Beatos” or Progressives: Agustín Rivera, secularization and masculine ideals, 1865-1916

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, the priest and writer Agustín Rivera, a celebrity among the liberal elites of that time, used his abundant texts to criticize the traditional model of masculinity, that of the pious male, in favor of a model of the male associated with progress. In this article, we characterize and contrast the two models, while also taking into account Rivera’s characterization of the female gender, which centered on the imagination. The main themes around which the male model promoted by Rivera revolved were work, study, sexual and family life, including the capacity for heroic sacrifice, and the main example of this was the hero Pedro M