Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Revolutionary Mexico

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Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Revolutionary Mexico: The De-Christianization Campaigns, 1929-1940Author(s): Adrian A. BantjesSource: Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter, 1997), pp. 87-120Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the University of California Institute for Mexicoand the United States and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

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Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Revolutionary Mexico:The De-Christianltation Campaigns, 1929-1940*

AdrianA. BantjesUniversity of Wyoming

Este ensayo analiza la llamadacampaniadesfanatizante de los aiiostrienta desde la perspectiva del Estado revolucionario. Su objetivoera la creaci6n de "gente nueva" y de una religion civil revolu-

cionaria. Sin embargo, este intento violento fracas6 por la resisten-

cia tenaz de los cat6licos mexicanos.

Uno, dos, no hay Dios

-Mexican school chant, 1930s'

Nuestro populacho... cree mds a unfraile en el pulpito, aunque diga

herefias, que al patriota mds elocuente

-Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi,18272

On June 30, 1929, church bells pealed throughout Mexico to

celebrate the resumption of Catholic services. President Emilio

Portes Gil and Archbishop Ruiz y Flores had reached an agreement

*Iwould like to thankthe students n myseminar,"CulturendRevolution,"tthe Universityof Wyoming or theirenlightenment,andthe University'sCollegeofArtsandSciences andHistoryDepartmentor theirgenerousresearch upport.Com-mentatorsandpanel membersat the 1992 LASAmeetingandthe 1995 meetingofthe CanadianHistoricalAssociationprovidedhelpfulcomments on earlierversions.

1. QuotedinJ.LloydMecham,Churchand State in LatinAmerica:A History

of Politico-EcclestasticalRelations(ChapelHill:University f North CarolinaPress,1966), 409.2. Quoted in FernandoEscalanteGonzalbo,Cludadanosimaginarios.Memorial de los afanesy desventurasde la virtudy apologfadel vitco trtunfante

en la repabltcamexicana: Tratadode moralpublica (Mexico:ElColegiode Mex-ico, 1992), 142.

2. Quotedin FernandoEscalanteGonzalbo,Ciudadanosimaginarios.Memo-rial de los afanesy desventuras de la virtudy apologia del viclo triunfanteen la

repablica mexicana: Tratado de moral piblica (Mexico:ElColegio de Mexico,1992), 142.

Mexican Studies/EstudiosMexicanos 13(1),Winter1997. ? 1997 Regentsof the Universityof California.

87



Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos

which put an end to the bloody Cristero rebellion. Mexicans were

optimistic about the chances for permanent peace. The national

dailyExcelsior stated that a "new era of tolerance" had dawned in

Mexico: "The past, with all its misfortunes, is finally over... What

was known as 'the religious conflict' doesn't exist anymore."3These

optimistic reactions were, however, rather premature. True, the

worst of the Cristiada (1926-29), a savage guerilla war waged byCatholic peasants against the Federal Army, had come to an end.

But the government crusade against the Roman Catholic Church

continued. Although generally less violent than in the past, at times

it was manifested in extremist fashion.

Between 1930 and 1936 the Mexican revolutionary elite initi-ated a veritable cultural revolution, which formed an integral partof the wider social revolution. In the wake of the armed phase of

the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) it sought to destroy tradi-

tional culture and create a modern society. Backwardness and reli-

gious "fanaticism"were to be eradicated by the use of cultural tools

such as iconoclasm, the substitution of revolutionary festivals for

Catholic rites, and the molding of the revolutionary youth and citi-

zenry through education, popular theater,and art. The ultimate

goalwas to forge "new men" and a new, revolutionary, civil religion.4This conflictive episode in Mexican history is another chapter

in the history of Western secularization-part of the persistent

3. Excelsior 22June 1929.4. Forculturalaspectsof the revolution ee AlanKnight,"PopularCultureand

the Revolutionary tatein Mexico, 1910-1940,"HispanicAmerican Historical Re-view 74,3 (August1994):393-444; IleneV.O'Malley,TheMythof the Revolution.Hero Cults and the Institutionalizationof the Mexican State, 1920-1940 (NewYork:GreenwoodPress,1986);Ritualsof Rule,Ritualsof Resistance:Public Cele-brations and Popular Culture in Mexico,ed. WilliamH. Beezley, CherylEnglishMartin,and WilliamE. French Wllmington,DE:ScholarlyResourcesBooks, 1994);

EverydayFormsof State Formation. Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule inModernMexico,ed. GilbertM.JosephandDanielNugent Durham:DukeUniversityPress,1994);Regional tudies includethe pathbreaking ork of CarlosMartinezAs-

sad, El laboratorio de la revoluci6n. El Tabascogarridista (Mexico:Siglo XXI,1979);MarjorieBecker,"IazaroCardenas nd the MexicanCounter-Revolution:he

Struggleover Culture n Michoacan,1934-1940; (Ph.D.diss.,YaleUniversity, 988)and herSettingthe Virginon Fire:L4zaroC4rdenas,Michoac4nPeasants,and the

Redemption of the Mexican Revolution(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1995), which assumesa more moderateposition; MaryKay Vaughan,"Actuacl6n

politicadel magisteriosocialistaen Pueblay Sonora 1934-1939); Crfttca.RevistaTrimestral de la Universidad Aut6noma de Puebla (Julio-Diciembre 1987):90-100, andher CulturalPolitics n Revolution:Teachers, easants,and Schools n

Mexico, 1930-1940 (Tucson:Universityof ArizonaPress,forthcoming);AdrianA.

Bantjes,"Politics,Class and Culture n Post-Revolutionary exico. Cardenismo nd

Sonora, 1929-1940;' (Ph.D.diss.,University f Texas,Austin,1991) and As IfJesusWalkedon Earth:Cardenismoand the Political Cultureof the Mexican Revolutionin Sonora, 1929-1940 (Wllmington,DE:ScholarlyResourcesBooks,1997).

88



Bantjes: The De-Christianization Campaigns

effort to establish a new religion of humanity, a cult of man and so-

ciety, not God. Rooted in the Enlightenment and the French Revolu-

tion,this

processhas been an essential

componentof most modern

revolutions: Impatient elites, eager to quicken the pace of history,have used violence to impose modernist utopian blueprints and to

forge a civil religion of humanity. Catholic historian ChristopherDawson writes that the French Revolution gave rise to

a realreligion... which aspired o takethe placeof Christianitys the creedof a new age. [This]was a religionof humansalvation, he salvationof theworld by the power of man set free by Reason. The Cross had been re-

placed by the Tree of Liberty,he Graceof Godby the Reasonof Man,and

Redemptionby Revolution.5

Modernity in this context can be defined, following Daniel Bell,as "the inchoate Promothean [sic] aspiration, now made flesh, of

men to transform nature and transform themselves: to make man

the master of change and the redesigner of the world to conscious

plan and purpose."6 Or, asJean Baudrillardputs it, modernity

is a characteristic mode of civilization, which opposes itself to tradi-

tion, that is to say, to all other anterior or traditional cultures: con-fronting the geographic and symbolic diversityof the latter,modernityimposes itself throughoutthe world as a homogeneous unity,irradiatingfrom the Occident.7

The Enlightenment project of modernity and reason has come

under attack by postmodernists like Michel Foucault, who have

strongly criticized utopian efforts to homogenize and "normalize"

individuals through discourse, ritual, and the construction of new

identities. Instead ofliberating

man, humanism resulted in state

projects to control and dominate the masses.8 This critique of

modernity lends a useful perspective from which to approach the

problem of religion during the Mexican Revolution. Traditional ap-

proaches to the study of modern revolutions, including the Mexi-

can Revolution, have emphasized structural factors. I believe it is

time to bring back culture and ideology into our analysis and to

broaden existing definitions of revolution.9

5. ChristopherDawson, Th7eGodsof Revolution(New York:New YorkUni-

versityPress,1972), 58, 74-5.6. DanielBell, TheEnd of Ideology:On the Exhaustionof Political Ideas in

the Fifties,2d ed. (Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1988),436.7. JeanBaudrillard,orgetFoucault(New York:Semiotext(e), 1987),63.8. See, forexample,MichelFoucault,Disciplineand Punish:TheBirth of the

Prison (New York:VintageBooks, 1979).9. The classic structuralist pproach s ThedaSkocpol'sStates and SocialRev-

olutions.A ComparativeAnalysis of France,Russia,and China(Cambridge:Cam-

bridgeUniversityPress,1979). Foran overview see MichaelS.Kimmel,Revolution:

A SociologicalInterpretation(Philadelphia: empleUniversityPress,1990).

89



MexicanStudies/EstudiosMexicanos

William H. Sewell Jr., in a critique of structuralist approaches to

revolution, has argued that modern revolutionaries sought

to restructure ociety fromtop to bottomandacross the board.Indeed,Iwould insist that this totalityof revolutionary mbitionbe included as partof anymeaningfuldefinitionof "social evolution." heFrench,Russian, ndChinese Revolutionswere "social" Iwould argue,"cultural"]ot only be-cause they included revoltsfrombelow and resultedin majorchanges inthe classstructure,butbecausethey attempted o transform he entiretyof

people's social lives-their work, theirreligiousbeliefsandpractice,their

families,their legal systems,theirpatternsof sociability, ven theirexperi-ences of space and time.10

Theda Skocpol has agreed that there is a "metaphysical"aspectto modern revolutions. However, she qualifies the Mexican Revolu-

tion as a "nonmetaphysical" revolution, and argues that Mexico

never witnessed the type of "moralistic efforts to remake all of so-

cial life" which, she concedes, were more evident in Russia and

France.1 However, a new spate of cultural histories demonstrates

that the Mexican Revolution did have a strong metaphysical or, bet-

ter, cultural, component. A comparative approach may be useful in

placing Mexican history within the broader context of modern his-

tory, and so I will venture some limited comparisons between the

Mexican and the French and Russian revolutions. I conclude that

De-Christianization in Mexico was related ultimately to the revolu-

tionary attempt to forge a new culture.

This study examines one essential component of the Mexican

revolutionary cultural project, the so-called de-fanaticization cam-

paigns of the 1930s. Why did Mexico's revolutionary elite embark

on a violent anti-religious campaign that put the entire revolution-ary project at risk? There was more to it than an effort to under-

mine the political and economic power of the Catholic Church. A

revolutionary creed and ritual could not be established without the

elimination of competing belief systems, symbols, and rites and the

subsequent "transfer of sacrality,"as Mona Ozouf calls it, to a new,

revolutionary civil religion.12Below I discuss the ideology of anticlericalism, as well as the

cultural tools employed to win the hearts and minds of the Mexican

masses. De-Christianization was ultimately a miserable failure: The

10. William H. Sewell Jr., "Ideologies and Social Revolutions: Reflections on

the French Case, The Journal of Modern History 57,1 (1985): 76-77.11. Theda Skocpol, "CulturalIdioms and Political Ideologies in the Revolution-

ary Reconstruction of State Power: A Rejoinder to Sewell, The Journal of Modern

History 57,1 (1985): 94-5.12. Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1988).

90




campaign forged no new de-fanaticized Mexican citizen.13 This

does not mean that the entire cultural project was a failure, how-

ever. Certainaspects

had alasting legacy.

