Masturbation, salvation, and desire: Connecting sexuality and religiosity in colonial Mexico

Journal of the History of Sexuality

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 355-372

  Tortorici, Zeb ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; EMOTION; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL ASPECT; MASTURBATION; MEN'S HEALTH; MEXICO; PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION; PHYSIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLICATION; RELIGION; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SEXUALITY; SOCIAL STATUS; WOMEN'S HEALTH;

ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL; COERCION; EMOTIONS; EROTICA; HISTORY, 16TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 17TH CENTURY; JUDICIAL ROLE; JURISPRUDENCE; MASTURBATION; MEN'S HEALTH; MEXICO; RELIGION AND SEX; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SEXUAL PARTNERS; SEXUALITY; SOCIAL CONDITIONS; WOMEN'S HEALTH;

EID: 63249094751     PISSN: 10434070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/sex.2007.0065     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Bancroft Library (cited hereafter as BANC) MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 2: "considera que se juntan con ella de diferentes maneras estando ella debaxo dellos y de lado y puesta encima dellos y tambien estando ella boca abaxo y ellos encima teniendo junta con ella por ambas partes deshonestas della." (In this article I rely on direct archival transcriptions and seventeenth-century Spanish orthography to preserve a document's original linguistic flavor. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.)
2. The history and establishment of the Inquisition in Mexico is of course more complex and must be discussed in conjunction with the earlier Spanish Inquisition. While the Spanish Inquisition did not come into existence until 1478, the institution goes back much further in history. In the fifteenth century the Holy Office of the Inquisition was conceived of as an important political tool that would aid the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in their political unification of the Iberian kingdoms. Eventually, Spain boasted sixteen tribunals. In contrast, the Spanish overseas possessions-though geographically vastly larger than the Iberian peninsula-only had three tribunals: in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena. See Richard Greenleaf, The Mexican Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969) and Solange Alberro, Inquisición y sociedad en México, 1571-1700 (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultural Económica, 1988).
3. ta que estava con la Virgen Maria."
4. Asunción Lavrin, "Sexuality in Colonial Mexico: A Church Dilemma," in Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America, ed. Asunción Lavrin (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), 48.
5. Jacqueline Holler, "'More Sins than the Queen of England': Marina de San Miguel before the Mexican Inquisition," in Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World, ed. Mary E. Giles (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 224. The case analyzed by Holler is AGN, Inq. 210, exp. 3, fols. 307-430: "de hordinario quando se vian se bessavan y abraçavan, y esta la metia las manos en los pechos y ⋯ vino esta en polucion diez o doze vezes las dos dellas en la iglesia."
6. See Nora Jaffary, False Mystics: Deviant Orthodoxy in Colonial Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 2.
7. Lee Penyak, "Criminal Sexuality in Central Mexico, 1750-1850," Ph.D. diss., University of Connecticut, 1993, 290. The case analyzed by Penyak is AGN Criminal, vol. 385, exp. 15, fol. 296.
8. Penyak, "Criminal Sexuality," 290.
9. See also the work by Martha Few, Women Who Live Evil Lives: Gender, Religion, and the Politics of Power in Colonial Guatemala, 1650-1750 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002).
10. Ruth Behar, "Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers," in Lavrin, Sexuality and Marriage, 200.
11. Laura Lewis, Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003), 233.
12. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 32.
13. no suio de San Luis llamado Xpobal Felipe para que estubiesse en casa del dho Alonso de Garibaldi hasta que viniesse por ella." The city of Querétaro is approximately 200 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.
14. Nancy E. Van Deusen, Between the Sacred and the Worldly: The Institutional and Cultural Practice of Recogimiento in Colonial Lima (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2001). Van Deusen argues that as the migration of Spanish women to colonial Peru increased, their growing presence was perceived as a threat to the colonial order, and, as a result, "the meanings and application of the term 'recogimiento' shifted once again to include and define a new group of sexually and morally deviant women" (53).
15. te y ellos con ella y que esto ha sido tres veces poco mas o menos cada dia en todo el dicho tiempo."
16. Lavrin, "Sexuality in Colonial Mexico," 51.
17. Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (New York: Zone Books, 2003), 136.
18. Fray Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language (1634), ed. and trans. Barry D. Sell, John Frederick Schwaller, and Lu Ann Homza (Tulsa: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 105-9.
19. ta fee catholica ley ebangelica."
20. Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 48.
21. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 3: "se le mostraban agradecidos con palabras que la decían deshonestas y amorosas correspondientes a las que ella decía nombrando ellos las partes des-honestas del hombre y de la muger."
22. For a good discussion of the mal de corazón in Spain see John Brooks, "The Nail of the Great Beast," Western Folklore 18, no. 4 (1959): 317-21.
23. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 5v.
24. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 10.
25. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 12: "venian ellos con sus partes deshonestas alteradas y cada un la significava q agora decida de verse amada y deseada della venian desde el cielo a la tierra a cumplirle su deseo pero depues abraçandola y besandola se encendian mas en sus amores y tenian los demas aestas y palabras deshonestas como actualmente los tiene un hombre con una muger teniendo copula carnal con ella, y q con la virgin avia besarse y abraçarse en la cama y asentarse la una a la otra sus partes deshonestas y q de los demas Jesu Xpo era el q mas se señalava en regalarla y regalarse con ella con los dhos actos y copula deshonestas y obras y palabras deshonestas, y q le dezia el, que la avia criado tal como era hermosa y graciosa y a su gusto para q fuese su puta y para gozarla y para gozarse con ella y q el era su puto y su rufian."
26. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 13: "es verdad catholica q los santos del cielo y Jesu Xpo y la Virgin Maria no pecan ni pueden peccar ni aver venido del cielo a la tierra hazer y dezir lo q esta declarante ha confesado q la han hecho y dicho, y q avia sido el demonio."
27. Holler, "More Sins," 223.
28. os y le pide perdon."
29. Ligia Bellini, A coisa obscura: Mulher, sodomia, e Inquisição no Brasil colonial (São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1987), 31. In terms of female sodomy in early modern Europe, Louis Crompton has argued in "The Myth of Lesbian Impunity: Capital Laws from 1270 to 1791" (Journal of Homosexuality 6 [1980]: 11-25) that sexual acts between women were as serious a concern as sexual acts between males and that cases of female sodomy were punished just as severely. The sheer dearth of cases dealing with female sodomy in historical archives, however, demonstrates that while many cases of sexual acts between women were often dealt with harshly, they were tried very sporadically. While Crompton asserts that "lesbians" were not exempt from the harsh sentences meted out by the Inquisition, there was clearly less concern with regulating female sexuality when compared to male sexuality. The same holds true for colonial Latin America.
30. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 12: "y antes de tener la copula carnal y teniendola él [Jesus] le dezia y ella respondia, 'mi alma q te meto' y ella dezia mis ojos el carajo me meto el carajazo, y él dezia por donde? y ella respondia por el coño q es tuyo, y el dezia y q te hago? y ella dezia, me hoder, me estas hodiendo."
31. ami."
32. Saint Teresa of Ávila, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself, trans. J. M. Cohen (New York: Penguin Books, 1957), 210. For a discussion of Saint Rose of Lima's erotic mysticism, see Frank Graziano, Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
33. Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, trans. Mary Dalwood (San Francisco: City Light Books, 1986), 224.
34. BANCMSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 33: "con esta imaginacion se fue a su casay estando acostada en su cama la misma noche y tocandose sus partes vergonçosas para venir en polución se le represento con uma imaginacion el dho S. Nicolas trayendolo ella a la memória para el dho acto y en efecto le tubo consumado como si realmente estubiese pecando com el."
35. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 34.
36. For analyses of priestly sexuality through solicitation cases see Stephen Haliczer, Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996);
37. Jorge René González Marmolejo, Sexo y confesión: La iglesia y la penitencia en los siglos XVIII y XIX en la Nueva España (Mexico City: Editores Plaza y Valdés, 2002);
38. and John F. Chuchiak IV, "The Sins of the Fathers: Franciscan Friars, Parish Priests, and the Sexual Conquest of the Yucatec Maya, 1545-1808," in Sexual Encounters/Sexual Collisions: Alternative Sexualities in Colonial Mesoamerica, ed. Pete Sigal and John F. Chuchiak IV (also a special issue of Ethnohistory 54, no. 1 [2007]); as well as my forthcoming work on male-male solicitation.
39. Mary E. Giles, Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 15.
40. BANC MSS 96/95 5:4, fol. 51.
41. Penyak, "Criminal Sexuality," 260.