAmerican women should emulate. This ideal, that relied on thebelief of the regenerating power of women, was central to themissionaries' attempt at building a public culture based onChristian (Protestant) values. The various incidents that mightprovide evidence of the actual implementation of the ideal inreal life were not registered in the Reports and articles. Thatomission is in itself interesting and important. Perhaps somemissionaries had difficulties in acknowledging and in account-ing for eclectic practices as these affected the basis of the mis-sionary project and its ideological and religious tenets. TheCongresses and La Nueva Democracia provide a good profile

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of the ideological tenets and the internal politics of the mis-sions; but they are a pale reflection of the complexities of mis-sionary work in action, to judge by various monographs pub-lished in the last ten years.

Notes

I thank Dr. Sybil Shack for her editorial comments.1 La Nueva Democracia (1920-1964) was a monthly magazine

published by the Committee on Cooperation. It was a journal of opin-ion for contemporary issues from an evangelical perspective. It wasalso the vehicle to support Pan-Americanism, a political ideology thatgained pre-eminence in American political circles. It attempted to cor-rect "the big stick" approach and advocated inter-American solidarityhaving U.S.A. as point of reference. Samuel Guy Inman, editor of LaNueva Democracia and executive secretary of the Committee onCooperation was a strong advocate of Pan-Americanism.

2 John Mackay. (1988). El otro Cristo espanol, 2nd edition.Mexico and Buenos Aires: CUPSA.

3 The Panama Congress dealt with missionary work in North,Central and South America. There were delegates from 44 Americanmissionary societies, one Canadian, and one British. For furtherdetails see Rosa Bruno-Jofre, (1988), Methodist education in Peru:Social gospel, politics, and American ideological and economic pen-etration, 1888-1930, (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier UniversityPress), pp. 46-52, 134, 139-140.

4 Panama Congress 1916, Christian work in Latin America, 3vols. (New York: The Missionary Education Movement, 1917), vol.1, p. 501.

5 Ibid., vol. 1, 504.

6 Ibid.7 The Social Gospel doctrine was concerned not only with indi-

vidual regeneration but with social change. Fraternity, reconciliation,and cooperation were considered fundamental principles in the solu-tion of social problems. Social gospelers accepted certain contempo-rary secular proposals for change. See Rosa Bruno-Jofre, Methodisteducation, pp. 41-44.

«

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The book examined the relationship of religious education todemocracy and examined and recommended changes in the teachingof religion. Rosa Bruno-Jofre, Methodist education, pp. 141.

Pan-Americanism is rooted in the Monroe Doctrine (1823),"America for the Americans." The United States reactivated the con-cept when organizing the first Pan-American conference inWashington in 1889. Bastian wrote that it was not just a coincidencethat the Congress took place in Panama which was a symbol ofAmerican hegemony on the continent. The idea of Protestantism asthe religious aspect of Pan-Americanism emerged powerfully at thePanama Congress. The secretary of the Committee on Cooperationwas active over the years in aligning the Committee with the politicsof the Pan-Americanism of the State Department. In this way,Protestantism became closely related to American ideological pene-tration into the continent. A number of Churches strongly resistedembracing Pan-Americanism as their cause. Jean Pierre Bastian.(1990). Historia del Protestantismo en America Latina. Mexico:CUPSA, pp. 160-162.

10 Panama Congress 1916, Christian work, vol. 3, Appendix A-

I, pp. 453-511.11 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 171.

12 Ibid., pp. 171-172.

13 Ibid., p. 171.14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., p. 128.

16 Ibid., p. 127.

17 Ibid., p. 132.

18 Ibid., p. 133.

19 Ibid., p. 134.20 Ibid.21 Ibid., p. 135.

22 Ibid., p. 137.

23 Ibid.24 For example, the work of Jean Pierre Bastian. (1989). Los

Disidentes: Sociedades protestantes y revolution en Mexico, 1872-1911. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica.

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25 Panama Congress 1916, Christian work, vol. 2, pp. 139-140.

26 See Ibid., p. 147.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., p. 184.

29 Ibid., p. 213.

30 Ibid., p. 209.

31 Ibid.Ibid., p. 186.

33 Robyn Muncy. (1991). Creating a female dominion inAmerican reform, 1890-1935. New York and Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

34 Ibid., p. 163.Panama Congress, 1916, Christian work, vol. 2, p. 185.

3" Letter of Clyde W. Brewster, Methodist Episcopal Mission,addressed to "My Dear Friends," dated Huancayo-Peru, March 1,1924.

•^7 This is the Congress on Christian work in South America heldin Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1925. It addressed South American issuesonly. A second Congress addressing missionary work in CentralAmerica and the Caribbean planned for 1926 had to be postponeduntil 1929. The Montevideo Congress, organized by Robert Speer andSamuel Guy Inman and presided over by Erasmo Braga (Brazil), hada strong North American presence; only 27% (or 45) of the 165 dele-gates were Latin Americans and the commissions were chaired byAmericans. Spanish was the official language of the Congress but inpractice English was the dominant language. The introduction of theproceedings of the Congress is somewhat misleading; it overempha-sizes the role of national representatives.

