Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 09/2008

Confronting Colonialism: Maryknoll Catholic Missionaries in Peru and Guatemala, 1943–1968

Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens

May 2007

The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Abstract

 

My goal in writing this paper was to try to explain how Catholicism became embedded in the social and political structures of Peru and Guatemala and how this affected Maryknoll proselytization in Puno and Huehuetenango in the twentieth century. I argue that during the colonial period Catholic clergy served as intermediaries between indigenous communities and Spanish officials. The character of their relationship depended on local demands for labor and was, as a result, distinct in Peru and Guatemala. Demand for labor was consistently high in Puno because it was near the site of the Potosí mines, recognized as the most important source of income for the Spanish crown during the colonial period. This relationship ensured that Catholic clergy acted as enforcers of Spanish efforts to dominate indigenous communities. For their part, Andean caciques charged with protecting community interests and mediating with Spanish officials sought to limit incursions by Spanish clergy, economic elites, and governing officials. By contrast, Guatemala was an economic backwater during the colonial period. Spanish clergy came to act as “defenders of the Indians” in opposition to the interests of Spanish economic elites and governing officials. Mayan people engaged with Catholicism to restructure their communities and to establish barriers to incursions by outsiders.

I believe these differences had a long-term impact on development of relations among the Church, the state, and indigenous people in Peru and Guatemala. I seek to trace these differences as they evolved through the colonial period and independence era and to examine their influence on the proselytization programs undertaken by Maryknoll Catholic missionaries from the United States in Puno and Huehuetenango in the midtwentieth century. I believe that they help to explain specifically why Catholic conversion in Guatemala contributed to the development of a Mayan-led and organized political movement that provided the means by which indigenous people engaged with the Guatemalan state, while Catholic proselytization in Peru had less impact on indigenous communities.