A newpatriotism

and cul-

tural nationalism, propagated by the revolutionary state, took root

in the Mexican consciousness. (They have begun to wane only in

the neo-liberal Mexico of the 1980s and 1990s.)14 However, largelyin response to widespread popular opposition in the form of peti-

tions, civil disobedience, school boycotts, riots and armed resis-

tance, the revolutionary civic cult was purged during the 1930s and

1940s of its strongly anticlerical and anti-religious content. Mexi-

cans were quite selective in their acceptance of the revolutionary

cultural project, and they changed its agenda profoundly.This article addresses questions raised in the debate on post-

revolutionary hegemony and the relationship between 'popular'culture (or, better, local cultures) and 'official' state culture.15Obvi-

ously, the relationship between a relatively weak state and a "recal-

citrant people," which resulted in the emergence of a new Mexican

political culture, was interactive. 6 However, portrayalof this histori-

cal process as negotiation or bargaining between an inclusionary,flexible and malleable state and local cultures underestimates the

violence and intrusiveness of the revolutionary cultural project.17

13. On churchandstaterelations,religion,andanticlericalism eeJeanMeyer,La Cristiada, 6th ed., 3 vols. (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1980); LyleBrown, "MexicanChurch-StateRelations,1933-1940,"AJournal of Churchand State vol. 7 (1964):202-22; JesuisTapiaSantamaria, amporeligiosoy evoluci6npolftica en el Bajfozamorano (Zamora:El Coleglo de Mlchoacan, 1986); MartaelenaNegrete, Rela-clones entre la iglesia y el estado en Mexico 1930-1940 (Mexico:ElColegiode

Mexlco, 1988); SalvadorCamachoSandoval,Controverstaeducativa entre la ide-

ologfa y la fe: La educaci6n socialista en la historia de Aguascalientes,

1876-1940 (Mexico:ConsejoNacionalparala Cultura las Artes,1991);RobertoBlancarte,Historia de la iglesia cat6lica en Mextco (Mexico: El Colegio Mex-

iquense,Fondode CulturaEcon6mica,1992);AdrianA.BantjesAr6stegui,"Religi6ny revoluci6nen Mexico, 1929-1940, Boletfn. FideicomisoArchivosPlutarcoElfas

Callesy FernandoTorreblanca15 (1994).14. MaryKayVaughan,"TheConstructionof the PatrioticFestival n Central

Mexico:Tecamachalco,Puebla,1900-1946"inRitualsof Rule,ed. Beezley,Martin,andFrench,213-45.

15. See GilbertM.Josephand DanielNugent,"PopularCultureandStateFor-mation n RevolutionaryMexico,"nEverydayForms,ed.JosephandNugent,3-23;

On the nineteenth-century,ee FlorenciaMallon,Peasant and Nation: TheMakingof Postcolonial Mexico and Peru(Berkeley:University f California ress,1995).

16. AlanKnight,"Revolutionary roject,RecalcitrantPeople:Mexico, 1910-1940;' in The Revolutionary Process in Mexico:Essays on Political and Social

Change 1880-1940, JaimeE.RodriguezO. (LosAngeles,Irvine:UCLALatinAmeri-can CenterPublications,University f California,LosAngeles,Mexico/ChicanoPro-

gram,Universityof California,rvine,1990), 227-64.17. Vaughan,"TheConstruction,"28, 233;Becker,Settingthe Virginon Fire,

116, 132, 160.Becker'searlierwork,on the otherhand,tendsto overemphasize heculturalauthoritarianism f the revolutionarytate.See her "Lazaro ardenas."

91




One must not forget that the state's resources were significant andthat the pervasive de-fanaticization campaign of the 1930s consti-

tuted a serious threat to the ontological security of millions ofMexicans.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the orgy of saint burningin Tabasco (well described by Carlos MartinezAssad), for example,was hardly an exceptional case of Jacobinism gone out-of-controlbut part of a carefully orchestrated national project. "Quiet" regionslike Puebla and San Luis Potosi-Puebla saw its outbursts of Cris-tero violence, too-where a sensitive cultural dialogue is said to

have takenplace,

were theexception.18 Although

otheraspects

of

Mexico's cultural revolution may be interpreted correctly as part ofan interactive process, one should describe the de-fanaticization

campaign of the 1930s as a "top-down imposition."19As Alan Knight points out, we need to understand, not merely

criticize, the positions of both anticlericals and their Catholic oppo-nents.20 Why did the revolutionary elite initiate a fierce, nationwide

de-Christianization campaign? Did the religious conflict merelymask socioeconomic interests, representing yet another aspect of

Mexico's rural class warfare?Was it an attempt to break the cultureof "piety and property" that, according to MarjorieBecker, enabled

landowners and the clergy to dominate a submissive peasantry?21Did it primarily reflect political motivations-an effort by the revo-

lutionary state to impose its will on resistant local communities, an

attack on political enemies, or a Machiavellian ploy by Callista

diehards to destabilize the youthful Cardenas administration?22

Obviously, such factors were often closely intertwined with de-

fanaticization. But Becker'sportrayal

of Cardenismo as anattemptto reconstruct everyday campesino habits, customs, and beliefs

seems a more convincing explanation.23 Why else launch a crusadethat would penetrate into the remotest regions of Mexico and intomillions of Mexican households? The de-Christianizationcampaigns

18. Vaughan, "The Construction." On violence in Puebla see, for example,David L. Raby, Educaci6n y revoluci6n social en Mexico (1921-1940) (Mexico:Secretaria de Educaci6n Pfiblica, 1974) 158-159.

19. The term is fromKnight, "Popular

Culture,"401.

20. Ibid., 416.

21. Raby, Educact6n y revoluci6n social en Mexico, 149, 158, 164, 196-7;Becker, Setting the Virgin on Fire, 9, 39.

22. Ram6n Jrade, "Counterrevolution in Mexico: The Cristero Movement in

Sociological and Historical Perspective," (Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 1980);Martinez Assad, El laboratorio, 13; Meyer, La Cristiada, vol. 1, 362.

23. Becker, Setting the Virgin on Fire. Meyer's classic La Cristiada places reli-

giosity at the center of the conflict.

92




must be interpreted as an integral part of the revolutionary elite's

utopiandrive to create

gentenueva and a new civil

religion.In this

brave new Mexico there would be no place for fanaticism and

superstition.

The Ideology of De-Fanatici7ation

By the 1930s revolutionary anticlericalism consisted of an amal-

gam of distinct but interrelated discourses. The ideology of de-

fanaticization sprang from various sources: radical nineteenth-

century liberalism, scientific positivism, Marxism, and even protes-tantism.24 Revolutionary ideologues attacked Catholicism with

political, socioeconomic, scientific, and historical arguments. The

political elite of the 1930s believed that the Mexican Revolution

was a struggle for both the economic or material emancipation and

the spiritual liberation of the Mexican masses: "The task of eco-

nomic emancipation will not be completed until spiritual emanci-

pation has been attained."25The goal of the armed struggle was not

only to break the political power of the Porfirian elite and to end

the economic exploitation of the masses, but also to create the rev-olutionary "new man," free of superstition, fanaticism, prejudice,and idolatry.

This argument's underlying assumption was that the Mexican

masses-the vulgo as they frequently were called-were ignorant:"our people lack intelligence and thus believe that they are doingtheir duty by frequenting a Roman Catholic shrine to pray."26This

24. On church and state relations see Mecham, Church and State, and

SoledadLoaeza-Lajous,ContinuityndChange n the MexicanCatholicChurch,"nChurchand Politicsin LatinAmerica,ed. DermotKeough New York:St.Martin's

Press, 1990), 272-98. On anticlericalism,ee CharlesA. Hale,Mexican Liberalism

in the Age of Mora, 1821-1853 (New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1968), 35-7,

125-41, 160-75;JeanMeyer,"Elanticlerical evolucionario,1910-1940. Unensayode empatiahistorica, in Lasformas y las polfticas del dominio agrario. Home-

naje a Franfois Chevalier,ed. RicardoAvilaPalafox,CarlosMartinezAssad,and

Jean Meyer (Guadalajara:Editorial Universidadde Guadalajara,1992), 286-8;

Franqois-Xavieruerra,Mexico:del antiguo regimena la revoluct6n,vol. 2 (Mex-ico: Fondo de CulturaEcon6mica, 1988), 339; MartinezAssad,El laboratorio,

15-28, Becker, Setting the Virgin on Fire, 45-8, 64-6; On Protestantismsee:Jean-PierreBastian,Los disidentes:sociedadesprotestantesy revoluci6n en Mex-

ico, 1872-1912 (Mexico:ElColegiode Mexico, 1989).25. AnatolloG. Bautista,"Lasmujeresrojasde Michoacan," l Maestro Rural

5, 12 (15 December 1934):22.26. Cartel"MedallonesRepublicanos," guaPrieta, Sonora,28 August1934,

Fondo LazaroCardenas,exp. 533.3/48, Archivo General de la Naci6n (AGN);

Knight,"PopularCulture," 04; ForCardenas's pinion, see Becker,"LazaroCarde-

nas,"296.

93




condescension towards popular culture, already evident in the

works of nineteenth-century writers like Jose Joaquin Fernandez de

Lizardi and Jose MariaLuis Mora, was also common among revolu-tionary elites in France and Russia. "The people" were often com-

pared to children who needed to be educated and to grow up.27

Women, Indians, and children were considered particularly vul-

nerable to the "intoxication of fanaticism."28This is an ancient no-

tion that dates as far back as early Christendom. According to David

Freedberg, male intellectuals, whether Christian or not, have al-

ways considered women, children, and the illiterate peasantrymore susceptible to the sensuous seduction of idolatry:

[M]admen,women, children, and less educated people generally (espe-ciallythe primitiveandilliterate)... areallmoresusceptibleto the baseand

easy charms of images,to their power and seductiveness... Onlywomen

andordinary olk are seducedby cheap beauty(vulgarcolors, adornments,

fripperies,and the overlyemotionalaspectsof representationn general),not maturemale beholders... It is only these groupswho use imagesasbooks and who are morelikelyto linger ongerbecausetheycannot readat

all, or because they trust more to the susceptiblesense of the eyes-the

one faculty... thatprovidesthe straightest hannelto the lower senses androuses them.29

Many revolutionary educators regarded the indigenous popula-tion of Mexico as fanatic, melancholic, and alcoholic, and in need

of "reinvention."30Tabasco cacique Tomas Garrido Canabal stated

that "the cassocked vultures have seized their prey, digging their

talons into the heart of the Indian, who is less prepared than anyother race to resist the seduction of the whole ritual farse."31How-

27. EscalanteGonzalbo, Ciudadanos tmaginarios, 142; Ozouf, Festivals,222.

28. Resp. Log.'Simb.'"Independencia"No. 250. -Or.Guanajuato.Ponencia

parael XIICongresoMasonicoque se celebrara n el Or.'de Torre6n,Coaj.[sic], 10December 1936, Fondo Direcci6n Generalde Gobierno(DGG)2.347, exp. 10,AGN.

29. DavidFreedberg,The Powerof Images:Studies in the Historyand The-

ory of Response(Chicago:University f ChicagoPress,1989),424.

30. Inspector Federal GuillermoCastillo, Tezuitlan,Puebla,to Director deEducaci6nFederal,21 January1936, FondoDirecci6n Generalde Educaci6nPri-maria FDGEP), 16.9, ArchivoHist6rico,Secretaria e Educaci6nPiblica (AHSEP);InformeInspectorFederalQuintanaRoo, 11January1936, FDGEP,16.12, AHSEP;See AlanKnight,"Racism,Revolution,and Indtgenismo:Mexico, 1910-1940" inTheIdea of Race in LatinAmerica, 1870-1940, ed. RichardGrahamAustin:Uni-

versity of Texas Press, 1990), 71-113. On Cardenista efforts to restructure the

Tarascans,ee Becker,Settingthe Virginon Fire, 75, ch. 6.

31. Tomas GarridoCanabal,Manifiesto a los obreros organizados de la

repablicay al elemento revolucionario(Villahermosa, abasco,1925),9-10.

94




ever, the revolutionary elite was often reluctant to inflame the reli-

gious sensibilities of indigenous peoples, like Michoacan's Taras-

cans or Sonora's Yaquis.32Women in particular were depicted asvictims of the clergy. Francisco J. Muigica,one of the foremost ideo-

logues of the Revolution, considered that the "weight of religiousideas" had converted the Mexican woman into "a being of almost

no economic or social importance."33Revolutionary attitudes also

reflected primordial male sexual fears that women might be seduced

by priests in the confessional: Confession "is a corrupting ploy...that benefits the wicked clandestine pleasures" of the priests.34

This disdain for the culture of the lower classes and women is acommon trait of many revolutionaries, however proletarian their

ideals might be. For example, in 1921 the Central Committee of the

Russian Communist Party opined that women were more easily in-

fluenced by religious ritual, clerical propaganda, and, of course,

confessors, due to their "political backwardness."35Religion did, in-

deed, have a strong hold on Mexican women, and this important

phenomenon requires more study. A possible explanation may be

offered by research on the French case. Suzanne Desan's work on

popular religion during the French Revolution concludes that reli-

gion "legitimated and even acclaimed the potential spiritual value

of those without earthly power" and "simultaneously providedwomen with an earthly arena for collective activism, initiative, and

voice in the community at large."36Becker offers an analysis of the

Mexican revolutionary process as a "male-dominated enclave." Male

campesinos benefitted from revolutionary land reform. Women, on

the other hand, banned from the public arena and relegated to the

role of childbearers, "clung to their rosaries" and to a culture of"purity and redemption" propagated by landed and clerical elites.

