Mexico Misrepresented: The Cristiada in History and Memory

Abstract

The following thesis analyzes Mexico's Cristiada as an event and discourse throughout the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the Cristiada's relationship with the Mexican Revolution, especially its cultural phase (1920-1940). The intent is to locate the Cristiada's place in Mexican national identity and politics. More broadly, it considers the interrelationship between religion, nationalism, and cultural politics. The overall argument of this thesis is that the Cristeros maintained a patriotic, if anti-revolutionary, stance during the cultural phase, and that their "imagined community" became a negated un-imaginary as Revolutionary mythology dominated national politics after 1940. With liberal-conservative reconciliation since roughly 1990, however, the Cristiada's un-official status has been challenged, seen most poignantly in the rise of the National Action Party and the "Miss Cristera" controversy in 2007. The Cristiada's place in national politics, in turn, has challenged the objective ideals of national history altogether.