ABSTRACT THE CRISTERO REBELLION 1926-1929: MEXICAN WOMEN, MOTHERS, AND MARIANISMO

In 1926, a religious counter-revolutionary movement began in Mexico known as the Cristero Rebellion. Mexican Catholics across western-central states rose-up against the government, upset in the implementation of what they considered to be anticlerical articles of the Constitution of 1917. Catholics felt targeted by the state and did not like their religious freedom being limited. Amongst the many Catholics who voiced their concern against the state were Mexican Catholic women. I examine the role of women within this movement and the means by which they used their agency as mothers and social activists to defend their religion.

Janette Gallardo August 2017

THE CRISTERO REBELLION 1926-1929: MEXICAN WOMEN,

MOTHERS, AND MARIANISMO

by Janette Gallardo

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History in the College of Social Sciences California State University, Fresno August 2017 APPROVED

For the Department of History:

We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree.

Janette Gallardo Thesis Author

Maria-Aparecida Lopes (Chair) History

William Skuban History

Cristina Herrera Chicano & Latino American Studies

For the University Graduate Committee:

Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS

X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship.

Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me.

Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my parents and family for their continued support. I would have not been able to complete it without them. I also want to thank my thesis committee members: Dr. Lopes, Dr. Skuban, and Dr. Herrera. Dr. Lopes thank you for constant feedback, patience, and willingness to work with me. I appreciate the time and dedication the three of you spent to help me finish my thesis. Finally, I am grateful for the wonderful professors I had from Fresno State’s History Department. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 CHAPTER 2: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF THE CRISTERO REBELLION ...... 5

CHAPTER 3: MEXICO STATE-CHURCH RELATIONS, 1800-1920S ...... 22 CHAPTER 4: MEXICAN CATHOLIC WOMEN, MATERNAL IDEOLOGY, AND ACTIVISM ...... 39

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...... 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 64

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Mexico hosts the second largest population of Catholics in the world today. But the high concentration of Catholics was also evident early on. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1910 91% of the Mexican population was Catholic.1 As a majority Catholic nation Mexicans have a strong sense of identity with the Catholic faith. But this connection was not always seen as good. During the twentieth century, the Mexican state tried to make a clear separation between the Mexican state and Catholic Church. Mexico and the Catholic Church have had an interesting relationship at times working with one-another and at others coming to heads. The 1900s in Mexico saw political upheaval and social unrest, which greatly impacted the institution of the Catholic Church. From 1926 to 1929 the Catholic Church and Mexican state experienced years of internal warfare against each other. This revolutionary movement is known as the Cristero Rebellion led by cristeros, religious peasants, unhappy with the actions of the president. 2 They acted in response to President Plutarco Elias Calles’s enforcement of Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, 37, 55, and 130 of the Constitution of 1917. These articles were problematic for Catholics because they restricted religious education (Article 3), outlawed monastic orders (Article 5), banned worship outside the confines of the church (Article 24), required church property to be turned over to the state (Article 27), revoked citizenship to anyone found disobeying the constitution due to influence from clergy members (Article 37), prohibited priests from holding public office (Article 55), and denied the Church

1 “10 countries with the Largest Number of Catholics, 1910,” Pew Research Center, February 13, 2013, http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/ (accessed March 2, 2017). 2 Cristeros: is the name used to refer to peasant rebels, who fought in the name of the Catholic Church. 2 2 any juridical personality (Article 130).3 By 1926, the constitution had already been in place for years, but the anticlerical legislation was never fully entirely enacted upon. President Calles closed public religious spaces and expelled priests during his time. In response, Catholic grassroots groups formed hoping to curtail in some way the federal government’s actions against their faith. Sectors of society each responded differently to the rebellion. One sector that was affected was women, for they held a close relation with the Catholic Church. Large numbers of women sided with the church and organized into groups to voice their opposition. In early 1926, prior to the commencement of the rebellion tensions between the church and state had been building up. By February of 1926, governors were ordered to enforce the Constitution of 1917, and by June the full blown out conflict was inevitable when President Calles enacted the Calles Law, which enforced Article 130 of the constitution. The rebellion officially began on July 1926 when the Mexican Episcopate suspended religious services in response to the legislation. Catholics were shocked at this act. The church tried to use legal methods to modify the constitution but were unsuccessful. The warfare began by August 1926 with no centralized stance on the matter, it was the people who organized the movement. The National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty, a civil rights organization, mobilized Catholics across the nation even at times when the Episcopate was not fully on board. Not all priests agreed that the call to arms was the best answer and the Vatican was fearful that this movement

3 “1917 Constitution of Mexico,” Latin American Studies, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/1917-Constitution.htm (accessed April 10, 2014). 3 3 could suppress the church. Most of the rebellion broke out in western-central states. 4 By June 1927, the total number of cristeros was 20,000.5 Cristeros were not prepared, they lacked, supplies and training. In the beginning, they used whatever they had on hand like slings, sticks, and machetes.6 In 1927 the cristeros became more organized when they hired Enrique Gorostieta, a former general under Victoriano Huerta. Towards the end of the movement there were 50, 000 cristeros, with the highest concentration of combatants in Michoacán with 12,000 and in Jalisco with 10,000.7 Around the same time, the federal army had 59,596 men on their side but the number of dissentions was also high.8 Many agaristas, peasants who partook in land reform, served the state during the rebellion as a form of payment for their new land.9 But there was a lack of unity amongst peasants in regards to the Catholic Church. Throughout the three years of warfare, negotiations were ongoing between Mexican the state and Catholic Church. It was until summer of 1929 when both parties came to an agreement due to the mediation of Dwight W. Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, between the Vatican, cristeros, and the Mexican government. Within this political movement Mexican Catholic women played an integral role. I will analyze the power of maternal identity and how women acted upon it providing them with a platform. Women’s participation altered society. I

4 Jean Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion: the Mexican People Between Church and State, 1926- 1929, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008),43-47.

5 Ibid, 58.

6 Ibid, 118.

7 Ibid, 85.

8 Ibid, 160.

9 Ibid, 31. 4 4 seek to analyze how Mexican women had agency in defending their faith during the Cristero Rebellion. This work details the participation of women in the Cristero Rebellion. The first chapter presents a historiographical overview on the Cristero Rebellion and on Mexican women during the twentieth century. Chapter two focuses on the history of the Mexican state and Catholic Church relations. It provides an analysis of nineteenth-century Mexico, when the country experienced dramatic political changes. This period saw the enactment of six different constitutions or legislations. I will compare how each successive political administration choose to deal with the Catholic Church by progressively limiting its power. In this chapter I will also examine the role of women in Mexican society prior to the Cristero Rebellion, seeking to respond the following questions: How much agency did women have prior to the rebellion? How did that help them once the movement began? The last chapter focuses on Catholic women’s participation in the Cristero Rebellion at all levels. It argues that motherhood and marianismo, the worship of feminine virtues, influenced Mexican women’s participation and allowed them to influence actively those around them to join the cause. I seek to analyze how the identity associated with motherhood gave women agency during the rebellion to defend their faith. In addition, how the social perception of motherhood allowed women to become active but also how maternity became a propaganda tool. Ultimately, I will argue how during the Cristero Rebellion women in conservative states became more active by using their maternal identities to step out into the public sphere in defense of the church.

CHAPTER 2: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF THE CRISTERO REBELLION

The Cristero Rebellion, 1926-1929, was a unique movement within Mexican history. Although the rebellion was significant, it plays a minor role within the metanarrative of the Mexican Revolution, which is why the academic scholarship on the subject is limited. There are more monographs dedicated to the Mexican Revolution in comparison to the Cristero Rebellion; this may be because it was the first successful social revolution of the twentieth century that shaped the modern Mexican state. The scholarship on the rebellion addresses many sub-themes, ranging from top-down political history to gender history. In recent years, the historiography on the Cristero Rebellion has changed as a result of an increasing interest in gender, social, and cultural historical approaches. Immediately after the rebellion occurred historiographical contributions on the Cristero Rebellion were limited in scope. From 1938 to 1980, the subject was a taboo topic to be discussed not only as part of Mexican history but among literary circles.10 For years the Mexican state had actively sought to forget the history of the rebellion because of the harmed state-church relations it resulted in.11 It was not until 30 to 40 years after the rebellion took place that a few early historiographical contributions to the study of the Cristero War began. It also became difficult for researchers to write on the topic because they were at one point barred from accessing archived documents.12 The first main contributions to

10 Jean Meyer, La Cristiada: the Mexican People’s War for Religious Liberty, (New York: Square One Publishers, 2013), 1.

11 Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, “The History Behind for Greater Glory,” in The National Catholic Registrar, (June 4, 2012), http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-history-behind-for-greater-glory (accessed on February 2, 2016).

12 Ibid. 6 6 the narrative of the Cristero Rebellion were published in late 1960s early 1970s. These publications included the work of David C. Bailey, Jean Meyer, Robert E. Quirk, and Alicia Olivera Sedano de Bonfil amongst others. Alicia Olivera Sedano de Bonfil began researching the Cristiada as a history student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. According to Veronica Oikión Solano, when Sedano de Bonfil was a graduate student she wondered why her professors did not discuss the post-revolutionary period of Mexico. Her curiosity as to why the topic was not discussed sparked her interest in the Cristero Rebellion. Her peers believed it was too soon and uncomfortable to write on the matter and she was discouraged by her professors on pursuing the subject academically. However, she continued to do so and wrote her theses on the topic. She was amongst the first historians to be granted access to documents on the rebellion. Amongst the archives she had access to were the records of the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty, which were in the possession of Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra. With the permission of Palomar y Vizcarra, Sedano de Bonfil organized and microfilmed his collection, which are now in the possession of the Universidad Nacional. 13 As part of her research she also conducted oral interviews, compiled first-hand accounts of participants in the rebellion, gathered corridos on cristeros, and wrote biographies on prominent figures. In 1966, her dissertation was published into a book, Aspectos del conflicto religioso de 1926 a 1929: antecedentes y consecuencias. Her dissertation narrates the state-church conflict from its colonial roots up to the Cristero War to unveil the

13 Verónica Oikión Solano, In memoriam: Alicia Esperanza Olivera Sedano de Bonfil (1933- 2012), Scientific Electronic Library. http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0188- 28722013000100012 (accessed January 29, 2017). 7 7 antecedents that contributed to the rebellion. 14 By beginning her study with the colonial roots, Sedano de Bonfil articulates a clear political analysis of the Cristero Rebellion. She identifies the conflict as a reaction to social and political changes of the twentieth century. Her work demonstrated that the movement occurred with higher intensity in the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Colima, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Mexico City. In addition, she published all the primary sources she collected in 1970 into an anthology, La literaura cristera. Her greatest contribution was this compilation of primary accounts and documents on the rebellion that allowed historians easier access for research. Thanks to the work of Sedano de Bonfil historians can research the rebellion more profoundly. Other historians have also left their mark within the historiography of the rebellion, amongst them is Jean Meyer. Meyer is the most well-known and recognized historian on the Cristero Rebellion. In 1962 Meyer traveled to Mexico, from his native France to research the rebellion for his dissertation. On his trip Meyer learned about the Cristero Rebellion from a Jesuit priest who was presenting at the same seminar as Meyer. Upon learning about the “rebels who fought for Christ the King,” Meyer became interested and chose to write his doctoral dissertation on the topic.15 Up until the publication of his dissertation the history of the cristeros was very limited. Meyer’s dissertation, The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People’s War of Religious Liberty, opened the door for discussion unlike before.

14 Alicia Olivera Sedano de Bonfil, Aspectos del conflicto religioso de 1926 a 1929: Sus antecedentes Y consecuencias, (México: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 1966), 13-15.

