Phil Stover has created a new edition of his award-winning book Religion and Revolution in Mexico's North. This is the first in a three-volume set of books about the history of religion in Mexico. Volume Two will focus on external forces on Mexico; especially Anglo forces that sought to bring changes to Mexico's religious landscape. Volume Three will focus on indigenous Mexican religions and the syncretism with which they were enmeshed with non-native religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Mormonism, etc.). Each volume is titled The Search for the Soul of Mexico with an appropriate subtitle.
With a more readable font and new edits, this book is appropriate for a great backyard read or for a college-level supplementary textbook. It will engage the reader with a narrative style that is backed by 860 citations and 266 references. It is a history of the intersection of religion and revolution in the history of Mexico. Special focus is placed on the north of Mexico and the Mexican revolution time. Read about curanderos, cientificos, Cristeros, revolutionaries, healers, and those who gave their lives as martyrs for their faith. Read about how the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Mexico for centuries and how it combined with the Spanish military in the conquest of Mexico. Learn about the role played by Masons as they wielded influence in Mexico. Often lost among the myths were the millions driven by forces they couldn't comprehend. They were knights, bishops, castles, and yes, pawns in the revolutionary chess matches that nearly resulted in the checkmate of Mexican civilization.
The Search for the Soul of Mexico: Religion and Revolution explains how popular religion has always been grounded in the Mexican village and how personal faith, more than priestly formalities drives local Mexican religion. The reader will learn about the personal faith of the major revolutionaries in the north of Mexico including Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero, Pascual Orozco, Victoriano Huerta, Pancho Villa, Alvaro Obregon, Venustiano Carranza, and Plutarco Elias Calles. Learn about all the forms of anticlericalism active in Mexico during the revolutionary time frame. The reader will better understand how religion worked, in many cases as a primary cause of the various revolutionary forces that rocked Mexico for decades. Discover why people were willing to be martyred as advocates for faith, or as those who fought to diminish its power.
It took Phil Stover years to write this book, but La Llorona has been crying for her children for centuries. She sobs for all those who have been lost in Mexico's turbulent past and present. Listen carefully, dear reader. Perhaps in the pages of this book you too will hear her cries!
