The session will investigate martyrial narrative patterns and the ways in which they changed over time in the context of twentieth-century Mexico and Latin America. In particular, it will focus on several different instances in which martyrdom has appeared as a socially mobilizing discourse. The panel proposes different venues of interpretation and relies on the examination of different archival and primary sources: cinema, autobiographical accounts, religious periodicals, and specific cases in pre and post-conciliar twentieth century. Its four papers aim at revisiting martyrdom as a modern memory device anchored in a Christian matrix but increasingly secular in its outlook