Jay Clune places the reforms of the convents in Cuba in context of the Bourbon Reforms, which were meant to reorganize the military, widen trade, and shake up public administration in order to increase tax receipts and strengthen the king’s power. Reforms also extended to religion and social life; the most famous was the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish America. The monarchy would further centralize power by strengthening the secular clergy vis-à-vis regulars (members of a monastic order). Since the days of Isabella and Ferdinand, the state oversaw religious affairs in exchange for furthering Roman Catholicism. Begun by the Spanish kings in the eighteenth century, the Bourbon Reforms reached their height under Charles III (1759 – 88) and extended to monasteries and convents.
The reforms of convents were to discourage nuns from an opulent and secular lifestyle, which made the convents the center of colonial social life and religious...
