From the Congregation to the Missionary Fraternity: 'Religiosas del Huerto' in the post-council

Abstract

This article seeks to describe and analyze, from a methodological approach that combines in-depth interviews and analysis of published and unpublished documents, the transformations that produced conciliar renewal and Third World theology in woman´s religious life.

Based on the analysis of the case of a group of members of the ‘Congregación Hermanas de la Caridad de las Hijas de Maria Santisima del Huerto’, who in their ‘preferential option for the poor’ undertook life experiences inserted in small communities located in different provinces of Argentina. It is concluded that the actions of religious women had a disruptive and political nature, and that the involvement in the public sphere led them to promote community processes in poor rural populations (peasant and indigenous).

In addition, their action gained special dynamism among the indigenous women of the Argentine Chaco. Together with them, they favored organizational and identities processes that allowed indigenous women to begin to transcend the domestic and community sphere socialize their needs and learn their rights as indigenous and as women.