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Chapter 1 Introduction In most Latin American societies, Catholicism and national identity (in this particular case, Mexicanness) have become highly intertwined (Fortuny Loret de Mola 1994). According to Bowen (1996, p. 4): The close ties between Catholicism and Latin American culture have their roots in the Iberian, post-Columbian conquest and the colonial society it produced . . . In Mexico, where the indigenous vastly outnumbered the colonists, their pacification and incorporation into a new colonial society meant their Christianization in Catholic terms . . . National identity throughout Latin America became in turn so permeated with a generalized sense of Catholicism that its repudiation inevitably raises questions about national identity and loyalty. Thus, it is a widely shared, commonsense assumption that being Mexican and being Catholic are almost synonymous. In the case of Mexican identity, the fusion between a particular religion, Catholicism, and nationality was primarily done around the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe,1 and here is where Protestantism clearly becomes the “other” for most Mexicans, because from a Catholic/Mexican point of view “the Evangelical tradition [which condemns the worshiping of the Virgin] could not be truly Mexican and must, by its very nature, be destructive of all that is distinctively Mexican” (Bowen 1996, p. 129; see also Fortuny Loret de Mola 1994, p. 60). One of the things that surprised me the most when I arrived at the border was how Mexican respondents (on both sides of the international divide) addressed as Mexican customs what indeed were Catholic customs, as if they were interchangeable. My surprise sprang from my being originally from another Latin American Catholic country, Argentina, where people usually refer to secular customs (mate, asado [barbecue], and fútbol [soccer]) when asked about the country’s traditions. Therefore, I was amazed when the Mexican traditions I heard mentioned, again and again, were El Día de los Muertos [Day of the Dead], Christmas, Las Posadas [a nine-day Christmas festival], and matachines [folk dancers]—all of CATHOLICISM AND MEXICANNESS ON THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER BORDER IDENTIFICATIONS 22 them Catholic traditions. Of course, many people also mentioned mariachis , tacos, and the like, but Catholic traditions never failed to appear on the list of Mexican traditions. This widespread assumption, among laypeople and scholars alike, of the centrality and homogeneity of religion among Mexicans is buttressed by data (Camp 1997). Catholicism as the most important religion of the country is also supported by the data available. At the beginning of the last century, Catholics accounted for nearly 99 percent of the population (Camp 1997, p. 111). In 1950 they accounted for 98.2 percent of the population, but by 1990 they were 89.7 percent (Molina Hernández 1996, p. 22). According to the 1990 Mexican census, the 4 million Protestants represented about 5.8 percent of the population (Molina Hernández 1996, p. 22; see also Bowen 1996, p. 4, who puts the figure at around 5 percent). This is a lower rate than that of Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala, for instance, where Protestants represent more than 25 percent of each country’s population.2 Thus Mexico’s high Catholic percentage is considered an exceptionality by many authors (Stoll 1990, p. 7). Commonsense assumptions, census data, and theoretical discussions about Mexicans and religion seem to point in the same direction, i.e., that being a Mexican and being a Catholic are very intertwined. According to Elizondo (1994, p. 117), Catholic religious practices are “the ultimate foundation of the [Mexican] people’s innermost being and the common expression of their collective soul.” In this way Elizondo singles out one type of identification, the religious and Catholic one, as the most important process by which Mexicans and Mexican Americans construct their identities. National, ethnic, racial, class, gender, age, and regional identifications occupy only a secondary role in the construction of Mexican identities, according to this scheme of thought. Once again, Mexican tradition, Catholicism, and Mexican identity become synonymous. Along similar lines, Olson (1987, pp. 149–150) points out that the very close relationship that people of Mexican descent establish between Catholicism and mexicanidad is related to the idea of pueblo [people, community]: “Since virtually everyone was Catholic, community identity was synonymous with church identity.” In this sense, a religious identity is not an identity that Mexicans choose freely; instead, it is an inherent part of ethnic and national belonging and remains a part of the identity irrespective of formal adherence to the rituals the faith officially prescribes. Along...

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