ARTICLES Vol. 12, No.

1, 2024 / e853

Ways of Departing: First German Candidates to the Congregation Catechists of

Boroa (Araucania, Chile, 1932-1934)1,2
ANTONIETA VERA GAJARDO CAMILA STIPO ROSARIO FERNÁNDEZ
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Universidad de Chile Universidad de Santiago Universidad de Chile

SUMMARY: This work analyzes the discursive strategies of the first German candidates who,
between 1932 and 1934, applied to be missionaries of the Catechist Congregation of Boroa
in the Araucanía Region. From a gender perspective and through the systematization and
cross-referencing of historical archives (calls, letters, autobiographies, questionnaires), we
will analyze the encoded interaction between Capuchin priests and candidates. Focusing
on the analysis of the candidates letters, we will argue that exceptionalism and the tricks
of the weak constituted paradoxical strategies of women whose desires for recognition and
autonomy were legitimized through the civilizing vocation of Mapuche pagans.

KEYWORDS: Travel; discourse; religion; women; writing.

Formas de partir: primeras aspirantes alemanas a la congregación Catequistas

de Boroa (Araucanía, Chile, 1932-1934)

RESUMEN: Este trabajo analiza las estrategias discursivas de las primeras aspirantes
alemanas que entre 1932 y 1934 postularon a ser misioneras de la Congregación
Catequistas de Boroa en la Araucanía. Desde un enfoque de género y mediante la
sistematización y cruce de archivos históricos (convocatorias, cartas, autobiografías,
cuestionarios), analizaremos la interpelación codificada entre sacerdotes capuchinos y
aspirantes. Focalizándonos en el análisis de las cartas de las aspirantes, sostendremos que
el excepcionalismo y las tretas del débil constituyeron estrategias paradójicas de mujeres
cuyos deseos de reconocimiento y autonomía se legitimaron a través de la vocación
civilizadora de paganas mapuche.

PALABRAS CLAVE: Viaje; discurso; religión; mujeres; escritura.

TRASLATION OF SUMMARY: Carolina Andrea Trivelli Díaz / Verona University

HOW TO QUOTE
Vera, A.; Stipo, C. & Fernández R. (2024). Ways of Departing: First German Candidates to the Congregation
Catechists of Boroa (Araucania, Chile, 1932-1934). Culturales, 12, e853. https://doi.org/10.22234/recu.20241201.e853
RECEIVED 11 June 2024 / APPROVED 2 October 2024 / PUBLISHED 2024

1
Acknowledgements: This article is an output of Fondecyt N°1220271 “Civilizers: affective economies and
sentimental education in schools and boarding schools in Araucanía (1895-1953)”, funded between 2022 and
2026 by the Agencia Nacional de Desarrollo (National Development Agency of Chile - ANID).
2
Translation: Carolina Trivelli. Verona University.
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Missionaries in the Araucanía region

The construction of female citizenship is read as a paradox by Joan Scott when she points
out that “the history of feminism is the history of women who have only paradoxes to offer”
(Scott, 2012, p. 21). Insofar as Western democracies constructed citizenship based on the
equivalence between individual and masculinity, Scott points to the paradox involved in
simultaneously defending the importance and irrelevance of sexual difference when
demanding rights such as voting or education.
This key paradox in the construction of equality and difference in modern times also
marked the gendered character of both national and civilizing projects, largely articulated
by the sexual division of labor and by a family-focused and domestic iconography that
differentiated roles, discourses, and practices in sex-gender terms (McClintock, 1993). As
Yuval Davis and Anthias (1989) point out, although women who participated as civilizers in
the architecture of these projects often faced the same or more risks as their male
counterparts, they have been represented from a pre-political conceptualization of affects,
in a relationship of love or support towards conquerors, soldiers, or missionaries. Thus,
once the war was over, the discourse of national sentimentalism calls upon these civic
mothers to build peace among all those who were previously enemies, that is, to embody
“the gentle hand of power” in order to construct a society (Vera, 2016).
The first decades of the 20th century in Chile correspond to a period of rhetoric of
national unity that advocated for the need to integrate social and ethnic sectors which had
been explicitly excluded since colonial times. This period also coincides with the significant
unfolding of female professionalism (midwives, social workers, nurses, teachers), which
Lavrín conceptualizes as “scientific motherhood”: women who were key for social change
as they would be in charge of “sanitizing and moralizing the sexual sphere in order to build
a healthy and strong nation” (Lavrin, 1995, p. 88; Illanes, 2007; Vera, 2016). This period was
also defined by alliances between the Catholic Church and elite women’s philanthropy
(Yeager, 2005), the feminization of education (Egaña et al., 2003), and, globally, the
feminization of missions (Haggis, 1998; Semple, 2003; De la Fuente, 2023).

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We propose paradoxical strategies as a key approach to interpreting the discourses

of a subject who is little or problematically integrated into the reflection on female and
eventually feminist genealogies in Chile: religious women (Haggis, 1998; Vera &
Valderrama-Cayumán, 2017). As Haggis points out, such genealogies have generally
tended to consider religiosity as “an unfortunate conservative influence” in women’s
history (Haggis, 1998, p. 173). In the case of Chile, Yeager argues that religion was a key
tool for integrating women into modernization processes. Far from secular feminism,
religious women who were in charge of the education of girls and teachers since the late
nineteenth century fostered, however, a female self-awareness. This would have allowed
to politically intend the idea of female moral superiority in order to form “guardians of
national morality” (Yeager, 2005, p. 243). One of the subjects that emerges from this
reading, against the grain of women’s histories and feminisms, are the missionaries.
Haggis´s work on British evangelical missionaries points out that within the
intertwined discursive framework of religion and empire, “rather than an emancipatory
struggle to break through the bounds of convention, it was precisely convention which
enabled the making of the female missionary (Haggis, 1998, p. 172). Through this “flexible
and subtle reordering of existing norms and values”, the author asserts that missionaries
achieved a result quite similar to that of the feminism of the time: “professional women
living independent lives outside the prescriptions of filial or marital dependency for women
provided by Victorian middle-class culture.” (Haggis, 1998, p. 172).
Alongside what we could broadly term as the patriarchal nature of monotheistic
religions, the discourses and practices of missionaries also prove problematic due to the
obvious power asymmetry from which their relationship with the pagans to be “civilized”
and evangelized gains meaning. Both the historical-political context and the passionate
nature of faith frame what may have been a genuine conviction that pagans would be
“happier” upon converting to “the true religion” (Stornig, 2013). However, it is clear that
the figure of the infantilized Other who needs to be “helped” and “saved” was the rationale
that enabled the rhetoric of sacrifice and, to that extent, legitimized these women’s quests
and practices for autonomy (Haggis, 1998).

