Juan Soldado: Rapist, Murderer, Martyr, Saint (review)

Paul Vanderwood's Juan Soldado charts an innovative course for analyzing popular religious beliefs in Mexico by exploring a form of devotion particular to Tijuana since 1938. His multi-faceted investigation revolves around the life of Juan Castillo Morales, a soldier that would come to be known as Juan Soldado after being publically executed for the rape and murder of eight-year-old Olga Camacho. The "circumstances" of Juan Soldado's alleged crime form the backdrop for exploring the "belief" of the community that began to worship him as a saint. Yet, Vanderwood acknowledges that separating these two objects of study is merely a methodological convenience because "like scrambled eggs" they are "inextricably mixed in human experience" (p. 69). Using a notably accessible and introspective style with occasionally excessive melodrama and compassion for his object of study, Vanderwood invites us inside the logic of Mexico's popular religion. He takes pleasure in his role as narrator and student of this complex story, and he reaches out to his readers on a personal level so that "one might better admit the presence of mystery, consider the power of faith, and wander down those corridors of spirituality long trod by believers and seekers" (p. 222).

Vanderwood's first path of inquiry leads us through the events leading up to Olga Camacho's horrific murder and the community's ensuing search for the culprit. He brings the circumstances of the crime to life, all the while poking holes of reasonable doubt in the case against Castillo Morales. These doubts are implanted with respect to basic evidence, the conditions of the confession, and the motives of those involved in the accusation, sentencing and execution. Indeed, those implicated in the injustice against Castillo Morelos include his common-law wife, his superior officers and perhaps even President Cárdenas. Determining guilt or innocence is not Vanderwood's objective, but the well-documented irregularities surrounding this case successfully illuminate an ongoing struggle for authority between the people and the government of Tijuana.

Vanderwood's second mode of inquiry takes the reader back in time to gradually re-approach the murder scene from a broader historical perspective. Presenting a remarkable range of information about Tijuana's history, Vanderwood creates a vibrant portrait of the city in which the Great Depression and Prohibition generated unique conditions for Tijuana's economy and culture. Readers are introduced to the local management and experience of gambling, immigration, tourism, free trade and labor organizing, all of which contributed to the backlash against President Cárdenas's suffocating moralizing campaign that began in 1934. Vanderwood creates the palpable sense of Tijuana as "a tinderbox" (p. 167) in order to establish the optic through which people in Tijuana would have interpreted the events of 1938. Rather than analyzing the political or economic aftermath of those circumstances, Vanderwood presents the historical context of the 1930s as the soil from which veneration of Juan Soldado took root.

The third facet of Vanderwood's analysis is guided by the intriguing aim to "examine and ponder the transcendental" (p. 169). He contributes fascinating first-hand interviews and testimonials of his visits to the Juan Soldado shrine to demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between the society of Tijuana and devotion to this popular religious icon. This investigation teaches us that the transformation of Juan Castillo Morales into the venerated Juan Soldado began as a response to reportedly supernatural conditions at the gravesite as well as the need to challenge the government's display of brute force against a young man for whom the people felt pity and perhaps solidarity. As knowledge about the soldier's circumstances faded, the people's belief became more abstract, and thus the uses of Juan Soldado became more personal and pragmatic than political. While Vanderwood argues that devotion to this popular saint reflects the changing circumstances of Tijuana, his investigation most convincingly contextualizes Juan Soldado within an enormously widespread range of similar religious traditions...