Religious and Other Conflicts in 1930's Chihuahua: The Immense Silence and Quest for Lost Patrimony

Abstract

This thesis is a study of a series of events in Mexico (1929-1940) that is sometimes known as LaSegunda Cristiada or the Second Cristero War. Its focus is primarily on religious and other conflicts in Chihuahua, an essential borderland state in Mexico's north. I have created a regional study focused on the liminal position and impact of identified "others" on the culture and conflicts of the decade of the 1930s in Chihuahua. Competition for patrimony, including resources, rights, and that which was considered as customary to the northern pueblo are the critical struggles in these important late-revolutionary years. This time period was a caldo mixto(mixed stew) of events that individually may not seem that important but collectively give us insight into the late or postrevolutionary Mexico, especially in the north.

The lens through which this study has led me is to frame these conflicts as that of lost, forgotten, or stolen patrimony, both locally and nationally. The Mexican Revolution contributed to and failed to offer solutions to such desires and needs on the part of everyday Mexican citizens. Liminal "others" migrated into Mexico to compete for these patrimonial resources. They contributed much to the conflicts in Chihuahua. Governments had their own concept of patrimony where they decided what was best for the local campesino (a native of a rural or country area) and the federal identity slowly emerging from the revolution. This thesis emphasizes the role of the "everyday" agrarian Chihuahuenseof the early twentieth century. Competing patrimonies were a crucial element in the conflicts of the 1930s.

I am proposing through my study to answer four questions regarding this time of local and regional conflicts:

Was there indeed a pattern of religious and other conflicts sufficiently unified in purpose to justify whether or not La Segunda Cristiada in Chihuahua is worthy of study as a singular mosaic or tapestry?

To what degree were those involved in those conflicts successful in gaining or restoring resources, rights, and an internal locus of control

To what degree were state and federal governments effective in solving the existing conflicts in 1930s Chihuahua?

If my research informs me to answer the first question in the affirmative, is then the term "La Segunda Cristiada" the appropriate appellation for the mosaic revealed as further insight is gained into conflicts in 1930s Chihuahua?

The methodology includes visits to and interviews where conflicts occurred. Using both primary and secondary sources I seek to understand the often conflicting nature of the accounts. Chihuahuense anticlerical, ideological (educational), resource (land and water), and political violence will each be explored in this thesis

The main body of this thesis is composed of an introduction, bur chapters, and a conclusion. The regional scope and core thematic content pertain to the State of Chihuahua, the largest state in Mexico by land mass and an essential element of what is known as the borderlands, an impacted buffer region between the United States and Mexico. The core period of this thesis is eleven years, from 1929 to 1940.

The Introductionprovides an overview of the context, geographical scope, historiography, methodology, and thesis organization.