Anticlericalism, thus, was primarily a masculine endeavor.37

32. Becker,Setting the Virginon Fire, 110; Bantjes,"Politics,Class and Cul-

ture,"146.

33. ElNacional, 20 February 935.

34. Meyer,"Elanticlerical," 92-3; Discursodel gral.J.B.Vargas n Valparaiso,volante,sin fecha, 1927o 1928,AnexoI in:Meyer,"Elanticlerical,"97.

35. CentralCommittee, RKP,"OnAnti-religiousAgitationand Propaganda

AmongWomenWorkers ndPeasants,"n BolshevikVisions:FirstPhase of the Cul-tural Revolution in Soviet Russia, ed. WilliamG. Rosenberg,part 1, (AnnArbor:

Universityof MichiganPress, 1990), 244-5.

36. SuzanneDesan,Reclaiming heSacredLayReligionand PopularPolitics n

RevolutonaryFrance Ithaca:CornellUniversityress,1990),208;Foragendered naly-sis of anticlericalismnd women'sreligion ee Marjorie ecker,"TorchingaPurisima,

Dancingat the Altar:The Constructionof RevolutionaryHegemony n Michoacan,1934-1940, inEverydayForms, d. GilbertM.JosephandDanielNugent,247-64.

37. Becker,Settingthe Virginon Fire, 19, 29, 48, 78, 114-5.

95




This is a plausible, but only partial explanation. It tends to

neglect the male, communal, and even ontological aspects of lo-

cal religion. It underemphasizes the importance for women ofreligiosity and ritual as an alternative realm of spiritual, political,and economic power.38 Instead, it perpetuates notions of "false

consciousness."

Most important was the battle for control of the mind of the

Mexican child, the citizen of the future. Revolutionaries com-

plained that the clergy had taken advantage of the youth's inno-

cence to control their minds.39 Plutarco Elias Calles, in his famous

1934 "Grito de Guadalajara," alled for the Mexican state to "takecontrol of the consciousness of the youth."40How did the revolutionary elite explain this "fanaticism?"The

Mexican masses were obviously the victims of intoxication, conta-

gion or delusion. Revolutionaries considered religion a drug, "the

opium of the people," or a mental illness.41 The clergy had used re-

ligion to "deceive and submit the people for three centuries by

telling them to suffer for the love of God."42Catholic ritual was a se-

ductive trick designed to exploit ignorant peasants "hallucinated by

floats adorned with clouds, little angels, chalices and all the artificethe clergy uses to cheat them out of their last penny."43

Radical liberalism, propagated by new sociWt6sde pens6e, the

carriers of modernity, constituted one of the roots of revolutionaryanticlericalism.44 Liberals turned to history in their attacks on the

38. See Luis E. Murillo, "Women and the Politics of Local Religious Practices in

Porfirian Mexico," (paper presented at the Joint Conference of the Rocky Mountain

Council for Latin American Studies and the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American

Studies, Santa Fe, NM, March 1996).39. Ortega to Secretaria de Gobernaci6n (Sec. Gob.), 7 February 1935, Fondo

Secretaria General del Gobierno (FSGG), Secci6n Primera, Instrucci6n Publica,

Gobierno y Guerra, exp. 1.40(57)2, Archivo General del Gobierno del Estado de

Guanajuato (AGGEG).40. Quoted in Adrian A. Banties, "BurningSaints, Molding Minds: Iconoclasm,

Civic Ritual and the Failed Cultural Revolution,"in Rituals of Rule, ed. Beezley, Mar-

tin, and French, 265.

41. El Faro. Peri6dico Doctrinario, de Combate en Informaci6n. Organo de

la Liga Anticlerical y Antireligiosa Guzmanense (Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco), Afio 1,

no. 13, 30July 1933; Resp.' Log.'Simb.'"Independencia" Nim. 250. -Or.Guanajuato.Ponencia para el XII Congreso Mas6nico que se celebrara en el Or.' de Torre6n,

Coaj. [sic], 10 December 1936, DGG 2.347, exp. 10, AGN.

42. El Tribunal del Pueblo (Los Angeles, CA), 14 September 1935.

43. Vecinos Morole6n, Guanajuato, to Sec. Gob., 31 December 1934, DGG

2.347, exp. 2.347(8)15257, AGN.

44. Jean-Pierre Bastian, "Introducci6n, in Protestantes, liberales y francma-sones. Sociedades de ideas y modernidad en Amrtica Latina, siglo XIX, ed. Jean-

Pierre Bastian (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, 1990), 11.

96




Roman Catholic Church. They evoked the long struggle after the

Enlightenment between church and state in Mexico and elsewhere,

tracing it as far back as the the Bourbon reforms and the liberal

Reforma of the nineteenth-century, which had sought to ban the

clergy from nonspiritual affairs.45Throughout Mexican history the

clergy had supported "la reacci6n," whether in the form of the

Inquisition, Augustin de Iturbide's empire, or Victoriano Huerta's

infamous regime.46 This age-old battle against the forces of clerical-

ism had yet to be won. Morelos Governor J. Refugio Bustamante,

writing in 1934, lamented that

Theclergyflourishesaswell as ever... Thespectaclethat the fertile and ofEmilianoZapataoffers the revolutionary onscience of the nationis trulydeplorable... It is time thatwe rid ourselves of the men who havesystem-aticallyretarded he evolutionof humanityby maintainingt submerged nobscurantism.47

Traditional liberal anticlericalism meshed neatly with Marxist

theory, particularly fashionable among Mexican intellectuals and

politicians during the 1930s. Unfortunately, little is known of the in-

fluence of the Bolshevik Revolution on the Mexican revolutionaryelite. One may assume that it was significant. The architects of Mex-

ico's cultural policies were aware of the utopian experimentation of

Soviet Commissar of Enlightenment Anatoli Lunacharsky.Intellectu-

als and artists like Diego Rivera traveled to Russia to witness the

progress of the Bolshevik Revolution. No one less than Alexandra

Kollontai became Soviet ambassador to Mexico.48 Civics textbooks

published by the Education Ministry offered reading lists includingworks

byVladimir

Lenin,Alexander

Bogdanov,Nikolai

Bukharin,Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels.49Celso Flores Zamora, head of the Department of Rural Educa-

tion, saw the religious conflict as part of the larger problem of

social oppression and believed it could be solved only by class

struggle: "In the modern capitalist nations the foundation of reli-

gion is primarily social. Modern religion is firmly rooted in the

45. EmilioPortesGil, "La ucha secular de la iglesiacontra el estado en Me-

xico, ElMaestro Rural 5, 12 (15 December1934):6-7.46. ComisariadoEjidalLomade Rodriguera,Culiacan,o Goberador Sinaloa,

24 October 1935, DGG2.340, exp. 75.4, AGN;Interviewwith GilbertoEscobosa

Gimez, 21 May1992, Hermosillo.47. GobemadorMorelos,J. RefugioBustamante,o DiputadosSecretariosdel

H.Congresodel Estado,13August1934,DGG2.340, Caja20, exp. 9, AGN.48. EnriqueKrauze,Reformardesde el origen. Plutarco E. Calles(Mexico:

Fondode CulturaEconomica,1987),62.

49. Ctvismo.Lecturasde orientaci6nsocial (Mexico:ElNacional,1940).

97




social oppression of the working masses."50Revolutionary intellec-

tuals often compared the economic exploitation of the proletariat

by the bourgeoisie to the spiritual exploitation by the clergy. Theycalled the clergy a "class"or a "caste,"that "hadalways made a liv-

ing exploiting human stupidity,"exacting the tithe and high fees for

religious rites.51 Governor Adalberto Tejeda of Veracruz considered

the Roman Catholic Church "the most powerful capitalist enter-

prise in the world."52 In addition, Catholic peasants, deluded by

priests, wasted huge sums on frivolous fiestas and extravagant reli-

gious paraphernalia.53Others used the discourse of science to decry Mexico's fanati-

cism. Only by exposing the ignorant masses to scientific knowledgewould religion be defeated. As Minister of Education Ignacio Garcia

Tellez stated,

the lack of confidence in human resourcefulness leads the oppressedmasses to expect everything rom a supraterrestrialeing.Theirstate of ig-norance keeps them from understanding the physical or chemical

processes that determine the formationof the earth,the manifestations f

flora and fauna,the naturalphenomena and social processes... and be-

cause they don't find any logical explanations because they ignore scientifictruths, as these have never been taught to them, they attribute occurrences

to the mysterious faculties of material or animated objects that they com-

prehend, thus falling into primitive states of idolatrous superstition.54

Thus revolutionary anticlericalism drew from a variety of sources.

But all agreed on the task ahead:

50. Celso FloresZamora, efe Departamentode EnseiianzaRuraly Primaria

Forineato Directorde Educaci6nFederal,Hermosillo,16April1935,FondoDepar-tamentode EnseiianzaRural Primaria oraneaFDERPF),49.7, AHSEP.

51. "Lasendenciasde la candidatura"n PlutarcoElfas Calles.Pensamiento

polftico y social. Antologia (1913-1936), ed. Carlos Macias Mexico:Fondo de

CulturaEcon6mica,1988), 122;ElFaro.Peri6dicoDoctrinario,de Combate en In-

formaci6n. Organode la LigaAnticlericaly AntireligiosaGuzmanense (Ciudad

Guzman,Jalisco),Aiio 1, no. 13, 30 July1933;Vecinos SanJer6nimoXayacatlano

GobernadorPuebla,20 March1943;Visitadorde Admininstraci6n nriqueCastro

Ray6n,Pucbla,to SecretarioGeneralde Gobierno,8 June 1943, DGG2.347, exp.2.347(18)15884, AGN.

52. John B. Williman,La Iglesiay el Estado en Veracruz,1840-1940 (Mex-ico: Secretaria e Educaci6nPublica,1974),92.

53. AlfonsoTerronesBenitez,JefeZonaEjidal,Tehuacan, o AgenteDelegadodel DepartamentoAgrario,Puebla,LuisC.Rodriguez, 1January1934,DGG2.347,

exp. 2.347(18)15884,AGN;Resp. Log.'Simb'"Independencia"uim. 50. -Or.Gua-

najuato.Ponenciaparael XIICongresoMas6nicoque se celebrara n el Or.'de Tor-

re6n, Coaj.[sic], 10 December1936,DGG2.347, exp. 10,AGN.

54. IgnacioGarciaTellez,Socializact6n de la cultura.Seis meses de acci6n

educativa (Mexico:LaImpresora,1935), 237.

98




Wewill topple from theirthronesnot only the gods, but also the philoso-

phy and the trappingsof dogmasand lies that supportthem... Our first

taskconsistsof sweepingfrom the mind of the people the pilesof godsandsaints thatso obstructthe awakeningof theirspirit.55

Iconoclasm

The demise of fanaticism would be attained by a three step

process. First, a broad program of revolutionary iconoclasm aimed

at destroying religious beliefs, symbols, rituals and institutions

would be initiated. Then Catholicism would be replaced by a new,

revolutionary, civil religion via a "transferof sacrality."Finally, the

tenets of this civil religion would be instilled in the young by means

of socialist education, and in adults by propaganda and civic ritual.

