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  • Volunteering for a Cause: Gender, Faith, and Charity in Mexico from the Reform to the Revolution by Silvia Marina Arrom
  • Jason H. Dormady
Volunteering for a Cause: Gender, Faith, and Charity in Mexico from the Reform to the Revolution. By Silvia Marina Arrom. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 2016. Pp. xiii, 279. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-8263-4188-4.)

Catholic charity in nineteenth-century Mexico flourished (instead of shrinking) in the presence of state-sponsored anticlerical liberalism. This success came as male and female lay members of the St. Vincent De Paul charitable organization functioned in complimentary roles to improve the lives of poor Mexicans. So argues historian Silvia Arrom in this readable and well-organized volume on the overlooked history of charitable programs in Mexico between Independence (1821) and the 1910 Revolution.

Having done research in Paris and Mexico City as well as regional archives, Arrom uses a clear, concise style in this work, which shores up weaknesses on the topic of charity. The introduction and chapter one counter the francocentric history of St. Vincenet De Paul in Mexico, showing how the organization adapted to local conditions and used organizational strategies better suited to Mexico than to France. Arrom also demonstrates that women were key to the establishment of the charity from the start, contrary to chronicles generated by the male laity and Catholic clergy associated with St. Vincent De Paul in Mexico.

Chapters two, three, and four continue chronologically with an eye toward gendered variations that occurred in the organization over time. The author counters the narrative created by Mexico's nineteenth-century liberal scholars, demonstrating that St. Vincent De Paul was not feminized in the late 1800s, but instead developed complimentary branches of service that allowed the organization to extend its tendrils deeper into the world of Mexico's poor. Certainly, members of St. Vincent De Paul supported the struggle against secularization, but their work among people not reached by state institutions allowed the group to avoid state persecution and thrive during a time scholars traditionally see as hostile to Catholicism.

In chapter five, Arrom uses the case study of the state of Jalisco to confirm her argument about Mexico as a whole. However, her look at the local archives brings insights she would have missed using sources from Mexico City alone. The Jalisco case study enriches existing work on the National Catholic Party and clarifies why Catholic networks during the Cristero War (1926–29) functioned so well. She caps off the work with a discussion in chapter six of how Catholicism served as a modernizing force in Mexico by modeling public welfare and encouraging public health, not the backwards opponent to progress as painted by the ruling elite of [End Page 565] Mexico at the time. In this regard, Arrom shores up recent research by other scholars who, over the last two decades, have deepened our understanding of the multi-faceted work of the Catholic Church in Mexico, particularly its link to public policy and modernization. It also has implications for scholarship that examines why women felt empowered by conservative movements that otherwise restricted their role in society.

Volunteering for a Cause is a well-researched, clearly written book that—while not path-making—is a solid contribution to the historical understanding of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Mexico. Scholars of religion, conservatism, women, and liberalism in Mexico should consult this work as should graduate students with specialties in modern Mexico. While the book is situated in a larger historiographic conversation that might make it difficult to include in undergraduate courses on Modern Mexico, courses on Latin American religion would benefit from its inclusion, particularly in discussions on the role of Catholicism in debates on women in society, state power, or modernization. [End Page 566]

Jason H. Dormady
Central Washington University
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