Anhelar el claustro: Vocación y exclaustración en la biografía de monjas capuchinas (Zamora, 1906-1936)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze two biographies of nuns from the Capuchin Convent of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Zamora, Michoacán, published in the early decades of the 20th century. Studying the biography of Sister Isabel Godínez, written by Sister María Margarita Ávila (1906), and that of Sister María de Jesús Arregui, by María Josefa Gómez (1936), this work seeks to understand the models of life developed by Capuchin nuns during the Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution. It also emphasizes biography as a valuable source for the study of cloistered nuns in the 19th and 20th centuries. The analysis focuses on two topics: vocation and exclaustration. In doing so, it shows the mechanisms through which nuns lived and kept their vows in a period marked by a hostile environment in Mexico.