¿Hacia la configuración de una esfera íntima? Injurias, herejía y tolerancia religiosa en Mendoza, 1825-1826

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze a process for "public expressions against the Catholic religion" found in the Provincial Historical Archive of Mendoza, since it offers a suggestive prism to observe the dynamics of application of certain political-social principles and values ​​linked to the validity and the limits of freedom of expression in a still traditional society. In this sense, the hypothesis aims to consider that the Mendoza ruling class, beyond its rationalist declamation, did not dare to support a regime of freedom of worship, a corollary of freedom of expression, or to publicly expose an atheism or radical agnosticism Both because, despite his private convictions, recent experience had shown him the impossibility for the rest of society to accept these notions at that time, as well as because they continued to see in religion an element of order, stability and key social containment by ensuring a hierarchy of superhuman rewards and punishments for offenders from uneducated and vulnerable sectors of society.