MESSICO

MEXICO. – The most southerly and the least extensive (1,964,000 sq. km.) of the three political units into which the territory of North America is divided, Mexico is bounded by the United States, British Honduras, and Guatemala, and thus includes a small portion of Central America (the Yucatán Peninsula and the area to the east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec).

SUMMARY:

I. Geography

II. Ancient Religion of M

III. History

IV. Evangelization

V. Legal Status of the Church

VI. Educational System.

I. GEOGRAPHY

The country, which extends over more than 18° of latitude, is essentially formed by a broad plateau, whose width decreases from north to south, enclosed between two mountain ranges (the Sierra Madre Occidental, 4,335 m., and the Sierra Madre Oriental, which includes Pico de Orizaba, 5,700 m.), running along the two coastlines, the Pacific (7,480 km.) and the Atlantic (2,855 km.), the latter jutting into the south-eastern corner (Campeche Bay) of the Gulf of Mexico. The plateau, which averages between 1,500 and 2,400 m. in elevation, constitutes in its southern section (Anahuac) the heart of the country, where a strip of the central mesa, covering barely one-sixth of Mexican territory, alone contains about two-thirds of the population. Climate and vegetation are closely linked to altitude, which moderates or nullifies the effects of the low latitudes typical of sub-tropical or tropical regions. The so-called *tierras calientes* (below about 1,000 m.), corresponding to the two coastal strips—of which the Pacific side is the wider—have uniformly high temperatures, abundant rainfall, lush vegetation, and are generally unhealthy (yellow fever) and therefore sparsely inhabited. The *tierras templadas* comprise the mountain slopes between 1,000 and 2,000 m., with milder temperatures (15°–20°) and still abundant rainfall; above their upper limit, up to about 3,000 m., lie the *tierras frías*, with a more temperate, drier, and healthier climate. This is the zone of the interior highlands, where the northern sector, marked by aridity that gives rise to steppe or pre-desert conditions, contrasts with the central and southern sectors, where the most productive cultures and activities are concentrated.

The population (24.5 million; 12 per sq. km.) consists of three distinct ethnic groups. The largest is the mestizo (mixed Amerindian and Spanish; 55% of the total), followed by Amerindians (28%); the remainder includes the white (Spanish) population and immigrant elements, among whom are also Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks. The indigenous peoples belong to the two great stocks of the Maya and the Nahua, which include the Aztecs, who dominated the country in pre-Columbian times. Urban centres are relatively numerous, but only about a dozen approach or exceed 100,000 inhabitants (Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla de Zaragoza, Mérida, Tampico, Aguascalientes, Torreón, San Luis Potosí, and León).

Mexico – 1) State boundaries; 2) regional boundaries; 3) ecclesiastical district boundaries; 4) railways.

The capital, Mexico City, which stands at 2,275 m., today has just under 2 million inhabitants.

Agriculture is the country’s fundamental activity: alongside cereals (maize first of all; also wheat, barley, and rice) and beans, industrial plants (agave, cotton, peanuts, flax, sugar cane, tobacco, cocoa) and tropical crops (bananas, pineapples) are widely grown, as are vines and citrus fruits. Livestock raising and forestry remain modest in scale; not so extractive industry, long renowned as one of Mexico’s principal economic resources. While silver (Mexico provides about 30% of the world’s total) and petroleum (8.4 million tons in 1948) clearly predominate, significant quantities of gold, iron, antimony, mercury, coal, natural gas, etc., are also produced. Manufacturing industries (especially iron and steel, and textiles) received a strong impetus during the Second World War. Mexico is a federal republic, comprising 28 states, one federal district, and three territories, with a president elected every six years and a bicameral legislature elected by universal male suffrage.

II. ANCIENT RELIGION OF MEXICO

By the ancient religion of Mexico is meant here the religion of the Aztec people, who at the time of the Spanish conquest politically dominated the country and had their capital at Tenochtitlán, the present-day Mexico City. This population had arrived in Mexico only a few centuries before Cortés’ arrival, coming from distant northern homelands, and had rapidly assimilated the far superior civilization of the other Nahua peoples already living in the country, using it to emerge and predominate. To the south of the Aztecs, in southern Mexico and Central America, another civilization was widespread, that of the Maya (see Maya, RELIGION of).

