The Mobilization of Religious and Nonreligious Imaginaries in Argentine Sexual Politics

“I Have Apostatized”: Self-Narratives of Catholic Apostasy as Resources for Collective Mobilization in Argentina

“…In the heterogenous tradition of Argentine anticlericalism, it is possible to find some moments in which the voices that claim for political secularization gained more visibility and achieved secular laws and public policies, and others where they suffered a setback. As a consequence, the narrative shared by current secularist advocates tends to reinforce the idea that Argentina is facing an incomplete process of political secularization, that it is imcompatible with an increasingly plural society (Di Stefano 2011;Rabbia and Vaggione 2021). However, for much of the second half of the 20th century, secularist activism has been largely reactive, scarcely institutionalized, and with a low public visibility.…”

“…In March 2009, Alerta Religion echoed the call to the first collective apostasy by feminist activists through the mailing list of Argentina Women's Information Network (RIMA, by its acronym in Spanish). It was a transnationally articulated reaction against the veto of President Tabaré Vásquez to the law that decriminalized abortion in Uruguay; this call is considered as the starting point of the Collective Apostasy Campaign (Rabbia and Vaggione 2021). Since then, the blog posted several calls and press repercussions of different collective apostasy actions, personal apostasies (such as the one by trans rights advocate, Alejandra Palladino), and some replies to commentaries of followers against the initiative.…”