Bunche Hall, Rm 10383 & Online
This talk examines the role of sound and music at a critical moment of the Cold War in Central America. In March 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Central America “to share the pain” of a region beset by ongoing conflicts. Tensions between the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Vatican culminated at an outdoor mass in Managua, where papal calls for Catholic obedience went unheeded. The Pope’s attempts to rectify acute divisions in the local church and discourage the participation of Nicaraguan clerics in the revolutionary government exposed divergent notions of unity, leadership, and devotion. Transformed into hybrid religious and revolutionary theater, the sonic phenomena of the mass marked and amplified the disunity.
Speaker:
Bernard Gordillo
UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History
Cost : Free
Download file: Mass-for-the-Cold-War-Sonic-Disunity,-Pope-John-Paul-II,-and-the-Nicaraguan-Revolution-l3-ta2.pdf
Sponsor(s): Center for Brazilian Studies, Latin American Institute, Department of History