Popular violence and ‘lay religion’ in centre-west Mexico during Mexico’s Cristero war (1926-29)

Abstract

This article suggests that the Cristero insurgency of 1926-29 was a form of lay religious violence inimical not only to the Mexican Revolution but also to the interests of the Catholic civilians and hierarchy the rebels claimed to represent. By the same token, Cristeros shared with their Revolutionary enemies a habit of plebeian vigilantism which was informed by economic and politico-religious mobilisation underway since 1910. Focusing on the mestizo and indigenous populations in the states of Zacatecas, Durango and Jalisco, this article shows how the external conflict presented by the Church-state crisis of 1926 was used as a pretext for localised disputes concerning land and pillage. The Cristiada of 1926-29 thus deserves to be understood as part of the pattern of popular protest over land, property and autonomy which had been unleashed by the onset of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. This article concludes with an explanation of the military and political relevance of the Cristero conflict today.