-50Montevideo Congress 1925, Christian work in South America,

2 vols. (New York-Chicago: Feling H. Revell Company, 1925), vol.2, pp. 81-82. These issues were addressed by the Commission on reli-gious education.

Ibid., pp. 83-92.Ibid., vol. 1, p. 272. These issues were addressed by the

Commission on education.

41 Ibid., p. 273.

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4243

44

45

46

47

48

49

Ibid., pp. 44 and 57.

Ibid., vol. 2, p. 54.See other chapters in this collection.The Montevideo Congress 1925, Christian work, vol. 1, p. 321.

Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 46-47.

/bid, vol. 1, pp. 454-55.

Ibid., p. 59.Jane Hahne. (1956). A todas y cada una de las ex-alumnas del

Lima High School. Blue and Gold, special number, fiftieth anniver-sary. Lima, June 21, p. 16.

The Montevideo Congress 1925, Christian work, vol. 1, p. 445.

51 Ibid., p. 446.The Hispano-American Evangelical Congress of The

Havanna was held in 1929. Originally, it was supposed to coverCentral America and the Caribbean. The issues were treated withinthe context of Hispano-America and there were representatives fromthe entire continent. The United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, andCuba had the largest delegations. National leaders were well repre-sented at the Congress. There were 86 national delegates, 44 mission-aries, 39 representatives from missionary boards including experts. J.Pierre Bastian, Historia del protestantismo, p. 166.

Gonzalo Baez-Camargo. (1930). Hacia la renovation reli-giosa en hispanoamerica. Mexico: CUPSA, p. 54.

54 Ibid., p. 25.

Ibid.

Ibid., p. 27.

Ibid., p. 108.

Ibid., p. 185.

Ibid., p. 186.Olive Banks's Faces of feminism is a comprehensive history

of feminism in the United States and Great Britain. It provides a gen-eral framework to understand Evangelical feminism. Olive Banks.(1986). Faces of feminism: A study of feminism as a social movement,2nd edition. Great Britain: Basil Blackwell.

55

56

57

58

59

60

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61 Juana Manrique de Lara. (1923). La mujer en la educacionmoderna. La Nueva Democracia, 4, 12, p. 25.

62 Josefina Saravia E. (1926). Deberia la mujer comprender elfeminismo: Palabras dedicadas a la mujer latina. Ibid., 1, 5 , pp. 28and 32.

63 Susan Caron. (1925). Conciencia femenina. Ibid., 6, 1, p. 21.

64 Aurora Herrera de Nobregas. (1924). La mujer como factorimportante en los problemas sociales. Ibid., 5, 8, pp. 23 and 30.

65 Vera Zuroff. (1936). La hora de la mujer ha llegado. Ibid., 17,9, pp. 16-17.

6" Roxanne. (1923). La dignificacion de la mujer. Ibid., 4, 11,pp. 27-28.

Celinda Arregui de Rodicio. (1927). Primer congreso femeni-no internacional en Chile. Ibid., 8, 3, pp. 26-27.

Angela Acuna. (1922). Las Americas ante el gran problema dela educacion femenina. Ibid., 31,5, pp. 24 and 31.

69 Editorial. (1922). Que clase de feminismo defendemos y porque. Ibid., 3, 5, pp. 9-10.

Concha Romero James. (1922). La mujer en action. Ibid., 3,8, pp. 25 and 32.

71 Editorial. (1930). Feminismo. Ibid., 11, 11, pp. 7-8.

'2 Gabriela Mistral. (1927). Una nueva organization del trabajo:separation del trabajo por sexos. Ibid., 8, 3/4, pp. 6-7.

73 Georgina Fletcher. (1927). La mujer y el trabajo. Ibid., 8, 7,pp. 18 and 31.

Mary Mejias. (1927). La Nueva Democracia y el feminismo.Ibid., 8, 5, pp. 21-23.

Delia Weber de Coicou. (1929). Del feminismo, amemos conamplitud y exquisitez de arte. Ibid., 9, 2, pp. 27 and 31.

76 Gabriela Mistral. (1927). Carta interesante. Ibid., 8,11, pp. 14and 15.

Angela Acuna. (1922). Las Americas ante el gran problema dela educacion femenina. Ibid., 31, 5, pp. 24 and 31. These are com-ments that preceded the Pan-American Women's Conference that washeld in Baltimore in 1923.

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Jesusa Alfau. (1922). La mujer en accion: El abolengo femi-nista de la mujer hispanoamericana. Ibid., 3, 9, p. 26 and 31.

™ Concha Romero James wrote a brief editorial comment thatwas published along with Alfau's article.

80 The Montevideo Congress 1925, Christian work, vol. 1,pp. 454-55.

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