Revolutionary iconoclasm, the purging of society of all signsand symbols related to the ancien regime, is an integral part of all

modern revolutions, during which symbols of royalty and religionlike fleurs-de-lis, coats of arms, statues, saints' images, crucifixes,

and church bells were purged from public space.56 As Freedberg

writes, "Topull down the images of a rejected order or an authori-tarian and hated one is to wipe the slate clean and inaugurate the

promise of utopia."57However, more motivates iconoclasts than so-

ciopolitical and theological considerations. Freedberg stresses that

for both iconoclasts and iconodules, the image is fused with the

prototype, or at least infused with power by a sacred contagion.The sign is assumed to be the signified. "The people who assail im-

ages do so in order to make clear that they are not afraid of them,

and thereby prove their fear."[The iconoclast] "feels he can some-

how diminish the power of the represented by destroying the rep-resentation or by mutilating it."58As Ozouf argues, there is "fear

behind all the bravado."59

Iconoclasm took many forms in Mexico. The revolutionary elite

envisaged a new, secularized topography and, as in the French Rev-

olution, names of towns and barrios with religious connotations

were changed, often to the name of a revolutionary hero. San

Carlos, Tabasco, for example, became Epigmenio Antonio. San

55. Santiago Arias Navarro, Las misiones culturales. Reflexiones de un ml-

sionero (Mexico, 1934), 9.

56. Ozouf, Festivals, 225; Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vi-

sion and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution (New York, Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1989), 64.

57. Freedberg, The Power of Images, 390.

58. Ibid., 392, 402, 406, 418.

59. Ozouf, Festivals, 93-4.

99




Jeronimo, Oaxaca became Ixtepec.60 In composite religious/secular

place names,the

religious componentoften was

dropped.61Some

zealots proposed changing names of streets, shops and even buses

related to religion, such as La Guadalupana or La Fe.62 Even per-sonal greetings with a religious meaning, such as adios, were out-

lawed in Tabasco.63

The sacred space of the Mexican village was to be secularized

as well. The village shrine was not just a space for religious gather-

ings but symbolized village pride, history, and identity.64 Now its

position was to be replaced by the rural school. Church buildings,

nationalized in 1935, generally were closed for organized worshipand often converted into school buildings, union headquarters, cul-

tural centers, government offices, or ejidal granaries.65Some either

were taken over by juntas vecinales of lay individuals, and left

open to private devotion, or were sealed altogether.66 In Sonora,

Sinaloa, Chiapas, Tabasco, and other states, no churches were per-mitted to remain open.67 Many were destroyed. In Tabasco, Tomas

60. HoracioLastra,Villahermosa,o President,30 August1929, DGG2.347.

exp. 65, 2.347(23)3; GobernadorTabasco o OficialMayorSec. Gob.,9 November1928, DGG2.347. exp. 66, 2.347(23)4, AGN;Redenci6n(Villahermosa), 3 April1935; MartinezAssad,El laboratorio, 38; Williman,La Iglesia, 144-6; StephenE.

Lewis,"Negotiating tateand Nation:LocalResponses o FederalSchooling n Chia-

pas, Mexico,since 1921" Ph.D.diss.,University f California, anDiego, forthcom-

ing), ch. 2.; EmmetKennedy,A CulturalHistory of the French Revolution (NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1989),339.

61. AdolfoMaldonado, ecretarioGeneralde GobiernoGuanajuatoo Inspec-tores de Culto,2 November1934,exp. 1.40(57)43,FSGG,er Departamento,Serie

Gobernaci6n,AGGEG.

62. EdmundoPeimbert,D.F,to Sec. Gob., 15January1935, DGG2.340, Caja114, exp. 9, AGN.

63. MartinezAssad,El laboratorio, 198.64. CompareWilliamA. Christian r.,Person and God in a Spanish Valley

(Revisededition,Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1989).65. See forexample:DGG2.347, exp. 66, 2.347(23)4, AGN;DGG2.340, Caja

77, exps. 23, 31, AGN;Bautista,"Lasmujeresrojas," 2; "Templos at6licos retira-dos...en el estado de Sonora,"DGG2.340, Caja 118, exp. 8, AGN;Mecham,Churchand State,408;Becker,Settingthe Virginon Fire,81.

66. Informebimestral,agosto-septiembre1935,Inspector5azonaQueretaro,Alvaro

.Bass6A., FDERPF,11.12,

AHSEP;ubdirectorDireccl6nGeneralde Blenes

Nacionalizadoso Sec.Gob.,26 September1935,DGG2.340, Caja55, exp. 8, A(N;LauraPatriciaRomero,"De a religi6njacobinaal socialismo.Jalisco,todo un caso,"in Religtosidady polfttca en Mexico ed. CarlosMartinezAssad Mexico:Universi-dad Iberoamericana, 992), 247; CamachoSandoval,Controversiaeducativa, 91.

67. SecretarioGeneralLigaAnti-Fanatica e Sinaloa,J. Carlos Ruiz to Presi-

dent, 26 October 1934, DGG 2.340, exp. 75.1, AGN;Legislaci6n social yecon6mica de Sonora duranteelperfodo de gobierno del C RodolfoElfasCalles,comprendi6ndosehasta noviembre de 1934 (Hermosillo: mprentaCruzGalvez,1934), 139-154; Lewis,"Negotiating; h. 2.

100



Bantjes: The DeChristianization Campaigns

Garrido Canabal and his "savage hordes" torched the church of

Santa Cruz in Villahermosa, tore down several churches in Villa-

hermosa, including the cathedral, and demolished the towers of the

church of Cundacan.68 The school director of Teapa, obeying supe-rior orders, set about to smash the baptismal fonts and altars of the

village churches of his district.69In Sonora, the ruralpolice burned

most of the Mayo Valley indigenous churches to the ground.70 In

Veracruz twenty churches were torched or dynamited.71The sacred space was filled with religious symbols, in particular

crosses and saints' images, which needed to be purged as well.

Prior to the 1930s, acts of revolutionary iconoclasm were relativelyrandom. Now they were carried out in a systematic fashion by

many state governments, such as those of Sonora, Michoacan, Chia-

pas, and Tabasco.72 The Tabasco government outlawed crosses and

tombstones in cemetaries.73 The so-called Cruz del Perd6n on the

road from San Miguel de Allende to Atotonilco, Guanajuato, was

toppled from its pedestal and hacked to pieces by the local teacher,

causing "a real avalanche of cristeros and reactionaries."74Agraris-tas in San Carlos de la Llave, Veracruz, called for the destruction of

several trees in which it was said the Virgin had miraculously ap-

peared, causing day and night vigils, "so that the deluded may graspthe deception to which they have been subjected and don't allow

themselves to be fooled again."75The predominant form of iconoclasm was the burning of saints'

images from churches, seminaries, Catholic schools, and privatehomes. The dreaded quemasantos (saint burners) were active in

Sonora, Tabasco, Michoacan, Chiapas, the Federal District, Vera-

cruz, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato,and elsewhere. Schoolteachers orpolicemen conducted raids and collected and burned images pub-

licly on village plazas, often to the accompaniment of revolutionary

68. See DGG2.347, exps. 64, 2.347(23)2;66, 2.347(23)4, AGN;MartinezAs-

sad,El laboratorio, 45.69. ArzobispoPascualDiazto Subsec.Gob., 14 December 1929, DGG2.347,

exp. 66, 2.347(23)4.70. Bantjes,"Burning aints," -2.

71. Williman,LaIglesia, 131.72. Raby,Educaci6n,162.

73. Fondo Conflicto Religioso 1927-1967, Carpeta 1/1. Memo. Senado,Repfiblicade Chile, 1944?by Miguel CruchagaT, Archivo Hist6ricoCondumex;MartinezAssad,El laboratorio,38;Becker,"Lazaro ardenas,"03-4; Lewis,"Nego-tiating,"h. 2.

74. Uni6nde MaestrosFederales,SanMiguelde Allende, o SecretarioGeneral

CMM,Guadalajara,July1932, DGG2.347, exp. 2.347(8)15244,AGN.75. ComiteParticularAdministrativo,anCarlosde la Llave,Veracruz,o Sec.

Gob., 26 March1927, DGG2.347, exp. 17,AGN.

101




hymns. On December 12, 1931, more than two thousand "fetishes"were burnt in Jalpa, Tabasco alone. Widely venerated saints were

targeted, such as San Francisco Xavier in Sonora, Santa Teodora inVeracruz, and La Purisima in Michoacan.76 Becker says that in

Michoacan, the images of saints sometimes were replaced with

those of revolutionary heroes like Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano

Carranza,and Alvaro Obreg6n.77There existed considerable confusion over whether or not the

circulation of religious literature should be prohibited. Customs

officers and postal officials bombarded the Interior Ministry with

queries: Were they to allow works such as the Catecismo a la

Doctrina Cristiana and the Explicacion Literal del Catecismo de

Ripaldi to enter the country or to circulate by mail? They even

considered "holy cards" suspect.78 Lawyers consulted by the Inte-

rior Ministry agreed that the reformed Article 541 of the Ley de

Vias Generales de Comunicaci6n (Communications Law) only for-

bade the circulation of works considered immoral or fraudulent,or offensive and denigrating to the nation, and recommended per-

mitting the circulation of religiously oriented publications.79 But

while Mexican law allowed for the free circulation of religious lit-erature, in practice overzealous customs and postal officials were

responsible for a considerable degree of random anticlerical

censorship. Even though the Interior Ministry acknowledged the

legality of the circulation of religious pamphlets, it still found it

"opportune" to suppress certain cards relating to the execution of

the Padre Pro and Luis Segura Vilchis.80 This tendency was also

apparent in private and public schools and in the public libraries.

The Education Ministry forbade the use in schools of specified

76. For example: Grafica bimestral del aspecto social. Noviembre-Diciembre

de 1934, 7a zona Escolar Federal, Caborca, Sonora, FDERPF, ecci6n Inspecci6n Es-

colar Federal, 249.7, AHSEP; DGG 2.347, exps. 2.347(5)15175; 2.347(5)15180;

2.347(5)15171, AGN; Plan de Trabajos, Inspector la zona, Villahermosa, Tabasco,AlvaroJ. Basso A., 27 January 1935, FDERPF, 11.8, AHSEP;Martinez Assad, El labo-

ratorio, 45, 49, 53; Williman, La Iglesia, 131-6; Lewis, "Negotiating,"ch. 2; Cama-

cho Sandoval,Controversiaeducativa, 273; Becker,Setting the Virginon Fire,77-8; Bantjes, "Burning Saints,"268; Martinez Assad, El laboratorio, 48.

77. Becker,Settingthe Virginon Fire,82.

78. Francisco Diaz Leal to Sec. Gob., 13 September 1933; Report AbogadoConsultor, 2 November 1933, DGG 2.347, exp. 2.347(22)16146; Director General

Oficina Tecnica Postal Internacional to Sec. Gob., 17 April 1935, DGG 2.340, Caja

114, exp. 17, AGN.

79. Subdirector Correos to Sec. Gob., 20 June 1935, DGG 2.340, exp. 17; Re-

port Abogado Consultor, 2 November 1933, DGG 2.347, exp. 2.347(22)16146,AGN.

80. Esteban Garcia de Alba, Oficial Mayor Gobernaci6n to Secretario de I-la-

cienda y Credito Publico, 20 June 1936, DGG 2.340, Caja 114, exp. 17, AGN.

