Echoes of the Cristero War in Cold War and 21st-Century Mexico

"Echoes of the Cristero War in Cold War and Twenty-First Century Mexico."

An important dimension of Mexico's Cold War experience pertains to how the country's Catholic spheres - from the institutional Church, to Catholic Action groups, as well as politicians, intellectuals, and grassroots activists - engaged with the political, social, and cultural transformations of the time. The memory of the Cristero War was part of the interpretative lens through which these actors articulated their visions of Catholic modernity. It was a contested legacy that also served as a weapon for political contestation. This presentation will focus on the importance that the Cristero war had on conservative activism during the 1960s, and how this Cristero legacy helps us understand the Mexican Catholic Right's own Cold War. The presentation will draw from examples of conservative activism in higher education and among sinarquista militants in the 1960s to illustrate the terms in which the memory of the Cristero War as Catholic resistance informed Catholics' views of the broader national and international stage. I will provide a conclusion or epilogue focused on present-day conservative voices that invoke the Cristeros to renew their fight against leftism, feminism, and sexual diversity.

See more of: New Approaches to Mexico's Cristero War, One Hundred Years Later
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