Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T23:29:06.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anticlericalism and Public Space in Revolutionary Jalisco*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert Curley
Robert Curley*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The anticlerical attacks of radical nineteenth-century liberals provoked the Church and aided the rise of confessional politics from continental Europe to revolutionary Mexico. In the European case, Stathis Kalyvas has recently proposed that such anticlerical liberalism was often moved by two distinctive motives, one narrow and political, the other broad and institutional. These motives can be associated with the concepts of tactic and strategy as laid out by Michel de Certeau. Working from both conceptual pairings, we can characterize anticlericalism sometimes as a political tactic, responding to conjunctural circumstances, and other times as an institutional strategy, plotting out a terrain and a path on which to forge present and future power relationships. This sort of conceptualization, I believe, is also well-suited to analyses of revolutionary Mexico. Nonetheless, for the distinction between “political-tactical” and “institutional-strategic” to be helpful, historians also need to place anticlericalism within the confusing logic of destruction and reconstruction inherent to Mexico's revolutionary process.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , April 2009 , pp. 511 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author thanks Matthew Butler for important suggestions and timely editing, all of which greatly improved this article.

References

1 Kalyvas, Stathis N. The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 172.Google Scholar

2 Certeau, Michel de The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California, 1988), p. 19.Google Scholar

3 Manuel M. Diéguez was governor and military commander of Jalisco from Jun. 1914-May 1917, during which he took leave of absence on nine occasions due to military exigencies; he was constitutional governor from Jun. 1917-Feb. 1919, during which period he was on leave for military reasons from late 1917 until early 1919, more than half of his elected period. Manuel M. Diéguez y el constitucionalismo en Jalisco (documentos), ed. Aldana Rendón, Mario (Guadalajara: Gobierno de Jalisco, 1986).Google Scholar

4 José Guadalupe Zuno was mayor of Guadalajara from May 1922-Apr. 1923, and governor of Jalisco from May 1923-Mar. 1926, when he was forced out after charges (later dropped) that he had been involved in the de la Huerta rebellion.

5 Knight, Alan “The Mentality and Modus Operandi of Revolutionary Anticlericalism,” in Faith and Impiety in Revolutionary Mexico, ed. Butler, Matthew (New York: Palgrave, 2007), pp. 21–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Gramsci, Antonio Selections from the Prison Notebooks (New York: International Publishers, 1989), pp. 229–235.Google Scholar

7 United States Department of State, National Archive and Records Administration, records relating to the internal affairs of Mexico, 1910–29 (henceforth SD): communications to secretary of state, all 1914, from Hanna, Monterrey, 23 Jul. (812.00/12591); Canada, Veracruz, 27 Jul. and 13 Dec. (812.00/12634, 812.00/14090); Hamm, Durango, 8 Aug. (812.00/12885); Canova, Mexico City, 21 Aug. (812.00/12959); Sillman, Mexico City, 24 Aug. (812.00/12983); Davis, Guadalajara, 31 Oct. (812.00/13720). H. L. Hall to Davis, Mexico City, 1 Oct. 1914 (812.00/27431).

8 Memorial del cabildo metropolitano y clero de la arquidiócesis de Guadalajara, al C. Presidente de la República Mexicana, Dn. Venustiano Carranza; y voto de adhesión y obediencia al limo, y Revmo. Sr. Arzobispo, Dr. y Miro. Dn. Francisco Orozco y Jiménez, Apr. 1918, p. 4, in Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco (BPE), miscelánea 783/7.

9 Memorial, p. 10.

10 Ibid., p. 8.

11 González Navarro, Moisés Cristeros y agraristas en Jalisco (5 vols. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2000–2), vol. 1, pp. 188,Google Scholar 251–252, 261.

12 Meyer, Jean La cristiada (3 vols. Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 1973–4), vol. 2, p. 77.Google Scholar Boletín Militar, 22–24, 26, and 29 Jul. 1914.

