Vol 3No 01April 2022

The Non-Christian “Soldiers of Christ”: Culture, Caciques and Indigenous Counter-Revolution amongst the Wixáritari (Huichols) of Mexico, 1910-1940

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53077/haal.v3i01.113
Vol 3No 01April 2022pp. 21-50
Keywords: 
  • Autonomy,
  • Indigenous History,
  • Mexican Revolution,
  • Cristero Rebellion,
  • Wixárika (Huichol) People

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Abstract

The Cristero Rebellion of 1926-30 was the most important civil conflict in post-revolutionary Mexico. Many of the rebels were ethnic mestizos who rose in defence of the Catholic Church against the anticlericalism of the revolutionary regime. But these ‘Soldiers of Christ’ were joined by many members of the Indigenous Wixárika people (often known as the Huichol), famous for practicing an ethnic religion far removed from orthodox Catholicism. In this article, I argue that Wixárika support for the Rebellion was less religiously inspired and more a response to the Mexican state’s recent attempts to extend its power into their communities, in the context of long-running local territorial conflicts and more recent feuds rooted in the violence of the Revolution of 1910-20. Understanding this complex history challenges romantic popular ideas of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as somehow ‘uncorrupted’ by mainstream politics or as natural allies of “progressive” movements, and sheds light on the deep contradictions of both the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero Rebellion.

How to Cite

Morris, N. (2022). The Non-Christian “Soldiers of Christ”: Culture, Caciques and Indigenous Counter-Revolution amongst the Wixáritari (Huichols) of Mexico, 1910-1940. Historia Agraria De América Latina, 3(01), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.53077/haal.v3i01.113 (Original work published April 29, 2022)

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