Based on conversations with women in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Lima, Peru, The Call of God explores how their faith provides them with an understanding amidst extreme poverty, violence, and displacement. Peru was the birthplace of liberation theology and the poor women of that country were instrumental in its original elucidation. This book introduces the women of El Agustino, where a diverse, dedicated and eloquent group have set out to answer questions, solve problems, and rebuild a society stricken with rampant inflation and terrorism, all in response to the call of God. Without much formal education, these women possess and espouse complex theological propositions with a high degree of independence and proficiency. A careful reading reveals an education of a different sort—one rooted in life's changing experiences; one directed toward a different liberation.

Many women throughout the world face the challenge of confronting an unexpected or an unwanted pregnancy, yet these experiences are often shrouded in silence. An Open Secret draws on personal interviews and medical records to uncover the history of women’s experiences with unwanted pregnancy and abortion in the South American country of Bolivia. This Andean nation is home to a diverse population of indigenous and mixed-race individuals who practice a range of medical traditions. Centering on the cities of La Paz and El Alto, the book explores how women decided whether to continue or terminate their pregnancies and the medical practices to which women recurred in their search for reproductive health care between the early 1950s and 2010. It demonstrates that, far from constituting private events with little impact on the public sphere, women’s intimate experiences with pregnancy contributed to changing policies and services in reproductive health in Bolivia.

La Condesa "Historia y Leyenda" es una novela donde se narra de una manera ficticia la vida de María Magdalena Catalina Dávalos de Bracamontes y Orozco, quien fuera la Tercera Condesa de Miravalle. Ambientada en el siglo XVIII en la Nueva España, en una época donde la religión era juez y verdugo de las conductas de los hombres y mujeres. La historia narrada en las líneas de este libro, invita al lector a transportarse en imaginación hasta aquellos tiempos y lugares, donde los hechos reales y ficticios se hacen uno mismo. La Condesa, una mujer poderosa que abusó de su belleza y de su título nobiliario para conseguir lo que se proponía, sin importarle sacrificar a su moral ni a sus buenos principios. Odiada por muchos y amada por muy pocos, que desafió a las costumbres de su época, llevándola incluso a enfrentarse con las autoridades eclesiásticas, situación que le trajo la desgracia y la tragedia. Mujer altiva y orgullosa, que era poseedora de muy buenos, y también de muy malos sentimientos. Víctima primero, victimaria después, esta la historia de una mujer que amó y fue amada, y que dejó una huella imborrable en los lugares que habitó. Esta una historia, que con el paso de los años, se convirtió en la inmortal leyenda.

In a study published in the mid-twentieth century, French historian Robert Ricard postulated that the evangelization and conversion of the native populations of Mexico had been rapid and relatively easy. However, different forms of evidence show that the so-called “spiritual conquest” was anything but easy or rapid, and, in fact, natives continued to practice their traditional beliefs alongside Catholicism. Within several decades of initiating the so-called “spiritual conquest,” the campaign to evangelize and convert the native populations, the missionaries faced growing evidence of idolatry or the persistence of traditional religious practices and apostasy, straying from Church teachings. The evidence includes written documents such as inquisition investigations that resulted, for example, in the execution of don Carlos, the native ruler of Tezcoco, on December 1, 1539, or that uncovered evidence of systematic organized resistance to Dominican missionaries in the Sierra Mixteca of Oaxaca. Other forms of evidence include pre-Hispanic religious iconography incorporated into what ostensibly were Christian murals, and pre-Hispanic stones embedded in the churches and convents the missionaries had built. One example of this was the stone with the face of Tláloc at the rear of the Franciscan church Santiago Tlatelolco in Distrito Federal. During the course of some three centuries, missionaries from different Catholic religious orders attempted to convert the native populations of colonial Mexico, with mixed results. Native groups throughout colonial Mexico resisted the imposition of the new religion in overt and covert forms, and incorporated Catholicism into their worldview on their own terms. Native cultural and religious traditions were more flexible than the Iberian Catholic norms introduced by the missionaries. The so-called “spiritual conquest,” a term coined by Ricard, evolved as a cultural war set against the backdrop of the imposition of a foreign colonial regime. The 11 essays in this volume examine the efforts to evangelize the native populations of Mexico, the approaches taken by the missionaries, and native responses. The contributions investigate the interplay between natives and missionaries in central Mexico, and on the southern and northern frontiers of New Spain, and among sedentary and non-sedentary natives. In the end, many natives found little in the new faith to attract them, and resisted the imposition of new religious norms and way of life.