Summary

The effective motives of secular celebrations during the Baroque Period in Spanish America have yet to be studied. In contrast to religious ceremonies, which present clear persuasive and participative structural conceptions, secular celebrations have diverse foundations which at first are not clearly preceptable. This study analyzes archival sources relating to three types of secular celebrations in the Spanish Empire: a bullfight in Buenos Aires, a Royal Proclamation in Honda (Viceroyalty of New Granada) and carnival festivities in Paraguay. These may be interpreted to reflect, respectively, a festive tradition, reverential obsequence and transgression, three different attitudes in three different territories, although all took place at around the same time, which express the richness and diversity of the baroque festivities in Latin America.