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In the case of the Araucanía Region, Serrano argues: “public education was
practically nonexistent in the area that comprised the province of Arauco until the 1850s”
(1995, 451). The State chose to entrust educational work to Catholic missions that had
accumulated experience since the conquest. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 and
the prosecution of the Franciscans who resisted the independence cause, in 1848 President
Bulnes negotiated with the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (FIDE) for the
sending of the Capuchin order. These had the greatest impact on the education of
Mapuche children at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (Azócar, 2014;
Serrano et al., 2018). Thus, after a long history of missionary efforts organized successively
by Jesuits, Franciscans, and Capuchins, the military occupation of Araucanía in 1883
resulted in the Mapuche people being decimated by policies of settlement and reduction,3
leading them to practice subsistence agriculture, similarly to peasants. In this context, the
State perceived schools as instruments of civilization, but they also represented a strategic
literacy opportunity for the Mapuche, offering them some leverage in negotiating land
dispossession.
From here, the education of Mapuche girls and boys would work towards a new
cultural and racial (mestizo) pact, which would redefine gender relations in the Araucanía
Region. This redefinition will determine the strategic role of Mapuche girls as future
biological and cultural reproducers, and to that extent, it will also deliniate the call for
Catholic nuns, Protestant missionaries, and female teachers as educators and
evangelizers.
Interestingly, the role of women in the educational and civilizing projects of
Araucanía has been scarcely studied. Most research on this matter has focused on the
alliances and influences among men: priests, missionaries, state agents, chiefs, and
Mapuche leaders (Azócar, 2014; Donoso, 2008; Menard & Pavez, 2007; Montecino &
Foerster, 1988; Serrano, 1995).

3
It entailed the consolidation of the mobilization of Mapuche communities from their vast territories of origin
to smaller and less productive lands delimited by the State.

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The present text will focus on analyzing the discourses of the first German
candidates who applied to the emerging congregation of Catechists of Boroa between
1932 and 1934. Our hypothesis is that in these women’s discourses we can identify
paradoxical strategies which were deployed in the pursuit of recognition and autonomy.
In methodological terms, the systematization and cross-referencing work of
archives located in the Araucanía Region -Historical Archive of the Diocese of Villarrica
(AHDV); Archive of the Catechist Congregation of Boroa (ACB)- and Eichstätt -Magazines
Ewige Anbetung and Altöttinger Franziskus Kalender, Eichstätt-Ingolstadt University,
Germany- included letters, magazines, calls, and other documents in three languages4.
These were organized into Excel spreadsheets, transcribed, translated, coded in Atlas.ti,
and analyzed from a gender perspective as culturally coded “texts”, bearers of discourses
that coexist and mutually address each other (Rojo, 2001).
The first part of the text describes the context in which the congregation arises and
analyzes documents that show how the Capuchin mission summoned and constructed the
missionaries” profile. The second part analyzes letters from the candidates, highlighting
different codifications and self-discursive markings that show exceptionalism and the
tricks of the weak as paradoxical strategies. We will conclude with a reflection on the limits
and possibilities of these strategies, which constitute part of female genealogies.

Summoning the Candidates

The origins of the Catechists of Boroa Congregation can be traced back to 1928 and 1931,
after the proposal of the Capuchin missionary Wolfgang Emslander von Kochel to Guido
Beck, Apostolic Vicar of Araucanía. The foundation of this congregation responded to the
lack of pastoral personnel, explained by Beck using a military metaphor:
[...] the officers are in their respective posts [...] but we lack junior officers and combat
troops, which are indispensable in a mission territory [...] [We need] a handful of
missionaries and a legion of catechists (Noggler, 1972, p. 179).

4
Spanish, German and Sütterlin (calligraphy popularized in German elementary schools between 1920 and
1941). All translations are our responsibility.

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In this regard, von Kochel argued that the religious instruction of the Mapuche
people could not yet be fulfilled “by the children of the same race” and even less by the
“indigenous catechists” who were trained and between twenty and thirty-years-old,
because “at that age they are already married and have a family, and thus they no longer
move from their hut” (Noggler, 1972, p. 183).
The history of the Catechists was also linked to the Swiss congregation that had
until then focused its work on the education of Mapuche girls and boys: the Sisters
Teachers of the Holy Cross of Menzingen (HSC). This congregation had settled in Río
Bueno in 1901, deploying its work as prestigious pedagogues across Araucanía. Such
prestige earned them two formal invitations from Santiago to direct Normal Schools and
a dispute between the hierarchies of the Church: Ángel Jara (bishop of the Diocese of
Ancud) and Bucardo de Röttingen (apostolic prefect of the missions at the time) (Noggler,
1972).
At the request of the Vicariate, the HSC agreed to train the Catechists both in
religious life and in apostolic activity until 1936.
By 1923, Von Kochel was the spiritual director of Elsa Metzler, originally from
Munich and a lay catechist in the Boroa Mission. The Capuchin highlighted Metzler’s “on-
the-ground” style in instructing and evangelizing children and adults “from hut to hut”, a
factor from which his proposal would emerge (Noggler, 1972).
In 1932 Teresita Klumpp Streck (daughter of German settlers), Bertina Dachs (Sister
Cecilia), María Baumert (Sister Isabel), and the chilean Juana Norambuena (Sister
Bernardita) joined the first formation of the congregation and took charge of the first
school in Las Dichas.5 In 1937, Sister Teresita would take the role of superior of the
Catechists (Noggler, 1972). The congregation was quickly joined by Chilean and also

5
Located in the south of the Araucanía region. Although it did not appear in our archive review, Noggler also
mentions a woman with the surname Calfian as one of the first catechists.

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Mapuche6 women, who evangelized, taught literacy, cared for the sick, and administered
emergency sacraments both in Araucanía and on Easter Island.7

Figure 1. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

Meanwhile, in the devout city of Altötting, a stable relationship had been forged
between the Provincialate of the Bavarian Capuchins of St. Anne’s Convent and the
Kreszentia Mission House of the HSC. It was named in honor of Krescentia Löffer
(1828-1910), a benefactor widow of the HSC who bought the land on which the mission

6
Based on our systematization of archives of the first half of the twentieth century, we have identified: Rosa
Baeza Huenteleo (at 23 years old professes as Sister Agueda in 1935); Candelaria Manquepán Santi (at 24
years old professes as Sister Verónica in 1935); Sofía Lespay Manquepán (also appeares in archives as
Manquean or Manquián, at 20 years old professes as Sister Margarita in 1936); Rosa Cayún Huenchunao (at
25 years old professes as Sister Juana in 1947); Elena Rupailaf Hualamán (at 22 years old professes as Sister
Paulina in 1946); Luisa Lenan Licancura (at 25 years old professes as Sister Sofía in 1950); Sofía Huircán
Pichihuinca (at 27 years old professes as Sister Dominica in 1954) (AHDV).
7
In 1937, the island had come under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Vicariate of Araucanía (AHDV).

