Abstract

VAZQUEZ SEMADENI, María Eugenia. The Public Image of Freemasonry in New Spain, 1761-1821. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2011, vol.32, n.125, pp.167-207. ISSN 2448-7554.

From the perspective of the analyses of political languages, this article reviews the public image of the Freemasonry that developed in Europe in the 18^th-century and the early years of the 19^th, and how it came to New Spain. The text shows that some elements of that image were privileged over others, as a function of the political circumstances in Europe and New Spain. Also analyzed is how these postures later came to be associated with the loss of the transcendental foundation of legitimacy as a result of the crisis of the Spanish Monarchy, the independence struggle, resistance to it, and process in Cadiz. This research shows that the interpretation of Freemasonry presented in the texts reviewed, and the form in which they were expressed, were the result of the concrete historical moment, so that they could only have been stated as they were in a determined historical and linguistic context. This means that they are themselves historical facts and form part of other broader processes, in which the public debate began to consolidate itself as one of the principal foundation of legitimacy.

Keywords : Freemasonry; public debate; political languages; political culture; legitimacy; independence.

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