The article describes the creation and spreading of the diverse congregations whose main purpose was to maintain solidarity among their members. Often these were called mutual benefit companies, during the middle of the XIX century and half of the XX century. These societies embraced handicrafters and small merchants who identified themselves with Christian tradition values. It is easy to observe in them the legate of the colonial confraternity, artisan associations and democratic societies which somehow were an evolution of the European spiritual confraternities of the middle ages.