102




works, and warned teachers only to use authorized textbooks.81

Devotional literature often was removed from public libraries, as

it was considered a "revolutionary measure to take these works

away from the peasant and proletarian classes."82

From Catholic Rite to Civic Ritual:

Cultural Festivals and De-Fanaticitatlon

Cultural anthropologists and historians recently have given con-

siderable attention to rituals and the role they play in the creationof social solidarity and political legitimacy, the conveyance of sa-

cred meanings concerning power relations, and the construction of

new political realities. In the realm of ritual, the Mexican revolu-

tionary elite, like its counterparts in France and Russia, sought to

suppress religious festivals and replace them with civic rituals,whether "cultural Sundays"or "patriotic festivals."83These fulfilleda function similar to the Festival of Reason, the fte d&cadaire, or

May Day. The revolutionary state undertook an "intelligent, dis-

creet, and well-conceived campaign to substitute the so-called reli-

gious festivals, according to the 'Nationalist Calendar' [compareFrance's Republican Calendar] with festivals, celebrations, and cere-

monies of a Mexican social type."84President Cardenas specifiedthat official holidays were not to coincide with religious festivals,

especially the "so-called Holy Week."85 n Tabasco secular festivals,such as the Fiesta of the Banana Flower, were celebrated in small

towns with the explicit purpose of replacing the festivals of patronsaints, thus "wounding the sentiments of the people."86Similarly, n

81. Jefe Departamentode Ensenianzarimaria Normal,EfrenE.Mata,Circu-lar No. II-37-105,23 June 1934, Fondo Departamentode EnsefanzaSecundaria,147.42, AHSEP;Circular I-109-222,24 August1935, byJefe Departamentode En-

seiianzaPrimaria Normal,FondoOficinade Publicaciones Prensa FOPP),264.6,AHSEP.

82. Jefe Departamentode Bibliotecas,LuisChavezOrozco,to Directoresy En-

cargadosde lasBibliotecas,CircularNfim.VI-7-50,12 February 935,FOPP, 64.12,AHSEP;Document Dario Maiionhijo, FondoAbelardoL. Rodriguez FALR),xp.514/4, AGN.

83. CompareOzouf, Festivals, 95, 106; and Stites,Revolutionary Dreams,

110-11.84. CircularNum. IV-17-124,Flores Zamora,19 April 1935, FOPP,264.8,AHSER

85. Flores Zamora to Director Educaci6nFederalTabasco,9 March1935,FDERPF,ecci6n Inspecci6nEscolarFederal,249.42,AHSEP.

86. Vecinos SanCarlos,Tabasco, o Sec. Gob., 30 August1929;and to Presi-

dent, 5 September 1930; President to Subsec. Gob., 2 September1929; Horacio

Lastra,Villahermosa, o President,30 August1929, CartelGran Feriade la Yuca,DGG2.347, exp. 65, 2.347(23)3; EugenioGonzalez,Teapa,to President,10 Sep-tember 1930, DGG2.347, exp. 66, 2.347(23)4,AGN.

103




Aguascalientes the domingos rojos (red Sundays) were designed to

compete with Sunday mass and saints' fiestas, while the school

calendar was to pay no attention to important religious holidays.87In Michoacan the Confederaci6n Revolucionaria Michoacana del

Trabajo organized an agrarian congress on Holy Thursday and

staged sports events on Sundays, while a regional fair was held in

Villahermosa, Tabasco, during Holy Week.88

Religious processions, dances, pilgrimages, bell ringing, offer-

ings to the dead, and other forms of "external worship" were out-

lawed and stopped when possible. In Batuc, Sonora, rural teachers

even tried to halt funeralprocessions.89

Private assemblies of a reli-

gious nature also were forbidden. In Mexico City agents of the Inte-

rior Ministry were responsible for monitoring compliance with the

Ley de Cultos (Law of Public Worship).90 In the high sierra of

Sonora military officers checked whether illegal masses were beingheld or saints' images worshipped in private homes.91 Throughoutthe country policemen arrested individuals for holding private reli-

gious gatherings in their homes.92 The Mexican state, like all revo-

lutionary states, also tried to enhance its control over rites of pas-

sage. Attempts were made to instate socialist weddings andbaptisms, which might be compared with the Bolshevik "october-

ing" (christening), and "redweddings."93Revolutionaries often have tried to replace existing religious

cults with state-dominated ones. In an effort to compete with the

Catholic Church, President Calles initially tried to create a schis-

matic, state-controlled Mexican Church, the Iglesia Catolica Apos-t6lica Mexicana, similar, perhaps, in its symbolic value, to Robes-

pierre'sCult of the

Supreme Being or,to a lesser

extent,to

87. Camacho,Controversiaeducativa, 212-3, 246.88. Tapia,Campo religioso, 210; MartinezAssad,El laboratorio,46; Becker,

Settingthe Virginon Fire,90.89. Informe Inspector MiguelVilla, Texmelucan,Puebla, to Director Edu-

caci6n Federal,20 January1936, FDGEP, 16.4; Album,6a Zona Federalde Edu-

cacion, Cullacan,Sinaloa,12 August 1936, FDGEP,18, AHSEP;nterview withErnestoL6pez Yescas,Bacum,Sonora,24 May,1992.

90. Sec. Gob. to Jefe Departamentodel D.E,23 April1935, DGG2.340, Caja

117, exp. 3, AGN.91. MayorReyes Orozco Villa, Granados,Sonora,to Comandantede la Defensa Rural,Dolores Fuentes Gutierrez,Nacori, 25 April 1936, ArchiveErnesto

L6pezYescas(AELY), acum,Sonora.

92. Rodolfo Elias Calles to Sec. Gob., 21 August 1933, DGG 2.347, exp.2.347(22)16190; CarmelaAguilar,Comalcalco,Tabasco,to President,22 August1935, DGG2.347, exp. 2.347(23)16199;GobernadorChiapaso Sec.Gob.,26Janu-

ary 1934, DGG2.347, exp. 2.347(5)15173,AGN.

93. Knight,"PopularCulture," 12; Stites,RevolutionaryDreams, 111-3.

104




Lunacharsky's Godbuilding. However, these halfhearted attemptswere

largelyunsuccessful and soon abandoned.94

New civic festivals had a variety of goals, in particular the cre-ation of a new revolutionary cult, or Mexican civil religion. But a

related and important secondary goal was to "perform plays, pre-sentations, recitations, etc., aimed at enlightening the masses tobanish fanaticism, while at the same time trying to ridicule the

clergy"95 Revolutionary festivals (domingos culturales, domingosrojos, ferias escolares, reuniones sociales, festivales, as they were

called), usually the responsibility of teachers and school inspectors

or of state and municipal Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR)committees, often included anticlerical satire, antireligious lectures,and the burning of fetishes. Even the pledge to the Mexican flag in-cluded a clear anticlerical message: "I will fight the three powerfulenemies of our Fatherland, which are: the Clergy, Ignorance, and

Capital."96

Though many festivals were short-lived, especially those with a

strong anticlerical element, some new festivals managed to estab-

lish themselves as important conduits of the new, nationalist, civil

religion, especially revolution day on November 20, and the refur-bished Cinco de Mayo celebrations.97 These were purged, however,of anticlerical elements.

Anticlerical Legislation

Religious persecution and iconoclasm were not merely theresult of random revolutionary vandalism or an expression of exces-sive Jacobin zeal. They were part of a cultural masterplan that suc-cessive Mexican governments designed and implemented. In 1930President Emilio Portes Gil decided to enforce full compliance ofArticle 130 of the 1917 Constitution, which prohibited religious ed-ucation and public displays of worship, required the registration of

94. Williman,LaIglesia, 135;MartinezAssad,El laboratorio,32-4.95. Inspector InstructorTirso Garcia,VillaJuarez,Puebla,to DirectorEdu-

cacion FederalPuebla,10 April1935, FDERPF,ecci6n Inspecci6nEscolarFederal,210.1, AHSEP.

96. Programa ue se desarrollaridiariamente n la EscuelaRuralFederalde laCongregacionde AntonioPlaza,Municipiode Minatitlan,Veracruz.., 1 May1935,FDERPF,08.8, AHSEP.

97. See two papers presented at the 9th Conferenceof Mexicanand NorthAmericanHistorians,Mexico City,October 1994:ThomasBenjamin,"'AVigorousMexico Arising':Mexico's Twentieth of NovemberCommemorations;"David E.

Lorey,"PatrioticFestivitiesand State Formation n Post-Revolutionary exico:Cele-brationsof RevolutionDay(November20) in the 1920s and 1930s;"andVaughan,"TheConstructionof the PatrioticFestival."

105




priests, and limited the number of priests allowed to officiate.98

Pressure from above resulted in a rushby

stategovernments

to

limit dramatically numbers of priests and to forbid masses and other

religious practices in most churches and chapels. Mexican law did

not acknowledge the legal personality of religious associations.

Church property thus was not recognized and reverted to the

state.99 Most states already had implemented such legislation after

the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and reformed it in 1926.But religious laws were tightened in 1932. More stringent limita-

tions were set on the number of authorized priests. According to

Jean Meyer, by 1935 all priests had been expelled from seventeenstates, especially in the north and the southeast, leaving only a few

central Mexican states like Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, and Morelos

with substantial numbers of clergy. Only 305 legally registered

priests were left in all of Mexico.1??

Most state laws on public worship stipulated that authorized

clergymen had to be Mexican nationals. Nonregistered priestscould be fined up to five hundred pesos and jailed for up to thirty-five

daysfor

officiating illegally.101 Mayorswere

responsiblefor

registering priests and enforcing laws on religion. Those who ne-

glected these duties could be fined up to one thousand pesos and

lose their positions.102 Some state laws went further. In Garrido's

Tabasco, for example, priests not only were required to be Mexican

born, of good moral fiber, and educated in government schools, but

also were expected to get married.103The 1932 Ley de Cultos of

Michoacan, proposed by Governor Cardenas, stipulated that no

minister would be registered who had previously excercised a func-

98. CircularNum. 17, 11 April 1930, EmilioPortes Gil to Gobernadores,DGG 2.340, Caja 20, exp. 1, AGN.

99. Procuraduria General de la Repuiblica, Nacionaltzacl6n de Bienes de

Asociaciones Religiosas. Interpretaci6n del Artfculo 27 de la Constituct6n y Leyes

Complementarias (Mexico, 1934), 6.

100. Jean Meyer, "La segunda) cristlada en Mlchoacan," in La cultura purhe.II Coloquto de antropologfa e historia regionales. Fuentes e btstorta ed. Francisco

Miranda (Zamora: El Coleglo de Mlchoacan, FONAPASde Michoacan, 1981), 251;

Jean Meyer, La cristiada, vol. 2, El conflicto entre la iglesia y el estado 1926-1929

(Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1980), 331. Priests were expelled entirely from Sonora, BajaCalifornia, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatan,

Chiapas, Guerrero, Colima, Tlaxcala, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. Between one

and five were allowed in Coahuila, Durango, Nayarit, Queretaro, Hidalgo, Oaxaca,and Aguascalientes.

101. Michoacan de Ocampo, Ley reglamentarla de cultos, 16 May 1932, DGG

2.340, Caja 20, exp.3, AGN.

102. DGG 2.340, AGN.

103. Garrido Canabal,Manifiesto a los obreros, 10-2.

106




tion within the Church hierarchy, such as archbishop or bishop, or

represented that hierarchy.104

The persistent influence of the jefe mdximo, Calles, was evi-

dent in many of the extreme anticlerical measures taken at the state

level. Sonoran Governor Rudolfo Elias Calles consulted with his

father before expelling all priests from the state.105Governor Carde-

nas of Michoacan defended his legislation by stating that he had re-

ceived the blessing of the "Statesman of the Revolution, General

Plutarco Elias Calles,"during a personal interview.106

The Discrimination of Catholics

Attacking the symbols and rituals of religion, persecuting

priests, and closing churches was not sufficient to root out fanati-

cism. Those in official positions might be tainted by religious be-

liefs. Fanatics needed to be purged from government and the ruling

party. The PNR specifically excluded ministers or those belongingto a religious corporation from membership.'07 Revolutionary

youth clubs, the Bloques Juveniles Revolucionarios, specified that

potential members had to prove to be "revolutionaries free of fa-naticism."08 In Magdalena, Sonora, future associates of the BloqueRevolucionario de Obreros y Campesinos de Magdalena, an organi-zation affiliated with the PNR, had to "publicly profess their social-

ist faith and burn several of the most widely venerated fetishes in

the region."109Anticlerical organizations, school inspectors, and Masonic

lodges all clamored for a general purge of state and federal bureau-

cracies, and, in particular, of teaching personnel.110 Numerous

civil servants were investigated. Many state governments (for ex-

104. The InteriorMinistryconsidered the law unconstitutional.Cardenas oSec. Gob., 14 May 1932;Jefe DepartamentoConsultivoy de Justiciato Subsec.

