Los umbrales del catolicismo global. Una propuesta de prosopografía para estudiar a los jesuitas subterráneos de Chile

This article proposes a methodological reorientation of Jesuit historiography by shifting the focus from prominent, globalized figures to the "subterranean Jesuits" —secondary actors whose contributions were essential to the local operations of the Society of Jesus, yet have been largely overlooked in the context of the global turn. To recover these marginalized trajectories, the study employs coral biographies and relational prosopography to reconstruct collective experiences and networks of meaning. Drawing on cases from colonial Chile —such as Guillermo de la Cruz, porter of the Colegio Máximo de Santiago for over thirty years, and expelled Jesuits like Manuel Fonseca and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Quiroga— the article argues that these individuals occupy textual thresholds and play a crucial role in understanding the local and imperial dynamics of the order. By foregrounding these subterranean experiences, the article seeks to complicate dominant narratives of Jesuit globalization, demonstrating that the Society’s expansion was sustained not only by its elite agents but also by those who labored on its margins