Event Title

Cristero Rebellion: Failures of a Revolutionary Project

Presenter Information

Gregory Morano, Colby CollegeFollow

Location

Diamond 343

Start Date

30-4-2015 11:00 AM

End Date

30-4-2015 11:55 AM

Project Type

Presentation

Description

By 1910 at the end of the oppressive rule of Porfirio Diaz, rationalist and socialist ideals had greatly influenced the decline of the Catholic Churchs institutionalized power in Mexico. Rationalists and socialists in urban areas believed that government was derived from natural rights and social contract, and that among these rights were liberty and equality which had no greater enemy than the Catholic Church. However, this loss of power did not cause the majority of rural Mexicans to change their identities as Catholics. Most indigenous and Mexican peasants did not attend Mass, yet they revered their village saints for their supposed ability to impact daily events, and frequently publically displayed their worship through pilgrimages and processions. Rationalist and socialist ideals in the Mexican Revolution engendered anticlericalism amongst politicians and the urban populous. These men saw themselves as modernizers and the Catholic Church as an obsolete remnant of the Porfiriato as well as the cause of fanaticism in rural Mexico. This ideological divide between elites and peasants and the urban and rural populous became a source of intense tension throughout the Mexican Revolution, culminating in la Cristiada in 1926. While initially concentrated in central Mexico, by 1929 this conflict had spread to thirteen states, with 50,000 cristeros still in arms. 90 priests had been executed by federal troops, and 25,000 Mexicans had died in combat.

Faculty Sponsor

Ben Fallaw

Sponsoring Department

Colby College. Latin American Studies Program

CLAS Field of Study

Interdisciplinary Studies

Event Website

http://www.colby.edu/clas

ID

1153

Share

COinS
 
Apr 30th, 11:00 AM Apr 30th, 11:55 AM

Cristero Rebellion: Failures of a Revolutionary Project

Diamond 343

By 1910 at the end of the oppressive rule of Porfirio Diaz, rationalist and socialist ideals had greatly influenced the decline of the Catholic Churchs institutionalized power in Mexico. Rationalists and socialists in urban areas believed that government was derived from natural rights and social contract, and that among these rights were liberty and equality which had no greater enemy than the Catholic Church. However, this loss of power did not cause the majority of rural Mexicans to change their identities as Catholics. Most indigenous and Mexican peasants did not attend Mass, yet they revered their village saints for their supposed ability to impact daily events, and frequently publically displayed their worship through pilgrimages and processions. Rationalist and socialist ideals in the Mexican Revolution engendered anticlericalism amongst politicians and the urban populous. These men saw themselves as modernizers and the Catholic Church as an obsolete remnant of the Porfiriato as well as the cause of fanaticism in rural Mexico. This ideological divide between elites and peasants and the urban and rural populous became a source of intense tension throughout the Mexican Revolution, culminating in la Cristiada in 1926. While initially concentrated in central Mexico, by 1929 this conflict had spread to thirteen states, with 50,000 cristeros still in arms. 90 priests had been executed by federal troops, and 25,000 Mexicans had died in combat.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/338