Pious Tricksters and Tightfisted Priests: Towards an Understanding of the Latin American Trickster in his Catholic Context

Abstract

This thesis seeks to add to existing trickster scholarship by examining the interplay between the trickster archetype and Catholicism in two works of Central American trickster folklore. Much of Latin American folklore incorporates Catholic figures, such as nuns or priests or even God Himself, and thus the Latin American trickster moves through a morally Christian world, where even the "collective shadow figure" of the trickster—the darker side of humanity's subconscious—, as Carl Jung puts it, must answer to God. This seems to contradict prior trickster scholarship, as viewing the trickster as a god is at odds with the monotheistic Catholic context of many Latin American tricksters, and viewing the trickster as an overturner of existing belief systems appears to be at odds with a strict morally Catholic worldview. I will examine the stories about the trickster Pedro Urdemales compiled by Ramón Laval in 1925, and the Tío Conejo stories published by Carmen Lyra in 1920. In doing so, I will ask: How does the existence of a singular, ultimate God and a defined, objective morality wrench the trickster away from his roots? Does the trickster speak back to Catholicism or change the Catholic world around him, in return? My thesis ultimately aims to add to the scholarly discussion of tricksters, both by involving the Latin American trickster—which has been somewhat ignored—and by showing how the Catholic setting of these Latin American trickster figures still serves as a breaker of boundaries, but does so by adhering to those same boundaries.