15 Cullinan Hoffman, “The History Behind For Greater Glory,” in The National Catholic Registrar, (June 4, 2012), http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-history-behind-for-greater-glory (accessed on February 2, 2016). 8 8

Meyer’s three volume monograph on the subject continues to be a main source for the study of the rebellion. Since the church and state archives were closed, Meyer’s conducted interviews with survivors of the rebellion.16 By using such a method, instead of analyzing the rebellion within the broader political narrative, Meyer gave a voice to the Mexican Catholics who fought for their beliefs.17 In his monograph he identifies cristeros as defenders of religion. He describes Mexican men and women’s agency in deciding their own paths to participate or not in the rebellion.18 Expanding on the work of Meyer other historians have researched the Cristero War. Historians have approached the rebellion differently each focusing on distinct themes. Political interpretations of the rebellion are the most common because the rebellion itself was an outcry against political actions. David C. Bailey and Robert E. Quirk also contribute to the political analysis of the conflict by framing their research in terms of the long existing state-church conflict from its colonial roots. Bailey, in !Viva Cristo Rey!: The Cristero Rebellion and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico, analyzes political aspects of the rebellion while excluding the role of religion.19 Bailey focuses on the political resolution of the conflict with aid from the United States. He discusses Dwight Morrow’s, U.S. ambassador, unofficial role in handling negotiations between both nations. His research provides proof that contrary to popular belief donations from American Catholics did not fund the rebellion. The Cristeros received little help from

16 Ibid.

17 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 1-10.

18 Ibid, 1-10.

19 David C. Bailey, !Viva Cristo Rey!: The Cristero Rebellion and the Church-state Conflict in Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1974). 9 9

American Catholics, like the Knights of Columbus. A great deal of his work focuses on the involvement the United States. His overall focus is not the religious or military component but instead the political. This political viewpoint interpretation places the rebellion as an outcome of the Mexican Revolution with origins in nineteenth-century church-state struggles during the Wars of Reform, 1857-1860. 20 While similarities are drawn between both movements, 1920s revolutionaries did not believe that the church’s power could be curtailed. As time progressed the goals of Catholic activists demonstrated an increase interest in social reform. But Bailey suggests that the rebellion’s outbreak was imminent because of the distrust of the church’s overreaching power. These early contributions to the historiography of the Cristero Rebellion provided a source for future historians to expand on. More recent historiography focuses on sectors of society whose roles were once minimized in regards to influencing the rebellion, but also provides an equal voice to recognizable figures that are already well known, like the Mexican president, President Plutarco Elias Calles. The role of Calles is significant within rebellion historiography because he was a key player in influencing the actions of Catholic men and women against his restrictions on the Church. Based on evidence from archives in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, historian Jurgen Buchenau addresses the significance of President Calles’s authoritarian presidency in, Plutarco Elias Calles and the Mexican Revolution. He argues that the state- church conflict had roots connected to the nineteenth century liberal-conservatism political conflict; this time-period established a clear separation between church and state, which was later firmly practiced by President Calles. Buchenau affirms

20 For more on political interpretations of the Cristero Rebellion see Robert E. Quirk, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910-1929, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973). 10 10 that President Calles’s hostile attitude during the commencement of the rebellion only escalated the conflict. 21 To make this argument Buchenau begins his analysis by exploring the origins of Calles’s political life, stressing how he became an influential politician, first as governor of Sonora, where he had his first misunderstandings with the Catholic Church.22 He characterizes Calles as an authoritarian populist who called for land redistribution, equal justice, and democratic justice but whose focus changed from 1926 to 1929 during his anti- clerical phase. 23 According to Buchenau, Calles’s presidency was shaped by his own experiences as governor and by the post-revolutionary political climate.24 By framing the Calles presidency within the context of the Mexican Revolution, he is able to humanize and give new light to the story of Calles. President Calles is a prominent figure in the historiographical discussion of the rebellion but along those lines so was the role of the Catholic men fighting in opposition to the state. Recent historical analysis includes the agency of cristeros within the history of the rebellion. Cristeros were the Catholic Guerillas fighting in defense of the church.25 Moisés González Navarro, in Cristeros y Agaristas en Jalisco, analyzes the participation of agrarian men and women in the state of Jalisco and how they renounced the rights to their land in support of the church.26 González Navarro asks what the roots of the rebellion were and why did peasants

21 Jürgen Buchenau, Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution, (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 55-56.

22 Ibid, 55-56.

23 Ibid, 55.

24 Ibid, 53.

25 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 15.

26 Moisés Gonzalez Navarro, Cristeros y agaristas en Jalisco, (Mexico: Colegio de Mexico, Centro de Estudios Historicós, 2000). 11 11 side with the federal government? He argues that agrarian peasants chose to side with the state because the government threatened to take their land if they did not, but in Jalisco men and women responded differently due to their high levels of religiosity. More recent historiography diminishes the importance of faith-based regionalism. Overall, González Navarro’s work is a compilation of the rebellion history from its colonial religious roots to up until the end of the second wave of the rebellion in 1934. Since large concentrations of cristeros were in the state of Jalisco, scholarship has focused on the identity of cristeros within that state. Jalisco was unique because the state had early anticlerical laws that resulted in demonstrations prior to the commencement of the rebellion. José Diaz and Román Rodríguez, in El movimiento cristero: sociedad y conflict en Los Altos de Jalisco, analyze the rebellion at the local level in the region of Los Altos located within the eastern part of the state of Jalisco. Diaz and Rodriguez examine the role of the agrarian men and women who became the base of the movement in this region.27 A regional approach to the study of the rebellion provides more focus on the agency of individuals, like that of the cristeros. The authors argue that the Catholic faith was more grounded in rural areas like Los Altos, which led to a higher number of cristeros in the area. This perspective provides an opportunity to understand the agency cristeros had. Based on the past work of Meyer, Gonzalez, Diaz, and Rodriguez the most recent historian to focus on the regional aspect of the rebellion is Matthew Butler. In Popular Piety and the Political Identity in Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927-1929, Butler analyzes the rebellion in the state of Michoacán

27 José Diaz and Román Rodríguez, El movimiento cristero: Sociedad y conflicto en Los Altos de Jalisco, (México: Editorial Nueva Imagen, 1979). 12 12 and focuses on its religious roots. Butler explores how men and women in the state of Michoacán understood their Catholicism, arguing that religion intertwined with political culture.28 He also discusses how the rising of the Protestant Church in Zitácuaro, Michoacán in 1926, led to the emergence of anti-clerical elite in the area. Protestants also had to abide by the laws but had greater freedoms than Catholics. Butler states, “in a clear sign of official favour, Protestant pastors were also given control of their churches, a prerequisite denied to Catholic curas, whose churches passed on to the hands of municipal juntas.”29 This area was more receptive to secular education and a pro-government agrarista movement. Butler questions how Catholics accepted their religion during times of conflict, since not all Mexicans felt the same generalized feelings towards the church. Culturally each group accepted the rebellion differently and used it to their advantage. While the Cristero Rebellion can be viewed as a national incident, this event prompted reactions from abroad. In Las naciones frente al conflicto religioso, Meyer analyzes the international responses to the Cristero war. In this edited volume published in 2010, sixteen historians from around the globe explore the most violent years of the rebellion from the perspective of their countries: Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, France, Hungary, England, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Quebec. Historian Matthew Butler discusses the case of Ireland and how the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the country, moved by the situation in Mexico, evaluated the Irish church’s role in the social life of its citizens. In the case of Belguim, Laura O’Dogherty examines how the conflict contributed towards the unification of Catholicism. Other nations, like Argentina

28 Matthew Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927-29, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)12-13.

29 Ibid, 170. 13 13 and Colombia, viewed the Cristero Rebellion as a warning of what the future might hold for them. By gathering this group, Meyer seeks to discuss how the rebellion was interpreted abroad. Some of the questions which guide these sixteen historians in their analysis are: what political positions did these countries’ leaders take? How did Catholics in those nations reacted to what was occurring in Mexico?30 This international perspective to the rebellion provides a global context to understand how nations reacted to the political climate in Mexico. Meyer also discusses the global context of the rebellion in “La iglesia catolica Mexicana en un mundo global.” He compares President Calles to Bismarck and the Cristero Rebellion to Kulturkampf (1871-1887), because both leaders limited the Catholic Church by enacting laws that in both cases Catholics resisted.31 Meyer also equated the cristeros with the Vendée rebels of 1793, which was a counter-revolutionary movement against the French Revolution.32 All events no matter how singular they maybe carry a lot of weight abroad and this was the case of the Cristero Rebellion. Although the rebellion may be considered a small incident it was heard around the world, Catholics and non-Catholics alike were very attentive on the outcome and repercussions of such event. While all these historians view and interpret the Cristero Rebellion in different terms, one group that stands out in particular within the historiography is Mexican women and how their roles have been analyzed. The historiography on the Cristero Rebellion has often-times left women out of the picture, stressing the political conflict between church and state or address the clergy-state resolution of

30 Jean Meyer, Las naciones frente al conflicto religioso, (Mexico, D.F.: Tusquets, 2010). 31 Jean Meyer, “La iglesia catolica Mexicana en un mundo global,” Letras Históricas, no. 13, (2015): 173, http://www.revistascientificas.udg.mx/index.php/LH/article/view/3383 (accessed February 23, 2017). 32 Ibid, 173. 14 14

1929. 33 But Mexican women were active participants on both sides of the struggle as spies, organizers, suppliers, carriers of ammunition, food and medicine.34 Why have these women been set aside, when they provided some of the most crucial work of the rebellion? Often-times historians minimize women’s presence within the historiography when they analyze their role as a collective and not individualized. Not all Mexican Catholic women were alike; they do not form a homogeneous group in the cristero history. Barbara Miller discusses the varying groups of women and how each viewed the rebellion differently within their own terms. She divides women into three groups: las señoras (the ladies), las religiosas (the religious ladies), and las jóvenes (the youth).35 Las señoras were middle-upper class married women of cities who were passive protestors. Las religiosas were the prosecuted religious women and las jóvenes were the young women who became active revolutionaries.36 To defend their private and public lives women organized at different levels of society. In the case of the Mexican Catholic women, they defended their church because a personal right was being infringed upon not simply because of church pressure. Mexican women actively chose to defend their faith. The women’s role in the historiography is also minimal because of the lack of archival sources available on women. This requires that women’s participation be analyzed using nontraditional sources, which includes

33 Meyer, La Cristiada, 31.

34 Ann Shirlene Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940 (Denver, Colorado: Arden Press, Inc., 1990), 115.

35 Barbara Miller, “The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion: Las señoras y las religiosas.” The Americas 40, no. 3 (January 1984): 308, http://www.jstor.org/stable/981116 (accessed November 10, 2013).

36 Ibid, 308. 15 15 novels, songs, diaries, oral histories and memory.37 Since the historiography on the rebellion itself is very limited, the voice of women’s participation during the rebellion is even more limited. But the role of women is now being rescued by new historical approaches. The growth of gender studies has allowed for the inclusion of women in the historiography of the Cristero Rebellion. The shift towards gender history occurred in the late twentieth century in the United States and Latin America alike. This led to the publication of more monographs on women’s contribution during the rebellion, including Agustin Vaca’s Los silencios de la historia: Las cristeras. According to Vaca, Cristero Rebellion historiography places women as second- class actors compared to men.38 Vaca suggests that women have been forgotten by historians despite their important contribution to the rebellion. He first analyzes the women in the historiography of the rebellion and then compares it to how literature represents women of the same time-period. Vaca’s main purpose is to end the silence with which historiography has treated women. From 1978 and 1986 Vaca conducted five oral histories which provide support to his argument that women were integral to the rebellion.39 I seek to expand on his work by analyzing how motherhood gave women agency before and after the rebellion in conservative states like Jalisco. In the late nineteenth-century it became socially acceptable for women to step out and defend their beliefs based on the concept of motherhood because they were acting in defense of an institution that was central

37Agustín Vaca, Los silencios de la historia: Las cristeras, (Zapopan, Jalisco: Colegio de Jalisco, 1998), 158.

