Conclusion

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the popular responses of the local communities in Michoacán, Mexico to the Cristero Revolt. The findings reveal the economic and political factors involved in the decision of the agraristas and cristero to engage the regime. The result also suggests that the revolts were largely influenced by cultural and religious divisions. These divisions clearly outlived the revolt, but the cristero cristero years were the last time these tensions caused mass bloodshed.

The Cristero Rebellion, 1926–9

This chapter examines the history of the Cristero Rebellion in Michoacán, Mexico during the period from 1926 to 1929. It explains that despite Bishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores' call for passive resistance to the regime some curas at the parish level allowed Catholics to follow their consciences and rebel if they choose. It discusses the decision of many Catholics to mix elements of hierarchical dogma with their own understandings of Catholicism and legitimate violence while holding to a basic conviction that shouldering arms in defence of los padrecitos was a moral, political and practical necessity. It provides a narrative of the various cristero revolts which broke out in east Michoacán, Mexico in 1927–29 and analyses the social base, leadership and motivations of the rebel movement.

Into the Catacombs: Crisis and Persecution, 1926–9

This chapter examines the religious crisis in Michoacán, Mexico during the period from 1926 to 1929. It explains that Church-state hostilities in Michoacán intensified in 1926 when Bishop José Mora y del Río publicly reiterated the Church's opposition to constitutional provisions which prohibited the clergy from giving primary education, outlawed ecclesiastical property, and denied the Church of any judicial personality. It outlines the Church's official response to persecution during the cristero revolt and describes the experiences of persecution of Christians at the parish level.

Sowing New Seeds, Ploughing Old Furrows: Agrarismo, 1915–29

This chapter examines the history of agrarian revolts in Michoacán, Mexico during the period from 1915 to 1919. It explains that after Emiliano Zapata's famous 1911 revolt, agrarian revolts plagued the north-west portion of Michoacán where many people initially associated land reform with church-burning villistas and zapatistas. It suggests that the success of agrarismo depended largely on the extent to which the defining elements of local culture could be revolutionized in response to new political opportunities. It also discusses the influence the agrarian revolts on the rise of anticlericalism.

East Michoacán from the Conquest to the Revolution

This chapter examines the political, economic and cultural history of Michoacán, Mexico from the colonial period to the 1910 revolution. It argues that different processes of historical formation produced rather different cultural and religious outcomes in different local communities. It explains that the post-revolutionary state formation was a bloody process and that local conflicts tended to crystallize around three local institutions, which are village lands, schools and churches.

Introduction: Religion in the Cristero Revolt

This chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the Cristero Revolt in Michoacán, Mexico from 1926 to 1929. It traces the origin of the revolt from the President Plutarco Elías Calles' strict enforcement of the anticlerical provisions of Mexico's 1917 revolutionary constitution. It contends that though popular religious cultures in Michoacán were socially constructed, it did not follow that they were empty, merely instrumental, constructs. It argues that popular groups in the 1920s created multi-layered identities and reshaped not only their political ideas but also their religious beliefs and practices as they alternatively accommodated or resisted the post-revolutionary state.

Peter, Mary, and Jack: Parish Life, 1920–5

This chapter explores the divergent forms of religious culture and parish life which characterised the region of Michoacán, Mexico in the 1920s. It explains that the despite the best efforts to revolutionary priest-baiters, the Church exercised an omnipresent influence in 1920s Michoacán and the landscape was everywhere dotted with roadside crosses, church towers, and village sanctuaries. By the mid-1920s, Michoacán was not simply a divided political constituency but a mosaic of mutable parish identities which were based on varying degrees of religious participation, distinct popular attitudes to the sacraments and varying relationships to the parish clergy.

Meeting the Missionaries: Rural Education, 1920–9

This chapter examines the history of rural education in Michoacán, Mexico during the period from 1920 to 1929. It explains that during the 1920s, revolutionaries invested more efforts in educational reform than in agrarismo as a means of achieving national reconstruction. It discusses the educational programmes of the Secretaría de Educación Publica (SEP) and suggests that local communities reacted to the SEP in various ways which reflected their own historical trajectories, agrarian and political aspirations, and cultural expectations.