Education, secularism and rights in Uruguay: impulses and restraints among reformists and conservatives

Abstract

This essay researches the areas where secularism, the educational system and the pursuit for new rights, influenced by the struggle between groups in Uruguay, intersect. In the early 19th century, the distribution of political, economic and social rights during the revolution led by José Artigas encountered some resistance from the hegemonic groups of the region. Later, the educational reform encouraged by José Pedro Varela reduced its content under the pressure of religious groups. In the early 20th century, the first Batllism´s distribution of political, social, educational and working rights to the lowest social groups was limited by the “stop” to reforms imposed by President Viera. After the war, the New Batllism restarted the policy of economic protectionism and distribution of rights which was later resisted by the liberal governments of the sixties. In short, advances and restraints have influenced the history of the country. Lately, the opposition to the more recent rights' agenda –homosexual marriage, abortion, sexual education– revealed a biased view of gender perspective in times of social and cultural renewal. In addition, an increasing ideological control has been recently focused on the education of children and teenagers, in a new bill to create a Council of Secularism. Nowadays, Uruguayan citizens are exposed to the fast changes imposed by globalization, and migration from poor areas of Latin America impose new challenges. Among them, technology and open discussions in state schools may cause suspicion about secularism.