38 Ibid, 32.

39 Ibid, 7. 16 16 to their daily lives.40 Motherhood and maternity became a tool of empowerment for them, but it also became a propaganda tool for cristeros in order to get others to join the movement. Rosario Montoya, Lessie Jo Frazier, and Janise Hurtig’s ethnography, Gender’s Place: Feminist Anthropologies of Latin America, is composed of case studies that focus on how non-elite women challenged gender subordination across Latin America. In the Mexico case study, Ana Maria Alonso discusses changing gender constructions during nineteenth century Mexico and provides analysis as to how patriarchy was embedded into the modernization of Mexico. But women learned to combat the patriarchy at home, the workplace, and public arena.41 A theme throughout the case studies is how both men and women reinforced gender expectations but by doing so they were able tear them down. The ethnography does not spend too much time discussing the common paradigms of women’s private (home and family) versus public (political and economic) lives or that of marianismo (feminine virtues) versus machismo (traits associated with manliness), but does discuss how women used these to their advantage. Various anthropologists contribute to the case studies, which help dismantle the archetype of the passive Latin American woman that is often discussed.

40 For more background on motherhood in relation to women’s roles during the Cristero Rebellion see: Patience A. Schell, in “An Honorable Avocation for Ladies: The Work of the Mexico City Union De Damas Catolicas Mexicanas, 1912-1926.” Journal of Women's History 10, no. 4 (November 1999); Maria Elvira Bermudez, La vida familiar del mexicano, (Mexico: Antigua Libreria Robredo, 1955); Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell, in The Women’s Revolution in Mexico 1910-1953, (Maryland: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2007); Evelyn P. Stevens, “Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo,” in Female and Male in Latin America: Essays, ed. Ann M. Pescatello, (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1973); Barbara Miller, “The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion: Las señoras y las religiosas.” The Americas. 40, no. 3 (January 1984): 303-323; Silvia Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1875, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985).

41 Ana Maria Alonso, “What the Strong Owe to the Weak”: Rationality, Domestic Violence, and Governmentality in Nineteenth-Century Mexico,” in Gender's Place: Feminist Anthropologies of Latin America, ed. Rosario Montoya, Lessie Jo Frazier, and Janise Hurtig, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.), 115. 17 17

Elizabeth Dore’s edited work, Gender Politics in Latin America: Debates in Theory and Practice, is a compilation of essays written by anthropologists and historians who analyze women’s political actions in Latin America during the twentieth century. Postmodernist interpretations of women in Latin America are rebutted throughout the monograph. Dore’s essay, “The Holy Family: Imagined Households in Latin American History,” discusses the Latin American patriarchal family as what she describes as a historical myth. She argues that female-headed households were also common. Other essays within the edited volume also contribute to a different viewpoint towards women in Latin America. The essay, “Public and Private Spheres: The End of the Dichotomy” by Tessa Cubitt and Helen Greenslade examines whether the private versus public dichotomy can be used as framework to study women’s roles in social movements throughout Latin America in the twentieth century.42 They suggest that there is more of a blurred line within the concept of private and public roles of women than what historians have used. There is a fluidity amongst both social spheres, elements that at one point might have been considered private at another point may be classified as public. They also argue that for women stepping into the public sphere it did not automatically make them anymore empowered. According to Cubitt and Greenslate, there was no clear criteria that defines what a woman did within the confines of her household versus in her social life. Their analysis of the private vs. public is central to my theses because my argument is framed around women’s access to more rights during the Cristero Rebellion, but how do we define these rights within the framework established by Cubitt and Greenslade?

42 Elizabeth Dore, ed. Gender Politics in Latin America: Debates in Theory and Practice, (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997), 52. 18 18

The portrayal of the female identity is also important in order to understand this transition of women to the public. Maria Herrera-Sobek in, The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis, analyzes images of the female in the Mexican corrido during the Mexican Revolution.43 She identifies different feminist archetypes, which were common stereotypical labels associated with women. In her study, she uses corridos are used to exemplify the archetypes she discusses at length. Herrera-Sobek argues, “that the crystallization of an archetype in a society is a result of historical process.”44 Labels become enshrined in society after periods of time, although they may not necessarily be appropriate identifiers. She identifies five distinct female archetypes, which guide her research: the good mother, the terrible mother, the mother goddess, the flirt, and the soldier.45 But her main-focus is on the female soldier “the soldadera” and how corridos portrayed soldaderas as a greater than life myth because corrido songwriters were unable to describe soldaderas realistically. Just like soldaderas, cristeras were larger than life figures who risked their families’ well-being. 46 Many soldaderas then went on to continue the fight as cristeras. It is of importance to focus on how corridos portrayed women because they reflect how society was viewed at that time and place in history. Along with monographs there are also dissertations dedicated to the topic, including Barbara Ann Miller’s, “The role of women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion: A New Chapter.” In her dissertation Miller demonstrates women were

43 Corrido: is a Spanish term used to describe a popular narrate song often discussing oppression, history, and daily life of peasants, and relevant social topics.

44 Maria Herrrera-Sobek, The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), xiii.

45 Ibid, xiii.

46 Ibid, xiii. 19 19 capable of assuming leadership in a violent enterprise and were also able to fall back into their conservative patterns once the crisis ended. Miller argues, “women’s behavior is not a function of their sex but of innumerable other influences such as culture, class, religion, and occupation.”47 According to Miller, the church reinforced women’s role within the family. While Miller views how women remained within the sphere of their conservative roles I will look at how the church did reinforce women’s family role but by reinforcing it, motherhood became a stepping-stone into the public sphere. Julian F. Dodson’s Master thesis, Las Cristeras de Jalisco: Women’s Participation in Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion 1926-1929, examines how women in the state of Jalisco were willing to support the church in the form of Catholic organizations. Dodson seeks to answer what particular conditions in the state of Jalisco made it unique during the rebellion. He argues that the high concentration of Catholics in Jalisco made it easier for women to side with the Church, because women believed that the Mexican Revolutionary state of the 1920s could not provide for them in the same manner as the Catholic Church did. Since Catholic women in the state of Jalisco did not feel their interests reflected in the new state they easily organized into groups to accomplish their own personal goals, which was to defend the continuation of the Catholic Church.48 Mexican women’s decision-making was a product of their time, so their movement must be understood within the larger Mexican Revolution context. For example, Shirlene Soto, in Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality 1910-1940, analyzes the role

47 Barbara Miller, The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion: a new chapter, PhD dissertation, (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1981).

48 Julian F. Dodson, Las Cristeras de Jalisco: Women’s Participation in Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion 1926-1929, M.A. Thesis, (University of North Carolina: Charlotte, 2007). 20 20 of women in the Mexican Revolution and how their activism and agency led to their identification as modern Mexican women. Women played a significant role within the revolution and Soto examines how their participation affected the way they understood their roles in society.49 During the timeframe of the Cristero War, Soto examines the participation of women as defenders of the church. The formation of the Feminine Brigade was one form they defended the Catholic Church. By 1928 the Feminine Brigades had over 10,000 members the majority were single working-class women.50 Soto mentions that as women’s participation in the rebellion increased the government’s suspicion against women’s political loyalty also increased.51 The federal government argued that women should not be allowed to vote because their vote would be based on religious beliefs, thus negating the goals of the revolution.52 This analysis provides for further insight into the role of revolutionary women. Overall, due to the new approaches to the analysis of history, gender history has become prominent in the study of historical events. The study of the Cristero Rebellion is not the exception. As described by previous historians the participation of women in the Cristero War was significant. The church was an integral social institution for Mexican women. It helped to create an identity for them and formed part of their private and public lives. By restricting the church the Mexican state was also restricting the lives of Mexican Women.53 By

49 Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, 113-115.

50 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 132.

51 Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, 114.

52 Ibid, 113.

53 Patience A. Schell, “An Honorable Avocation for Ladies: The Work of the Mexico City Union De Damas Catolicas Mexicanas, 1912-1926.” Journal of Women's History 10, no. 4 (November 1999): 78- 103.http://muse.jhu.edu.hmlproxy.lib.csufresno.edu/journals/journal_of_womens_history/summary/v010/1 0.4.schell.html (accessed September 22, 2013). 21 21 focusing my thesis on women during the Cristero Rebellion, I will contribute to the limited existing historiography on the rebellion.

CHAPTER 3: MEXICO STATE-CHURCH RELATIONS, 1800-1920S

When studying the Cristero Rebellion it is fundamental to consider the role of the Catholic Church in the history of Mexico during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This time-period stands out because the wave of anticlericalism legislation that arose was consequential to the commencement of the rebellion years later. Although the history of the Catholic Church and Mexican state dates further back to the establishment of the New Spain viceroyalty, I will focus on the second half of the nineteenth century, when the federal government started establishing a clear separation between church and state from the point of the Laws of Reform up to the Cristero Rebellion. By establishing this period I seek to provide a clear historical background of Mexico’s rise in anticlerical legislation post-Mexican independence and the role of women during this time. In 1821, New Spain declared its independence from the Spanish Crown, establishing the Mexican state. The end of the Mexican Independence movement established legislation regarding civil liberties, including the Plan de Iguala. Agustin de Iturbide issued the Plan de Iguala in 1821 during the final stage of Mexican Independence. The Plan is commonly referred to as the Plan of the Three Guarantees because it established three principles: the absolute independence of Mexico from Spain, social equality for all social and ethnic groups, and Roman Catholicism as the primary religion.54 The Plan stated that Mexico was to become a constitutional monarchy but it also had important provisions in regards to religion, stating “the new religion of New Spain is and

54 “Plan de Iguala,” Library of Congress (Hispanic Reading Room, Hispanic Division), https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/mexico/iguala.html (accessed October 2, 2016). 23 23 shall be Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman without tolerance to any other religion” and that “New Spain is Independent of the old Spain and any other potency of our continent.”55 Under the Plan de Iguala the Catholic Church remained in its position of power. After the establishment of the Plan de Iguala an official Constitution was issued in 1824. This constitution established a representative federalist system and reaffirmed Catholicism as the official religion of the country.56 According to H.N. Branch and L.S. Rowe, “in Mexico, federalism meant the sub-division of what had been, under the Spanish rule, a centralized, unified system; in the United States, the establishment of a federal system signified a closer union between separated political units.”57 Article 3 of the Constitution of 1824 states, “the religion of the Mexican nation shall perpetually remain the Roman Catholic and Apostolic. The nation protects it by wise and just laws and prohibits the exercise of every other.”58 Both the Constitution of 1824 and the Plan de Iguala protected the Catholic Church by establishing it as the official religion of the state. But this solidified relation between church and state would soon change. Although the previous legislation affirmed the central role of the Catholic religion, many did not agree with it. After the independence movement, there was a clear division between liberals and conservatives on how the newly formed nation should be governed. Both groups had different views in regards to the

55 “Plan de Iguala,” Library of Congress (Hispanic Reading Room, Hispanic Division), https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/mexico/iguala.html (accessed October 2, 2016).

56 “Constitution of 1824,” Texas A&M University. http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/constit1824.htm (accessed February 15, 2017).

57 H. N., Branch and L. S. Rowe. “The Mexican Constitution of 1917 Compared with The Constitution of 1857.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 71, 1917, pp. iii. www.jstor.org/stable/1013370 (accessed January 27, 2017).

