Popular Politics, Democracy, and Citizenship on the Peripheries of Guadalajara, Me
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THE COUNTERNARRATIVES OF DOÑA LUCHA: POPULAR POLITICS, DEMOCRACY, AND CITIZENSHIP ON THE PERIPHERIES OF GUADALAJARA, MEXICO, 1965-1994 by Brad H. Wright A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public History Middle Tennessee State University August 2020 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Christoph Rosenmüller, Chair Dr. Martha Norkunas Dr. Louis Kyriakoudes Dr. Tanalís Padilla ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the many stages of a six-year process of research and writing, I benefited immeasurably from the mentorship, support, and scholarly critiques of Christoph Rosenmüller, Tanalís Padilla, Martha Norkunas, Louis Kyriakoudes, and Pippa Holloway. Alex Aviña, Celso Castilho, Carwil Bjork-James, Jorge Delgadillo, Jaime Pensado, and Catherine Nolan-Ferrell all kindly engaged this project at different moments and provided rich insights. I deeply appreciate the indispensable wisdom, patience, and generosity of colleagues in Guadalajara, especially Noemí Gómez, Martha Arias, Efrén Orozco, Sonia Serrano, Rubén Martín, Esther Carrillo, Susana Montoya, Robert Curley, Luis Fernando Arana, Celina Becerra, Jorge Regalado, Hilda Monraz, Ana María de la O, Juan Carlos Núñez, Elena Casanova, Alicia Sahagún, Mercedes Pascual, Claudia Delgado, and Angelica Jiménez. Through participation in conferences, I had the privilege of receiving impactful commentary from many scholars. I offer special thanks to fellow panelists and audience members at the VIII Encuentro Internacional de Historia Oral y Memoria in Bogotá, Colombia in 2019, the 2018 Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies meeting, the 2017 Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association proceedings, the 2016 Latin American Studies Association meeting, the 2015 Society for U.S. Intellectual History conference, and the 2014 meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies. I am grateful for the opportunity to have taken part in the “Liberation Theology and the Other(s): Contextualizing Catholic Activism in 20th Century Latin America,” conference at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2018. The Bern convening was facilitated by the organizing efforts of Christian Büschges and colleagues, with funding from the Swiss government. For my professional residency in the Public History program during 2018-2019 in Guadalajara, I affiliated with ITESO Jesuit University and collaborated with the non- profit community organization Centros Educativos Oblatos (CEO). At ITESO, the Departamento de Psicología, Educación y Salud supplied space to write and process fieldwork. Noemí Gómez graciously served as my professional mentor there for the residency. She challenged my thinking and practice at every turn, while also partnering with me on additional research and publications. CEO staff treated me as another team member. I am indebted to Elena, Rosy, Dulce, Paco, Dalila, and Ángeles. Maricruz Trigueros walked the streets of colonia Santa Cecilia with me and provided the community credibility only Sagrado Corazón nuns can. She participated with enthusiasm in many interview sessions with Santa Cecilia residents and showed tremendous patience with me. Furthermore, Maricruz introduced me to members of a remarkable generation of Sagrado Corazón nuns—Marina, Isabel, Chelo, and others—and welcomed me to their common residence for meals and conversations. Innumerable local people oriented and guided me over the years in Guadalajara. Special appreciation is due Eugenio Toro, María Salazar, the Osorio Díaz family, the Suárez Martínez family, Chila González, Ampelia Orozco and family, Guillermo Hernández and Amalia, Socorro Ramírez and family, Francisca Guardado, María Pereyra, the family of Cancho Ayala, Consuelo Lucio, Casa Nazareth residents, Casa Santa Cecilia residents, Chuy Ledesma, Arnaldo Zenteno, Arturo Martín del Campo, Juan Vázquez, Oscar Herrera, Antonio Jiménez, Ramona Deniz and Hilda, and Madre iii Lucha and the Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón sisters in Barrio del Perdón and Los Gavilanes. I want to extend my appreciation to ITESO Library Special Collections archivists and staff, particularly Adán Juárez. Archivists and staff at the Archivo Histórico de la Arquidiócesis de Guadalajara helped me tremendously in locating unique and foundational documentary sources. I benefited from the expertise and assistance of archivists and staff in the Hemeroteca Histórica at the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco, at the Archivo Municipal de Zapopan, the Archivo Histórico del Estado de Jalisco, and the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. Staff at the Archivo Municipal de Guadalajara was especially knowledgeable and accommodating, led by longtime archivist