13 Memorial, p. 6; Boletín Militar, Jul. 29 1914.

14 Boletín Militar, Jul. 29, 4 Aug., and 18 Aug. 1914.

15 For a contrasting interpretation, see Aldana Rendón, Mario Del reyismo al nuevo orden constitucional, 1910–1917. Tomo 1. Jalisco desde la Revolución (Guadalajara: Gobierno del Estado, 1987), pp. 218–221.Google Scholar

16 Memorial, p. 6.

17 Aguirre, Amado Mis memorias de campaña (Mexico City: INEHRM, 1985), pp. 62–65.Google Scholar

18 Memorial, p. 6.

19 Aguilar Mora, Jorge Una muerte sencilla, justa, y eterna: cultura y guerra durante la revolución mexicana (Mexico City: ERA, 1990).Google Scholar

20 SD 812.00/13760, Davis to secretary of state, 5 Nov. 1914.

21 González Flores, Anacleto La cuestión religiosa en Jalisco (Mexico City: ACJM, 1920), p. 285;Google Scholar also, El Obrero, 31 Jan. and 7 Feb. 1920; 29 Jan. and 5 Feb. 1921 ; 5 Feb. and 11 Jun. 1922.

22 Camberos Vizcaino, Vicente Un hombre y una época, apuntes biográficos (Mexico City: Jus, 1949), p. 219.Google Scholar

23 Giving battlefield charity to afflicted revolutionaries was a key claim to sanctity for other cristero saints, including Rafael Guízar y Valencia, canonized in 2006. See Peñalosa, Joaquín Antonio, Rafael Guízara sus órdenes (Xalapa, 1995), pp. 7–9,Google Scholar 91–92.

24 Sánchez, Ramiro Valdés and Havers, Guillermo Maria Tuyo es el reino: mártires mexicanos del siglo XX (Guadalajara: Libros Católicos, n/d), pp. 19–23.Google Scholar These authors state that Galván was staying near Our Lady of Guadalupe church; hearing of the “albazo,” he took holy oil and set out to help the wounded, stopping first at La Soledad church to ask another priest, José María Araiza, to join him. Walking past a barracks—probably the Cuartel Colorado Grande—the priests were taken prisoner. In jail Araiza lamented having no breakfast, to which Galván responded “soon we will eat at the table of the Lord.” The priests confessed each other and, absolved of their sins, were marched out to the civil hospital. Knowing that death was imminent, Galván distributed his earthly possessions—coins and chrism—among the soldiers in emulation of Christ.

25 Flores, González Cuestión religiosa, p. 285.Google Scholar

26 Cuzin, M. Journal d’un français au Mexique, Guadalajara:16 novembre 1914–6 juillet 1915 (Paris: J. L. Lesfargues, 1983), p. 93;Google Scholar Moreno Ochoa, J. Angel Semblanzas revolucionarias: compendio del movimiento de liberación en Jalisco (Guadalajara: Talleres Berni, 1965), p. 137.Google Scholar

27 Davis to secretary of state, Guadalajara, 2 Feb. (SD 812.00/14486) and 19 Feb. 1915 (SD 812.00/14492). Davis, Will B. Experiences and Observations of an American Consular Officer during the Recent Mexican Revolution (Los Angeles: Wayside Press, 1920), pp. 81–92.Google Scholar

28 Oikión Solano, Verónica El constitucionalismo en Michoacán. El periodo de los gobiernos militares (1914–1917) (Mexico City: Conaculta, 1992), pp. 248–256,Google Scholar 479–482.

29 Tocqueville, Alexis de El antiguo régimen y la revolución francesa (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2006), pp. 111–115.Google Scholar

30 During his frequent absences in 1914–16, Diéguez left civilian subalterns in charge; such instability probably accentuated the tactical/political nature of Jaliscan anticlericalism during this period.

31 Carta pastoral del episcopado mexicano sobre la Constitución de 1917 (Acordada, Texas, 1917). Cf. Balderrama, Luis C. El clero y el gobierno de México: apuntes para la historia de la crisis en 1926 (2 vols. Mexico City: Cuauhtémoc, 1927), vol. 2, pp. 19–32.Google Scholar

32 Bouquet was Diéguez’s gobernador substituto from Feb. 1918–Jan. 1919 (see Rendón, , Manuel M. Dieguez).Google Scholar The intransigent Orozco y Jiménez was archbishop from 1912–36. See Camberas Vizcaíno, Vicente Francisco el grande. Mons. Francisco Orozco y Jiménez. Biografía (2 vols. Mexico City: Jus, 1966).Google Scholar

