ABSTRACT
In Latin America, and particularly in Mexico, over the centuries, Catholic culture has established a relationship between the experience of happiness, care, and belonging to a traditional family. This chapter traces the cultural and historical origins of this relationship and reconstructs some aspects of the sensitive universe of baroque Hispanic counter-reformist Catholicism that made the traditional family model synonymous with happiness and with the possibility of accessing the earthly care necessary to live well and happily. The chapter focuses on the analysis of certain representations, discourses and narratives present in Novohispanic paintings and the devotional book La familia regulada, the work of the Spanish Franciscan, Fray Antonio Arbiol y Diez, a very popular publication among the middle sectors of New Spain during the eighteenth century.
