Maria Marsilli Cardozo, PhD

Biography 

Maria has been at John Carroll University since 2002. Her earlier research focused on Andean traditional religion and its encounter with Spanish Catholicism in the Andes, particularly in Southern Peru-Northern Chile. In this area, she published extensively and directed a major research project on the subject. She is currently completing her book manuscript “Hábitos Perniciosos: Religión Andina Colonial en la Diócesis de Arequipa, siglos XVI-XVIII” and is the co-editor of the forthcoming Culto a los Ancestros, Hechicería y Resistencia Colonial. El Caso de Gregorio Taco, Arequipa, 1750, a transcription and essay collection on a renowned archival case of late-colonial Indian religious misconduct.

Her current research project focuses on the role that colonial icons have played in the creation of Chilean national identity, with specific attention to the icon of the deviant colonial female ("La Quintrala") and the treacherous natige go-between ("Lautaro").  In this area, she has published her piece "Gender, colonial past, national identity, and mestizaje in Chile: The many faces of 'La Quintrala' "  in a recent issue of History Compass. 

An avid traveler, Dr. Marsilli has resided and completed extensive archival research in Peru, Chile, Spain, Italy, and Austria.

Her teaching interests include native-Hispanic acculturation, the making and unmaking of Spanish colonialism in the New World, native religious syncretism, race and gender in Latin America. 

Teaching Repertoire

• HS 1473 “Colonial Latin American History”
• HS 1474 “Modern Latin America”
• HS 2478 "Cuba: Past and Present"
• HS 3472 “Race and Gender in Latin American History”
• HS 3473 “Women and the Catholic Church”
• HS 4477 “Che Guevara: The man, the myth, the icon”
• HS 4476 “The Incas”

Forthcoming Publications

Co-editor of book: Culto a los Ancestros, Hechicería y Resistencia Colonial. El Caso de Gregorio Taco, Arequipa, 1750. Forthcoming in DIBAM (Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos) publications, Education Ministry of Chile.

“History: Colonial Chile and New Granada” section of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, Vol. 66, by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress.

“Volcanes Locuaces e Inextinguible Fuego Interior: La Erupción del Huaynaputina en 1600 en la narrativa Jesuítica,” in: Escritura, Imaginación Política y la Compañía de Jesús (siglos XVI-XVIII), Teodoro Hampe-Martínez and Alexandre Coello de la Rosa, eds., Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.

“Carreras eclesiásticas y extirpación de idolatrías: La doctrina de Camiña, Siglo XVII”, in co-authorship with Jorge Hidalgo and Julio Aguilar, in: Chungará. Revista de Antropología Chilena.

Recent Publications

• “Los Senderos de la Idolatría: El viaje de Vázquez de Espinosa por los Altos de Arica, 1618” in co-authorship with Priscilla Cisternas, in: Chungara. Revista de Antropología Chilena, Vol. 42, No.1, pp.465-476.

• Reflective piece: “Como ‘Decíamos Diciendo’: Conversaciones con John Murra en una Tarde de Invierno” in: Chungara. Revista de Antropología Chilena, Vol. 42, No.1, 2010, pp. 89-91.

• “Missing Idolatry: Mid-Colonial Interactions between Parish Priests and Indians in the Colonial Diocese of Arequipa,” Colonial Latin American Historical Review (CLAHR), Vol. 13, number 4, 399-421, (Fall 2004, copyright 2007).

• “Native Americans: Central and Southern Andes,” “Chile,” “Cronistas,” and “Kuracas”, entries for Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, J. Michael Francis, ed., (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2006).

• “I heard it through the grapevine: Analysis of an anti-secularization initiative in the sixteenth-century Arequipan countryside, 1584-1600” The Americas 61(4) April 2005, 647-672.

• “Todo en Familia: Herejes, Hechiceros e Idólatras en Arequipa Colonial,” in Más allá de la dominación y la resistencia: Ensayos de Historia Peruana, Siglos XVI-XX, Paulo Drinot and Leo Garofalo, eds. (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2005,) 77-103.

• “Testamentos indígenas en Arequipa Colonial” in Nanda Leonardini, David Rodríguez, and Virgilio Freddy Cabanillas, comps., Imagen de la Muerte. Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2004,)173-181.

Research

• Evaluator for Colonial Latin American Historical Review (CLAHR).
• Scientific Evaluator for CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología,) Ministry of Education,  Chile.
• Contributing Editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies.
• International Researcher, CIHDE, Centro de Investigaciones del Hombre en el Desierto (Center for Studies of Human Life in Deserts), Chile.
• Director of Fondecyt Project No. 3060120, “Religiosidad Andina Colonial en el Norte de Chile,” research grant from the Chilean Ministry of Education, 2006-2007.

Interesting links

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/

http://ica2012.univie.ac.at/

http://www.cihde.cl/