Primitive Revolution: Restorations Religion and the Idea of the Mexican Revolution, 1940–1968 by Jason H. Dormady (review)

The Latin Americanist, June 2013 over time, and particularly under Bachelet, the state became move active in advocating a preferred version of historical memory. Overall, though, Collins sums up the state’s response as one that satisfies “particular private national and international agendas at the lowest possible domestic political cost” (p. 253). Burt also illustrates how different actors compete to create historical memory. In an intriguing essay, Burt examines the disparate ways actors have invoked the memory of Peruvian activist Marı́a Elena Moyano at distinct political junctures. Depending upon the identity and interests of the actor, Moyano’s memory has been one of a leftist activist, feminist, or simple victim of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso. Burt traces the ways in which various actors – ranging from Moyano’s own sister to former President Fujimori – have invoked the memory of Moyano to further their own political goals. The chapters in this edited volume vary in quality as well as focus. On one hand the wide range of viewpoints allows the authors to explore historical memory across a wide spectrum of media, ranging from telenovelas to t shirts. This diversity allows the authors to examine the many different actors who have tried to produce historical memory, and the wide variety of outlets they have utilized to do so. On the other hand, this diversity inhibits the ability to systematically compare the market of memory across different countries. Thus, this edited volume addresses a topic of growing importance, and opens the door for researchers to compare the market of historical memory in a more systematic vein in the future. Mary Fran T. Malone Department of Political Science University of New Hampshire PRIMITIVE REVOLUTION: RESTORATIONIST RELIGION AND THE IDEA OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, 1940–1968. By Jason H. Dormady. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011, p. 216, $29.95. Scholars of modern Mexico are wisely focusing more attention on the profound ways “religion matters” in a growing body of work on local religiosity (Bantjes, Religious Culture in Modern Mexico, 239). In Primitive Revolution, Jason Dormady extends thus scope of inquiry, beyond dominant themes of Catholicism/secularization, into three lesser-known religious communities and lesser-examined decades following the Mexican Revolution. The book relays interesting human stories of visionary leaders and religious communities struggling to maintain unity and purpose, from which it draws valuable insights into localized interpretations of the post-revolutionary era. Dormady examines three Christian groups that gained ground in the 1940s-1960s: the Pentecostal Luz del Mundo (LDM), the Mormon Iglesia 134 Book Reviews del Reino de Dios (IRDP), and the conservative Catholic Unión Nacional Sinarquistas (UNS). Though seemingly disparate choices, Dormady asserts they hold in common a status as “intentional religious communities,” that each aspired to “revitalize” individuals and Mexican society by returning to a more “primitive” or “pure” Christianity as of the Old Testament (2–3). Each chapter constructs a narrative of one movement, with an emphasis on the biography and writings of each group’s founding father and formal community records, and supplemented by archival and oral sources. Throughout Dormady frames the case studies in relation to the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath, attempting to answer the core questions, “What did the revolution mean, then, to segments of popular Mexican society . . . and how did it affect their behavior as a result?” (7). The core argument of the book is that each of the three religious communities interpreted the revolutionary ethos on their own local terms. The case studies show that each of the three religious groups embraced the post-revolutionary passion for rebuilding the nation (both spiritual and materially defined), strengthening community, and forging moral citizens. In various ways, too, these religious communities worked with the “institutional revolution” or the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), and reinforced and emulated the party vision of nationalism, indigenismo , corporatism, as well as its less enviable tendencies towards centralized and patriarchy authority. His case studies also demonstrate the willingness of religious communities to reject those aspects of the post-revolutionary order they viewed as alienating, including aspects of violence, consumerism, urbanization, and the corruption of PRI rule. In showing the “cultural revolution” within these religions, Dormady hopes to counter the idea...