Silvia Marina Arrom - Volunteering for a Cause: Gender, Faith, and Charity in Mexico from the Reform to the Revolution

Volunteering for a Cause

GENDER, FAITH, AND CHARITY IN MEXICO
FROM THE REFORM TO THE REVOLUTION

Silvia Marina Arrom

2016 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2016
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 161 2 3 4 5 6

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Arrom, Silvia Marina, 1949 author.
Volunteering for a cause : gender, faith, and charity in Mexico from the Reform
to the revolution / Silvia Marina Arrom.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8263-4188-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8263-5629-1 (electronic)
1. Women in church workCatholic Church. 2. Women in church workMexicoHistory19th century. 3. Women in church workMexicoHistory20th century. 4. Society of St. Vincent de PaulHistory20th century. 5. Society of St. Vincent de PaulHistory19th century. 6. Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de PaulHistory20th century. 7. Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de PaulHistory19th century. 8. Catholic ChurchMexicoHistory19th century. 9. Catholic ChurchMexicoHistory20th century. 10. Catholic ChurchCharitiesHistory19th century. 11. Catholic ChurchCharitiesHistory20th century.
I. Title.
BV4420.A77 2016
267'.44272dc23

2015016440

Cover illustration courtesy of Fotosearch
Designed by Felicia Cedillos
Maps designed by Anandaroop Roy
Any reproduction of fig. 4.2 (portrait of Carmen Romero Rubio) requires permission from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia

In researching this book over fifteen years in three countries, I benefited from the extraordinary generosity of many colleagues, friends, and institutions. Financial support from the Janes Chair in Latin American Studies at Brandeis University underwrote the costs of this project, including numerous trips to hunt for documents abroad. In Paris, Stphan Joachim at the headquarters of the Socit de Saint-Vincent de Paul and Father Paul Henzmann in the archives of the Lazarist Convent provided invaluable assistance as I began my research. In Mexico, Father Juan Jos Muoz gave me a copy of the indispensable in-house history of the familia vicentina that was unavailable in Mexico outside the walls of the Iglesia de la Concepcin. In Guadalajara Laura Bentez Barba helped me locate and copy the rich trove of documents in the archives of the Guadalajara Archdiocese and the Jalisco Public Library. I owe special thanks to Venecia Lara Caldera for sharing a cache of records she found in the Culiacn Cathedral that included two Actas (books of minutes) of the kind I had long been seeking. I am also grateful to the staffs of many archives and libraries who patiently aided me at every step of the way.

As I ventured into new (for me) subjects, time periods, and regions, I was fortunate to receive excellent suggestions from many knowledgeable scholars. My first debt is to Randy Hanson. In the process of advising his dissertation over twenty years ago, I learned from him that Mexican religious history was ripe for reassessment. As the book evolved, many colleagues read parts or all of the manuscript, commented on my presentations at seminars and conferences, answered questions, and shared documents that they discovered in their own research. I am particularly grateful to Ann Blum, Kristina Boylan, Beatriz Castro, William Christian, Mara Teresa Fernndez Aceves, Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, Mara Gayn, Paul Jankowski, Catherine LeGrand, Clara Lida, Mara Dolores Lorenzo Ro, Erika Pani, Macarena Ponce de Len, Stafford Poole, Sol Serrano, Edward Udovic, Pamela Voekel, and Kirsten Weld. As the book neared completion, Margaret Chowning and Eddie Wright-Rios gave the full manuscript a close reading and offered many incisive comments. The book is much improved because of their wisdom.

I have been gratified by the early interest in this project. Portions of the book appeared in a different form as articles, and some were reprinted afterward: Philanthropy and Its Roots: The Societies of St. Vincent de Paul in Mexico, in ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America (Spring 2002): 5759. Catholic Philanthropy and Civil Society: The Lay Volunteers of St. Vincent de Paul in Nineteenth-Century Mexico, in Cynthia Sanborn and Felipe Portocarrero, eds., Philanthropy and Social Change in Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, 2005), 3162; reprinted in Vincentian Heritage 26/27, no. 2/1 (2007): 134; and as Filantropa catlica y sociedad civil: Los voluntarios mexicanos de San Vicente de Paul, 18451910, in Sociedad y Economa, no. 10 (April 2006): 6997. Mexican Laywomen Spearhead a Catholic Revival: The Ladies of Charity, 18631910, in Martin Austin Nesvig, ed., Religious Culture in Modern Mexico (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 5077. Las Seoras de la Caridad: Pioneras olvidadas de la asistencia social en Mxico, 18631910, in Historia Mexicana 52, no. 2 (2007): 44590; reprinted in Yolanda Eraso, ed., Mujeres y asistencia social en Latinoamrica, siglos XIX y XX: Argentina, Colombia, Mxico, Per y Uruguay (Crdoba, Argentina: Alcin Editora, 2009), 5794. Filantropa catlica en el siglo XIX: Las asociaciones de voluntarios de san Vicente de Pal, in Jorge Villalobos Grzywobicz, ed., Filantropa y accin solidaria en la historia de Mxico (Mexico City: Centro Mexicano para la Filantropa, 2010), 5986. La movilizacin de las mujeres catlicas en Jalisco: Las Seoras de la Caridad, 18641913, in Susie Porter and Mara Teresa Fernndez Aceves, eds., Gnero en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural (Zamora, Michoacn: Colegio de Michoacn/Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologa Social, forthcoming).

The final stage of book production has been a pleasure thanks to the expert editors at the University of New Mexico Press. Clark Whitehorn and Maya Allen-Gallegos deserve high praise for seeing the manuscript through to publication. I also owe special thanks to Anandaroop Roy for making the maps and to Mauro Renna for making the tables and graphs. My greatest debt is to my family. My husband David Oran, my son Daniel, and my daughter Christina have not only given me great joy but also left me alone to work in my study, offered technical help with computers and cameras when needed, and provided constant encouragement and support. Although my parents and grandparents are no longer with us, they too were part of the book project. The epilogue pays special tribute to their contributions.

1. All translations into English are the authors.

2. Monetary values are presented in Mexican pesos, with fractions rounded to the nearest peso.

3. The figures in the tables are underestimates because all conferences did not report each year. The records rarely specify how many failed to report to the central governing councils.