58 “Constitution of 1824,” Texas A&M University. http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/constit1824.htm (accessed February 15, 2017). 24 24 future of the Mexican state. Liberals wanted a nation-state that limited the power of the Catholic Church and the army, while conservatives wanted a centralist government in which the church maintained its dominance.59 Liberals associated the Catholic Church with Spain and wanted no connection to it. They believed it was necessary to establish a nation state to protect their newly gained independence.60 While liberals were against the Catholic Church, the church remained stable having built a strong tradition in New Spain. For Mexican’s the Catholic Church was associated with education, hospitals, credits, and much more; it dealt with needs of the people and it signified more than just a traditional institution. The instability that resulted after the movements of independence affected the state but the church remained a reliable source that was there for the people. It was in the 1850s when the liberal rise came to fruition under the Laws of Reform. The Laws of Reform issued from 1855 to 1859 sought to limit the power of the church.61 The three main laws were the Juarez Law (1855), Iglesias Law (1856), and Law of Nationalization (1857). The laws established a civil registry, declared religious freedom, and nationalized ecclesiastical property. 62 The civil registry was placed in control of the government; while religious matrimony no longer had legal validity, it now became a civil contract with the state.63 Prior to

59 Quirk, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church,10-12. 60 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 4.

61 Thomas Benjamin and Marcial Ocasio-Melendez, “Organizing the Memory of Modern Mexico: Porfirian Historiography in Perspective, 1880s-1980s,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 64, Issue 2 (May 1984): 323-364. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2514524 (accessed October 30, 2016). 62 “Leyes de Reforma,” Secretaría de Gobernacion de Veracruz, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5VGlGHvAOqcJ:web.segobver.gob.mx/juridico/v ar/presentacion.pdf+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (accessed December 2, 2016). 63 “Leyes de Reforma,” Secretaría de Gobernación de Veracruz, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5VGlGHvAOqcJ:web.segobver.gob.mx/juridico/v ar/presentacion.pdf+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (December 2, 2016). 25 25 this, it was the Catholic Church that maintained all registry records. Religious holidays were also suspended, hospitals were secularized, and Catholicism was no longer claimed as the official religion of the state.64 These laws established a clear separation of church and state. The Laws of Reform were eventually integrated into the Constitution of 1857. The new constitution set out a different path for church-state relations in Mexico. Conservatives were opposed to the new constitution just as they had been with Laws of Reform. The Constitution of 1857 also established a federalist system just like the Constitution of 1824. Religion and education were both heavily impacted by the new constitution. For example, Article 3 of the Constitution of 1857 clearly established that no religious congregation could participate in education.65 Education was deemed independent of religion and religious catechism was removed from public schools. The focus of education shifted away from religious doctrine and moved towards teaching civic moral.66 The freedom that the Catholic Church experienced came to a temporary halt. The continued disagreement between liberals and conservative eventually led to a clash amongst both groups. Unhappy with the political climate a civil war broke out December of 1857 between both factions, known as the Wars of Reform, 1857-1860. Conservatives took over Mexico City in opposition to the liberal government under the Plan de Tacubaya.67 This plan called Congress to

64 Quirk, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910-1929,11.

65 Sergio Pérez Sánchez. “EducaciÓn laica en el sistema educativo mexicano: Entre la omision, la ambigÜedad y el conflicto.” Scientific Electronic Library Online, vol. 5 no. 1, (2012). http://www.scielo.edu.uy/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1688- 74682012000100005&lng=es&nrm=iso (accessed February 27, 2017).

66 Ibid, paragraphs 18-20.

67 Secretaria de Defensa Nacional Gobierno de Mexico. “La Guerra de Reforma.” http://www.gob.mx/sedena/documentos/la-guerra-de-reforma (accessed March 2 2017). 26 26 draft a new constitution that was more favorable to the demands of conservatives. Nevertheless, conservatives were met with resistance because Benito Juarez, President of the Supreme Court of Justice, promised to uphold the Constitution of 1857. Juarez led the liberal government in the city of Veracruz from 1858 to 1861. The conservative opposition was in large part moved by the clergy, military, and those who wanted a constitutional monarchy.68 Conservatives felt personally attacked by the Laws of Reform and Constitution of 1857 because they considered their rights were being infringed upon. They felt it was their right to have access to tax exemptions, church and military courts, and for the church to own land. Both the Catholic Church and the military had institutional privileges up to this point but the Laws of Reform no longer protected them. By 1861 the liberals seemed to have won the civil war and Juarez won presidential election. President Juarez implemented radical social reforms, which were not widely accepted. One year later the liberals were once again faced with opposition when conservatives enlisted the help of France and Napoleon III in installing Maximillian of Hapsburg as emperor of Mexico and allowing French forces to intervene. The tumultuous years Mexico experienced allowed for easy foreign interference. Ultimately, conservatives were not successful and faced resistance from the liberals led by Juarez. The French lost many battles against the Mexicans and withdrew from Mexico in 1867. General Porfirio Diaz emerged from the campaigns against the French victorious and with new recognition that eventually helped him win his presidency.69

68 Quirk, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910-1929, 11-14.

69 Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 9. 27 27

After the Wars of Reform concluded, state-church relations remained fractured and Mexicans longed for stability. Diaz came into power in the name of reform and democracy after Benito Juarez’s Laws of Reform.70 While the Constitution of 1857 remained in place during the Porfiriato, 1876-1910, democratic and anticlerical provisions of the constitution were not executed so rigorously.71 The church-state dynamic remained stable. During the Porfiriato Mexico’s economy was stable, which allowed for its integration into world trade. This happened due to the good political climate and foreign investments.72 Historian Alan Knight states, “by balancing the budget, his administration restored the country’s credit and could borrow at increasingly favourable rates.”73 Foreign investors gained a lot with Diaz in power. Due to the capitalistic economic environment created by Diaz, foreigners “built a network of railroads, revitalized mining, expanded and modernized the textile industry, and transformed commercial agriculture.”74 These were early steps taken towards modernization in Mexico. The landlord class took advantage of the rise in demand for goods, which affected the rural peasants who made up three-quarters of the population.75 According to Knight, the urban middle-class grew during the expansion of the state and economy, but it was the rural poor who were affected. The poor suffered greatly because Diaz’s economic revitalization did not take them into account, it did consider the Catholic Church, foreigners, and elite

70 Benjamin and Ocasio-Melendez, “Organizing the Memory of Modern Mexico,” 325.

71 Ibid, 325.

72 Knight, The Mexican Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, 10.

73 Ibid, 10.

74 Benjamin and Ocasio-Melendez, “Organizing the Memory of Modern Mexico,”, 325.

75 Knight, The Mexican Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, 18. 28 28 because he needed their support to remain in power. 76 Eventually the country had enough and Diaz’s long dictatorship, 1876-1911, ended. 77 He was ousted by a revolutionary movement after losing an election to Francisco I. Madero and not peacefully transferring the presidency to him. While the historiography criticizes some of Diaz’s actions, during the nineteenth century, women did have more opportunities, for instance in education. New schools were created in urban areas due to President Diaz’s educational expansion, which provided women the opportunity of an education beyond primary level.78 Approximately “one quarter of Mexicans became literate in President Diaz’s Mexico.”79 This social shift that allowed women to pursue an education and prepared them to work was not widely accepted. William E. French states, “moreover, the school formed useful women, not know-it-alls; modest women, not pretentious harridans; women who were not offended by housework but who knew something about science and language.”80 The education of women was intended to aid in her domesticity as a good wife. Progress and modernization were equated with threatening domesticity. French in the journal article, “Prostitutes and Guardian Angels: Women, Work, and the Family in Porfirian Mexico,” discusses how capitalistic work ethic contributed to gender

76 Knight, The Mexican Revolution, History Today, vol. 30, no. 5 (May 1980). http://www.historytoday.com/alan-knight/mexican-revolution (accessed February 25, 2017).

77 Benjamin and Ocasio-Melendez, “Organizing the Memory of Modern Mexico,” 325.

78 Martha Eva Rocha, “The Faces of Rebellion: From Revolutionaries to Veterans in Nationalist Mexico,” in The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953, ed. Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (Maryland: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007), 17.

79 Library of Congress, “The Mexican Revolution and the United States in the Collections of the Library of Congress,” https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mexican-revolution-and-the-united-states/mexico- during-the-porfiriato.html (accessed April 2, 2017).

80 William E. French “Prostitutes and Guardian Angels: Women, Work, and the Family in Porfirian Mexico.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 72, no. 4 (1992): 533. www.jstor.org/stable/2516659. (accessed February 27, 2017). 29 29 social constructions. Society projected onto women what they believed was morally correct. For example, in Chihuahua prostitutes and women who worked were grouped together as harming society.81 There was a push to impose moral reform, as the middle-class felt threatened. French states, “middle-class Mexicans were concerned that women would virtually become men, which illustrates that for them, deviation from the traditional social roles seemed a violation of nature itself.”82 Nonetheless, during the Porfiriato women expanded their spheres of spheres of influence. In 1910 the Mexican Revolution began causing internal struggles within Mexican society once again. The revolution first commenced in response to President Porfirio Diaz’s long standing regime as president of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. Mexican society revolted against his regime after he continued to win reelections and there was no constitutional succession of power.83 Francisco I. Madero led the insurgent movement; he overthrew the Diaz regime leading Madero to become the first revolutionary to replace Diaz as president.84 From 1910 to 1920 successive new governments were installed, Madero was the first revolutionary president from 1911 to 1913, Victoriano Huerta from 1913-1914, and Venustiano Carranza from 1916-1920; causing division and civil unrest within Mexican society.85 This revolutionary movement changed the relationship between the Catholic Church and Mexican state once again. While the Diaz regime was in

81 Ibid, 541.

82 Ibid, 542.

83 Gonzalez, The Mexican Revolution, 67.

84 Ibid, chapter 2.

85 Ibid, 180-181. 30 30 place the church was left alone, this changed under the various revolutionary governments that were installed and controlled different areas of the nation during the Mexican Revolution. Each revolutionary faction was either against or in favor of the church in the public sphere. This disagreement related to the positon of the church in the public domain. For example, many Emiliano Zapata’s supporters (Zapatistas) were Catholics.86 However, being Catholic did not ultimately signify you favored the church’s influence stepping into political or economic life. Venustiano Carranza, a constitutionalist, was amongst those who believed that limiting the power of the Church was a step towards establishing a modernized state.87 After Carranza’s victory, delegates met in the city of Queretaro on December 1, 1916 to discuss the legislation of the new constitution that would replace the Constitution of 1857. On February 5, 1917, Carranza promulgated the new constitution of Mexico. The constitution was more radical than Carranza expected it to be. Certain articles of the Constitution of 1917 would ultimately be one of the leading causes of the Cristero Rebellion. Some of the most popular demands written in the new constitution included: non-religious education in primary schools, limits to land holdings, the subsoil of Mexico was placed under the ownership of the nation, new guarantees were established for workers, the lay state was ratified, and religious monasteries were deprived of political rights.88 The Constitution of 1917 was anticlerical in nature. This constitution was similar in some ways to the Constitution of 1857 by limiting the role of the church, but it went further by establishing extensive anticlerical legislation. For example

86 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion,12.