Gob., 16 May 1932; Subsec. Gob. to Cardenas,30 September 1932; 14 January1933, DGG2.340, Caja55, exp. 7, AGN.

105. PlutarcoEliasCalles o President,17 May1934, FALR,xp. 514.6/5, AGN.106. Cirdenasto Subsec.Gob., 15September1932,DGG2.340, Caja55, exp.

7, AGN.

107. Constttuci6ndel PNR(Mexico:PNR,1934),8.108. "La uventud empieza a preocuparse seriamentepor organizarse,"ElMaestro Rural 5:9 (15 November1934):20.

109. Estatutos y reglamento del bloque revolucionarto de obreros ycampesinos de Magdalena,Sonora(Magdalena, 935).

110. Acci6n CivicaRevolucionaria,Colima,to Presidentemunicipal,12 De-cember 1932, DGG 2.347, 2.347(5)15136, AGN;Inspector escolar VictorianoGranadosBasurto,Sa zona, Macuspana,Tabasco,to Director Educaci6nFederal,

May-June1935, FDERPF,11.5, AHSEP.

107




ample, those of Jalisco, Puebla, Zacatecas, Yucatan, Veracruz,

Sonora, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato,Baja

California, and Sinaloa)established "purge committees" and started firing employees "due

to their clerical or conservative filiation.""' In 1932 all state em-

ployees in Veracruz were forced to join an anticlerical organiza-tion.112 Nowhere was the purge more evident than among teach-

ers.113 Guanajuato Governor Melchor Ortega fired about 150

teachers with the aid of the Bloque de Maestros Revolucionar-

ios.1l4 In Sonora an estimated one-third of the teachers were dis-

missed due to their beliefs.115 In Aguascalientes 128 of 200 state

teachers resigned after the purges started.116The authorities devised methods to identify and root out fanat-

ics and conservatives. In states like Veracruz, Tabasco, San Luis

Potosi, Yucatan, Hidalgo, Durango, Michoacan, Guanajuato, and

Sonora, teachers were forced to sign a federally sponsored pledge,or fill out a questionnaire, promising to combat fanaticism.117 The

pledge included this reverse credo:

I declare that I am an atheist, an irreconcilable enemy of the Catholic, Apos-

tolic, Roman religion, that I will endeavor to destroy it, detaching con-sciences from the bonds of any religious worship, and that I am ready to

fight against the clergy anywhere and wherever it may be necessary.'18

111. DiputadoRodolfoT. Loaiza o Sec. Gob., 3 October 1935, DGG2.340,

exp. 75.2, AGN;Director Educaci6nFederalJalisco to SEP,12 December 1934,FDGEP, 29.2, AHSEP;Romero,"Dela religi6n jacobina," 49; Bantjes,"Religion

revoluci6n, 4.112. Wllliman,LaIglesla, 141-2.

113. Raby,Educaci6n, 55-6, 211-2; PabloYankelevich,La educact6n social-

ista enJalisco (Guadalajara:epartamentode Educaci6n,1985); 58; Williman,LaIglesia, 144-6; Lewis,"Negotiating,'h. 2.

114. Informeque el ciudadano MelchorOrtega,gobernadorconstitucionaldel estado librey soberano de Guanajuato,rindi6 ante el H. XXVLegislaturadelmtsmo... confecha 1? de abril de 1935 (Guanajuato: alleresdel Gobernadordel

Estado,1935), 6.

115. El Imparcial (Hermosillo,Sonora),14 August1966;Document teacher

Cananea,25 August1935, AELY, acum,Sonora;FernandoW.Dworak,CircularNo.

71-53, Hermosillo,23 April 1934, RecordGroup84, ConsularPost Records,No

gales,ConfidentialCorrespondence1936,Vol.II,NationalArchives,Washington.

116. Camacho,Controversiaeducativa, 132-7.117. RafaelBolio Yenro,Director Educaci6nFederal,Villahermosa,Tabasco,to FloresZamora,24 January1935, FDGEP, 29.14; InspectorFederalEducaci6n,SantaMariadel Rio, San LuisPotosi,PerfectoS. Rodriguez o Director Educaci6n

Federal,1 February1935, FDGEP,29.15, AHSEP;nterview with ErnestoL6pezYescas,Bacum, Sonora,24 May1992; Brown,"Church-Stateelations," 11, note

36; Meyer,"Elanticlerical," 95, note 19.118. Quotedin Mecham,Churchand State,407.

108




Those who refused to sign the anticlerical Ideological Declarationwere fired.119 Civic

gatheringscould be used for

screening pur-poses. InJalisco, teachers who did not present themselves at a pub-lic meeting in favor of socialist education were blacklisted as "reac-

tionary personnel" and dismissed.120

Purging was the work not only of state committees but also ofthe Education Ministry. The traveling Instituto de Orientaci6n

Socialista, which visited the states in an effort to inculcate federal

teachers with revolutionary dogma, formed regional purge commit-

tees consisting of school inspectors, union leaders, and teachers. In

the summer of 1935 the institute stopped in Sonora, and the purgecommittee immediately set about to examine the files of all federalteachers. Participation in the institute was obligatory. Absenteeismwas considered a subversive act:

Absence from the Institutewithout a fullyjustifiedcause will be tacitlyin-

terpretedasa lackof supportandsolidarityor the revolutionary rincipleswhich the Governmentof the Revolution ustainsandconsequentlywill de-termine the definitiveeliminationof the absentee... Daily... the "ideologi-cal hour"will be

held, duringwhich in rigoroussuccession the teacherswill be submitted o oral,written,andpractical ests inwhich their realide-

ological sentiments and their opinion concerning religiousprejudice,theshamefulvices of the proletariatand the wicked exploitationof man byman will be exposed. No teacher will be exempted from passing thistest.121

Thus, during the early 1930s revolutionary committees throughoutMexico purged hundreds, if not thousands of teachers and civil ser-vants on the basis of their religious beliefs alone.

The Persecution of Priests and Believers

During the early 1930s hundreds of Mexican priests, includingArchbishop Pascual Diaz, were fined and jailed for disobeying the

Ley de Cultos, usually for conducting masses, baptisms, and otherrites without official authorization, participating in processions,wearing the cassock, or criticizing government policy, in particularsocialist and sex education. Some were arrested for participating in

119. Interview with Ernesto L6pezYescas, Bacum,Sonora,24 May 1992;Inspector Federal Educaci6n, SantaMariadel Rio, San Luis Potosi, Perfecto S.

Rodriguez o DirectorEducacionFederal,1 February1935, FDGEP,29.15, AHSEP.120. DirectorGeneralEducaclonJalisco,AlbertoTeran o SEP, December

1934, FDGEP,329.2, AHSEP

121. Instituto de Orientaci6n Socialista para los Maestros Federales del Estadode Sonora. Plan de Trabajo, 12 June 1935, FDERPF, 49.7, AHSEP.

109




armed Cristero revolts, the burning of schools, and other subver-

sive activities.'22 State authorities expelled unregistered priests and

even sent them into foreign exile.'23 Sonoran priests fled to Arizonaand Texas. Priests often were subjected to brutal treatment: The

padre of Chilcota, Michoacan, was beaten, thrown in a sack, and

dumped along the highway.124In 1937 agraristareserves capturedFather Pedro Maldonado, who participated in the torching of a

school at General Trias, Chihuahua, and beat him until he died.125

During the early 1930s seven Veracruz priests were kidnapped and

dumped outside of the state, while several were ambushed and

shot,or killed while

officiating mass.'26Individual believers also were persecuted and sometimes

killed. Those discovered conducting illegal religious ceremonies at

home or hiding saints' images or crucifixes received stiff fines. Har-

boring an unregistered priest was sufficient to warrant arrest.127

Random acts of harassment against Catholics were common. Near

SanJuan del Rio, Queretaro, federal troops stopped a group of pil-

grims on their way to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe and

forced them to work on a road construction project without pay.128

In Atzalan, Veracruz, local freemasons discovered a group ofwomen who regularly met to say the rosary, and threatened that

next time they would be "disrobed and publicly paraded throughthe village."29

Who Were the Jacobins?

Besides the revolutionary leadership, who were the Jacobins re-

sponsible for supporting and carrying out the de-fanaticization cam-

paigns? Thanks to the hundreds of denunciations of infractionsagainst the Law on Public Worship, we can at least pinpoint the

122. See DGG2.340 and 2.347, AGN;Brown, "MexicanChurch-StateRela-

tions,"211.

123. GobernadorprovisionalAureo L. Calles to Sec. Gob., 24 September1935; Vecinos Reforma,Chiapas,to President,10 September 1935, DGG2.347,exp. 2.347(23)16200, AGN.

124. Tapia, Campo religioso, 211.

125. GobernadorChihuahuaTalamanteso Sec.Gob.,

11February 937,

DGG

2.347, 2.347(6)23235,AGN.126. Williman,LaIglesia, 104-7, 112-4.127. Vecinos Copainala to President, 6 January 1938, DGG 2.347,

2.347(5)30484, AGN.128. UnionPeregrinosa pi alTepeyacto Sec. Gob.,3 December1931;Ibid.

to PresidentOrtizRubio,3 December1931, DGG2.347, 2.347(8)15239,AGN.129. CarmenGalindo, Altotonga, Atzalan,Veracruz, o President, 29 May

1933, FALR,xp. 514.1/35, AGN.

110



Banties: The De-Christianization Campaigns

types of organizations involved. It is harder to identify the class ori-

gins of the individuals, though one gets the sense that, as during the

French Revolution, the saint burners were male and of petty bour-geois and, to a lesser extent, bourgeois origin-teachers, union

leaders, military officers, local officials, students and policemen.130Like France's revolutionary commissioners, some were "parachutedinto a provincial life of which they knew nothing... They neither

could nor did they wish to see traditional life; they fought relent-

lessly against popular customs ..."'31

Active anticlerical groups existed throughout the country,

though theynever reached the level of

organizationof Russia's

League of the Militant Godless, for example.132 The Bloque Anti-

religioso Vanguardia(CROM)of Jalapa, Veracruz;the LigaAnticleri-

cal y Antireligiosa Guzmanense of Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco; the

Centro Civico Revolucionario of Colima; the Grupo Anticlerical

Mexicano of Salvatierra, Guanajuato; the Federaci6n de GruposAnticlericales y Antirreligiosos de Jalisco; the Liga Comunista Anti-

clerical and its successor, the Uni6n Anticlerical Revolucionaria of

Veracruz; and the Liga Anticlerical Revolucionaria of Tabasco all

busied themselves denouncing unregistered priests, illegal chapels,processions, the Knights of Columbus, and seditious sermons.133

Many of these organizations operated under an umbrella associa-

tion, the Federaci6n Anti-Clerical Mexicana.134Their importanceshould not be underestimated. Anticlerical clubs organized lecture

series and cultural meetings, and published anticlerical magazinessuch as El Faro (Ciudad Guzman) and La Sotana (Veracruz).135

They also collaborated with state and municipal authorities, de-

nouncingviolations of the

religiouslaws and

drawing upblacklists

of fanatics.136

Teachers played a particularly important role as de-Christianiz-

ing agents, especially in ruralareas. As Plutarco EliasCalles stated in

1934: "The rural teachers are the soldiers that the Revolution uses

130. Ozouf, Festivals, 95; Meyer, "Elanticlerical," 284.

131. Ozouf,Festivals,217.

132. Daniel Peris, "The 1929 Congress of the Godless," Soviet Studies 43,4

(1991): 711-32.133. DGG 2.347, AGN; Martinez Assad, El laboratorio, 31; Williman, La Igle-

sia, 131; Raby,Educaci6n, 213.

134. DGG, 2.347, exp. 2.347(6)15183, AGN; Bantjes, "Religi6n y revolucion,

5.

135. Invitaclon Grupo Acci6n Anti-religiosa, Guadalajara,Jalisco, 26 Decem-

ber 1932, FALR,exp. 514/4, AGN;Willlman, La Iglesia, 131.