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house was built. Löffer would spend her final years there (Ewige Anbetung, March
Issue, 1910, p. 96).
Before departing by ship from Hamburg or Antwerp to the Port of Corral-Valdivia,
the candidates received their initial training at Kreszentia House in tasks directly related to
what would be their work in the mission: horticulture, dressmaking, handicraft, and
Spanish classes (Ewige Anbetung, May Issue, 1924, p. 145). In this same house the first
candidates selected to join the emerging congregation were received between 1932 and
1934. In Boroa, Nueva Imperial, they would be welcomed at the Elisabetinum house
(“¡Hacia los ideales de San Francisco y de Santa Isabel!”, n.d., AHDV), led in its early years
by the Sister of the Holy Cross, Sister Hildegardis (Historical Archive of the Diocese of
Villarrica - AHDV).

Figure 2. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

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Figure 3. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

What was expected of future missionaries?

The young German women learned about the Mission in Araucanía through writings that
Capuchin priests addressed to the faithful in Bavaria (Noggler, 1972). The document “The
Congregation of Catechists of Boroa as leaders for Christ” (“Die Kongregation der
Katechistinnen in Boroa als Führerin zu Christus”, n/d, AHDV), dating around 1932, was
addressed to “the benefactors of our beautiful mission in Araucanía”. This document
outlined what was expected of a catechist, the tasks to be carried out and the living
conditions in Araucanía:

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From the Secular Third Order of Saint Francis has arisen a new, ideal and beautiful flower
[…] it cannot and should not be a monastic foundation with narrow limits and nuns in the
proper sense of the word […] It is the Congregation of Catechists in Araucanía, something
new of its kind […] Everything is arranged […] the Elisabetinum in Boroa, the home where
these spiritual troops are trained. It is located in a marvelous place […] with a panoramic view
of the snowy Andes” volcanic range […] a delightful terrain of cultivated fields, shrubs, and
trees, with peaceful indigenous huts and herds of grazing cattle […] Here they mainly study
the two missionary languages, Spanish and Araucanian, catechism, and biblical history [...]
they are instructed on how to teach both in schools and in huts [...] Educated in this manner,
they become educators of the simple and poor people around them [...] Their humility must
bend the upright pride of the Araucanian man and straighten that of the downhearted
Araucanian woman [...] Their apostolate should not be loud and strident, but silent and
hidden, like that of a mother in the home, where she never rests [...] There are already two
catechists in the beautiful paradise area of Lake Ranco [...] one alongside a second lay
teacher in Molco, which is very much disputed by the Protestant sects [...] On Sunday [...]
Mass is celebrated at a distance [...] Weekdays are dedicated to the education of the men
and women of tomorrow, to the children. They are the most receptive [...] I only wish to add
that [the catechists] actively participate in the administration of all the sacraments [...] They
are even involved in the sacrament of Holy Orders, as they seek authentic vocations
everywhere [...] In the chapel, they faithfully care for beautiful folk singing, keep the
sanctuary clean and orderly, and take care of the cleaning of the church. In the cabins, the
sick and dying are prepared to receive the sacraments and eternal life. A sacred fire burns in
these religious women consacrated to the service of God in the world, a fire of blissful joy,
[...] When the awareness of saying “I am a missionary, I am at the service of the struggling,
suffering, and triumphant Church, I must fight and suffer for God’s cause, even if only as a
poor and weak instrument in the hands of the Almighty” [...] sinks deeply into the soul, it
becomes clear that one must forget, so to speak, personal demands, homeland and mother
tongue, comfort, and local customs [...] in order to gain the trust of those whom one wishes
to bring to the beloved God. Chileans and Mapuches are especially easy to win over when
they see that one is like them [...] German girls should not believe that they can simply walk
around the cabins [...] It is not that easy [...] they must show concern for the care of the sick,
set a good example, perform acts of love, be receptive to the desire for religion, and, without

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emphasizing their superiority, they must humbly and with caution and kindness immerse
themselves in the new environment [...] And surely it would be a sublime, longed-for, and
radiant grace for centuries to win over for the humble faith and Christian life the proud and
self-sufficient Araucanian people. Their conversion would be worth the sweat of the noblest
(“Die Kongregation der Katechistinnen in Boroa als Führerin zu Christus”, n/d, AHDV).8

Although it is not possible to identify the author of this call or exactly how it
circulated in Germany, it was most likely drafted or at least reviewed by Beck himself. It
should be noted that secondary sources describe Beck as an extremely detail-oriented man
(Noggler, 1972; Umbach, 2017). In any case, this first call, drafted by Capuchin missionaries,
envisions for this “new in its kind” work women who are not necessarily nuns. They were
to be women of faith who had to be willing to “forget” their homeland, language, comforts,
and customs, who had to tolerate “Mass at a distance”, learn two languages, and work
diligently for the pagans and the Church. The call also offers a whole series of proposals for
identification, from the “marvelous landscape with a panoramic view of the snowy Andes
volcanic range”,9 to a model of feminine epic (“struggling, suffering, and triumphant”) that
articulates sacrifice and humility but also power (administrators of sacraments,
evangelizers of a proud people, soldiers fighting against Protestant sects).
Stoler (2004) argues that concerns about the distribution of sentiment (its excess
and its lack), by control techniques and affective modulations, characterized (post)colonial
European administrations. Such concerns were not only aimed at the subjects to be
civilized, but also at the most vulnerable representatives of European power: poor whites,
“mixed-race” children, and women. By making cultural and gender expectations explicit,
the call outlines a whole series of “correct feelings” for the future missionaries. This way, it
is expected that they will organize, clean, sing, and care “like a mother who never rests”
but in whom also burns “a fire of blissful joy”. Through a female apostolate that is “silent,

8
Our emphasis.
9
Considering that the women addressed in this call are German, the mention of snow-capped mountains is
not random as a proposal for identification. Travel chronicles and letters from the HSC account for the effect
of snow-capped mountains as imagery of the homeland, producing a certain sense of familiarity with
Araucanía.