87 Ibid, 12.

88 “1917 Constitution of Mexico,” Latin American Studies, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/1917-Constitution.htm (accessed December 30, 2016). 31 31

Article 3: restricted religious education, Article 5: outlawed monastic orders, Article 24: banned worship outside the confines of the church, Article 27: required church property to be turned over to the state, Article 37: revoked citizenship to anyone found disobeying the constitution due to influence from clergy members, Article 55: forbade priests from holding public office, and Article 130: denied the Church any legal personality and gave government power to intervene in accordance with the law in relation to worship.89 The strict enforcement of these articles began in 1926, under President Plutarco Elias Calles, causing Mexican Catholics to react against it through the Cristero War.90 Although the Constitution of 1917 was the culminating achievement of the revolution not all sectors of society accepted it, in particular Mexican Catholics. Mexican Catholics felt threatened by Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, 37, 55, and 130 of the new constitution. It was not until the late 1920s when the anticlerical articles became increasingly enforced reaching its peak during the presidency of Plutarco Elias Calles (1924-1928). In 1924 Plutarco Elias Calles became president of Mexico. Prior to becoming president, Calles was governor of Sonora from 1917 to 1919. He was a political and military leader, who rapidly ascended to power. After his time as governor of Sonora he went on to become Secretary of Commerce for President Venustiano Carranza, he then resigned to support Alvaro Obregon and participated in overthrowing Carranza in 1920. He also served as Secretary of Foreign Relations under the government of Adolfo de la Huerta and as Secretary of the Interior for Obregon (1920-1924). As President, he supported agrarian, labor, and

89 “1917 Constitution of Mexico,” Latin American Studies, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/1917-Constitution.htm (accessed April 10, 2014).

90 Gonzalez, The Mexican Revolution, 209. 32 32 educational reforms. He was responsible for centralizing the power of the federal government and establishing a single-governing party, the National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revoluccionario) in 1929, which solved the presidential succession question. But his presidency is probably most remembered for the anti-clerical position he took and the civil war that resulted from it. As governor of Sonora, Calles had set a precedent of what his presidency would be like by expelling Catholic priests. 91 After removing Catholic priests from Sonora he wanted to replace them with priests that were willing to form a new church but was unsuccessful.92 His collaborators even recognized that he would go through great lengths to achieve his goals. Amongst them was Ernest Lagarde, a French diplomat, who stated, “Calles was a violent and passionate adversary of the Roman Church, not because he wished to prevent the latter from extending its influence and power, but because he had decided to extirpate the Catholic Faith from the soil of Mexico.”93 It was evident that Calles felt strongly against the Catholic Church and those around him noticed it. Calles’s anti-clerical stance greatly affected state-church relations in Mexico. Calles’s anticlerical stance went as far as strictly enforcing the Constitution of 1917, although not all its articles had ever been properly enforced. Calles’s strict adherence to the constitution was the ultimate reason for the breakout of the rebellion.94 But early on Catholics did not give up so easily and even attempted to use the twentieth-century discourse on liberal freedoms to defend their rights. Catholics used this rhetoric to protest and went as far as petitioning court

91 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 35.

92 Ibid, 35.

93 Ernest Lagarde, Foreign Affairs, (Paris, September 18, 1926), 6.

94 Gonzalez, The Mexican Revolution, 209. 33 33 injunctions against anticlerical laws.95 They protested that some of the actions taken by the state were unconstitutional. They argued it was unconstitutional for the state to take over of seminars, private schools, and churches because the constitution did not prohibit the existence of these private places.96 The restriction of religious education in 1926 upset mothers because it singled out the Catholic Church, while other denominations were not included.97 Prior to the breakout of the rebellion in 1926, the anticlerical laws of the constitution had not been implemented strictly at a national level. But states that did enforce them were faced with apprehension by faithful Catholics. Each state governor enforced the articles of the constitution how they saw fit prior to the actual commencement of the rebellion. Jalisco was one of the states that did put into place the anti-clerical regulations early on. In 1918 the governor of Jalisco attempted to limit the number of priests and ordered the clergy to register with the Ministry of the Interior.98 But the Catholics in that state did not allow for that ruling to last long. By 1919 the citizens of Jalisco were successful in expressing their unhappiness with the law and the state backed down on its application of the law.99 They achieved success by organizing an economic boycott and suspending religious worship for a year until their demands were heard.100 Similar actions

95 Matthew Butler, “The Church in “Red Mexico:” Michoacán Catholics and the Mexican Revolution, 1920-1929,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 55, 3 (July 2004), 527.

96 Patience A. Schell, “Gender, Resistance, and Mexico’s Church- State Conflict,” in New Approaches to Resistance in Brazil and Mexico, ed. John Gledhill and Patience A. Schell, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012), 184-204.

97 Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity, 128-137, 220.

98 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 14.

99 Ibid, 14.

100 Ibid, 14. 34 34 were taken later on during the rebellion. This incident prepared the citizens of Jalisco for the big battle that was yet to come. In 1925, Jalisco was once again at odds with the Catholic Church when Jose Guadalupe Zuno governor of Jalisco ordered an attack on churches and closed seminaries.101 Such an action led to an uprising a year in advance of the rebellion in the state of Jalisco in comparison to other states. Catholics in Jalisco responded by organizing themselves politically; such an early organizing prepared them for the large battle.102 These attacks on the Catholic Church eventually led to the foundation of the National League for the Defense of Religion in 1925. The purpose of the League was to defend the Catholic faith. 103 The League was composed of Catholic social, trade-unions, and lay associations; including the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Ladies amongst others. But as the movement progressed some members like the Catholic Ladies left the group. In 1925 and 1926 the League started by carrying out a legal struggle but Calles did not back down on his anticlerical policy. Once public worship was suspended, the League took a more radical approach and began recruiting cadres from the middle class.104 Although Catholics in Jalisco responded against Zuno’s actions, he continued his persecution. While local priests in some rural areas did support the cristeros most bishops did not support them. The Vatican did not approve of the rebellion. The Vatican was afraid that this religious conflict would allow

101 Ibid, 36.

102 Ibid, 33.

103 Ibid, 36.

104 Ibid, 76. 35 35

Protestantism to grow in Mexico.105 But Mexican Catholics were the greatest defenders of their faith. Amongst the many groups that fought in favor of the Catholic Church were the Mexican Catholic women. Mexican women became actively involved in the Cristero Rebellion because unlike the other reforms of the 1910 revolution religion did affect them directly. Once the state threatened the power of the church, it became an issue of importance for women. For Mexican Catholic women, President Calles was interfering in their private lives by targeting a sacred right. The Catholic religion was an institution that made up an important part of women’s daily lives at home, in education, and church. The Catholic Church had fully prepared and encouraged women to defend their rights and to stand for the greater good from early on prior to the commencement of the rebellion. The church created opportunities for Mexican women through social reform.106 By the early twentieth century, the Catholic Church had implemented changes to its social doctrine, which challenged the standard way women went about their daily lives.107 The encyclical Rerum Novarum of 1891 released by Pope Leo XIII, called for Catholics to become socially and politically involved, but at the same time condemned socialism and class struggle.108 As a result of the social activism promoted by the encyclical many social good groups started to form in Mexico.

105 Ibid, 39.

106 Ibid, 9.

107 Randall Scott Hanson, “The Day of Ideals: Catholic Social Action in the Age of the Mexican Revolution, 1867-1929.” (PhD. diss., Indiana University, 1994), 1-2. http://search.proquest.com.hmlproxy.lib.csufresno.edu//docview/304102012 (accessed October 25, 2013).

108 “Rerum Novarum Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor 1891,” Vatican, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum- novarum_en.html (accessed March 14, 2014). 36 36

One direct outcome of the pope’s Rerum Novarum message of social activism was the establishment of the Union of Mexican Catholic Ladies (Union de Damas Católicas Mexicanas). In 1912 the Union of Mexican Catholic Ladies was founded to provide and defend the Catholic Church. The union originated in Mexico City and spread across all states.109 According to the statues of the Union of Mexican Catholic Ladies their goal was, “to protect and strengthen the religious, moral, and economic interests of the Mexican woman. To exercise social action in its fullness, founding, impelling, and protecting feminine work of all kinds.”110 Their work consisted of protesting against anticlericalism, caring for Catholics in need, and continuing to foster Catholic education.111 And like many other social groups the women of the union also helped those in need by donating clothes and feeding the poor.112 During the Cristero Rebellion they also participated by protesting which included telegrams, public protests, and mailing petitions to congress.113 The social activism that was promoted by the church was exemplified by the ladies union. By the time the Cristero Rebellion began socially active women already had a foundation to start with. Historian Patience A. Schell states, “the social revolutionary period was characterized by the flourishing of civil society—that space beyond formal politics in which groups create their own forms of activism.”114 Since the encyclical of 1891 promoted social action women took it upon themselves to fight against anticlericalism, as I will discuss further on. The

109 Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, 113.

110 Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell, The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub, 2007), 99.

112 Ibid, 99-100. 113 Schell, “Gender, Resistance, and Mexico’s Church- State Conflict,” 184-204.

114 Mitchell and. Schell, The Women’s Revolution in Mexico, 1910-1953, 100. 37 37 work of the ladies’ union became especially important post-1910 revolution when Mexicans began to distance themselves from the church. The union’s membership declined post-revolution but those who remained continued with their good work by feeding the hungry, distributing medicine, and keeping schools open.115 The union continued to carry on with its work up until 1929 and was an instrumental resource for women during the rebellion. The promulgation of the encyclical by the Pope Leo XIII created a new image for the church, which before had steered away from social causes. The encyclical led to a rise in social activism, which increased the number of women who went out into the public sphere to help those in need. Thus, the church heavily influenced the domestic sphere of women. Women were engaging in Catholic social action, which allowed them to be involved in politics during the nineteenth and the twentieth century. President Calles did not stay silent in regards to women’s participation in these matters. He labeled Catholic female leaders who used liberal rhetoric to defend their rights as, “ladies who leave their husbands at home while they organize processions of female servants, and lawyers whose object is to become trustees of camouflaged religious institutions and obtain social and therefore business connections with men of fortune.”116 These changes that occurred in the Catholic Church had an impact on the way Mexican women would go about to defend their faith and would allow them to gain room for a women’s movement. The Cristiada brought together people who the Mexican Revolution had set aside. Amongst its supporters there were young and old, male and female. There is not a single criterion to define all those who were cristeros for all who joined

115 Ibid, 100.

116 Quirk, The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910-1929, 172-73. 38 38 came from different backgrounds and had different reasons for participating. Women did not play a silent role. Women from different backgrounds had opinions on the conflict. Prior to the Mexican Revolution, women had been taking a public stance in society voicing their concerns. But it was not until the state tried to control and limit the Catholic Church when women’s opinion became heard outside the home in large numbers. For Mexican society, religion was intertwined with their culture and they were not going to allow that to be destroyed.

CHAPTER 4: MEXICAN CATHOLIC WOMEN, MATERNAL IDEOLOGY, AND ACTIVISM

Mexican Catholic women were crucial figures in the Cristero Rebellion as both supporters and participants. Their activism during the rebellion provided them with a unique platform and voice. Women’s high involvement in the rebellion was due to their dual identity as both mothers and Catholics. The fusion between faith and maternity became crucial for the advancement of the rebellion. Maternal ideology was aligned with Catholic beliefs.117 Women had three identities Mexican, Catholic, and mother which were inextricable. Mexican women were the unity factor that kept the family functioning and this allowed them to have a lot influence over their families once the rebellion began. There was a cultural ideal of what women were supposed to do but they did not always meet such an idea, women did things their own way without limiting themselves to the expectations of what society thought of them. In advancing the discussion on the relation between motherhood and faith-based activism, I will analyze how women stepped out in the public sphere in greater force during the Cristero Rebellion. Motherhood and maternity form an important part of women’s participation as activists and to understand the significance of women during the rebellion this chapter will analyze these ideas at length. The concept of motherhood carried a lot of meaning, which further enriched the history of the rebellion. Women were not just bystanders and excluding them from the historical analysis does not provide a full picture of the historical events. Women along with men were active participants in the rebellion and they fought to defend the church from the government’s anticlerical actions.

