Spiritist Women in Puerto Rico (1880-1920)

Based on extensive research, Spiritist Women in Puerto Rico (1880-1920) rescues and examines the literature of pioneer spiritists who, as practitioners of Spiritism, helped transform Puerto Rican society during its disruptive colonial transition from Spain to the United States. It analyzes the Spiritism-Woman relationship, addressing fundamental questions including: What were the living conditions of Puerto Ricans in general and of women in particular at the end of the nineteenth century? How did Spiritism change their vision of the world, of God, and of their historical moment? What stories did they tell and how did their literature change the ideas that circulated in society at the time? Spiritism demonstrated, among other things, that the interaction between the human world and the spiritual world was constant; that communication between men, women, and Spirits was a provable fact; and that the human Spirit was part of an infinite evolutionary process. The net result for women was a radical encounter with their own conscience and an entry into the public sphere, where they challenged the norms and laws that perpetuated social injustice in Puerto Rico. Spiritist Women in Puerto Rico (1880-1920) shows that the intervention of pioneer spiritists in the living conditions of Puerto Rico at the end of the century changed the course of the history of women and their culture. In doing so, it makes clear that the power of social and cultural transformation is not only a right and a duty for us all, but a responsibility in which women, although ignored in official history, have played an indisputably extraordinary and fundamental role.