33 Gómez Robledo, Antonio Anacleto González Flores: el maestro (Mexico City: Jus, 1947), p. 75.Google Scholar

34 Dávila Garibi, J. Ignacio, Apuntes para la historia de la Iglesia en Guadalajara (7 vols. Mexico City: Editorial Cultura, 1977), vol. 5, pp. 354–358.Google Scholar

35 BPE, miscelánea 783/7, “Apuntes para la historia,” pp. 7–15; Flores, González Cuestión religiosa, pp. 310–312;Google Scholar Facius, Antonio Rius De Don Porfirio a Plutarco: historia de la ACJM (Mexico City: Jus, 1958), pp. 103–106;Google Scholar Vizcaíno, Camberas Un hombre y una época, pp. 254–255.Google Scholar

36 Catholic Association of Mexican Youth.

37 Union of Mexican Catholic Ladies.

38 Flores, González Cuestión Religiosa, p. 315;Google Scholar Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, p. 104.Google Scholar

39 Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, p. 108.Google Scholar

40 Fondo Palomar y Vizcarra (henceforth FPyV), 41.297.3207, Alvarez Tostado to Palomar y Viz-carra, Guadalajara, 22–3 Jul. 1918; BPE, miscelánea 783.7, “Apuntes,” p. 19. El Informador, 23 Jul. 1918, estimated more than 10,000.

41 Flores, González Cuestión Religiosa, pp. 321–3.Google Scholar FPyV, 41.297.3206, Alvarez Tostado to Palomar, Guadalajara, 22–3 Jul. 1918.

42 Ibid.

43 Flores, González Cuestión Religiosa, p. 322;Google Scholar Robledo, Gómez Anacleto González Flores, p. 72.Google Scholar

44 Antonio Gomez Robledo attibuted the caption, “Le silence est, après la parole, la seconde puissance du monde,” to Félicité Robert de Lamennais (1782–1854), a French philosopher-priest who advocated democracy and Church-state separation; see Robledo, Gómez Anacleto González Flores, p. 73.Google Scholar However, the idea seems to belong not to Lammenais, but to the French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), and may be found in his La Confession de Talleyrand, V. 1–5, Mémoires du Prince de Talleyrand (Paris; L. Sau vai tre), 1891.

45 Robledo, Gómez Anacleto González Flores, p. 73.Google Scholar

46 Dávila Garibi, J. Ignacio and Chavez Hayhoe, Salvador Colección de documentos relativos a la cuestión religiosa en Jalisco (2 vols. Guadalajara: Tip. J. M. Yguíniz, 1920), vol. 1, pp. 64–67,Google Scholar 74–78.

47 El Informador, 2 Sep. 1918.

48 Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, p. 111.Google Scholar

49 Flores, González Cuestión religiosa, p. 331.Google Scholar

50 Garibi, Dávila Apuntes, vol.5, pp. 380–385.Google Scholar

51 BPE, miscelánea 783/7, “Apuntes,” p. 21.

52 Flores, González Cuestión religiosa, p. 332;Google Scholar Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, p. 270.Google Scholar

53 El Informador, 5 Feb. 1919.

54 Garibi, Dávila Apuntes, pp. 420–421.Google Scholar

55 Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, pp. 113–114.Google Scholar

56 Meyer, , La cristiada, vol. 2, pp. 111–112.Google Scholar

57 Members of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Labor (CROM), a client labor central.

58 Meyer, , La cristiada, vol. 2, p. 113;Google Scholar Carr, Barry El movimiento obrero y la política en México, 1910–1929 (Mexico City: ERA, 1991), p. 217.Google Scholar

59 In Morelia, supporters of governor Francisco Mújica fired on a Catholic demonstration after anarchists vandalized a cathedral icon. Christopher Boyer, R. Becoming Campesinos: Politics, Identity, and Agrarian Struggle in Postrevolutionary Michoacán, 1920–1935 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 104–107.Google Scholar

60 Gómez Loza was executed in 1928, when he was civilian governor of cristero-mn parts of Jalisco. El informador, 21 Mar. 1928.

