Ritos para una nueva legitimidad: ceremoniales constitucionales y republicanismo en Chile (1812-1833)

This paper analyzes the ritual mechanisms deployed in Chile on the occasion of the ratification of the constitutional texts which came to be in the period between 1812 and 1833. By studying these political ceremonies, which are clearly continuations of the royal oaths of the colonial regime, the efforts of the Chilean leading class to socialize the republican ideals among the population become evident, making it possible to symbolically replace the King for the Constitution as the source of legitimacy of the new political system.