Reclaiming Church Wealth: The Recovery of Church Property after Expropriation in the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, 1860-1911 (review)

Abstract

By the middle of the nineteenth century the 300-year-old diocese of Guadalajara had accumulated vast holdings in real property, capital, and religious art and artefacts. This meticulous study examines the type and location of the diocese's holdings and explains who took possession of them when the Mexican government appropriated church properties. How the church recovered some 30 percent of what had been expropriated, and how the church continued its long-time practice of lending money to commercial enterprises is elucidated. Hitherto inaccessible ecclesiastical archives are the source of the information presented and analysed here. The ostensible purpose of the Liberal government's expropriation of church property in 1859 was to spur the development of a middle class. By showing what actually happened to the property, Juarez sheds new light on Mexico in the half century before the 1910 Revolution. Anyone studying church-state relations in Latin America will need to consult his work.