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hidden, humble, cautious, and kind” that does not “emphasize their superiority”, the
missionaries must “earn the trust” of the pagans, “show concern” and “be receptive”.
Considering the strategic racial and cultural place held by these women as symbols
and models of “good femininity” in the missionary project, the call outlines the norm of
legitimate femininity: the domestic ideal is articulated with the rhetoric of female moral
superiority through modulations of what constitutes correct feelings, of what is shown and
what is hidden to convert the pagan Other. From this “silent” and “loving” female
superiority, great rewards could be expected: the conversion of the “proud and self-
sufficient Mapuche people would be worth the sweat of the noblest”.
On the other hand, the document “Greetings from God!” (“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d,
AHDV) drafted by the Missionary Secretariat of the Capuchins of the convent of Santa Ana
in Altötting, mentioned that “once their vocation has been clearly understood through
fervent prayers and mature reflections”, a series of certificates should be sent: medical,
birth, baptism, confirmation, completion of primary and/or secondary school, of
singleness, of “release, officially sealed by the convent superiors, in case they have
belonged to an order or congregation as a postulant, candidate, novice, or sister. The
certificate should also indicate the reasons for their exit”, a “certificate of good conduct
enclosed by the corresponding parish priest”. And also a “handwritten autobiography”,
“attached questionnaire, completed truthfully, and a photograph”.10
The document also requested covering at least part of the travel expenses (800
marks) and “depositing any owned property (at least 3,500 marks) in Chile. However, given
the current uncertain circumstances, (“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d, AHDV)11 we advise not to
make any arrangements in this regard without consulting with the Apostolic Vicariate
first”. Likewise, it was suggested to maintain “insurance in case of illness or disability, at
least during the two-year probationary period”. The document specified that Bishop Guido
Beck would be responsible for the admission decision: “the final notification will be
received, along with detailed instructions for traveling to Chile, in approximately three

10
Our emphasis.
11
He was referring to the economic and socio-political crisis that Germany was undergoing during those
years, which would bring Hitler to power in 1933.

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months. Until then, spiritual preparation for the missionary vocation should be the most
prioritary and important task” (“Gott zum Gruss!”, n/d, AHDV).12
Some of the questions from the questionnaire attached to the application are also
interesting to highlight: “What are the reasons that lead you to want to be a catechist?”,
“Physical disabilities (myopia, deafness, etc. Do you suffer from nerves? Or have you suffer
from them previously?)”, “Mental illnesses or others (epilepsy, nervous diseases,
tuberculosis) of direct family members”, “Current or future dependence on your parents”
(“Fragebogen für Bewerberinnen zur Katechistinnen-Kongregation in Araukanien (Chile)”,
n/d, AHDV).
In the “Declaration”, signed by their own handwriting, candidates affirmed their
voluntary entry into the congregation, whose main task was “the pursuit of personal
sanctification” as well as “teaching religion to young people and adults”, adhering to “the
Rule of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, together with the simple vows of poverty,
obedience, and chastity” and submitting to “a trial period of two years, consisting of one year
of postulancy and one year of novitiate, and after that time, making annual vows for six
years to finally making perpetual vows”. They also agreed to “cover the travel expenses to
the mother house in Boroa” and in case of “leaving the congregation before making perpetual
vows”, “to reimburse, to the best of my ability, the expenses incurred by the congregation
on my behalf for the journey to Chile and back” (“Erklärung”, n/d, AHDV).13
Other key documents included in the application dossier were the “references” that
accredited work or pastoral experience and the “certificates of moral conduct”, usually
provided by the parish priest from the town where the aspirant resided. Here, it is possible
to identify common institutional codes regarding the candidates” character, judgment, or
disposition, highlighting characteristics such as: “very apprehensive”, “unclear judgment”,
without “adequate understanding of religious life” (Sister Superior Leonarda Welsh, 1932,
AHDV), “conscious and with character” (Sister Superior Engelmann, 1932, AHDV), “solid,
mature, and firm character qualities” (Father Räglau, 1933, AHDV).

12
Our emphasis.
13
Our emphasis.

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Figure 4. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

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Priests and nuns also emphasized, when applicable, the aspirant’s participation in
Catholic women’s organizations such as: the “Institute of English Ladies” (Sister Superior
Engelmann, 1932, AHDV), the “Association of Catholic Domestic Workers” (Father Räglau,
1933, AHDV), or the “Association of Marian Virgins” (Pastor K. Arnow, 1932, AHDV).
Reputation was also a relevant indicator, highlighting the quality being an “exemplary virgin”
(Parish office of Saarbrücken, 1932, AHDV), of “impeccable reputation”, deserving of “the trust
of her superiors” (Father Caedilian, 1933, AHDV) or the “lack of inclination” towards “worldly
pleasures”, nor “contact with persons of the male sex” (Pastor K. Arnow, 1932, AHDV).

Figure 5. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

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Finally, the “guarantee of a true vocation” (Parish office of Saarbrücken, 1932,

AHDV) in the candidates was identified based on a “weekly” or “daily” frequency of
confession and communion (Father Caedilian, 1933; Pastor K. Arnow, 1932, AHDV), the
presence of the “longed-for missionary ideal” (Sister Superior Engelmann, 1932, AHDV),
their election “of supernatural reasons” (Father Caedilian, 1933, AHDV), the potential to
“accomplish much in honor of God and for the salvation of souls” (Father Räglau, 1933,
AHDV) or the “chaste, constant, and serious pursuit of perfection” (Parish office of
Saarbrücken, 1932, AHDV).

Figure 6. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

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The application of the young women was closely monitored by Father Eduard14
from the Convent of Santa Ana in Altötting and by Vicar Guido Beck in San José de la
Mariquina. Concerns about money and the socio-political crisis permeated that exchange
of letters.
Father Eduard expressed his concern about the candidates” economic and health
conditions, considering what National Socialism could mean for the funding of missions:
It is important to clarify how sisters are cared for in case of illness or old age [...] We expect
terrible things from the Third Reich [...] our well-informed sources predict devaluation under
Hitler [...] I beg [...] to return all certificates, as people may also need them to obtain
authorization for exit or entry (Letter from Father Eduard to Guido Beck, 1932, AHDV).15

Beck responds rather more concerned about the funding of travels:

I wish you to take as a general rule that nobody will be able to come until they have at least
half of the travel fare. If people have to pay for themselves, there is already some guarantee
that they will take the matter seriously and stay. What costs is more valued (Letter from
Guido Beck to Father Eduard, 1932, AHDV).16

Two years after this exchange, we find ourselves in 1934 with a distressed Father
Eduard proposing to reevaluate the relevance of continuing to offer German candidates to
the congregation:
Is it really necessary to hire German girls after abandoning the previous plan of forming a
congregation of sisters without vows? [...] Couldn’t local forces try to be recruited with the
considerable sums that must be spent on transportation and care of German girls, especially
after enough Chilean women have already shown up and considering that there are already
German sisters who can balance the situation? [...] The current mode of accepting people is
completely unsustainable. We have only been spared by a fortunate coincidence of avoiding
transporting someone with tuberculosis, mental illnesses, or divorced with questionable
backgrounds (Letter from Father Eduard to “his Reverence”, 1934, AHDV).