The principal sources for the study of Aztec religion are the writings of those Europeans who, at the time of the conquest or shortly thereafter, gathered information from the living voice of the last Aztecs still practising the religion of their fathers and witnessed scenes of indigenous life with their own eyes. Among these writers, the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún is particularly noteworthy. Other sources include the evidence provided by pictographic codices, the interpretations of archaeological remains, and the data supplied by indigenous groups that survived the destruction of their civilization.

It seems that at a very remote period a monotheistic religious conception prevailed in Mexico. Among the upper classes there was belief in a Supreme Being, invisible and incorporeal, not represented by any image. Evidence of this conception can be seen in names such as *Teotl* (= God), *Tlque Nahuaque* (= He who holds all within Himself), *Ipalnemoani* (= He by whom we exist). By the time of the Spanish conquest, however, the religion had become politicized, based on the cult of various deities, clearly defined in their characters and attributes, as is evident from the descriptions that have survived. Polytheism was encouraged and intensified by the fact that the Aztecs incorporated the deities of the peoples they conquered into their own pantheon. It seems, moreover, that the priests strove to reduce the multiplicity of gods by treating some as different manifestations of the same deity.

At the root of the generative process of the gods, according to various traditions, were the male and female creative principles, personified respectively in Ometecutli (= Lord Two) and Omecihualt (= Lady Two). They were represented with symbols of fertility, for they were considered the origin of generation, and with the ear of wheat as masters of life and food. They dwelt in Omeyocan (= the place two); from there also originated the life of men: to this belief refers the invocation that the midwife addressed to the newborn: “O precious stone, O rich feather, O emerald, O sapphire, you were formed in the place where the great god and the great goddess reside, above all the heavens.” The two gods were said to have had four sons: Tezcatlipoca the red, Tezcatlipoca the black, Quetzalcoatl, and Huitzilopochtli, who, among other things, were gods of the four cardinal points, probably in some parallel with the generative pair representing the zenith and the nadir. To these four gods was entrusted the creation of the other deities, of the world, and of man.

Another tradition regarding the origin of the gods was widespread: the goddess Citlalticue, wife of the god Cittatonac, gave birth to a flint stone which her sons cast down from the sky. As the stone fell, it shattered into 1,600 pieces, from each of which a god was born. These desired servants and worshippers; therefore, men were created.

Important deities included Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, and Quetzalcoatl. The first, god of justice, was depicted holding a golden mirror through which he could see everything; he was therefore all-seeing, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. Since his divine origin is not clearly explained in the oldest myths, it has been supposed that he was a deified warrior, specifically the Nahua leader who directed the invasion of Tamoanchan.

Huitzilopochtli was probably originally an Aztec chieftain or, according to others, a totemic deity of the same people. The myths recount that a woman, a temple attendant of the goddess Coatlicue, was made pregnant by a ball of hummingbird feathers that fell from the sky, which she had picked up and placed in her bosom. When her sons learned of this, they decided to kill her; but as they were about to carry out their plan, Huitzilopochtli, armed with darts and shield, emerged from his mother’s body and killed his brothers. He is thus considered the god of war. His cult was exceedingly sanguinary: to him are attributed the institution of human sacrifice. Quetzalcoatl, too, would have been a deified man, namely the leader of a conquered people. According to the most widespread tradition, he was the god of the winds; according to others, he was a deity identified with the dawn and linked to solar worship. His cult had something mysterious about it: the people were not permitted to observe what occurred in the temples dedicated to him.

Other deities personified celestial bodies, natural forces and phenomena, human activities, vices or virtues, etc. The sun was called Tonatiuh (v. CALENDARIO, for its representation on the calendar stone); Metzli was the moon. Other deities represented the various stars. Given the importance of agriculture, the rain gods Tlaloc and his wife were highly venerated. Their daughter Centeotl protected agriculture. Various crafts had patrons, such as Amimitl for fishermen, Nonpactacuetl for mat-makers, Xochiquetzal for the personification of beauty and love, goddess of flowers and patroness of domestic work. Even vices, though reproved, had patrons: Tlazolteotl was the goddess of lewdness, and Tecatzonal the god of drunkenness. Every noble family also had its own household deities, the Tepitoton, whose images were placed in pieces in tombs alongside the deceased.

The residence of the gods was the sky, divided into thirteen layers, each ruled by an important deity. Men, too, ascended to the sky after death; not all, however, could enjoy immortality or the same privileges. The attainment of these goods was based, not on moral criteria, but on the causes of death or the occupations the deceased had practiced in life.

