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.