Salvador Alvarado and the Roman Catholic Church: Church-State Relations in Revolutionary Yucatan, 1914-1918

Abstract

An issue that led to civil unrest in Mexico during the greater part of the nineteenth century was the conflict between the Lib erals and the Conservatives over the Roman Catholic Church's role in society. Liberals associated the Church and its priesthood with an archaic colonial heritage that was transferred from Spain and, thus, regarded those elements as obstacles to progress. Lib erals, therefore, wished to restrict the Church's role not only with respect to its fueros (privileges) and religious functions, but also to its educational, political, and economic spheres. These efforts resulted in a civil war that left matters unresolved. Furthermore, the Liberal 1857 Constitution, which defined church-state relations in Mexico, was never fully implemented because dictators Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911) and Victoriano Huerta (1913-14) allowed the Church to regain some of its lost influence. Thus, during the course of the 1910 Mexican Revolu tion, the Church once again became a target, on this occasion of anticlerical revolutionaries, who viewed it as a pillar of the old order. This was especially true in Yucatân. It is, therefore, not surprising that with the demise of the usurper Huerta in 1914, nationally, the Church felt the brunt of anticlerical attacks.1 Constitutionalist generals accused the Church of opposing the revolution and supporting Huerta's