José Manuel Ramos López. I am indebted to staff and colleagues at the CEB organization headquarters and archives in Mexico City, including Socorro Martínez, Tere Daza, Carmen Romero, and Pedro Negrete. I am grateful to staff and colleagues at the RSCJ provincial headquarters and archives in Mexico City, especially Julieta López. And I appreciate the hospitality and wisdom of IMDEC staff and friends in Guadalajara. Finally, this study would not have been possible without support from the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship, with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. iv ABSTRACT This study seeks to better understand the heterogeneous lives and political cultures of the poor majorities during a period in Mexican history (1970s-1990s) of capitalist transition to neoliberalism and political democratization. The emerging historiography on 1970s and 1980s Mexico has yet to explore how rural migrants to urban centers survived, resisted domination and control, and advanced their own interests. Given the difficulties some Left movements experienced in building the mass working-class bases they envisioned in the post-1968 period, what was the nature and impact of popular politics in urban Mexico? This dissertation reconstructs a powerful social movement and explores its intersections with everyday life in the city. The case of Guadalajara underlines the vital role religious thought and practice played in power relations in Mexico’s regions. In Mexico’s second biggest city, Christian base communities (CEBs) and Freirian popular education projects converged in the urban popular movement to fuel contentious politics and democratic imaginaries among residents of the urban peripheries. Liberationist Christianity shaped the development of a grassroots, oppositional presence in the local public sphere. The CEB-led movement elaborated a political repertoire during the 1970s that broader movements capitalized on in the 1980s and 1990s. In a period characterized by the severing of social fabrics, and a place known for its conservatism, groups anchored in popular religion and led by working-class women provide models for collectively acting against the odds to negotiate with and occasionally defeat oppressive powers. Women’s leadership is only hinted at in conventional archival sources and suppressed in public representations across the city. Oral histories reveal the outsized roles of neighborhood women and Catholic nuns in galvanizing important urban sociocultural and political transformation. Building upon collaborations with community organizations on public history projects, I offer an interpretive history of independent popular organizing in one urban context in Mexico. This inverted local history from Guadalajara contributes to literature on democracy, citizenship, and the public sphere in twentieth-century Latin America. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ix ABBREVIATIONS xi GLOSSARY xiii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I: DEVELOPING THE “IDEAL CITY” AND CONQUERING SPACE ON THE URBAN PERIPHERIES 35 “Ideal” City: Making the “Pearl of the West” 44 “Lost” City: Making “Misery Belts” and Conquering Space on the Peripheries 57 CHAPTER II: FROM COUNTRYSIDE TO CITY, 1960-1979 83 “El campo está bonito, pero…”: Moving to the City 90 Implications for the Development of Political Cultures 123 CHAPTER III: WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN URBAN POPULAR MOVEMENTS: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN SANTA CECILIA, 1968-1985 130 Neighborhood Women and Catholic Nuns in Movement 140 Street Theater, El Alipuz, and Counterpublics 165 Struggles for Space: Organizing for Urban Services and Dignity 174 Movement Peaks and Declines, Conflict and Departure 184 CHAPTER IV: BASE COMMUNITIES AND URBAN POPULAR POLITICS IN GUADALAJARA, LONG 1970s 208 Barrio del Perdón 210 “A leader should lead by example, as testimony of the struggle” 240 Santa Margarita 244 Arturo Martín del Campo and the Social Pastorate 267 CHAPTER V: POPULAR EDUCATION AND INDEPENDENT ORGANIZING IN TIMES OF CRISIS, THE 1980s 277 Martha Arias, Political Education, and Movement Building 284 Lucha Popular in Guadalajara During the Long 1980s 297 Transnational Praxis Flows: Popular Education and Movement Infrastructure, Guadalajara to Central America, 1971-1992 311 Movement Knowledges 325 CONCLUSION 329 BIBLIOGRAPHY 339 viii LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Santa Cecilia popular festival 41 1.2 Guadalajara divided by Calzada Independencia 46 1.3 Templo Expiatorio 48 1.4 Cathedral and plazas downtown 50 1.5 Pope John Paul II in Guadalajara 51 1.6 Javier Mina and Independencia intersection 53 1.7 Poverty around the peripheries 58 1.8 Map of colonias in Barrio del Perdón 64 1.9 Santa Cecilia map with name changes 66 1.10 Fraccionador cartoon 70 1.11 Men and boy in Santa Cecilia construction 72 1.12 Santa Cecilia