The Power of God Against the Guns of Government: Religious Upheaval in Mexico at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century (review)

It is always a pleasure to read an intriguing history monograph, and Paul Vanderwood’s latest book fits into this category. The book examines religious upheaval in Chihuahua and Sonora in the 1890s, and government responses to expressions of popular religious belief. The specific subject is the 1891—1892 armed disturbances at Tomochic in southwestern Chihuahua led by a man of strong religious convictions named Cruz Chavez, and the related career of Teresa Urrea from Cabora in southern Sonora, known as “La Santa de Cabora.” Cruz Chavez, described by Vanderwood as a religious fanatic, challenged the political and military forces of Porfirian Mexico, seen by his followers as agents of Lucifer. Teresa Urrea as a teenager became a folk healer believed to have divine powers to cure, and provided spiritual inspiration to Chavez’s followers in Tomochic.

Chavez and his followers rejected civil authority, and in 1891 and 1892 fought engagements with the Mexican army. Chavez led his followers to visit Teresa at Cabora, but the Santa was absent. Finally, in October of 1892 following one final battle and siege the Porfirian army massacred Chavez and his faithful. At the same time the Mexican government exiled Teresa and her father to the United States, and summarily executed several other odd characters who also claimed divine inspiration. Teresa died of tuberculosis in Clifton, Arizona in 1906. The brutality of the repression as well as a great deal of misinformation made it into the international press. As the 1890s closed there were several other localized upheavals linked directly or indirectly to Santa Teresa and/or the Tomochic faithful.

Vanderwood probes the background of the Tomochic and Cabora movements, which is difficult given that most participants were common people who only appeared fleetingly in the documentary record. At the same time Vanderwood uses his study to tell the readers much more about Porfirian Mexico. For example, Vanderwood exposes the ineptitude of the army officer corps, bloated with the friends and comrades of Porfirio Diaz. One general, a chronic alcoholic, marched off to quell the Tomochic uprising, and ended up attacking a corn field while in a drunken stupor. Vanderwood also explains why the army was able to convert common poorly educated men into soldiers willing to turn their weapons on their own countrymen. He probes the real way that politics worked during the Porfiriato, and particularly the play between local and regional factions. Finally, Vanderwood relates the Tomochic uprising to the ways that Porfirio Diaz attempted to present a fa c ade of a modern nation to the rest of the world. The government identified the Tomochic rebels as “Indians,” which was not true but which at the same time attributed the uprising to the uncivilized that did not typify the modern Mexico. I would add that at least one modern historian has also identified the Tomochic uprising as having involved “Indians.”

Vanderwood has done a very good job of documenting a series of events that normally are presented solely from the perspective of the victors, in this case the government of Porfirio Diaz. However, I have some problems with the development of some background information. Tomochic began its history as a Jesuit mission among the Tarahumara in the Papigochic Valley. I was disappointed with the cursory examination of the earlier history of Tomochic, and particularly the transition from mission to village dominated by a growing population of non-indigenous settlers. Chavez’s movement not only rejected the authority of the government, but also of the parish priest Fr. Castelo. Vanderwood should have given more attention to the Jesuits, Franciscans, and later transition to parish priests, and the play between the Tarahumaras and incoming settlers. The Tarahumara apparently played only a minor role in the uprising, and less of a role than did the Yaqui in the events...