UC Berkeley

The period from the 1950s to the 1980s saw two major social and political transformations in Latin America’s Southern Cone—principally Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Firstly, the Catholic Church underwent a massive doctrinal and practical shift as a result of the Second Vatican Council, held between 1962 and 1965 in Rome. Vatican II began as an attempt to breach the gap between Catholics and other Christians, but became a modernization project on a scale that the Church had not seen for centuries. At the same time, in the mid-twentieth century, these countries in Latin America saw the emergence of a new right-wing political perspective that would drive the emergence and power of the right-wing movements that propelled the military to power throughout the region. This dissertation seeks to explain the confluence and convergence of both these trends by examining the conservative theological consensus that developed during and in the wake of Vatican II in Latin America and other conservative parts of the Catholic world, namely Spain and Portugal. Following these conservative and right-wing arguments over liturgical changes, the worship of Mary, and the relationship between religion and politics helps explain the deeply Catholic yet nationalist projects that would dominate the region’s politics for much of the remainder of the twentieth century. As such this dissertation rehabilitates theological arguments as more than academic exercises—instead, they were influential and inherent parts of political thought and practice for the right-wing.