The fact that there was no connection between morality and the afterlife derived from the belief that human actions did not depend on his will and free choice, but on external causes or influences. During funeral ceremonies, the priest thus excused the deceased before the gods: “He has not sinned freely, for he acted under the influence of the star that governed his birth.”

The gods, who predetermined the fatal and mechanical course of human life, were honored with public worship—comprising collective and solemn prayers, processions, and sometimes even human sacrifices (on certain occasions, a truly staggering number of victims were killed)—and with private worship, including prayers and mortifications. Many prayers, as Bernardino de Sahagún affirms, were distinguished by a lofty and noble sentiment and refined language. Those who sinned through adultery or drunkenness (sins punishable by death) could confess their guilt to cleanse themselves before the gods and the law. On an auspicious day, the sinner presented himself to the priest, who, squatting on a mat, exhorted him to reveal every fault, for the god Tezcatlipoca, knower of all secrets, was present even if invisible. After confession came penance, which consisted in piercing the sinner’s tongue to draw blood.

The class of priests, or guardians of the gods, was led by a high priest and his lieutenant, chosen from among the nobles, beneath whom were various orders of priests whose lives were regulated by strict disciplinary rules. In addition to the duties arising from their cultic obligations, priests were entrusted with the education of the young and the compilation of annals and the calendar. The temples were all roofless, except those dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl, and were shaped like truncated pyramids. The summit was broad enough to accommodate the sacrificial stone, one or two small shrines, the priests, and the victims. Around the pyramid, stairs and terraces allowed access to the top.

III. HISTORY

In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, sent by the governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez, landed on the coasts of Yucatán and present-day Campeche; in 1518, Juan de Grijalva explored the coast of Tabasco; on 21 April 1519, Hernán Cortés landed at the head of about 700 men at the site where the city of Veracruz would later arise: thus Mexico “came into being” for Western civilization.

Cortés, like the other Spaniards who landed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, found in the region a population endowed with a notable degree of civilization and a high level of political organization. The Toltecs, who had settled toward the 7th century in the central valley of Mexico (the Anahuac), had been replaced in the 10th century by the Aztec tribes, who had likewise migrated from the north following their movement into regions that would later become part of Guatemala and Nicaragua. Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, was founded around 1325. It became a hereditary monarchy, and the period of greatest splendor for the Aztec people can be said to have been between 1412 and Cortés’s arrival. Their knowledge in the fields of architecture and hydraulics, astronomy, and the exact sciences—attested to by Cortés and by Díaz del Castillo, the historian of the conquest—proves the high degree of civilization attained by the Aztecs.

With the conquest, a new history began for that vast land. The “New Spain,” as it was called, became for three centuries a mine of agricultural and mineral wealth for the successors of Charles V. The government was entrusted to viceroys—64 in 300 years—but the administrative and judicial organization of Mexico depended on the Consejo de las Indias, which was based in Seville until 1718 and later in Cádiz. The restrictions on trade imposed by Madrid’s monopolistic regime provoked and fueled the war of the filibusters, the famous buccaneers, who for more than ten years, joined by the century and a half of piracy in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific, made the seas the most perilous in the world.

The European and American events of the late 18th century and the early decades of the 19th spread throughout Latin America the spirit of independence, which also led to the separation of the Mexican colony from Spain. After the suppression of an initial uprising, on 16 September 1810 a revolt broke out, led by a parish priest, Miguel Hidalgo, in which Indians, mestizos, and Creoles participated. The war was waged for ten years by guerrilla fighters. Hidalgo, captured by the Spanish, was executed like the other priest-soldier, Morelos. But when the Spanish viceroy, Félix Calleja del Rey, believed he had quelled the revolt, in January 1821 one of his Creole colonels, Iturbide, crossed over to the insurgents and gave them new impetus. On 24 February 1821, with the so-called “Plan de Iguala,” the independence of Mexico was proclaimed, castes were abolished without distinction of nationality, and the Catholic religion was recognized as the state religion. The Plan de Iguala was ratified by the Treaty of 24 August 1821, signed on behalf of Spain by the last viceroy, Juan O’Donojú. The triumphal entry of the liberating army into Mexico City on 17 September 1821 sealed the achieved independence, which, however, was soon disturbed. Iturbide had himself proclaimed emperor as Agustín I (1822), but he was captured in 1824 and executed.

