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The Role of Women in the Mexican Cristero Rebellion: Las Señoras Y Las Religiosas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Barbara Miller
Barbara Miller*
Affiliation:
Seton Hill College, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
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Participation of women in the Cristero rebellion, the Catholic uprising against the anti-clerical revolutionary government of Mexico, has largely been ignored by historians. A fresh reading of the documents, and more important, conversations with the principal women in the movement, reveal that the traditional role of women in the church gave way to changed behavior in the 1920s. Not only were Catholic women of a traditionally oriented society capable of assuming leadership in a violent enterprise, but they were equally capable of falling back into their conservative patterns once the crisis had ended. Nevertheless, the vital role women played in the church-state conflict prepared them for the emerging role of women in the twentieth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , January 1984 , pp. 303 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1984

References

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17 Article 130 The following are sections of Article 130 which were most objectionable to the Church:

“Religious institutions known as churches have no juridical personality.
“Ministers may not vote, hold office, or assemble for political purposes.
“The state legislatures are to have the right to determine the maximum number of ministers in any locality. Only Mexicans by birth may be ministers of any religious creed.
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79 Interview with María Concepción Acevedo y de la Llata (Madre Conchita) and Carlos Balda, March 5,1979. Carlos Balda permitted the interview under the conditions that I use no tape recorder and limit my questions to Madre Conchita, who was tired and “emotional” after Pope John Paul II’s visit to Mexico. The walls of the apartment were covered with holy pictures and a picture of the Pope, Juan Toral, Father Pro, and other Cristeros. While I was there, a steady stream of visitors passed through the small room.

80 Rius Facius Archives. The address was delivered June 29, 1930, from the former Social Secretariat Center on 9 Motolinia Street.