Divergent Catholic Responses to Youthful Radicalism in Mexico during the 1960s

For Mexican authorities, the 1968 student movement confirmed that the worldwide youthful revolts of ‘68 had established a collective identity of ideological dissent and direct action that transcended traditional notions of nationalism and threatened social order. But how did the different sectors of the Right, including the most conservative figures of the business sector and the Catholic Church, respond to this ostensible global crisis of authority? More generally, how were they affected by the youthful and religious “radicalisms” of the 1960s? How did the internationalist and youthful language of this period differently affect the conservative and progressive figures of the Catholic Church? 

In introducing partial answers to these questions this paper moves away from what has developed into an “official” narrative of student activism in Mexico. Hundreds of memoirs, plays, novels, and essays have been written on the 1968 movement over the last forty years. By and large these accounts have minimized the importance of earlier student revolts, have tended to reduce ‘68 to the student massacre in Tlatelolco, have overwhelmingly described the strike as a unified movement, and have prioritized the perspectives of leftist male leaders. In comparison to other global uprisings, historical studies illustrating the complexity of the Mexican case remain surprisingly low in numbers. In this sense, I agree with Ariel Rodríguez Kuri who argues that at this point it is inconceivable to speak of any revisionist accounts of the student movement. First, we have to establish a better understanding of its contradictions as well as its multiple and diverse reactions within a longer history of the 1960s. This paper examines the intersections and conflicts between anticommunist and less reactionary figures of the Right with particular attention to the diverse Catholic reactions within the Church to the international youthful activism of the 1960s.