Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The objective of this article is to present an interpretation on the reproduction of the ideal of the Hispanic woman in Manila based on the contemporary and local notion of social ‘quality’. My research is based on the premise that an attempt was made to implement in the Philippines the same organizational model that was created for the American world. My approach differs from traditional historiography by objecting to the use of the terms ‘whiteness’ – used to refer to presumed Spanish women in Manila –, ‘racism’, and ‘Spanish woman’; I argue that these categories favor prejudiced and incomplete visions and are not part of the contemporary vocabulary in the first half of the 17th century. Thus, I analyze how the meaning of ‘quality woman’ was constructed in the Philippines as a determining criterion for inclusion and belonging to the elite of the city of Manila. Finally, I demonstrate the existence of a scale of preferences for ‘quality women’ and ‘women of less position’ which, in the vocabulary of the time, were known as ‘women of all qualities’.

The place of origin of the worship of Xipe Tótec is still uncertain. Archaeological studies of central Mexico have argued that this cult dates to Teotihuacan or even Olmec times. Nonetheless, said archaeological and iconographic evidence has never been systematically compared with that found in the west of the México, even ignoring Bernardino De Sahagún’s assertion regarding its western origin. In contrast, I propose that the worship of Xipe originated in pre-Columbian Jalisco, employing an analysis based on contrasting early colonial sources and previously recovered archaelogical evidence from the region. The latter includes the identification of pre-Hispanic pieces from the museum collections of the Zapotlán and Zapotiltic area.

The aim of this article is to present the life of Juan Díaz de Arce, religious and professor at the Royal University of Mexico, who lived during the first half of the 17th century. Through his work, Libro de la Vida del Próximo Evangélico el Venerable Padre Bernardino Álvarez, Díaz de Arce spread knowledge of the religious hospital work in New Spain narrated by the Brothers of Charity as its protagonists. Díaz de Arce’s text is considered thus a key primary source for the study of the history of hospitals and places the author as a chronicler of the Hospital Orders in Mexico.

The Communist League “23 de Septiembre” – known as LC23S or la Liga – was one of the guerrilla insurrection organizations in Mexico in the 70s. Already in 1977, while la Liga was celebrating four years of existence, the federal government headed by José López Portillo announced a political reform that allowed the recognition of left-wing political parties. In addition, during this time, relatives of state counterinsurgency’s political prisoners and victims of forced disappearance sought the release and search of their loved ones. The article analyzes the positions on these efforts and the 1977 political reform expressed by la Liga in Madera, the organization’s newspaper. I argue that la Liga disseminated a negative vision of these processes in order to continue justifying its call to arms, because organized political violence was offered as the only legitimate and viable method to carry out leftist changes in Mexico at the time. 

This article analyzes the judicial decision that declared Timoteo Andrade and two other Mexicans ineligible to be granted U.S. citizenship in 1935. The decision was made based on the ‘racial’ composition of the applicants, having been the outcome of lobbying by distinct interest groups. The rejection of Andrade’s naturalization petition created so much controversy among government officials in Mexico and the United States that the authorities of both countries agreed to back it down. I reflect on the case from the Mexican perspective and review the implications the participation of private groups had in the articulation of the ideal of citizenship in the United States. In addition, I propose that, similar to what happens in Latin America, the ‘private sphere’ has had a great influence on the construction of the legal and social archetype of the US citizen. Furthermore, I argue that the appeal to this court case also exposed some of the limitations of the citizenship-building processes that occurred south of the border during the 1930s. 

This article analyzes the meaning of religious morality during the moderate period, between 1848 and 1853 – that is, from the end of the war with the United States to the end of the administration of Mariano Arista. The objective of this analysis is twofold: a) it aims to demonstrate the liveliness of public opinion during a period to which inertial stability, discouragement and fatigue are traditionally attributed; and b) it tries to measure the enormous relevance of Catholic virtue as part of the practical solutions to the Mexican disorders. This last objective is addressed within the underlying debate between the postulation of universal ethics – of profane utility and civil administration – and the vindication of Catholic virtue – of transcendent purpose and transversal relevance. For this purpose, written sources such as newspapers, brochures, books, and exhibitions of the time were consulted with the corresponding support of contemporary research. Finally, I offer a reflection on the conservative plurality around ethical issues.

The article is a biographical study centered around the professional development of the Mexican pulmonologist Ismael Cosío Villegas (1902–1985), through which we address and understand tuberculosis care practices in Mexico during the first half of the 20th century. Important health actions are owed to Ismael Cosío Villegas in the fight against this disease, so his contribution to medicine is recognized for the work dedicated to the care of tubercu-losis patients and respiratory diseases. The biography proposed here derives mainly from the interview made to Dr. Cosío Villegas by the ‘Oral History’ program in 1977 and from the documents related to his professional career. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the incidence that Ismael Cosío Villegas had in 20th century Mexican medicine.

This article analyzes the proposal of Catholic education designed by the clergy and laity of the city of Puebla, in Mexico, between 1870 and 1900, as attested in hemerographic sources. The purpose of this analysis is to comprehend the regional conflicts and debates around youth education during the ‘Porfiriato’ by emphasizing the confessional perspective. The work focuses both on the founding of schools and on Catholic discourses about basic and normal education in order to delve into the cultural wars between the faithful and liberals in Mexico during the second half of the 19th century. I argue that, between 1870 and 1900, the clergy, the religious orders and, to a lesser extent, the laity of Puebla promoted a proposal for Catholic education as a response to the secular education promoted by the liberal regime. I conclude that Puebla’s Catholic Church developed a project of educational, social, and ecclesial renewal that promoted a formation of the youth that sought to combine scientific advances with a solid religious formation and a Mexican patriotic identity. 

The article analyzes the process of insertion, education, and graduation of women in the Institute for Sciences and Arts of Oaxaca (ICAO, its acronym in Spanish) from 1888, the year in which their admission was decreed, to 1955, the year in which the icao became the “Benito Juárez” University of Oaxaca. I argue that these 67 years constitute a period of vital importance to understand the way in which the female presence in the most important university in the state was consolidated. I also demonstrate how the female conquest of the professions in the Oaxacan entity did not occur through long careers, but through short ones, which were more widely accepted for being more practical, simple, and consistent with what is expected of women. My research is based on documentation from the Historical Archive of the “Benito Juárez” Autonomous University of Oaxaca. 

The increasing trend and projection for the use of wearable sensors technology in the general population have led to the development of different inertial measurement units (IMU) to monitor activity and motion variables during exercise or sports. This study aims to systematize the practical experience of developing an inertial measurement device to quantify external load in real time for runners. This article shows the installed capacity of Costa Rican higher education institutions to integrate existing sensors available in the international market in a single device to program it and use it for different sport science purposes. Two scientific laboratories joined resources and integrated an interdisciplinary team composed of exercise physiologists, sports scientists, physiotherapists, and electromechanical engineers who globally faced the challenge of creating SafeRun IMU. In this case, an IMU was constructed with great success, capable of quantifying external load variables controlled from a mobile device in real-time. The results showed an acceptable agreement and reliability of the data extracted from the IMU. The information collected from this IMU could be used to control and quantify external load to develop or redirect exercise programming and prescription and prevent overuse injuries or physical overload conditions. This device differs from other existing ones due to its small size and portability, which benefits its commercialization and massification.