Latin America, the Southern Cone and Uruguay: visions and interpretations of the French Dominican friars in the sixties

Abstract

This article refers to the experience of the French Dominican friars of the province of Toulouse in Montevideo, and in the River Plate region, which began in the mid-20th century. In the study of the origins, development and exhaustion of the French Dominican project in Uruguay, become evident the complexity of this human and religious experience and the multiplicity of factors that influenced its history. This complexity was also increased by the profound changes that took place in Latin America during these decades, in the universal Church and in religious life.

We will focus especially on what we call the “Dominican glances” in relation to Latin America, the Southern Cone and Uruguay. On the one hand, there was in some friars a possible excessive confidence in the contributions that a group of French religious could make in Latin America. On the other hand, we can appreciate in what way, life in Uruguay and contacts with Ibero-American cultures were transforming the vision and life of each friar. Specifically, the positions varied from the comfort and appreciation of the beginnings, to positions of discontent, fatigue, annoyance - linked to the questioning of the Spanish and Italian roots of the region - to disdain, in some cases, when pastoral illusions focused on Peru and Mexico, considering these two countries as “a more authentic Latin America.”