136. Presidente municipal Colima to President ACR, 14 November 1932, DGG

2.347, 2.347(5)15136, AGN.

111




to conduct a de-fanaticization campaign among the peasantmasses."137Teachers denounced priests, burned fetishes, and orga-

nized anticlerical gatherings.138In many towns and villages school-teachers and inspectors founded "de-fanaticizationcommittees."139

Of particular importance were the widely distributed youth

organizations, the Bloques Juveniles Revolucionarios (includingTabasco's radical Camisas Rojas), which incorporated youths from

fourteen to twenty-one years of age. The Bloques considered them-

selves to be "enemies of any type of mysticism and of any notion of

contemplation, which only serve to fanaticize the people and de-

liver them to the clutches of theclergy."140

Teachersorganizedthese clubs of boys and girls, which met after class to discuss revo-

lutionary topics, march in parades, attend civic gatherings, and

receive fanatically anticlerical indoctrination.141

Masonic lodges, to which most leading revolutionaries and mili-

tary officers belonged, were another important vehicle of de-Chris-

tianization. Lodges throughout Mexico, especially the Gran Logia"Vallede Mexico," denounced acts of fanaticism, organized anticler-

ical gatherings, and petitioned for the use of nationalized churches.

Masons in Acambaro, Guanajuato, acted as confidential agents ofthe mayor and were permitted to carry arms to defend themselves

against irate Catholics.l42 Other de-fanaticizing agents were the offi-

cer corps, state and local policemen, students, labor leaders, PNR

state committees and the government bureaucracy.143 In some

areas agraristas and efidatarios denounced the clergy, often as a

reaction against the anti-agrarista preachings of the village priest,and petitioned for the right to use churches and chapels as ejidal of-

fices, schools, and granaries.144The Confederaci6n Revolucionaria

137. El Maestro Rural, 5, 10 (15 November 1934): 3.

138. Secretario General SMU to President, 28 December 1934 and to Gober-

nador Guerrero, 17 March 1935, DGG 2.347, exp. 21, 2.347(9)64, AGN;Redencl6n

(Villahermosa), 23 April 1935; Bantjes, "BurningSaints."

139. FDERPF, ecci6n Inspecci6n Escolar Federal, 1935, 208.14, AHSEP

140. "Lajuventud empieza, 20; Declaract6n de principtos de la escuela so-

cialista de Sonora (n.p., n.d.), 14.

141. Interview with Gilberto Escobosa Gamez, 21 May 1992, Hermosillo;Fondo "Enrique Diaz" 48/14, 54/19, AGN; Bloque de J6venes Revolucionarios Ro-

jinegro, D.F to Sec. Gob., 20 December 1934, DGG 2.340, Caja 114, exp. 3, AGN.142. Presidente municipal Acimbaro to Gobemador Guanajuato, 12 February

1932, DGG 2.347, exp. 2.347(8)15242, AGN; Meyer, "El anticlerical," 288-9;

Yankelevich,La educact6n, 36; Williman,LaIglesia, 141-2.143. See DGG 2.347, exps. 2.347(22)22185; 2.347(8)15236; 68, 2.347(26)67;

2.347(22)16196; DGG 2.340, Caja 114, exp. 3; Caja 55, exp. 7, AGN; Redenct6n

(Villahermosa), 23 April 1935; Wllliman, La Iglesia, 102.

144. See DGG 2.347, exps. 2.347(5)15138, 2.347(3)15122; DGG 2.340, Caja55, exps. 8, 75.4, AGN.

112




Michoacana del Trabajo, which consisted of agraristas, teachers,and politicos, was responsible for much of the violent anticlerical

campaign in Michoacan.145

Popular Culture and De-Fanatici.ation: The Arts

The revolutionary elite considered the arts "an instrument of

social agitation" in service of the Revolution.146 A variety of art

forms, such as theater, poetry, corridos, murals, and posters were

seen as convenient tools for de-fanaticization, possibly more effec-

tive than blatant iconoclasm. Though Mexico never developed a

strong institution like Russia'sProletkult to propagate revolutionaryculture, a clear and unified cultural policy emanated from the Edu-

cation Ministry and the Department of Fine Arts.

Theater was an excellent means to reach both children and

adults. Young children were indoctrinated through the Teatro Guig-nol or puppet theater: "The puppet theater is undoubtedly an ex-

tremely efficient medium with which to establish the new ideas in

the minds of both children and adults." The development of the

Teatro de Muiecos, inspired by Bolshevik examples, was stimu-

lated by the Department of Fine Arts.147Open-air theaters were a

widespread and popular cultural tool. Each rural school was sup-

posed to construct one to "enlighten the masses so as to banish

their fanatic and superstitious notions."'48The revolutionary elite

considered theater ideal for social engineering

because in this form... one doesn't wound the sensibilityof the people,who, ignorantandimprudent,often don't toleratean explanationof this orthat error.... but do applaudand accept a work of theater... that makes

them thinkand correct theirerrors.149

Throughout the country students and teachers performed anticleri-

cal comedies to audiences of children and adults. Touring compa-nies like the Compaiia Fronteriza traveled from village to village, of-

fering works which featured depraved priests during confession.150

Anticlerical works were performed during cultural festivals and

school fairs, which often included the recitation of antifanatic po-

145. Becker,"Lazaro ardenas,"8-9.146. EnriqueCalder6n, deario de goblerno Durango,1936),90.147. "El eatro de los muiiecos,"ElMaestro Rural6, 7 (1 April1935):36-7.148. Plan de trabajo,Inspector FederalMiguel Angel Godinez, Matamoros,

Puebla,1 February1936, FDGEP,16.10,AHSEP149. InspectorEscolar o DirectorEducaci6nFederal,Puebla,31 March1936,

FDGEP,16.6, AHSEP150. InspectorLeonardoRamirezG. to DirectorGeneralde Educaci6n,29July

1935, FDERPF,11.3, AHSEP

113




etry as well.151 In the poem "Apreg6n de la miseria,"written by a

rural teacher from Jeticoac, Guerrero, the poet laments the cruelty

of God at the sight of a group of miserable beggars:

Ypens6 en la injusticia de ese Dios vengativo / que es tan cruel y tan

duro; tan austero y tan altivo / con las masas que sufren su dolencia

fatal / sin hallar en el mundo quien les cure su ma. 152

In his poem "VanCayendo"rural eacher AbelMendoza of Actipac,Tlax-

cala,depicted the clergyas "traitors,...octopuses who suck the blood of

the people,... treasonous idlers... sucking mosquitoes... those priestswho areso fratricidalwill pay their deceit with theirlives."'53

Revolutionaries also acknowledged the power of music. So-

called vernacular music embellished official ceremonies, especiallyanticlerical corridos such as the "Corrido de la Confesi6n" and the

"Corrido Cholula."'54 In Hermosillo, Sonora, a choir of 1,300schoolchildren sang the "Iconoclast Hymn" during the 1935 Labor

Day festivities.'55The omnipresent posters of the 1930s were another effective

tool in the de-fanaticization campaign.'56 During the Cardenasyears

many street posters stressed the partnership between the bour-geoisie and the clergy, both 'pulpos del trabajo bumano" who ex-

ploited and repressed the proletariat. "The Clergy serves Capital,"stated one poster. Another featured a hand holding up a book enti-

tled Science, while another deposited the catechism in a garbagebin. The clergy's exploitation of the proletariat is symbolized bycoins dropping through a piggy bank into a collection tray and

afterwards raining on the domes of the Vatican: "Comrade. Your

savings, in the hands of the Church, enrich the spongers of Rome."

One placard displays a soldier bayonetting a bloated bishop and

sweeping away crosses, churches, clergymen, rosaries, and holycards with a broom.157 Similar scenes were reproduced ad infini-

tum in engravings and drawings fashioned in school art classes.158

151. See for some excellent Tabascan examples Martinez Assad, El laborato-

rio, Anexo II.

152. Antonio Hernandez S., Escuela Rural Federal de Santiago, Jeticoac, Guer-

rero, 9 September 1936?, FOPP,453.48, AHSEP.

153. "Vancayendo" by Abel Mendoza, Actipac, Calpulalpam, Tlaxcala, 1936,FOPP,453.35, AHSEP.

154. Asamblea Cultural... Escuela Rural Federal Alto, Tabasco, 22 June 1935,

FDERPF, 11.5, AHSEP.

155. Programa de Festejos..., Hermosillo, Sonora, 1 May 1935, FDERPF,

249.7, AHSEP.

156. Declaraci6n de principtos de la escuela soclalista de Sonora, (n.p.,n.d.), 103.

157. Fondo "EnriqueDiaz, AGN.

158. Bantjes, "BurningSaints,"273.

114




Education

The rural school, federal teachers, and the Education Ministryplayed a key role in the de-Christianization campaign. To what ex-tent did Mexican teaching include an anticlerical subtext and howwas this conveyed in the classroom? Anticlericalism became a sig-nificant issue in Mexican education after President Cardenas imple-mented socialist education. The socialist school was seen as "a

weapon in the struggle against fanaticism."159The reformed Article

3 of the Constitution specifically stated that socialist education

would exclude "all religious doctrine [and] combat fanaticism and

prejudices by organizing its instruction and activities in a way thatshall permit the creation in youth of an exact and rational conceptof the Universe and of social life."60 The socialist school was to

forge a "new youth," free of fanaticism and prejudice. EducatorRafael Ramirez wrote that "Weshall educate the new generation insuch a manner that we shall have men without religious preju-dices."161De-fanaticization in the schools was to be conducted bythe study of Church history, and especially of nature and science.Teachers also founded anti-fanatic committees of children ages six

to fourteen, and encouraged them to further the anticlerical causeboth at home and during cultural festivals.162

The Mexican revolutionary elite, like the French and Russian,considered that religious education poisoned the minds of the

youth:

The CatholicSchool is immoralbecauseit spreadshypocrisyandlies, and itis an enemyof the workersbecause it preachessubservience o the power-ful, resignationand docility.The Catholic School breeds hypocrites,"sin-

ners," laves. The socialistschool will formfree men andwomen.163

Though the Education Ministry reluctantly acknowledged the

clergy's constitutional right to teach catechism in the churches,

many governors outlawed it anyway. In 1935, Guanajuato Governor

Melchor Ortega stated that

I consider that the catechistic work by which Mexicanchildrenreceive

159. Directorde EducacionFederalQueretaroTomasCuervo o Secretariode

Educaci6nPufblica,0 June 1936, FDGEP,95.8, AHSEP ee MartinezAssad,El lab-oratorio, ch. II.

160. Quoted in George C. Booth, Mexico'sSchcol-MadeSociety (Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,1941), 2.

161. Quotedin Ibid.,20.162. Plan de Trabajos,Inspector la zona, Villahermosa,Tabasco,AlvaroJ.

BassoA., 27January1935, FDERPF,11.8, AHSEP;nformeDirectorEducaci6nFed-eralTabasco,RafaelBolio Yenro o FloresZamora, 6 March1935,FDERPF,49.34,AHSEP

163. CartelPN.R.,n.d., DGG2.347, Caja3 Bis,exp. 28, AGN.

115




Catholic confessional education, during that phase of life when man lacks

the indispensable self-criticism to accept or repudiate confessional dogmas,

must, it seems, be condemned by the reform of [Article 3 of the Constitu-tion]. [Wemust absolutely forbid] that religious education is offered outside

of the home, and, especially, in the churches.164

Daily practices in many schools were blatantly antireligious.Sim6n Villanueva Villanueva, a teacher from Durango, remembered

the efforts of a couple teaching in a remote mountain village in the

Sierra Madre Occidental to convince their pupils that God does not

exist:

The female teacher asked the children to say "There is no God" when

they greeted her, and she would answer "Nor was there ever one." The

male teacher would ask the children "Where is God?" and the students

would answer "In heaven, on earth, and in all places"; then the teacher

told them "Well, then I urinate on God, because he doesn't leave me any

space to urinate."