61 Vizcaíno, Camberos Un hombre y una época, pp. 306–307;Google Scholar Navarrete, Heriberto Por Dios y por la patria (Mexico City: Jus, 1973), pp. 32–35.Google Scholar

62 El Obrero, 11 Jun. 1921.

63 Ibid., 25 Jun. 1921.

64 El Informador, 27 Mar. 1922.

65 El Obrero, 2 Apr. 1922; Ochoa, Moreno, Semblanzas revolucionarias, pp. 39–45;Google Scholar Durand, Jorge “El movimiento inquilinario de Guadalajara, 1922,” Encuentro no. 2 (1984), pp, 7–28;Google Scholar Gómez Fregoso, Jesús “Notas para la historia de los sindicatos católicos en Jalisco (1918–1924),” Encuentro no. 3 (1984), p. 62;Google Scholar Tamayo, Jaime Los movimientos sociales, 1917–1929. Tomo IV. Jalisco desde la revolución (Guadalajara: Gobierno del Estado, 1988), pp. 135–136;Google Scholar Medina Carrillo, Cuauhtemoc and Figueroa Mendoza, Noé Luis C. Medina y el movimiento obrero en Jalisco (Guadalajara: Gobierno de Jalisco, 1988), pp. 63–83.Google Scholar

66 El Obrero, 9, 16, 23 Apr., 14 May, and 18 Jun. 1922.

67 Meyer, , La cristiada, vol. 2, p. 121.Google Scholar

68 Guzmán, Barbosa La iglesia y el gobierno civil, p. 272.Google Scholar

69 See Ramírez Rancaño, Mario El patriarca Pérez- La Iglesia Católica Apostólica Mexicana (Mexico City: UN AM, 2006).Google Scholar

70 Archivo General de la Nación, Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales (AGN-DGIPS), v. 228/exp. 33/f. 6, agent #9 to departamento confidencial, Mexico City, 26 Jun. 1925.

71 Archivo General Municipal de Guadalajara, año 1918, exp. 139, Gobierno to municipal president, Rivera Rosas, 1 Feb. and 5 Mar. 1918; exp. 669, Gobierno to municipal president, 27 May 1918.

72 AGN-DGIPS, v. 244/exp. 10/f. 11, agent #24 (Eduardo Sánchez Aldana) to departamento confidencial, Guadalajara, 16–22 Aug. 1925.

73 Ibid.

74 El Informador, 23 Dec. 1924.

75 Ibid., 28, 29, and 30 Jul. 1925.

76 Facius, Rius De Don Porfirio, pp. 270–271.Google Scholar

77 Early propaganda referred to the movement as the Liga Nacional de Defensa Religiosa (LNDR); in 1926, the acronym LNDLR (Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa) was adopted. It was commonly referred to simply as the Liga.

78 As Meyer reminds us, the press was quite free in the first two years of callismo, as seen in the near-universal condemnation of the schism. After this, censorship became routine. Meyer, Jean Historia de la revolución mexicana, 1924–1928: estado y sociedad con Calles (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1977), pp. 105–106.Google Scholar

79 AGN-DGIPS, v. 2046-C/exp. 5/f. 10, report to departamento confidencial, Mexico City, 11 Feb. 1926.

80 AGN-DGIPS, v. 228/exp. 33/f. 1, oficina confidencial to agente #19, Mexico City, 3 Dec. 1926; to agent José I. Curiel, Mexico City, 3 Dec. 1926; Francisco M. Delgado to Inspector General de Policia, Jefe de la Policia Judicial Federal, and Jefe de la Policia del Distrito, Mexico City, 3 Dec. 1926; El Universal, 5 Dec. 1926.

81 Even government spies reported that the movement was not organized by clergy but by prominent Catholics; see AGN-DGIPS, v. 228/exp. 33/f. 1, agente especial #7 to departamento confidencial, Mexico City, 20 Jan. 1927.

82 AGN-DGIPS, v. 228/exp. 33/f. 5, agente #18 to departamento confidencial, Mexico City, 7 Apr. 1925; v. 228/exp. 33/f. 2, oficial primero to Gobernación, Mexico City, n/d.

83 Robledo, Gómez Anacleto González Flores, p. 135.Google Scholar

84 Navarrete, , Por Dios y por la patria, pp. 119–125.Google Scholar

85 Skocpol, Theda States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Tilly, Charles From Mobilization to Revolution (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978).Google Scholar

86 AGN-DGIPS, v. 244/exp: 4/f. 2, José Y. Ponce to Francisco M. Delgado, Guadalajara, 21 Feb. 1927.

87 AGN-DGIPS, v. 244/exp. 4/f. 2, oficial mayor to state governor, Mexico City, 8 Mar. 1927.