14
It was not possible to identify the surname of this priest.
15
Our emphasis.
16
Our emphasis.

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In this exchange of letters, we also identify examples of Beck’s criteria for selecting
candidates: “has talent. Knows a foreign language. Has very good recommendations. Has
500 marks”, “pious”, “years in a girls’ education school [...] Firm character. Good age: 24
years. Has resources”. And also, his elimination criteria: “she is very poor and does not have
much education or talent”, “she is too old (41 years)”, “she was already with the Good
Shepherds. She couldn’t handle it” (Letter from Guido Beck to Father Eduard, 1932,
AHDV).
Beck’s missionary profile implied the twenties as the ideal age, health, good
certificates, ideally not having been and/or left other congregations, and possessing some
education. His insistence on the issue of money for the trip seems justified not only by the
constant struggle for Mission funding but also as a show of solidity in the candidates: “what
costs is more valued”.
On the other hand, in the critical context of Hitler’s rise to power, we can identify a
sense of responsibility from Father Eduard for the economic fate of the candidates in old
age and illness and also for concrete details such as the cost and practical value of
certificates. However, his reluctance to continue sending German candidates was also
justified by a certain distrust in the selection process, whose vulnerability could lead to
problematic choices of young women “with tuberculosis, mental illnesses, divorced with
questionable backgrounds”. Probably to reassure Beck (with whom he seems to share a
certainty about the cultural superiority of their common homeland), the priest adds that
“recruiting local forces” would not be a bad idea considering that “there are already
German sisters who can balance the situation”.
Based on the systematization, cross-referencing of files, and secondary sources,
(“First candidates to the Catechists of Boroa 1932-1934”, AHDV; “Date of birth and
religious profession of the missionary catechist sisters”, ACB; Noggler, 1972) we have
generated the following summary table of the candidates” profile (Table 1):

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Table 1. Developed by the authors. Fondecyt 1220271.

Profile of the first german candidates to the Catechists of Boroa Congregation 1932-
1934
Name Year and city of Age at the Occupation at ¿Does she
origin of time of the time of profess in
applicarion application application araucanía?
1.Aichetshammer, Altötting, 1933 26 Domestic Yes. Professes on
Maria worker February 22,
1937 as Sister
Lucía.
2. Böddeker, Todtmoos, – – –
Maria Baden, 1933
3. Czechtizky, Lambach, 1932 24 Educator –
Johanna
4. De Gernsheim, Mainz, 1933 – Salesperson –
Mengele
5. Eckstein, Gisela Mammersreuth, 29 Agriculture –
1933 worker
6. Ess, Maria Liegersdorf, 26 Seamstress –
1932
7. Graf, Katharina Mindelheim, 28 Teacher –
1932
8. Graf, Anni Regensburg, 28 Salesperson –
1932
9. Koch, Lina Baden-Baden, 31 Domestic –
1933 worker
10. Maier, Bamberg, 1934 – Office worker –
Margareta
11. Meißner, Pfaffendorf, 34 Domestic –
Minna Reichenbach, worker
1932
12. Mergler, Klara Mainz, 34 Salesperson –
Gernsheim,
1932-1933-1934
13. Pommer, Burghausen, 31 Cook –
Theresia 1933
14. Renninger, Bamberg, 1933 – - –
Maria
15. Schmid, Bamberg, 1932 37 Nurse –
Franziska

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16. Schneider, Saarbrücken, 22 Part-time –

Elisabeth 1932 employee
17. Stretz, Cäcilia Kirchaich, 1933 23 Domestic –
worker
18. Waldmüller, Munich, 1932 – Nursing –
Betty student,
former
salesperson
19. Wintermaier Untermühlbach, 30 – Yes. Professes on
Edbauer, Ottilie 1934 February 22,
1937 as Sister
Rafaela.

Paradoxical strategies
Exceptionalism and border crossing
Mobility as a force of identity transformation holds a gendered history that speaks of
practices that open and close possibilities for creativity, agency, and autonomy (Ahmed,
2017; Dorlin, 2003; Stornig, 2013; Vera & Sáez, 2022). Stornig (2013) asserts that missionary
nuns” (self)representation as “essentially mobile figures” demonstrates how the practice
of crossing geographical borders through travel also transforms into a crossing of gender
borders.
Young candidates responded enthusiastically to the promise of being “mobile
ambassadors of an expanding Church [...] bringing faith to non-Christian peoples” (Stornig,
2013, p. 94), invested by a “fighting, suffering, and triumphant” Church.
The dossier’s “autobiographies” were young women’s presentation letters, in
which, along with facts from their lives, we could identify desires, silences, and self-
representations that we propose to read under a strategic discourse framwork.
As we can see in Table 1, those who write are Catholic women living in a
predominantly Protestant country, residing in rural areas, from poor or impoverished
families, single, with basic levels of education, and limited prospects for stimulating
employment. Their country had recently experienced a war in which some relatives had
already perished, and was undergoing economic, political, and social crises, moving
towards the Nazi regime.