117 Maternal ideology is the belief that women as mothers had a significant role in society. 40 40

Mexican Catholic women were standing up for the institution of the church, the church doctrine, their right to worship freely, and for their families to keep practicing the faith that consisted of such an important part of their lives. The implementation of anticlerical articles 3, 5, 24, 27, 37, 55, and 130 of the Constitution of 1917 threatened to limit rights for Catholics; including religious primary education and the ability to worship openly. No other group was more affected by the closing down of the Catholic Church than Mexican Catholic women. The shutting down of the church inhibited on women’s liberty to practice their faith freely outside the confines of their home.118 The daily lives of Mexican women were so intertwined with the Catholic Church that by closing churches the state was intruding on the lives of women, which led them to join the Cristero Rebellion.119 It is important to explain the family structure in Mexico to realize the standing of women during the rebellion. Family was central to community building in Mexico during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mexican families in rural areas of Jalisco, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes were traditionally nuclear with prescribed social roles in which the mother and daughters did household chores and the father and sons did manual labor.120 The division of work depended on sex and age. All members of the family contributed to the functioning of the home while remaining within their

118 Sara E. L. Bowskill, “Women, Violence, and the Mexican Cristero Wars in Elena Garros Los Recuerdos del Porvenir and Dolores Castros La Ciudad y el Viento.” The Modern Language Review 107, no. 2 (209): 438-452.

119 Patience A. Schell, “An Honorable Avocation for Ladies: The Work of the Mexico City Union De Damas Catolicas Mexicanas, 1912-1926.” Journal of Women's History 10, no. 4 (November 1999): 78-103. http://muse.jhu.edu.hmlproxy.lib.csufresno.edu/journals/journal_of_womens_history/ summary/v010/10.4.schell.html (accessed September 22, 2013).

120 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 44-45. 41 41 socially prescribed roles.121 Mexican women identified with the socially constructed stereotype that society and religion had imposed on them, to go by unnoticed.122 From young age, Mexican women were taught to be loyal and selfless. They were also taught that matrimony and maternity ennoble women.123 Women’s daily lives began early in the morning by feeding the livestock, making breakfast, doing household chores, going to church, to the marketplace, making dinner…etc.124 Not only were the women in charge of the home and rearing of the children but they oversaw their religious education. Mothers were the ones that taught their kids to pray, go to confession, and attend mass. 125 Catholic Church teachings made women see their children’s religious education as their duty. By providing a religious education to their children, Mexican women were instilling the Catholic values that would be necessary to defend the church. According to Meyer, mothers instilled in their children the importance of their faith.126 The church was an important institution for women because it provided for them and their families. One of the most important things that the church provided was education. For years children, had received their primary education from Catholic schools. But constitutionalists, supporters of Venustiano Carranza who favored the Constitution of 1917, believed that the church restricted students natural rights and

121 Ibid, 44-45.

122 Maria Elvira Bermudez, La vida familiar del mexicano, (Mexico: Antigua Libreria Robredo, 1955), 52.

123 Ibid, 52.

124 Vaca, Los silencios de la historia: Las cristeras,103.

125 Ibid, 103.

126 Meyer, Cristero Rebellion, 28. 42 42 their ability to think for themselves; thus, leading them to implement article 3 of the Constitution of 1917.127 When crafting the constitution, revolutionaries voiced their dislike with the Catholic Church, many believed Catholic schools should be prohibited and that Catholic doctrine was inappropriate for children.128 Article 3 secularized primary education and established that Catholic education could only be taught in private secondary schools. The article states, “the education imparted by the Federal State shall be designed to develop harmoniously all the faculties of the human being and shall foster in him at the same time a love of country and a consciousness of international solidarity, in independence and justice.” 129 An emphasis was placed on the state above anything else. Mothers could no longer rely on Catholic schools to provide primary schooling as well as religious education. When Mexican women saw the church being targeted they feared for the future of their children. Mexican mothers believed it was their duty to defend the church and they believed the best way to do this was by instilling Catholic values on their family. As Catholic mothers, it became their duty to gear their sons in defense and protection of the church.130 According to the Union of Catholic Mexican Women:

127 Katherine Ryan-McIlhon, “The Anticlerical Articles of the Federal Constitution of 1917 and their Historical Consequences,” Ave Maria International Law Journal 1, iss. 2 (2012): 1-52. http://ilj.avemarialaw.edu/Content/iljarticles/Ryan.English%20Version.pdf (accessed February 9, 2017)

128 Ibid, 531-532.

129 Article 3 of the Constitution of 1917 as quoted in Katherine Ryan-McIlhon, “The Anticlerical Articles of the Federal Constitution of 1917 and their Historical Consequences,” Ave Maria International Law Journal 1, iss. 2 (2012): 532. http://ilj.avemarialaw.edu/Content/iljarticles/Ryan.English%20Version.pdf (accessed February 9, 2017)

130 Patience A. Schell, “Of the High and Sublime Mission of Mothers of Families,” in The Women’s Revolution in Mexico 1910-1953, ed. Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (Maryland: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2007), 104. 43 43

When the country calls on our sons to struggle for their education, freedom, and for their religion, we have to turn them over not only healthy and virile but also conscious of their duties as Catholics and citizens who know how to defend their rights. [Who know how to] give their life for their highest ideals, not for the convenience of a miserable salary, nor to defend their petty ambitions, in summary, who know how to die without hesitating FOR GOD AND FOR COUNTRY.131 While this statement placed country and church as equals, later during the rebellion citizens had to choose state or faith. During the wars of independence and the 1910 revolution, mothers taught their sons to fight for the country in the name of God, but the Cristero Rebellion placed these two sectors against each other. Defending God was equated with standing up for the better of the Country. It was in a way a nationalist movement because cristeros saw the church as equally enshrined in the formation of the state. The quote exemplifies the strong desires of mothers to be guiding exemplars in their sons’ lives. Maternal ideology gave way for women to convince young men to join the cristeros. The power of mother was so strong that “a woman [could] tell a man that he was not a man if he accepted such atrocities committed against the faith without retaliating.”132 Men expressed their obedience to their mothers, so if mothers conveyed that they believed their sons should support the cause the men followed their mother’s wishes. Meyer states, “prodded by their wives, mothers, girlfriends, and sisters, the men left for combat until many townships were left practically without men, while women worked the land to feed combatants or followed them into the mountains.”133 For Mexican men the worst insult was to be looked down upon by their mother, so this became one of the many reasons as to

131 Historical Archive of the Union Femenina Catolica Mexicana, “Of the High and Sublime Mission of Mothers of Families,” in The Women’s Revolution in Mexico 1910-1953, ed. Stephanie Mitchell and Patience A. Schell (Maryland: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2007), 106.

132 Meyer, La cristiada, 70.

133 Ibid, 70. 44 44 why they joined the cristeros.134 Women and their agency as mothers became a driving force to push men to fight for the church.135 The role of women differed across sectors of society but the commencement of the rebellion changed their course. Women were involved in political and social issues to a certain extent. Their increased social participation was due to the revolution and the change of attitudes of the twentieth century, in which the role of women all around the world was drastically changing. Most of the women that did have jobs at that time were either young or single. Their participation increased but most of their involvement remained within their traditional family roles. But as the rebellion started to take shape and men left to fight for the cause, women took on more responsibilities such as working the lands while the men were away. While the men went away, gender roles were temporarily reversed. Once the rebellion began they were involved in political discourse unlike before because they had a stronger connection to the cause, since the church formed an integral part of their lives.136 However, how did maternal ideology play a role in giving Mexican women more opportunities to defend their Catholic faith during the Cristero Rebellion? First off, it is important to make the connection between the high pedestal mothers were looked up at, to that of Catholics’ religious devotion towards the Virgin Mary. The cristeros religious devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe was similar to the respect they paid their own mothers. Both were a constant source of

134 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 97.

135 Jean Meyer in The Cristero Rebellion, Matthew Butler in, Popular Piety in Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927-1929, and Patience A. Schell in, “Of the High and Sublime Mission of Mothers of Families,” discuss at length the agency of women during the Cristero Rebellion.

136 Agustin Vaca in Silencios de la historia: Las cristeras; John Gledhill and Patience A. Schell in New Approaches to Resistance in Brazil and Mexico, 165-204; and Jean Meyer in The Cristero Rebellion, 96-97. 45 45 inspiration for them joining the rebellion. The Virgin Mary represented being caring, sacrificing, and nurturing to Catholics and provided a role model of motherhood for Mexican women. The Virgin of Guadalupe was a symbol in other movements in Mexico’s history. In 1810, when Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla initiated a movement that led to the Mexican Independence from Spain, he carried a banner that contained the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.137 Hidalgo had with him a replica of her image and declared independence in her name from Napoleon Bonaparte who was in control of the Iberian Peninsula at the time. 138 By doing this the connection between the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Mexican nation was enshrined for years to come. During the Mexican Revolution the Zapatistas also used her image.139 The image of the virgin became a symbol for liberty, patriotism, and mestizaje.140 For many she represented the new class of mestizos in New Spain. The Virgin of Guadalupe represents the interlaced connection of national identity and religious faith in Mexico. Prior to the Mexican Independence the importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe had been growing for years. In order to understand the significance of motherhood, the next paragraphs provide a closer look at the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. The devotion first began regionally in the sixteenth century and then spread throughout the colony of New Spain in the seventeenth and

137 Cornelius Conover, “Reassessing the Rise of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, 1650s-1780s.” Mexican Studies 27, 2 (2011): 251-279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/msem.2011.27.2.251 (accessed on January 11, 2016), 254.

138 Ibid, 254.

139 Eric R. Wolf, “The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol” in The Journal of American Folklore. 71, no. 279, 1958, 34.

140 Mestizaje refers to mixed ancestry due to interbreeding of different races. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe with her brown skin symbolized the mixing of both native and European cultures. 46 46 eighteenth centuries.141 Catholics believe that the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared before Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac. In 1531, asking that a shrine be built for her at that location. In 1648, Miguel Sanchez, a Mexican priest wrote the Imagen de la virgin maria, madre de dios de Guadalupe, milagrosamente en la ciudad de Mexico. This was the first known account on the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. 142 A second publication on the appearance was released only six months after by Luis Laso de la Vega, the vicar of Guadalupe, and was written in Nahuatl, which was its intended audience.143 Although the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe cannot be historically proven, her cult following was solidified by the seventeenth century. By 1756 cities all over New Spain claimed the Virgin of Guadalupe as patron of the new colony. According to Cornelius Conover, it was not until after the commemorating festivities of naming the Virgin of Guadalupe patron saint that the growth in devotion occurred.144 Scholars have varying opinions as to how exactly the Guadalupan myth began: was it truly after reports of Juan Diego’s encounters or was the apparition narrative invented later on to provide an origin story. 145 Anti-apparitionist, individuals who do not believe in the appearance of the Virgin Mary before Juan Diego, support the belief that Archbishop Alonso de Montuar encouraged the cult of Guadalupe to spread to ensure the Indians would become faithful followers but this sixteen-century account did not receive much

141 Conover, “Reassessing the Rise of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, 1650s-1780s,” 252.

142 Stafford Poole, The Guadalupan Controversies in Mexico, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), 1-25.

143 Ibid, 3.

144 Conover, “Reassessing the Rise of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, 1650s-1780s,” 252.

145 Timothy Matovina, “The Origins of the Guadalupe Tradition in Mexico,” The Catholic Historical Review, 100, 2, (2014): 2443-270. https://muse-jhu-edu.hmlproxy.lib.csufresno.edu/ article/545645 (accessed February 10, 2017). 47 47 support.146 There is no doubt that the myth of the Virgin of Guadalupe became fundamental in Mexican Catholic faith. The cult of Guadalupe transcended to become an important part of Mexican culture and identity. The promotion by colonial authorities and papal recognition also helped the growth of the Guadalupe cult in New Spain. The image of the Virgin became associated with Mexican nationality and represented the principles of the Mexican nation. Eric Wolf makes a connection between the family and the Virgin of Guadalupe symbol in Mexican culture. He states, “the Guadalupe is important to Mexicans not only because she is a supernatural mother, but also because she embodies their major political and religious aspirations.”147 The Virgin of Guadalupe became a symbol for Mexican women to emulate spiritually and within their homes. The implied importance of a mother’s role within the home had its roots in marianismo. Marianismo is “the cult of female superiority which teaches that women are semi-divine, morally superior and spiritually stronger than men.”148 Marianismo promoted women’s roles as mothers and wives in comparison to the Virgin Mary.149 In 1973, Evelyn P. Stevens first introduced the concept of marianismo in her essay, “Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo.” She explains that marianismo is not a religious in nature but rather “secular edifice of beliefs and practices related to the position of women in society.”150 These beliefs

146 Conover, “Reassessing the Rise of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe, 1650s-1780s,” 253-254.

147 Wolf, “The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol,” 37.

148 Miller, “The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion,” 4.

149 Silvia Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1875, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 260.

