In the Name of Christ: Religious Violence and Its Legitimacy in Mexico (1920–2020)Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, Loyola University of ChicagoResearch Grant, 2020 My research project examines why and under what historical conditions religion contributes to, legitimates, or deters the use of violence across different periods of time in Mexico. In order to answer this question, I analyze the complex and contentious relationship between religion and violence during the foundational decades between 1920 and 1960, a period that witnessed the Cristero War (1926–1929), the Second Cristero War (1935–1938), and the launch and intensification of a nation-wide anti-Protestant campaign (1945–1960). Based on the extensive review of primary documents from official and ecclesiastical sources, historical newspapers, religious publications, and secondary literature on religious violence in Latin America and beyond, my research explores the theological, political, and cultural drivers that contributed to Catholics’ understanding of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of violence. I analyze the complex and contentious relationship between religion and violence during the foundational decades between 1920 and 1960. My historical and sociological exploration of religious violence in Mexico recognizes the conflicts and divisions that existed between the clergy and lay groups and organizations, as well as within the clergy, regarding the legitimacy of violence. It highlights the intersections between spiritual, political, and economic interests in the organization and legitimation of belligerent forms of religious activism. My research builds on the works of scholars such as Scott Appleby, Atalia Omer, and William Cavanaugh, who have called into question essentialist and transhistorical interpretations of religion and of religious individuals as inherently prone to violent and irrational conduct. It also builds upon a rich historiography on religious conflict in Mexico, which, particularly in reference to the Cristero War, has taken the impact of religion on Catholics’ forms of activism seriously. As discussed by Matthew Butler and most recently Robert Weis and Robert Curley, Catholic militants were driven by political interests and economic grievances, but also by a genuine interest in defending their faith. By going beyond the Cristero Wars and a focus on the history of the state-Church conflict in Mexico, my project arrived at four main findings that can be summarized as follows: Catholics’ recourse to violence in twentieth-century Mexico did not follow the mandates or the official position of the Catholic Church. Instead, Catholic militants and organizations liberally reinterpreted the meanings of martyrdom, just war, and tyrannicide in order to justify or make sense of their use of violence against so-called infidels. Church-state relationships did not determine patterns of religious violence in Mexico. This becomes evident in the fact that religious violence occurred both during periods characterized by explosive and confrontational interactions between state and ecclesiastical authorities, as well as during times when this relationship was for the most part peaceful and even collaborative. Religious violence has historically intersected with economic and political interests in Mexico, including Catholics’ overall rejection of the state’s land reform, their hostile reaction towards individuals and ideologies considered external or foreign, local electoral politics, and conflicts over access to resources. This does not deny the importance of religion, but rather illustrates the ways in which religious beliefs have historically been embodied, practiced, and reimagined by religious militants in their everyday lives.4. The timing and geographical distribution of religious violence has followed from national and transnational factors that bolstered local dynamics of conflict. Although higher ecclesiastical authorities had an important impact in shaping Catholic militants’ ideologies, in practice, parish priests had a greater and more direct role in either instigating or de-escalating violent forms of religious activism. References Kloppe-Santamaría, Gema. “Martyrs, Fanatics, and Pious Militants: Religious Violence and the Secular State in 1930s Mexico.” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History 79, no. 2 (2022): 197–227. https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2021.149.