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Lina Koch, for example, tells us:

In 1910 [...] I still had three brothers and four sisters. My older brother died in 1913 in the
novitiate of the Capuchins in Bolzano at the age of 19 [...] In 1917, my second brother died in
the war [...] Then, I spent a year in Switzerland working in a large farm. However, as the
entire region was Protestant, I suffered greatly [...] My second sister also got married, so I
had to take over the household chores [...] I got a job in Baden-Baden, as I wanted to learn to
manage a high-class home. A year later, my mother fell ill, and I returned home to take care
of her [...] I still couldn’t leave my home (Lina Koch, 1933, AHDV).17

The letters reveal a difficult time in which death, war, poverty, caring for sick family
members, and hard work define these women’s life experiences. In that context, and
similarly to the Capuchins, the women express concern about the costs of the journey:
For a long time, I have had the desire to serve beloved God in a convent as a nun [...] My
parents are very poor, they have six children and all of them are still young [...] they depended
on my income. But when God calls, He also clears the way. Two of our dear little ones are
already in heaven and now it is more possible for me to enter [...] I do not have a high school
education, but that should not be so necessary, I believe I have enough knowledge and the
beloved Savior has provided me especially with courage and sacrifice. But I must repeat what
I mentioned at the beginning, we are poor, and my parents can’t give me more than what is
necessary in terms of clothing (Elisabeth Schneider, 1932, AHDV).
I want to go on the mission with all my heart and soul, to win many immortal souls
[…] It is said that each candidate should strive to cover half of the travel expenses.
Unfortunately, I cannot ask my parents, after all they have done for my education, to give
me now 400 marks […] They can barely make ends meet and cannot save any money (Maria
Renninger, 1933, AHDV).18
I may have some difficulties with the travel expenses, if they must be covered at the
time of entry. We do not have cash and my father is a war veteran with a very low pension
(Gisela Eckstein, 1933, AHDV).19

17
Our emphasis.
18
Our Emphasis
19
Our Emphasis

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These experiences emerge as background to the manifestation and modulation of

the desire to depart to a country they do not know, probably never to see their homeland
or family again. In this context, the magazines Ewige Anbetung and Altöttinger Franziskus
Kalender play the important role of enabling the imagined projection of another life, an
illusion that takes the form of a missionary vocation expressed vehemently:

I wanted to be a missionary nun or join a contemplative order [...] I read in the new Altöttinger
Franziskus Kalender the call to healthy and generous girls who wish to serve the beloved
Savior in the indigenous mission. This seemed to me a sign from God, as I immediately felt a
great desire to follow this vocation. And now I am turning to you with trust, asking to be
admitted to the newly founded Congregation of Catechists. I am 22 years old, healthy and
strong (Elisabeth Schneider, 1932, AHDV).
A few weeks ago, I received the latest issue of Ewige Anbetung and found the article
about the Catechist Missionaries in it. I only have the desire to become one of them as soon
as possible. I also firmly believe that I am suitable for it [...] Ever since my childhood I have
had the desire to enter a convent and at the age of 14, the missionary vocation awakened in
me [...] I am full of energy and enthusiasm to work. [...] I beg you, please, to shorten the
waiting time for a response and write to me as soon as possible. They have already given me
all kinds of appetite stimulants, but I know that I will not be able to enjoy food or anything if
I do not find a place soon [...] I am willing to give everything a young woman can give (Maria
Renninger, 1933, AHDV).
The reverend told me that if I had such lofty ideals, I should wait patiently, pray
much to recognize God’s holy will and not hesitate to respond [...] When I received the
brochure from Ewige Anbetung in February, I was immediately excited and could not keep
still. I have only one desire [...] to be able to dedicate myself to this noble vocation [...] After
careful reflection and fervent prayer, I have decided to embrace the profession of catechist [...]
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus grant me the strength and grace to assume with great
courage this difficult life of sacrifice (Lina Koch, 1933, AHDV).

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Figure 7. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

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Passionately so, the young women say they are “excited”, “unable to stay still”,
“feel a great desire to pursue this vocation”, want to depart “with all their heart and soul”,
“cannot even enjoy food or anything” until they have the certainty of being accepted,
asking for the “waiting time for a response to be shortened”. Even the end of family
dependence that hindered their departure is interpreted as part of divine design: “two of
our dear little ones are already in heaven, and now it is more possible for me to enter”.
To the historical and political conditions that may have shaped the desire to depart,
it is also important to add that Catholic young women seem to have been attracted by the
proposal of epic identification offered in the calls, therefore producing the corresponding
self-representations: “to bravely take on this difficult life of sacrifice”, “the beloved Savior
has provided me with special courage and sacrifice”, “I want to win many immortal souls”.
With insight, the young women read between the lines that the desire to depart
should not be presented in their letters as mere anxiety, and to that extent, they make sure
to point out that such desire has been the product of discernment, of “careful reflection
and fervent prayer”, of “praying much to recognize God’s holy will”.
In a coded language of sacrifice, courage, vocation, discernment, character, and
absolute commitment, the candidates” letters constitute a moving example of a
paradoxical strategy in the quest for recognition that we propose to read as
exceptionalism.
Riot-Sarcey and Varikas affirm that this strategy “lurks in female and feminist
writings” and is often “at the origin of the paths taken by self-affirmation” (Riot-Sarcey &
Varikas, 1988, pp. 79-80). Thus, “insofar as the free human being is from the outset and by
definition situated at the antipodes of being a woman, access to this status is only possible
through a constant and systematic effort of differentiation in relation to the gender of
women ... : “I am not like all women” [...] dissociating oneself from members of one’s
gender is the “guarantee” [...] that the exceptional woman seems to owe to patriarchal
society” (Riot-Sarcey & Varikas, 1988, pp. 82-86).
Elisabeth Horán argues that in the hostile sociopolitical framework of national
fraternity in which the body is the obstacle to recognizing women as citizens, the rhetorics

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of female exceptionalism will strive to appeal “to the importance and value of women
outside the sexual sphere” (Rosa, 1996, p. 98). Comparatively analyzing the use of this
strategy and its self-markings (habit, mask, armor, uniform) in the “rhetorics of sanctity”
of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and of Gabriela Mistral, Horán affirms that exceptionalism is
usually configured by a series of “carefully coded” masks in which suffering, persistence,
humility, self-denigration, and sacrifice allow for the representation of female heroism and
victory over one´s own flesh.
In the case of the missionaries, the quests for recognition and autonomy through
the material and symbolic crossing of borders depended on investing a racial, cultural, and
gender hierarchy among women. Differentiating oneself from “women in general” by
sacrificing oneself for “the pagans” seems to be, then, the double movement of this heroic
saga. Like the uniform and armor of celibacy, the habit and veil that would clothe them
when taking their vows would constitute “the social skin” of celibacy, the key to Catholic
female exceptionalism (Stornig, 2013).

