Abominable Sin In Colonial Latin America

Ana Magaña
LTAM 4600
Professor Rajagopalan
May 03, 2013
The Abominable Sin in Colonial México
In colonial Latin America, sodomy and male homosexuality were considered one of the greatest sins against God, nature, and society. The pecado nefando was the Spanish name for the abominable and unmentionable sin committed by homosexuals. The first bishop of Mexico, Franciscan Juan de Zumarraga defined sodomy as “a very abominable placing of the virile member in the dirtiest and ugliest part of the body of the person who relieves the man; that part is delegated for the expulsion of feces.” Once someone was charged with the pecado nefando he was taken to the royal audiencia of the inquisition, where his honor and social class were the main factors…show more content…
It violated religious and social constitutions of order. In his work, as a historian, Nemiga challenged the basis of the gendered hierarchical order, undermining the reproductive function of sex and the formation of the core social unit, the family. Homosexuality placed men in the position of women, sexually and metaphorically. The purpose for semen was to conceive and any act, including the anal penetration, could never produce conception, violating nature. For this reason, the pecado contra natura was feared and horrified the general public. This is because sodomy was believed to cause plagues, famines and natural disasters, based on the biblical example of Sodom and Gomorrah. Society saw sodomy as a sin against nature, a condemned sexual act that would not lead to procreation. As the machista culture was crucial to patriarchal colonial Latin America, the general population also usually ridiculed the passive male in the relationship more than the active one. The passive male was scorned and suffered much stigma “for having submitted to domination, being dependent, defeated, violated and effeminate.” As a result, society expected death to be the punishment for such a…show more content…
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