150 Evelyn P. Stevens, “Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo,” in Female and Male in Latin America: Essays, ed. Ann M. Pescatello, (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1973), 91. 48 48 at times contributed towards the stereotypes of women’s roles in society. Stevens argues that women themselves were responsible for the spread of the marian stereotypes by raising their young boys with such beliefs.151 In essence marianismo was the counterpart to machismo, which allowed women to cope with day to day functions.152 According to Stevens, “there is near moral agreement on what a “real woman” is like and how she should act. Among the characteristics of the ideal woman were semi-divinity, moral superiority, and spiritual strength.153 Stevens clearly identified marianismo but her work has also been criticized for its generalization of women throughout all social-classes. Although Steven’s work has flaws her interpretation of marianismo identified a new theoretical model for historians to base women’s roles at home and in society. According to historian Silvia Arrom, marianismo was similar to the ‘cult of domesticity.’ Arrom argues that marianismo in Mexico was more like the nineteenth century Victorian era ‘cult of true womanhood,’ while other historians have characterized it to be more rooted in colonial Hispanic cultural traits.154 Historians use the term cult of true womanhood to describe changing women’s roles at home and work in regards to the United States and Great Britain.155 Women were to possess the following virtues: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness.156 As the separation between home and the workplace grew, women were also becoming more respected. Women took advantage of this shift.

151 Ibid, 97.

152 Ibid, 90.

153 Ibid, 94.

154 Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1875, 260.

155 Ibid, 260-261.

156 Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly 18, no. 2, (1966): 151–174., www.jstor.org/stable/2711179. (accessed on February 23, 2017). 49 49

Both Victorian era womanhood and marianismo highlighted the significance of motherhood in allowing women to gain respect. Just like Stevens’ marianismo, the cult of true womanhood provided groundwork for historians on the complex understanding of motherhood and feminism. The significance of the Virgin of Guadalupe during the Cristero Rebellion is best exemplified in one of the most recognized chants used by the cristeros, “Viva Cristo Rey y Santa Maria de Guadalupe,” which translates to “Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!” 157 Cristeros used this chant as a secret code to proclaim their belief in Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. They also said it aloud, right before being shot or hanged to show bravery. The last words that these men and women said were in devotion to their faith. This chant was not simply a slogan or a prayer; it did not only reflect religious beliefs but carried a stronger meaning. The proclamation mentioned both Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary meaning both were equally important. For cristeros both Jesus and Mary were symbols of family that they looked up to. The role of the Virgin Mary symbolized that of the Mexican mother. It was not just a fight in defense of Christ and the Virgin Mary but of the idea of family they represented for Mexicans. The holy family was a symbol of motivation for the cristeros, which Mexican society saw themselves reflected in. It also implies that women drove the rebellion. Just as the Virgin Mary pushed Jesus Christ to fulfill his mission, the Mexican Catholic mother pushed her children to fight for their faith. The Virgin Mary was the embodiment of cristeros own mothers.158 By encouraging children to defend their faith mothers were preserving an institution that protected them. The Catholic Church maintained maternal ideology intact, which aided women’s prominent role

157 Meyer, La Cristiada, 66.

158 Miller, “The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion,” 4. 50 50 in society. This concept of women being motivators and using their role as mothers to encourage participation in the rebellion was guided by the ideology of marianismo. How did the Catholic Church vocalize their support of women for calling attention to the religious conflict? Prior to outbreak of the rebellion, the Catholic Church had already been voicing its concerns in regards to the Constitution of 1917. In, La Palabra, a Catholic pamphlet published in Guadalajara, Jalisco on June 23, 1917 the Catholic Church published an article titled “La Acción de la Mujer” (“The Action of the Women”); in this article the church called on women to work for Christ and humanity for the betterment of society and all nations.159 This was the main principle that motivated women, for in their eyes they were working in the name of Christ. The pamphlet states, “Mujeres católicas de Mexico: sabed estar a la altura de vuestra mision; a trabajar por Cristo y por la Humanidad” (Catholic women of Mexico know how to be at the standard of our mission to work for Christ and for humanity).160 While the church supported this early activism, it was not until later during the rebellion that women took a step further and used their voice in support of their faith, which they felt was being attacked. Catholics believed that the pure virtuous traits of the Virgin of Guadalupe were ideal to be replicated by mothers. During the Cristero Rebellion Mexican women used the teachings of the church to incite violence, which they saw as reasonable because it was in defense of their faith. Women were crucial for the success of the rebellion. The fact that women were included or mentioned in propaganda to recruit men into the rebellion

159 “La Palabra: Accion de La Mujer.” Centro de Estudios Cristeros. Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, June 23, 1917. http://cristeros.uag.mx/lapalabra.pdf (accessed April 7, 2014).

160 Ibid, paragraph 4. 51 51 exemplifies that they held a lot of power. The cristeros used various forms of propaganda to recruit including songs, prayers, corridos, poems, and short stories. In the song, The Mother of the Cristero, a son is describing how he left his mother to fight for Christ until one day she died and in a dream she appeared to him telling “hijo de mi alma, cumple tu destino porque si mueres por la causa en el cielo te veré” (son of my soul, fulfill your duty because if you die for the cause in heaven I will see you).161 The mother continues telling her son that if he were to have a son to make him follow his path like she did to him.162 This song, found in David, a Catholic newsletter published during the rebellion, demonstrates how mothers became a source of motivation for men and women to continue the fight. The women had a role in motivating their sons to join the rebellion. Mexican Catholic women were the motivators and intermediaries in the struggle. They were a necessary component for the Catholic Church. The use of women in propaganda was not limited to songs or prayers, political cartoons of the time also included women. In a cartoon printed in the David, the Catholic newsletter mentioned above, a woman with her long skirt and braids is depicted walking past a sleeping Mexican military official saying aloud, “May Christ Live, in my heart, in my home, in my homeland, May god live, in me.”163 This cartoon illustrates how women were loyal to the church and fearless in announcing their loyalty to the church. Women were included in church propaganda because the local church understood that women were a powerful tool that was needed on their side to succeed and garner support of the men. The woman portrayed in the cartoon is most likely a member of the female brigade.

161 Alicia Olivera Sedano de Bonfil, La literatura cristera: Antologia, (Mexico, D.F: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1994), 43-44.

162 Ibid, 43-44.

163 Ibid, 42. 52 52

However, it was not until 1925 that Mexican women demonstrated that their capacity as housewives was a powerful tool for the rebellion, when they were asked to join a boycott. The National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty was responsible for organizing the boycott. The League (as it was referred to) was created by the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth along with the unification of other Catholic organizations. The goal of the League was to mobilize Catholics in a peaceful struggle against the state implementation of anti-religious legislation. 164 To pressure the Mexican government, the League organized an economic boycott. The boycott asked Mexicans to restrict their purchases and Archbishop Mora y Del Rio and Bishop Pascual Diaz of Tobasco endorsed it. The boycott was effective because of the already existing bad economic conditions in farming, price of petroleum, and the price of silver.165 As a result, “economic activity fell by 75 percent between August and December [1926], under the combined effect of these factors.”166 Meyer stated, “From 31 July 1926 onwards, the League conducted a campaign of economic boycott which certainly had sufficient impact on economic life to exasperate the Government, but not sufficient to impel it to come to terms.”167 The boycott did not have the intended impact that was expected but it did inspire regional chapters of the League to do the same. The boycott was more visible in provinces than in Mexico City. 168 As the rebellion began and intensified the League formed many unions across the nation. In the city of Cotija de la Paz, Michoacán, José Guízar

164 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 75-78.

165 Ibid, 80.

166 Ibid, 80.

167 Ibid, 80

168 Ibid, 80. 53 53

Oceguera was the leader of the League.169 In his memoir Guízar Oceguera describes how as leader, his first call-to-action was to close-down commerce by boycotting, thus affecting the state economy. He was soon threatened by the municipal president if he carried out his plan. Not afraid of being sent to jail Guízar Ocegura ignored the orders of the municipal president and businesses were shut down with great success.170 While men like Guízar Ocegura organized and planned the boycotts, such direct actions would not have been successful had Mexican women as purchasers not participated. For the boycott to function to its full potential the support of Mexican women was needed. As mothers, Mexican women held a lot control as to where the house income was spent. Men knew they needed the support of women. The participation of women in the boycott was the first form in which they demonstrated their political power. Other provinces witnessed similar boycotts. For example, a flyer found at the Centro de Estudios Cristeros in Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco, states that “the boycott agreement is frightening if one person agrees, but when everyone participates it’s destructive.”171 It continues onto state “imagine this weapon in the hands of 14 million Catholics.”172 Catholics knew that a boycott was a powerful weapon that would garner the attention of the government. The commitment to the rebellion was not limited to the mothers but was also a shared feeling amongst all Catholic women in Mexico. Barbara Miller classifies Mexican Catholic women of the time into three categories las religiosas,

169 Jose Guizar Oceguera, Episodios de la guerra cristera y… (Mexico DF: B.Costa-Amic Editor, 1976), 39.

170 Ibid, 39.

171 Boycott Flyer “Que es el Boycot?,” Centro de Estudios Cristeros, (Encarnación de Diaz, Jalisco, June 2015).

172 Ibid. 54 54 las señoras, and las jóvenes. Las religiosas were religious nuns who were ordered to leave the country, most of whom opted to move to Europe or the United States. The nuns that decided to stay in Mexico had no choice but to ask for refuge among family members. They had to limit themselves to praying at night for fear of being caught during daylight. They also did their part in supporting the cristeros, whether it was by providing food for their troops, providing medical care, or by simply praying.173 While las señoras and las religiosas supported the rebellion they remained within their traditional roles. Las jóvenes were the group to step outside the traditional female role in society. Las jóvenes actively participated in the rebellion and joined the Feminine Brigades in large numbers. But there were many sacrifices that women had to make to continue the fight. For one they had to move constantly around, living off maize and wheat, for fear of being found.174 But there was practically nothing they would not do for their faith, including hiding ammunition under their vests.175 In 1927, Luis Flores Gonzalez and Joaquin Camacho organized the Joan of Arc Women’s Brigade, which “was a military organization for the purpose of collecting money, supplying the combatants, providing them with ammunition, intelligence, and channels of communication.”176 The group was named after Joan of Arc who had been canonized a saint on May 16, 1920 for her role in the

173 Miller, The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion, 49.

174 Ibid, 50.

175 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 136-137 and Miller, The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion, 50.