From 1821 to 1857, Mexico experienced six different forms of government, 55 ministries, and 250 uprisings. Year after year, struggles between factions, attempts at restoration, and foreign complications arose (in 1839, a French squadron bombarded Veracruz). Mass expulsions of Spanish citizens occurred. Disputes with neighboring United States arose over the secession of Texas, encouraged and favored by the slaveholders of the two states harmed by the law abolishing slavery in Mexico. In September 1847, North American troops occupied the capital of the Republic and left only when Mexico ceded to the United States Texas, New Mexico, New California, and part of the state of Coahuila, losing nearly half of its territory—about 1,400,000 km²—in exchange for an indemnity of 18.5 million dollars, as stipulated in the Treaty of 2 February 1848. In 1853, the United States acquired an additional 116,000 km² of Mexican territory in exchange for a further payment of 10 million dollars.

From 1857 to 1860, the so-called “War of the Reform” raged between the liberal and conservative parties, leading to the separation of Church and State and the secularization of hospitals, charitable institutions, and schools. At its head was Benito Juárez, a full-blooded Indian, a lawyer, and president of the state in 1858. Disorders, financial difficulties, and the failure to pay foreign debts provoked repeated protests and, consequently, foreign military interventions. From 1861 to 1863, Mexico was successively at war with Spain, England, and France; the latter, remaining alone, militarily occupied the entire country and attempted to establish, under its protection, a constitutional monarchy with Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg (v.) as emperor.

But Juárez, well supplied with funds from the United States, began a series of military operations that, through guerrilla warfare that flared up everywhere, forced the imperial troops to continuous marches and grueling movements. He took control of Matamoros (June 1866), while Maximilian was forced to abandon the capital and take refuge in Querétaro. Besieged in that location by Porfirio Díaz, one of Juárez’s generals, Maximilian was compelled to surrender, subjected to a court-martial, condemned to execution—which could not be prevented despite the most desperate efforts of the unfortunate Empress Carlota—and shot on 16 June 1867.

Deeply and intimately nationalist, convinced of the still embryonic strength of his people—Mexican and American to the core—Juárez did not shrink from any action he deemed beneficial to his country, from all manner of exactions imposed on his fellow citizens to loans contracted with foreign states, from subsidies obtained from the United States to the indiscriminate confiscation of ecclesiastical property, to the most obtuse anticlericalism and fratricidal struggles. From his systematic, fanatical opposition to Maximilian both as emperor and as a European to his execution—which he, an Indian, desired out of resentment against old colonialism and against whites—he always acted with the dream of making Mexico a first-rate nation on the American continent, a worthy successor to the deeds of the Aztecs and the peons.

With Maximilian eliminated, Juárez implemented liberal reforms, granted amnesties, enacted press laws, forged alliances with foreign powers, and secured recognition of his regime. Some dissident generals were fomenting a new revolt when Juárez suffered a stroke in 1872 at the age of 66. Through continuous turmoil, the Republic reached 1876, when Porfirio Díaz, a mestizo, assumed the presidency of Mexico and held it until 1910. Under his rule, Mexico experienced a period of great prosperity, though there were also accounts of revolt, which forced Díaz to flee to Europe in May 1911.

Mexico – Portrait of Hernán Cortés. Engraving.

FRANCISCO MADERO, who succeeded Díaz, was assassinated in 1913 for his agrarian reform plans; his principal enemy, Huerta, who was said to be implicated in the killing, succeeded him, but shortly afterward was deposed and exiled. He was replaced by VINCENZO CARRANZA, who was killed in 1920; subsequently, the presidential office passed to Álvaro Obregón and Elías Calles, amid constant revolts and pronunciamientos, religious disturbances, and international complications with England over the massacre of British subjects and the confiscation of English property. Relations with the United States were also extremely tense, culminating on June 30, 1920, in the ultimatum from the American minister Kellogg to amend the Constitution in a manner acceptable to the United States. Meanwhile, Obregón, reelected in 1928, had been assassinated by a fanatic; he was succeeded by Portes Gil, to whom credit must be given for having been able to quell political and religious dissent. This dissent would resume later with renewed vigor under the presidencies of Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodríguez.

to have been able to quell political and religious dissent. This dissent would resume later with renewed vigor under the presidencies of Pascual Ortiz Rubio and Abelardo Rodríguez.

