Pardos’ Triumph

On September 13, 1745, the pardo (mixed-race Afro-Brazilian) brotherhood (lay Catholic association) of Nossa Senhora do Livramento (Our Lady of Emancipation) of Recife, Pernambuco, in collaboration with the pardo brotherhood of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) in neighboring Olinda, enthralled Pernambuco’s largest city with a great festival in honor of Blessed Gonçalo Garcia (1556–97). Like many colonial festivals, the festivities included fireworks, artillery salvos, five triumphal carts, seventeen allegorical floats, five different dance performances, and jousting. Yet never before had such an extravagant display of material wealth been made by an Afro-Brazilian brotherhood. The pardo irmãos (brotherhood members) had two important issues they wanted to settle once and for all with this festival. One was the question of Blessed Gonçalo’s pardoness, since the would-be-saint was the son of a Portuguese man and an East Indian woman, and pardoness in Brazil had been defined as the result of white–black miscegenation. The other issue was the popular notion that mixed-race Afro-Brazilians constituted colonial Brazil’s most deviant and unruly socioracial group. In this article, I analyze how mixed-race Afro-Brazilians used the material culture of early modern festivals to publicly articulate claims about their sacro-social prestige and socio-symbolic status. I contend that material culture played a central role in the pardo irmãos’ articulation of their devotion to Blessed Gonçalo and claims of sacro-social and socio-symbolic belonging, and that they used this material culture to challenge colonial notions about their ethnic group.

The Juramento: Secondary and Tertiary Preventive Benefits of a Religious-Based Brief Alcohol Intervention in the Mexican Immigrant Community

Our chapter addresses the prevention benefits of the juramento, a grassroots religious-based brief intervention for harmful drinking practiced in Mexico and the Mexican immigrant community in the United States. With origins in Mexican folk Catholicism, it is a sacred pledge made to Our Lady of Guadalupe to abstain from alcohol for a specific time period; in most cases, at least six months. We draw on our data from a subsample of 15 Mexican workers who made juramentos and two priests who administered the juramento to the workers. The sample is from a larger qualitative study on the use of the juramento among Mexican immigrant and migrant workers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Our findings reveal that, in addition to serving as an intervention, the juramento results in secondary prevention—by identifying a harmful drinking before the onset of heavy drinking—and tertiary prevention—by slowing or abating the progression of heavy drinking.

Developing the Juramento into an Evidence-Based Brief Intervention: A Brief Report

Introduction: This brief report recommends how the effectiveness of the juramento, a practice found in Mexican Catholicism, can be enhanced by combining it with Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment. The juramento is a grassroots intervention around a sacred pledge made to Our Lady of Guadalupe to abstain from alcohol from 6 months to 1 year. Method: The recommendations are made possible from an ongoing qualitative study on the use of the juramento among Mexican immigrant farmworkers in southeastern Pennsylvania. The subsample for this report is 15 Mexican immigrant farmworkers who made a juramento and two priests who administer the intervention. Results: Adding the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and a referral to treatment in the counseling session of the juramento keeps its religious and cultural appeal. The core of the intervention—the ritualized pledge to Our Lady of Guadalupe—remains intact. Conclusion: Approaching the juramento with an evidence-based brief intervention lens will expand the availability of culturally based interventions to include a grassroots intervention in the Mexican immigrant community. The juramento is organic, rooted in culture and religion, making it more likely that it will help in reducing alcohol use disorders, especially those with strong religiosity.

Don Melchor Carlos Inca, el inca mestizo: Los Carlos Inca en el siglo XVII de la sociedad cusqueña

En 1539, don Cristóbal Paullo, uno de los hijos del inca Huayna Cápac, fue nombrado «inca» como parte de una estrategia política de los españoles. Desde entonces tuvo acceso a encomiendas de indios. Don Cristóbal se casó con doña Catalina Tocto Oxica y tuvieron dos hijos: don Carlos Inquill Topa y don Felipe Inquill Topa. Don Carlos Inquil Topa se casó con doña María Esquivel Amarilla y tuvieron un solo hijo llamado Melchor Carlos Inca. El nacimiento de Melchor fue visto por la población nativa como un gran acontecimiento pues había nacido un «rey inca», el cual incluso llegó a ser temido por los funcionarios españoles coloniales al saber que se referían a él como «Cápac Inca». Don Melchor Carlos Inca se identificaba como nieto de don Cristóbal Paullo Inca y bisnieto del inca Huayna Cápac. Se convirtió en un personaje importante dentro de la sociedad virreinal cusqueña. Don Melchor fue bautizado y se casó con doña Leonor Arias Carrasco, hija del conquistador Pedro Alonso Carrasco, ambos eventos fueron significativos para la sociedad cusqueña. La encomienda de Pichigua, de propiedad de don Melchor, era de mucha importancia económica y social, por ello para mantener esta encomienda y sus actividades sociales/políticas, se vio obligado a vender e hipotecar por vía de censo parte de su patrimonio. En 1599, el virrey Luis de Velasco dio una comisión al capitán Antonio Pereira (regidor perpetuo) para averiguar la ascendencia y los servicios de los ancestros de don Melchor. En 1603, don Melchor viajó a España para reclamar sus privilegios y logró su inclusión como Caballero de la Orden de Santiago. La descendencia de Cristóbal Paullo Inca logró establecer y constituir la capilla de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en el convento e iglesia de San Francisco, donde tuvieron el honor de tener una bóveda funeraria, la cual fue cuidada y mantenida por sus descendientes hasta el siglo XVII. Abstract In 1539, don Cristobal Paullo, one of the sons of the Inca ruler Huayna Capac, was named «Inca» as a political strategy of the Spaniards. Since then, he received an encomienda. Don Cristobal was married to doña Catalina Tocto Oxica and had two sons, don Carlos Inquill Topa and don Felipe Inquill Topa. Don Carlos Inquil Topa married doña Maria Esquivel Amarilla and had only one son named Melchor Carlos Inca. The birth of Melchor was seen by the native population as a great event because an “Inca king” had been born, he even became feared by the colonial Spanish officials when they knew he was referred as the «Capac Inca». Don Melchor Carlos Inca identified himself as grandson of don Cristobal Paullo Inca and great-grandson of the Inca Huayna Capac. He became an important figure within the Cuzco›s colonial society. Don Melchor was baptized and married doña Leonor Arias Carrasco, daughter of the Spanish conquistador Pedro Alonso Carrasco, both events were meaningful for Cusco society. Don Melchors’ encomienda of Pichigua was of great economic and social importance, in order to maintain this encomienda and his social/political activities, he had to sell or mortgage part of his inherited patrimony. In 1599, the Viceroy Luis de Velasco ordered captain Antonio Pereira («regidor perpetuo») to ascertain the ancestry and services of don Mechor and his ancestors. In 1603, don Melchor traveled to Spain in order to claim his privileges and succeeded at obtaining a knighthood in the Order of Santiago. The descendants of Cristóbal Paullo Inca established the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Convent and Church of San Francisco where they had the honour of having a burial vault which was carefully guarded and maintained by their descendants until 17th Century.