Date of Award
5-2022
Access Restriction
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Theology
School or College
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Nancy Pineda Madrid
Second Advisor
Kim Harris
Abstract
The dominance of the White Christ in Latin America has been used to lend “theological” support for social, racial, and colonial hierarchies of the Spanish in Ecuador. The rhetoric used to justify the blanqueamiento process continues to play an enormous role in Ecuadorian social mobility, and also determines how various ethnicities in Ecuador are governed and treated. The Indigenous and Afroecuadorian populations of Ecuador are subjected to significantly higher rates of violence, poverty, and disease than their Mestizo and White counterparts. Against the tide of this theological distortion, I will argue that the Black Christ of Daule subverts the dominant image of a White Christ along with its implied oppressive hierarchies, instead paving the way for a vision of liberation for Ecuadorian Catholics.
Recommended Citation
Leu, Jessica, "The Blanqueamiento of Ecuador: Liberation in the Black Christ of Daule" (2022). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 1137.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/1137