Tricks of the weak

The careful modulation of what is said, what is not said, and how what is said is said
emerges as a crosscutting anxiety in the letters of the candidates. We propose to interpret
this anxiety in light of what Ludmer - analyzing Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s “Reply to Sor
Filotea” – refers to as tricks of the weak:
Knowing and saying, demonstrates Juana, constitute confronted fields for a woman; any
simultaneity of those two actions entails resistance and punishment [...] In this double
gesture, the acceptance of her subordinate place (women should keep their mouths shut)
and her trick combine: knowing but not saying, or saying she doesn't know and knowing, or
saying the opposite of what she knows. This trick of the weak, which here separates the field
of saying (the law of the other) from the field of knowing (my law), combines, like all tactics
of resistance, submission and acceptance of the place assigned by the other, with
antagonism and confrontation, withdrawal of collaboration (Ludmer, 1985, pp. 48-52).20

20
Our emphasis.

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The modulation and negotiation of anxiety, however, did not always succeed. Such
was the case of Klara Mergler,21 who despite applying in 1932 with recommendations that
highlighted her “solid character”, that she is “hardworking and deeply religious”, “modest”,
of “noble discretion”, that she “attends daily Mass in our church” (Father Johannes, 1932,
AHDV), that her “reputation”, “behavior”, “moral and religious conduct were always
excellent” (Father Feuerbach, 1932, AHDV), is not selected. Mergler will write letters from
1932 to 1934 requesting explanations and insisting on her admission. The priests involved
in the process interpreted this as “extravagant” stubbornness, emphasizing “how little can
be trusted in recommendations and references, even from confessors” (Letter from Father
Eduard to ‘His Excellency’, 1933; Letter from Father Eduard to Guido Beck, 1934, AHDV).
Somewhat more indulgent, Father Suitbertus explained:
[...] the good girl already had many hopes placed in her work as a catechist among the pagans
[...] I could hardly understand her rejection [...] I would like to ask you to write her a few lines
personally and clarify to her why, according to your assessment, she can no longer be
considered suitable for the mission (Father Suitbertus to Father Eduard, 1933, AHDV).22

Mergler’s remarkable determination is interesting to think about as one of the

forms that the desire to depart acquires:
In response to your esteemed letter, Your Excellency, most worthy sir, I cannot allow myself
to make any judgment, as I am not allowed to know in what sense it is to be understood [...]
Also in my homeland I want and can do much good, and I have shown it; but I do not love
half measures; I want to devote myself completely to the beautiful missionary vocation.
However, I am not given that opportunity here [...] I have great self-esteem and willpower [...]
with the grace of God and my own effort, I will overcome this obstacle indeed [...] I have
reflected my spiritual state of mind in a simple and modest way; I am not a saint [...] I repeat
[...] I wish to be admitted as a candidate to the Congregation of Missionary Catechists [...] My
last confession [...] I have failed in the love of God by not preventing the diversion of my
disorderly thoughts [...] I had especially intended to break my own will and master my self-

21
In some certificates she appears as ‘Clara’, however, she signs as ‘Klara’.
22
Our emphasis.

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love [...] Mercy, my Jesus. I ask for repentance and absolution (Letter from Klara Mergler to
‘His Excellency’, 1934, AHDV).23

In this letter addressed to “Your Excellency”,24 Mergler tries to navigate a

fluctuation of emotions. Strategically, Klara does not directly question the decision and
instead confirms that she would not be qualified to pass judgment or “know”. Klara
“knows” but says “does not know”. There are also things she does not “say” but “knows”,
she “knows” there is something unfair about her situation, and while she accepts the
suggestion to deploy her apostolate in her own country, she also emphatically marks her
will and identity: “I do not love half measures”, “I am not a saint”, “I want to devote myself
completely”, “I have great self-esteem and will”, “with my own effort, I will overcome this
obstacle”. And while those gestures of self-affirmation “say” her strength, simultaneously,
Klara denies it. She submits, repents, asks for forgiveness: “I had intended to master my
self-love”, “I have failed to avoid the diversion of my disorderly thoughts”, “I ask for
repentance and absolution”.
This fluctuation shows the helplessness in the face of the denial of “an opportunity”
to embody the proposed epic, an injustice experienced turbulently. In what is evidenced as
an internal battle against this helplessness that has lasted at least two years since her
application, Klara closes her letter admitting defeat.
Paradoxically so, the “weakness” of these “tricks” that avoid direct confrontation
coexists with the candidates” great confidence in their strength, courage, and capacity for
work:
Regarding the learning of the two languages, I suppose it won’t cost me my head. If others
can do it, why couldn’t I also achieve it? And I am not scared of work either (Gisela Eckstein,
1933, AHDV).25

23
Our emphasis.
24
Since he was normally referred to in this way and his power in the final selection was explicitly stated in the
call, it is most likely that the recipient is Guido Beck. Alternatively, Father Eduard.
25
Our emphasis.

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Figure 8. From “Catechist Missionaries in Boroa, Chile. On the right, their Teacher: Father Wolfang”.

Note: Ewige Anbetung, April Issue, 1933, p. 148. Library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.

The candidates are convinced of “being fit”, being “qualified”, being “healthy and
strong”, “not being afraid of work”, being “full of energy and enthusiasm for work”, “willing
to give whatever a young woman can give”.
However, the sharpness with which the candidates identify and shield their
aplications” weak points also reflects a strategic awareness marked by ambivalence. For
example:
I do not want to hide that I was already a candidate at the home of the Sisters of the Holy
Cross in Altötting [...] I was dismissed from there for once expressing that I had insomnia at
night. They took that statement so seriously [...] I still regret very much today having made
that statement in my sincerity at the time [...] My most fervent desire is to be able to work soon
in foreign missions and I will not stop praying for this great grace (Margareta Maier, 1934,
AHDV).26

26
Our Emphasis.

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I intended to join the Sisters of Mary. I sent the required documents, but they were
returned to me with the observation that they do not accept people who have been in
another convent before. It hurts so much to hear that. If I had committed any offense, I could
understand it (Maria Renninger, 1933, AHDV).27
I am 37 years old. For 14 years, I have been a nurse [...] I was in Sofia, Bulgaria, also
in Romania and Turkey from 1923 to 1927 [...] I wanted to enter a monastery [...] but
unfortunately my father and brothers did not allow it [...] I am aging and the thought of
completely surrendering to God and offering my strength and health to others does not leave
me in peace. My spiritual guides tell me that I should not lose hope, since there are also late
vocational priests, so why wouldn’t God take me as a nun in my more mature years for his
service? [...] My current work is very unsatisfactory and boring, as I am taking care of a young
lady who suffers from spinal cord disease and also taking care of the whole household
(Franziska Schmid, 1932, AHDV).28
My grandfather had a brewery [...] where supposedly my mother’s brothers would
have spoiled themselves with a cold drink in the summer [...] My mother has always been
healthy [...] as well as my brothers and I [...] Therefore, it seemed to me somewhat
insignificant and I did not mention anything about it when I was with you, because all that
happened ten to fifteen years before I was born [...] I even spent money and had an X-ray
examination to make sure, with a very competent and sought-after surgeon [...] I can even
send you the X-ray that I took if you want to check it [...] Please forgive me, I did not want to
hide this matter [...] I just ask you not to reject me immediately. Please let me know if I can
still be admitted (Ottilie Winter Maier, 1934, AHDV).29

