From Sister Ursula de Jesús’ Colonial “Imagined Community” to Modern Day Communities She Has Inspired
Abstract
This article analyzes the hidden “imagined community” that colonial Afro-Peruvian sister Ursula de Jesús proposed in her spiritual journal as well as the modern day digital communities she has inspired in contemporary Peru. More specifically, the study demonstrates that, more than four centuries after sister Ursula lived and dictated her vida, some digital writers have appropriated her text to foster religious imagined communities as well as digital communities where Afro-Peruvians can be proud of their heritage and reinforce their sense of equality within current Peruvian society.
Keywords: sister Ursula de Jesús; colonial writing; vida; appropriation; imagined communities; blackness; Afro-Peruvian; subalternity;; economy of salvation.