This experiment in anticlerical education ended in tragedy:

Some time later,they

were founddead,the woman teachernaked,raped,andwith her breastscut off, the maleteachercastrated,with his penis cut

off, and on one of those little wooden shinglesthat they use for roofinghouses andwith a piece of pinewoodcharcoal heywrote some awkwardlyspelledwordsthatsaid "Soyou don'tgo aroundpeeingon God."'65

Attempts at de-Christianization were most evident in the teach-

ing of Mexican and world history and the natural sciences. Accord-

ing to the revolutionary elite, history demonstrated how the clergyhad converted the masses into "abject toadies of capitalism and an

abulic and irredeemable factor"166During the conquest, the Span-ish clergy used force and the hated Inquisition to impose a religiousculture on the inhabitants of Mexico. In colonial Mexico a corrupt,venal clergy accumulated wealth and power. Mexican Indepen-dence, which the Church hierarchy had strongly opposed, broughtlittle change. By the nineteenth century the Church owned half ofthe nation's wealth; the clergy thus was closely allied with capitaland formed a state within the state. Teachers glorified Reform legis-

lation and articles of the 1917 Constitution aimed at limiting the

164. Ortegato Sec. Gob., 7 February1935, FSGG,Secci6n Primera, nstruc-cin Pfiblica,Gobiemoy Guerra, xp. 1.40(57)2,AGGEG.

165. "Elmaestro rural en la educacion"in Los maestros y la cultura na-cional. 1920-1952. vol. 1,Norte (Mexico:Secretaria e Educaci6nPfiblica,1987),185.

166. La escuela socialista de Sonora (Hermosillo:ImprentaCruzGalvez,1934),90.

116




Church's political, economic, and cultural stranglehold on the

nation. Recent conflicts (the Cristiada and the controversy over so-

cialist and sex education in the early 1930s) were depicted as a con-tinuation of this prolonged struggle between church and state.'67World history classes and readings emphasized the nefarious role of

the Church and its corruption. One popular textbook featured a

tale about the children's crusade, an example bound to have a

strong impact on youthful readers.168

As in Bolshevik Russia, the study of science, "the greatest foe of

fanaticism and superstition," was central to the de-fanaticization

campaign in the schools as a means to destroy "the erroneous no-tions which the plebs hold concerning [naturalphenomena and] to

extirpate the erroneous ideas that Religions use to explain" [the cre-

ation of Earth].169For example, knowledge of physics would under-mine the notion of supernatural beings and miracles.170Educatorsstressed practical laboratory work as the best means to de-fanaticize:

The best way to wrest fromyouthfulmindsnotionsof the supernatural ndextraterrestrial s to convert the children, in the laboratory, nto "little

gods";to create

micro-organisms, roduceelectrical

discharges,pulverizerocks, enlargeobjects, etc. All these are experimentsthat make children

trulyconsiderthemselves to be masterof Nature.171

Biology and chemistry, for example, would teach children that the

fruition of maize was not due to the blessings of priests or sacri-

fices to Christian or pre-Columbian gods, but the result of careful

fertilizing. 172

Some educators even spoke of a new cult, not a revolutionarycivic cult, but a cult of science:

167. Declaraci6n de prtciptos, 83; Jose MariaBonilla, Individualismo ysocialismo. Educaci6n cfvica, 4th ed. (Mexico: Herrero Hnos. Sucs., 1944), 29-37;RafaelRamirez,"Laglesia,el estadoy laeducaci6n,"nRafaelRamfrezy la escuelarural mexicana, ed. Concepcion Jimenez Alarc6n(Mexico: Secretariade Edu-caci6n Piiblica,1986), 149-157.

168. MarcelSchwob, "Lacruzadade los nifios, in Lecturaspopulares paraescuelas primarias, superiores y especiales, 3d ed., ed. EsperanzaVelazquezBringas Mexico:LaImpresora,1935),75-82.

169. La escuela socialista de Sonora, 65; Le6n DiazCardenas,Cartasa losmaestros rurales (Mexico:EdicionesEncuadernables, lNacional,1938), 275-80.170. Juan B. Salazar,Bases de la escuela socialtsta (Caracteristicas, inali-

dadesy organizaci6n). Proyectoenviado al Instituto de Orientaci6nSocialista dela Secretarfa de Educaci6n Pablica (Mexico: Talleres Graficos, 1936), 27; Plan de

Trabajo... Inspector Escolar LaPaz, BajaCaliforniaSur,31 January 1935, FOPP,216,

exp. 1, legajo 35, AHSEP.

171. Diaz Cardenas, Cartas, 275-80.

172. Booth,Mexico'sSchool-Made ociety,78.

117




In our times there is no place for any other cult than that of the Heroes of

Science, Laplace, Darein, Lyell, Marx, Spencer... You must teach the chil-

dren that society entrusts to you that in a thousand laboratories there are

many heroes who have dedicated their lives to the discovery of... objective

truth...; they are the priests of the future idol: Science.'73

The End

The worst of the de-fanaticization campaigns began to subside

by 1936.174 This was not the result of enlightened, tactful Car-

denista religious policy, as some have suggested, but a response to

widespread opposition to the cultural revolution in states likeSonora, Puebla, Veracruz, and Jalisco. President Cardenas, though a

rabid anticlerical himself,175was forced to realize that Catholic re-

sistance, combined with rising opposition from conservative

groups within the revolutionary family and broad sectors of the

population, threatened the very future of the Revolution.176 After

1935, correspondence from the Education Ministry shows consid-

erable apprehension concerning the excesses of the de-fanaticiza-

tion campaign and the reactions of many Catholics. Throughout thecountry, often violent popular resistance forced teachers to scale

down the campaign. 77

Teachers were warned not to go too far in their efforts to en-

lighten the ignorant masses. Fines and "outrages to the religious

feelings of believers" were now considered counterproductive.178

173. Jose Ingenieros,"Porahumanidadutura,"nLecturaspopulares,110-3.174. This conclusion is based on research in the AHSEP. nterview with

AmadeoHernandezCoronado,Hermosillo,26May

1992; Brown,"MexicanChurch-StateRelations"214-22; Becker,"LizaroCardenas" 99.

175. Bantjes,"Burning aints,"66-7.176. Albert L.Michaels,"TheCrisisof Cardenismo,"Journalf LatinAmeri-

can Studies 2,1 (1970): 51-79; Bantjes,"Politics,ClassandCulture,"h. 10.177. Seefor Sonora:Bantjes,"Politics,ClassandCulture";Meyer,Lacristiada,

vol. 1, 385; EngraciaLoyo, "PopularReactions o the EducationalReformsof Car-

denismo,"n Rituals of Rule, 247-60; See on Puebla:MaryKayVaughan,"TheEdu-cational Project of the Mexican Revolution: The Response of Local Societies

(1934-1940)," in Molding the Hearts and Minds.Education, Communications,and Social Changein LatinAmerica,ed. JohnA. Britton Wilmington,DE:Schol-

arlyResourcesBooks, 1994), 105-27, and,Vaughan,"RuralWomen'sLiteracyandEducationDuringthe MexicanRevolution:Subverting Patriarchal vent?"n Cre-

ating Spaces. Shaping Transitions. Women of the Mexican Countryside,1850-1990, ed. HeatherFowler-Salaminind MaryKayVaughanTucson:Univer-

sityof ArizonaPress, 1994).178. VictorPefia,PresidentemunicipalTexcoco to InspectorEducaci6n,27

February1935, Fondo LazaroCardenas,exp. 533.31/13, AGN;Flores Zamora oDirectorEducaci6nFederal,13 May1935,FDERPF,ecci6nInspeccionEscolarFed-eral,249.7, AHSEP

118




Instead, education officials advised "careful" and "intelligent" de-

Christianization, preferably by means of scientific persuasion.179

This change of heart became increasingly evident after PresidentCardenas himself entered the debate in the wake of a series of bru-tal Catholic assaults on federal teachers. The president gave a

speech in Guadalajara n March 1936 stressing that the governmentwas not antireligious:

The Government will not make the error committed by previous adminis-

trations of considering the religious problem as a prime problem to which

all other aspects of the program of the Revolution must be subordinated. It

is not the Government's business to promote antireligious campaigns.'18

The Director General of Primary Education interpreted this mes-

sage for the confused teachers:

It's not that we are abandoning this important aspect of the program of the

socialist school, but that it should be implemented in an intelligent manner

so that the results may be permanent and are not translated into mere effer-

vescence that almost always produces disunity and unrest which impedethe work of the Government. It is well known that the system used until

now to combat fanaticism has been limited to demagogic procedures [that]have done little but affirm in the conscience of believers the notion that

they are martyrs of their own convictions.181

Revolutionary de-Christianization in Mexico failed due to the

widespread resistance of Catholics, who responded to what they

perceived as a threat to their way of life. The de-fanaticization cam-

paign was ultimately a short-lived and failed experiment. But its

importance and impact should not be underestimated. De-Chris-

tianization efforts generally did not mask more profound socioeco-nomic or political conflicts, but formed an integral part of the revo-

lutionary cultural project. The religious conflict represented, as

Jean Meyer put it, a "clash of two worlds."182The revolutionary elitedeemed it impossible to forge new Mexicans without eradicatingthe nefarious influence of the Church. They targeted not merely the

clergy but religiosity itself. The seriousness of this effort is demon-

strated by the wide array of cultural techniques used, includingiconoclasm, the closure of churches, the banishment of

priests,the

179. Informe 9a Zona, Veracruz, 1935 by Carlos Mercado, FDERPF, ecci6n In-

specci6n Escolar Federal, 208.5, AHSEP;Informe Inspector Federal Juan E Corzo,

Queretaro, 1936, FDGEP,316.16, AHSEP.

180. El Nactonal, 4 March 1936.

181. Circular Nim. IV-22-77, Flores Zamora, 10 March 1936, FOPP,438.22,AHSEP

182. Meyer, La cristtada, vol. 1, 185.

119




prohibition of religious practices, and the often violent persecutionof Catholics, as well as more constructive methods such as festivals,

the popular arts, and education. De-fanaticization was seldom pop-ular, although a tradition of popular anticlericalism undoubtedlyexisted. Acts of iconoclasm were carried out by members of the

revolutionary elite and those dependent on them, such as teachers,

policemen, labor and peasant leaders, and government bureaucrats.

Characterized by intrusiveness and violence, the campaign was im-

plemented on a national scale, with few states escaping its impact.It constituted an exclusionary, top-down imposition.

Revolutionary antireligious campaigns seldom have been suc-cessful. An excellent example is France, where revolutionary anti-

clericalism spawned a stubborn Catholic revival.183This is because

religion is not just related to spirituality.For many, it encompassesthe entirety of their experience. Clifford Geertz argues that

sacredsymbolsfunctionto synthesizea people's ethos-the tone, charac-

ter, and qualityof their life, its moral and aestheticstyle and mood-andtheirworldview-the picturetheyhave of thewaythings n sheeractualityare,their most

comprehensivedeasof order.84

Few cultural revolutions have been able to change a people's world

view or ethos overnight. In Mexico this attempt was definitely a

failure.

The Revolution would ultimately prosper without the de-fanati-

cization campaigns. The revolutionary elite erred in believing that a

new civil religion could not coexist with traditional Catholicism.

From the late 1930s on, Mexican leaders graduallywould defuse the

religiousconflict and discovered that the masses would

acceptthe

state's nationalist cultural project as long as blatant anticlericalism

was avoided.185Still, only today are the last vestiges of revolutionaryiconoclasm finally fading. While the Revolution's idols tremble on

their pedestals, the old fetishes persist.

183. Desan,Reclaimingthe Sacred.184. CliffordGeertz,TheInterpretationof Cultures New York:BasicBooks,

1973), 89.185. AdrianBantjes,"TheEighthSacrament:Nationalismand Revolutionary

PoliticalCulture n Mexico,"paperpresentedat the Conferenceon MexicanPoliti-cal Culture, of Utrecht,The Netherlands,1994); "TheCon-

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Documents

Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Revolutionary Mexico