The Asociación Católica and La Esperanza. Salta (Argentina), late 19th century

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze some of the characteristics of the offensive and the strategies of struggle deployed by the male component of the Catholic laity of Salta in the face of the secular measures implemented by the national State in the 1880s. To this end, we will focus on the study of the Catholic Association and its newspaper, La Esperanza, trying to recognize and identify some of the figures who launched these projects, the central elements of their ideology and their program of action. The aforementioned association and its newspaper contributed to the incipient formation of a new Catholic intellectuality that extended the scope of the religious discourse and was able to energize the public debate about the social place of the Catholic Church in nineteenth-century societies.