176 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 132. 55 55

Hundred Years’ War.177 The heroism of Joan of Arc was an inspiration for the Feminine Brigade to follow. The brigades knew that if the time came in which they had to give up their lives for the cause, they would do it. Dying a martyr in defense of the Church was better than staying on the sidelines. The Joan of Arc brigade consisted of 25,000 members the majority were young and single.178 Recruited members of the women’s brigades included seamstresses, shop girls, and office workers who were mostly single working class.179 The brigades belonged to all social classes but the majority was lower- middle class.180 Through the brigades women became directly involved in the activities of the rebellion like never before. The brigade was considered another combat force of the cristeros. These ladies collected funds, bought weapons, and overlooked sanitation. 181 At home they may have been housewives or daughters but secretly they aided the rebellion. But of all the tasks provided by the brigades, transporting ammunition was the most important. The women transported the ammunition in their clothing by using vests, which held from 500 to 700 cartridges under their dresses.182 They also hid the ammunition in certain assigned areas around the city designed to be drop off locations. For the most part the women’s brigade remained a secret until 1929, a few months prior to the end of the rebellion.183 This was possible because

177 The Hundred Years War was a conflict between kingdoms of France and England from 1337 and 1453. Joan of Arc led a French army to besiege the city Orléans and achieved a victory for France.

178 Ibid, 133.

179 Ibid, 131.

180 Miller, The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion, 60.

181 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 137.

182 Meyer, La cristiada, 73.

183 Jorge Lopez Reynaga, Mujeres cristeras: Entrevistas y semblanzas de brigadistas y cristeras, (Mexico: Jorge Lopez Reynaga, 2010), 71. 56 56 members took an oath of obedience and secrecy.184 In addition, its members never worked in the same place for too long. Given the clandestine nature of the brigade, there are no extensive records on them, which has contributed to the limited history on women’s participation in the rebellion.185 Early on the brigades became crucial figures in the success of the rebellion. Brigades’ ability to create weaponry using techniques employed as housewives was evident in the Joan of Arc Women’s Brigade. When there was lack of ammunition women in the brigades would employ other means to provide weaponry. At times this included using simple cooking techniques they used every day. The women in the brigade would roast chili peppers inside church buildings that had been taken over by federals in order to create smoke, which would fill up the building causing the federals to leave.186 This technique was one of the many kinds of homemade bombs women made using their skills as housewives. The brigadiers helped make these bombs or taught others how to make them. Once the bombs detonated, federal soldiers had no choice but to leave the premise.187 A simple tactic created in their own kitchens served as a tool against the federal army. Motherhood became a tool in every aspect of the rebellion. There were also members of the female brigades who were caught during the rebellion by the government. Scholar Jorge Lopez Reynaga, interviewed Margarita María Flores Méndez, who shares with him details of her memories as a child of the female brigade and the rebellion. Margarita speaks about her aunt

184 Ibid, 73. 185 Meyer, The Cristero Rebellion, 132. 186 Lopez Reynaga, Mujeres cristeras, 78. 187 Ibid, 10. 57 57

Ana, a member of the Joan of Arc Female Brigade, whose son was kidnapped by the federals, because they wanted to get more information on the child’s mother’s whereabouts. Under the control of the federal army the child was asked what his mother did, but he simply responded “nothing she is a housewife that cooks and sews.”188 The child was beaten and held captive but he never reported his mother to the authorities. The federal army wanted to uncover the Joan of Arc Female Brigade. But the brigade was never uncovered during the rebellion. Years after the end of the Cristiada, women’s images were still used as propaganda to portray a certain image of the rebellion within literary novels. Elena Garro in the novel, Los recuerdos de provenir, narrates the impact of the Calles reforms on the fictional town of Ixtepec. However, unlike popular pro- cristero literature, the narrator in Los recuerdos del provenir is nonpartisan, supporting neither the state or church, as it suggests that the rebellion was a vehicle that had little to do with religion.189 In this novel the narrator accuses both the state and church of creating a conflict to distract the people from the issue of land distribution. Townspeople used the war to voice pre-existing resentment.190 Unlike popular novels of the cristero rebellion, Los recuerdos del provenir, which portrayed women as returning to their roles in the home as before the rebellion, Garro does not ignore the social impact of women’s participation. Los Recuerdos del Provenir is critical of the restrictions society placed on women expecting them to return to the home once the rebellion was over. Women in Garro’s novel participate in the uprising to defend their own liberties no one else’s, and they do

188 Ibid. 71.

189 Bowskill, Women, Violence, and the Mexican Cristero Wars in Elena Garros Los Recuerdos…, 438-452.

190 Elena Garro. Los recuerdos del porvenir: Novela. (Mexico: J. Mortiz, 1963). 58 58 not return to their traditional roles after the rebellion. The inclusion of women in novels as protagonist, portrayed as heroines, reflects the real-life role of women in the Cristero narrative. The Cristero Rebellion was significant because it became a platform for Mexican women to step outside their domestic roles in defense of the church. Mexican women’s domestic roles were what allowed them to step outside into the public sphere during the rebellion. Being mothers helped them advance their cause and garner more support. While the rebellion gave women more freedoms they remained within the sphere of acceptable standards in the church.191 The Catholic Church knew that they needed women on their side because mothers cultivated their beliefs onto their children, in the words of Meyer, “The woman, the mother, assured the continuity of Catholicism by insisting on the religious acts of marriage, baptism, communion, and extreme unction for all, and by transmitting these practices to her daughters.”192 This significant role of womanhood and motherhood during the rebellion is displayed in literature, propaganda, and other popular media cultural representations. In conclusion, the symbolism of maternal identity and the Virgin of Guadalupe allowed women to fulfill their roles during the Cristero Rebellion. Propaganda on motherhood demonstrates the importance of women and how their roles in the private sphere meshed and transcended into their public lives once the rebellion began. Mexican Catholic women’s status as mothers gave them agency. The symbol of motherhood became interconnected with the success of the Cristero Rebellion and became a tool for the church as depicted in popular media. But women also had their own voice and used their status as mothers to their

191 Meyer, Cristero Rebellion, 44.

192 Ibid, 28. 59 59 advantage. The church was an integral part of their daily lives, which was being infringed upon by the state and that was reason enough for them to join the rebellion. By using their status as mothers in the public sphere during the course of the rebellion Mexican women were able step outside their daily roles.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

The Cristero Rebellion was unsuccessful because it lacked a strong centralized leadership. During the rebellion, many churches were destroyed and lives were lost. Despite the loss, Catholic women voiced out their concerns. Women were crucial figures in the rebellion as participants and motivators. Prior to the Cristero War women had been active in the public sphere long before the Mexican Revolution, but their participation in the rebellion was unique because the church formed such a significant part of their day-to-day lives. The historiography of the Cristero Rebellion may be limited in scope but it covers ranging topics from both church and state perspectives. The Catholics felt the Calles Law that enforced the Constitution of 1917 was a direct attack on their religious liberties, while the state felt the need to carry out the enforcement of the constitution to establish a clear separation between church and state. The increased research on the Cristiada by historians has shined a light on the limited information there is and on the agency of Mexican women during the rebellion. Catholic Mexican women held a special relationship with the church. Catholic upbringing taught children from a young age to respect their mothers just like the Virgin Mary. The long established maternal social construct helped women exert dominance on issues regarding religion. The church provided agency and at times also limited their voice to that of the domestic housewife. But no matter the situation Catholic women saw it their duty to stand up to the state in defense of the institution that held a close place in their lives. The rebellion continues to have a special place in the hearts of Mexican Catholics. Most recently in 2007, a Miss Mexico beauty contestant wore images portraying the Cristero Rebellion on a gown. On the official page for the beauty 61 61 contest, the dress was described as representing the female cristera, a fundamental component of the armed conflict. A category of the pageant required participants to wear a gown that represented the history, culture, and traditions of Mexico. The newspaper La Jornada interviewed Maria del Rayo, designer of the dress, in regards to her inspiration for the design. In the interview, she explains how the religious history of her hometown in the region of Los Altos de Jalisco, inspired her and that there people continue to be very religious. She states, the “Cristiada is very present, it’s a common topic of conversation.”193 Maria mentions that if she had lived during that time-period she would have been a cristera. She states, “during that time life revolved around the church.”194 Mexicans still today understand the rebellion as an act in defense of faith, which is something they would continue to stand for. Most prominently the Cristero War still lives on today through the stories of the martyrs and pilgrimages to sites. In 2000, Pope John II canonized twenty- five martyrs. All of them were men and the large-majority were priests. Catholics from Mexico and around the world take religious pilgrimages to shrines that were created for these saints. Given that the state of Jalisco was the scenario of numerous battles, it hosts a large number of cristero sites. In fact, the state of Jalisco thrives on religious tourism. For example, it is estimated that Jalisco receives an approximate of 8.5 million visitors a year from religious tourism. The region of Los Altos particularly contributes to this demand. Within this region, the city Santa Ana de Guadalupe hosts around 80,000 tourists in a single

193 Tania Molina Ramirez. “Mexico lleva la cristiada a la pasarela de miss universo.” La Jornada. April 1, 2007. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/04/01/index.php?section= espectaculos&article=a06n1esp

194 Ibid 62 62 weekend.195 Santa Ana de Guadalupe is the birthplace and home to the remains of one of the twenty-five cristero saints, Saint Toribio Romo Gonzalez. He was a Catholic priest executed by an army firing squad. Many of those who visit his site carry on Catholic practices by taking their children to pray just as the cristeras did during the rebellion. I saw the continued remembrance of the rebellion when I took a trip to the region of Los Altos de Jalisco three years ago. While visiting, I witnessed a mother lifting her child up to touch the crypt of Saint Toribio, which contains his remains. There was and continues to be a strong connection that the church creates between mother and children. One duty of a Catholic mother is to teach her children to be good practicing Catholics; the cristeras carried out that mission and Catholics mothers continue to do so. Overall, the Cristero Rebellion was a significant counter-revolutionary movement in post-1917. The commencement of tensions between the church and state went back to the Laws of Reform, which shaped the new constitutions that followed. The resulting Constitution of 1917 after the Mexican Revolution would even further change the course of state-church relations with its anticlerical agenda leading to build-up of tensions between both parties. The relationship between the Vatican and the Mexican government continued fractured until 1990, when President Carlos Salinas de Gortari ordered amendments to the anti-clerical articles of the Constitution of 1917. Changes were made to accommodate for freedom of religion while keeping full separation of church and state. In July of 1992 the bill, Ley de Asociaciones Religiosas y Culto Público, amending articles

195 “Visitan Jalisco mas de 8 millones de Personas por turismo religioso.” Terra. https://noticias.terra.com/mundo/latinoamerica/visitan-jalisco-mas-de-8-millones-de-personas-por-turismo- religioso,95663c556fb3c9423c29ec722af24750qroymphf.html (accessed April 1, 2017). 63 63

3, 5, 24, and 130 passed. But full religious freedom was not established and this continues to be the existing legislation in regards to religion in Mexico.196 But throughout it all women were present and they used their agency as mothers to inspire their children and men to fight for the Church. Women were significant contributors as defenders of the Catholic faith. They began their activism early on through social reform groups, like the Union of Mexican Catholic Ladies and carried this on throughout the rebellion. However, social activism was not limited to mothers, single women also joined the cause. They took advantage of the symbolism of the maternal identity to step out into the public sphere in greater force than before. Women left a mark as great defenders of the Catholic faith.

196 “Ley de Asociaciones Religiosas y Culto Público.” Camara de Diputados del H. Congreso de la Union. July 15, 1992. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ypipkdlUIFwJ:www. diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/24_171215.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us accessed April 2, 2017).

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