Modernity and Freemasonry in Nineteenth-Century Central America

The organization of Central American Freemasonry was a consequence of the arrival of modernity in the 19th century. Freemasonry was one of the new associations organized and operated as one of many liberal practices of the universe of bourgeois culture outspoken in the region. Also, Freemasonry was one element in the process of the secularization of society and the promotion of new ideas and sociabilities. Why the organization of this institution? What contextual factors conditioned the development of Masonic activities? What were the social functions of Freemasonry in the expansion of the public sphere and in civil society? These are some of the questions that we will answer in the present working paper.