Latin in Andrés Febrés’s Arte. From Grammatical Reference to the Concealment of Sexuality

Abstract

Confession was a complex matter for the spiritual conquest of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. On the one hand, it was seen as a powerful tool to control socially and discipline the conscience. Still, on the other hand, it entailed a series of doctrinal and practical difficulties, such as the translation of religious terms, the distance between the languages of confessor and the penitent, and the appropriateness (cognitive and cultural) of the content, both to banish indigenous practices considered sinful and to avoid inculcating new faults. In this context, confessing sins of the flesh could be complex, since the priest had to question, but he should not do so too explicitly or incite sin. The confessional, considered a textual genre, was a useful resource, so Andrés Febrés included one in his Art of 1765. The author, perceiving the complexity of sex and sexuality, decided to write about this subject in Mapudungun and Latin, while the language of communication for his text was Spanish. We believe this decision was due to the communicative context and the need to warn missionary readers that this was a special subject. We also explain this because of the embarrassment this subject may have caused. To explore the text, we offer an unpublished Spanish translation of “Sexto y nono mandamiento”. While analyzing the text, we review the methodological difficulties of this type of study.