Fuentes primarias para la historia de la educación de la mujer en Europa y América. Archivos Históricos Compañía de María Nuestra Señora, 1921-1936 (review)

This weighty volume, a history of the Order of the Company of Mary (the first religious order dedicated to female education) from 1921 to 1936 and a catalogue of its archives for the same period, was nineteen years in preparation. It follows volume 1, published in 1989, which covered the years from 1606 to 1921. The organizational and, no doubt, political challenges faced by its primary author/compiler, M. Pilar Foz y Foz, herself a sister in the Company as well as its archivist, were formidable; but the result is a rich, valuable resource not just for historians of women, education, and monasticism but also for historians of the Church and its relations with civil society and government.

The first 400 pages of the volume, which give historical context to the archival descriptions that follow, constitute a book inside a book. At first glance these pages appear to be a standard chronicle of the order from the early-twentieth century to just before World War II. But on closer examination they are much more than that. The order expanded in the nineteenth century as education for women took on new importance. The order's founder, Juana de Lestonnac, had envisioned a centralized order similar to that of the Jesuits, but the pope's authorization for the order set its houses under the authority of the bishops. Various attempts were made over the centuries to centralize, but they were resisted for one reason or another. From 1900, however, a schism involving the forces for centralization versus those for autonomy posed great complications for the order.

The perceived need for centralization grew stronger and finally, in 1921, the founder's centralizing vision came to fruition, with sixty-four houses joining the new union versus thirty-one that chose to remain autonomous. Tensions did not cease with the Decreto de Unión of 1921—and nine houses later left the union to become autonomous—as resistance to centralization and the effects of war, depression, and persecution manifested themselves. The effects of 1921, then, continued to reverberate for well over a decade, as M.Foz y Foz's textured narrative makes clear. The author is politic but unflinching in laying out the difficulties that the order faced during this period,when arguments for either autonomous houses or a centralized "union" were made as the most effective instrument for surviving political attacks, severe budget cuts, and national crises.

Presentation of the complications and changes of nomenclature of this period is quite a challenge, but the author's choices are clear and if not quite self-explanatory, then easy to comprehend once the history of the period is understood. Part 2 catalogues the archives of the autonomous houses. The amount of material varies quite considerably from house to house, but some are very rich, especially Bogotá (Colombia), Vergara, Santander, and Valladolid. Part 3 catalogues the archive of the "Casa Generalicia," the main house. A very short part 4 concerns the special case of the house in Bordeaux. Part 5 deals with the archives of the "provinces" and "vice-provinces" that were created in the centralization process. During this period there were two French provinces, two Spanish provinces, and vice-provinces in Mexico (also including Cuba and the United States), Argentina-Chile (also including Brazil), and Italy. The archives are classified according to a uniform organizational scheme, which makes them mutually intelligible. Most have significant material concerning the governance of the houses (dealings with municipal officials, correspondence with other houses, elections, and so forth) and their day-to...