Secularization, imaginary progress and identity construction: a Spanish Sexenio Democrático and the Latin American republics perspective

Abstract

This work is an approximation to the uses of the concept of secularization in the Hispanic world, from a comparative perspective. It is a concept linked to progress and modernity during the nineteenth century, from the premise that every conceptual system has a practical origin when is analyzed in connection with diverse social and political realities. The revolutionary imaginary and of modernity incorporated the secularization to the construction of national narratives in Spain and America. They used it as a symbol of change that can reconcile past and future through new religious referents. The Sexenio Democrático and the consolidation of liberalism in Latin America offer us different perspectives and nuances of the use of the concept in spaces that share the same cultural root.