It is quite clear that the candidates are aware that they are not only object of
examination but also of suspicion. We propose that the candidates identified in the incisive
questions of the questionnaire and the requirement for information about belonging to
other congregations, their dependence on parents, health, and illness; the institutional
codes against which they had to armor themselves, explicitly stating that they did not want
to “hide” information such as the illness of a family member’s or having been in another

27
Our Emphasis.
28
Our emphasis.
29
Our emphasis.

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convent before. The attempt to ward off suspicion and become worthy of trust would be
to be sincere, apologize, show oneself.
Ottilie Winter, who will finally profess in Araucanía as Sister Rafaela, not only
apologizes but also offers the evidence of her body (an X-ray) as proof of sincerity and
repentance. This gesture of self-exposure could be read through what Rivière called
“femininity as a masquerade”. Faced with the terror of being discovered and punished for
believing to possess or know something that dominant masculinity does not possess or
know, women can manage the anguish “by pretending to be castrated women or innocent
and harmless creatures [...] just as a thief empties his pockets and asks to be searched to
prove that he has not stolen anything” (Rivière, 1929, p. 221).30
Other candidates show some disagreement with the standards that would
negatively label the fact of having belonged to and left other congregations: “I regret my
sincerity back then”, “if I had committed any offense, I could understand it”.
Meanwhile, faced with the urgent requirement of paying for the trip, Margareta
Maier turns the age standard to her advantage: it would not be convenient to wait longer
“due to my advanced age”. In turn, aware of her aging, the globetrotter Franziska Schmid
requests equity by appealing to the institutional authority of her spiritual guides who would
have encouraged her “since there are also late vocational priests”. Even more astonishing,
and we dare to speculate that precisely because she has already crossed geographic
borders (Sofia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey), Schmid crosses gender boundaries and “says”
what should not be said: boredom and personal dissatisfaction also represent motivations
to leave.
In a framework of gender relations that distributes suspicion in a generalized and
class-based way, the awareness of fault is presented and modulated through a strategic
back and forth of strength and weakness. Thus, submission or repentance coexist with
rebellious interpellations that - very carefully - evidence the contradictions of the gender
norm.

30
Our emphasis.

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Final reflections
In this work, we set out to reflect about the missionary efforts in the Araucanía Region, a
political subject that has been scarsely researched as a constitutive part of the history of
missions, education, and women. Specifically, we worked with the application dossiers of
young German women who, in the context of the establishment of the Third Reich (1932-
1934), applied as candidates to the newly formed congregation of Catechist Missionaries
of Boroa.
Thus, we analyzed the calls for applications and requirements set by the Capuchins
who directed the Mission, identifying how these documents outlined the missionaries”
profile through specific requirements (money for the journey, independence from parents,
health, youth) and a subtle modulation of behaviors and “correct feelings” (character,
humility, sacrifice, vocation). We concluded that these documents displayed proposals of
identification for the candidates which involved everything from the “paradisiacal
landscape” of southern Chile to a feminine epic that articulated the domestic ideal with the
discourse of female moral superiority.
On the other hand, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the documents written in
the first person by the candidates (autobiographies, letters). This allowed us to identify
both exceptionalism and the tricks of the weak as two paradoxical strategies that sought
to respond to the expectations of the “missionary” profile and its implicit promises of
recognition, autonomy, and mobility.
These Catholic, rural German women, impoverished amidst a severe sociopolitical
crisis, encoded various presentations of themselves that included desires, silences, masks,
ambivalences, and rebellions with the strategic aim of shielding themselves from suspicion
and having an opportunity to start a new life.
We therefore conclude that exceptionalism and the tricks of the weak were
responsible, on the one hand, for presenting strength (both physical and of character),
youth, courage, and a vocation for sacrifice as guarantees of the candidates” triumph over
their own flesh, a matter that would invest their cultural and racial hierarchy with the
pagans. On the other hand, in parallel with this demonstration of strength, the candidates

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outlined a series of simulations of innocence, harmlessness, and submission that - in their

attempt to avoid possible conflicts with the priests - confirmed the gender binary and
hierarchy: childish and suspicious femininity versus rational and self-controlled
masculinity.
However, for some candidates, this paradoxical and careful encoding between
strength and weakness achieved the feat of crossing gender boundaries. An achievement
in autonomy and recognition legitimized through a hierarchy among women. The traces
of these discursive juggling acts as ways of departing towards a new world, run through
women’s stories: stories that are never evident, and always problematic.

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ANTONIETA VERA GAJARDO

Chilean. Has a PhD in Political Science with specialization in Gender Studies, Université
Paris VIII. Professor of the Department of Philosophy-Center for Gender and Cultural
Studies in Latin America, University of Chile. Lines of research: Feminist Political
Philosophy and Gender Studies, Strategies and Politics of Difference, Intersectionality,
Discourse Analysis and Postcolonial Feminist Theory. Recent publications: “Champurrias,
awinkadas y warriaches: interpelaciones al ‘mapuchómetro’ desde las coves de mujeres
mapuche contemporáneas en regiones Metropolitana y Araucanía” (2024) and Aguilera,
Isabel; Vera, Antonieta & Fernández, Rosario (2023) ‘Un estallido animal: Animalización y
antropomorfización en el conflicto político chileno’.

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CAMILA STIPO
Chilean. Master’s in philosophy, University of Chile. Professor at the University of Santiago.
Research interests: feminist political philosophy, feminist posthumanist theory,
sustainability and water crisis. Recent publications: “Feminismo posthumanista y crisis
hídrica en la obra Kowkülen de la Seba Calfuqueo” (2024) and “Vivir y pensar con otras: La
experiencia de un violador en tu camino. Los espectros de la dictadura a medio siglo del
golpe” (2024).

ROSARIO FERNÁNDEZ
Chilean. Has a PhD in Sociology at Goldsmiths-University of London. Professor at the
Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities, University of Chile. Lines of research: feminist
philosophy and gender studies; affects and emotions; power; dance and movement.
Recent publications: Fernández, Rosario and Chan, Carol (2024) “We are not equal”:
Beyond shared desires for horizontality and disillusionment in relationships between
employers and internal and international migrant domestic workers in Chile and Julieta
Kirkwood in Colección Cuadernos Pensadoras Feministas Latinoamericanas (2023).

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