PRAYING FOR THE POORPRIESTS, ‘INDIOS‘ AND THE NEW MISSION TO THE ANDESAndrea Müller, Noah Oehri

Institute of HistoryIberian and Latin American HistoryLänggassstrasse 493012 Bern

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONUsing a comparative and transnational perspective, thisresearch project investigates the Catholic Church and itsrole in the development of peasant and indigenousmovements in Ecuador and Peru from the 1960s to the1980s. It analyzes the reforms of pastoral discourses andpractices in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council(1962 – 1965) and the Latin American Bishop’s Conferencein Medellin (1968) that came to be known as a newtheological current in the 1970s – liberation theology.

Based on archival research and oral history, the projectfocuses on the interaction of ecclesiastical and secularactors in two case studies, the province of Chimborazo(Ecuador) and the department of Puno (Peru). RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How did the Catholic Church in Puno and Chimborazoadapt its pastoral discourse and practice in the contextof global and continental ecclesiastical reform?

• To what extent did the clergy reconsider its approachtowards the ‘other’, the indigenous peasant, and howdid this approach challenge prevalent paradigms of‘development’, ‘modernity’ and ‘indigenismo’?

• How did religious actors contribute to the(trans)formation of social movements in the rural Andesof Peru and Ecuador? How did this ecclesiasticalactivism resonate among social and political actors,particularly with regards to their discursive constructionof collective identities based on class or ethnicity?

PROJECT PERU: PUNOAccording to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the“progressive and dynamic” Church in Puno contributed tocreating “a new feeling of belonging [to the Church] amongthousands of peasants” and defended their organizationsagainst incursions of Sendero Luminoso (CVR 2003). Butto what extent did the Church seek to forge this ‘feeling ofbelonging’ and how, in turn, did its discursive constructionof the (Christian) ‘peasant’ promote membership andmilitancy within the Church? This project argues that therural population of Puno was subjugated to, and involvedin, processes of ‘liberation’ that fueled their continuousstruggle over land distribution and ‘Andean identity’ duringboth agrarian reform and internal conflict (1969 – 1986).

WHAT IS LIBERATION THEOLOGY?A theological current within the Latin American Church thatforged a reorientation of the Church towards the ‘poor’ asthe central subject of pastoral concern (most prevalentduring the 1970s and 1980s). This so-called ‘preferentialoption for the poor’ was based on a Marxist analysis of thesocio-economic milieu of the continent. Liberationtheology addressed persistent states of social, economicand cultural oppression and marginalization, and thus hada particularly strong influence on pastoral work in informalsettlements, rural regions and among ethnic minorities.

PROJECT ECUADOR: CHIMBORAZOIn 1990, when mass protests paralyzed the country, theEcuadorian Indigenous Movement became knowninternationally as a political player, seeking rights of self-determination and cultural expression. But how, why andwhen did ethnicity become the core of their struggle? TheChimborazo case study argues that religious and lay actorshad a significant impact on the constitution of theindigenous movement. Working in rural areas on a missionto establish a proper ‘Indigenous Church’, religiousactivists actively promoted ethnicity as a political resource.Considering power relations and contentious ideologies,the project analyzes the entanglements among actorsoperating at a domestic, regional and local level.

Photography: Archivo Instituto Pastoral AndinaArchivo Interfoto Peru