Failed Aspirations: Modernity, Religion, and the Interplay of Social and Political Imaginaries in Twentieth Century Mexico
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Authors
Zepeda Trujillo, Francisco
Date
2025-02-28
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Religion , Social imaginaries , Political imaginaries , Mexico's 20th Century , Modernity , National identity , Secularization , Secularism , Anticlericalism , 1917 Constitution , Modus vivendi , Distorted modernity
Alternative Title
Abstract
This research explores the interplay of social and political imaginaries in Mexico, both secular and religious, during the twentieth century. It uses archival research and discourse analysis to examine how liberal and revolutionary political leaders and various Catholic groups have interacted, how they have handled their contradictions, how their relationships and imaginaries have evolved, and what role these imaginaries have played in building Mexico as a modern nation. The initial protests against the 1917 Constitution manifested the clash of imaginaries in the Mexican public sphere and the political, social, and religious conflicts that emerged from their contradictions. The Cristero War was the product of this clash of imaginaries; its consequences were devastating to the country, and the necessity of finding ways to end it led to complex peace negotiations, which required the involvement of national and international actors. The parties achieved peace through pragmatic and provisional agreements–the modus vivendi–eventually leading to the 1992 religious constitutional reform. Building on Cornelius Castoriadis and Charles Taylor’s notions of social and political imaginaries and Jürgen Habermas, Karl Polanyi, and Robert Bellah’s analysis of modernity, the thesis argues that the interactions between these imaginaries resulted in a dysfunctional or ‘distorted modernity.’ By institutionalizing through the force of the state views of life and society disembedded from the lifeworld of large sectors of the Mexican population, the political systems failed to achieve the goals and objectives they pursued. Consequently, the national ideals consecrated in constitutional texts turned into failed aspirations.