On November 30, 1934, General LÁZARO CÁRDENAS, having become president, began the execution of the six-year plan of the National Revolutionary Party, of which he had been an exponent from 1924 to 1934, and carried it forward successfully, overcoming through no small difficulties domestic and international problems of vast scope; he defended the country from communist immigration while continuing to welcome political refugees, such as, for example, the Russian L. Trotsky and the Spanish General Miaja; while safeguarding the Mexican peso from the devaluation of silver, he opened new markets for oil exports, etc. In his actions, the president was aided by the support given him by Mexican Catholics beginning in June 1938, the time when Cárdenas authorized the reopening of churches in the state of Tabasco. Cárdenas was succeeded in July 1940 by the former Minister of War, M. Ávila Camacho. After granting a broad amnesty, the new president placed Spanish and German activities under strict surveillance, excluded communists from the government, fully reconciled himself with Catholics, fostered the formation of small property holdings, and attempted to regulate the labor movement. On June 10, 1942, Mexico entered the war against Germany, Japan, and Italy in agreement with the Atlantic Pact and the United Nations.

The new president, Miguel Alemán, elected on July 7, 1946, worked diligently to restore both domestic and foreign tranquility.

IV. EVANGELIZATION

In 1519, together with the conqueror of the Aztec Kingdom in Mexico, Hernán Cortés, some missionaries also arrived in the country. Proper missions, however, were not begun until 1522, with the arrival of the Franciscans, and even more so in 1524, when the Twelve (Los Doce), under the direction of the Franciscan Martín de Valencia, systematically set about converting the Indians. In 1526 the Dominicans arrived, and the Augustinians in 1533. The apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Indian Juan Diego in 1531 contributed greatly to the conversion of his countrymen.

The mission succeeded in developing despite immense obstacles, such as pagan religions with their superstitious rites and human sacrifices, and, on the part of the Spanish colonial government, the oppression of the Indians through encomiendas and forced labor. The principal means employed by the missionaries was adaptation to Indian mentality: the building of magnificent churches, festive processions and celebrations with dances and songs; the introduction of a patriarchal social system. The church and convent at the heart of the Indian village formed the center of religious life; the missionary was a father and protector of the people, even against the abuses of the Spanish colonial masters. Schools and hospitals were established, trades and arts were introduced. Attention was also given to the formation of an indigenous clergy, mainly through the establishment of a Franciscan college at Tlatelolco; the initiative, however, failed, first because of its rather negative outcome and then because of the fierce resistance of the Spanish monks. The ecclesiastical hierarchy was established with the founding of the dioceses of Tlaxcala in 1526, Mexico City in 1530, Oaxaca in 1534, Michoacán in 1536, Chiapa in 1538, Jalisco in 1548 (transferred in 1560 to Guadalajara), and Yucatán in 1526 (originally established in 1518 as Carolensis before the conquest). In 1545 the diocese of

The colleges of the missions founded by them toward the end of the 17th century, the first in 1682 at Querétaro, then in Zacatecas, Mexico City, and Pachuca, were their centers of dissemination during the 18th century.

When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the missions passed in part to the secular clergy and in part were continued by the Franciscans, who took charge of the most advanced posts in Pimería and California, extending their work also to northern California.

At the end of the 18th century, the missionary work, in the strict sense of the word, among the Mexican Indians could be considered concluded, with the exception of a few minor isolated tribes. The severe persecutions stirred up by Masonic governments during the 19th and 20th centuries failed to uproot the faith instilled by the old missionaries in the hearts of the Indians. In the 19th century, the only true mission remaining was that of Tarahumara. It was begun in 1872 by the Mexican Josephines, passing in 1900 into the hands of the Jesuits, who continue it successfully. The ecclesiastical circumscriptions of Mexico, which depend on Propaganda, are the Apostolic Vicariate of Lower California, erected in 1874 and entrusted to the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (Mexican Congregation), and the Tarahumara mission among the Tarahumara Indians, erected on May 6, 1950 and entrusted to the Jesuits.

At present, in Mexico, the Catholic hierarchy comprises the metropolitan sees of Puebla de los Angeles, with suffragans Huejuta, Huijupán de León, Papantla; of Antiquera, with suffragans Chiapas and Tehuantepec; of Durango, with suffragans Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora; of Guadalajara, with suffragans Aguascalientes, Colima, Tepic, Zacatecas; of Mexico, with suffragans Chilapa, Cuernavaca, Tulancingo, Vera Cruz; of Monterrey, with suffragans León, Querétaro, Tacámbaro, Zamora; of Yucatán, with suffragans Campeche, Tabasco. Moreover, the Apostolic Vicariate of Lower California has been established, with its seat at La Paz.

V. CONDIZIONE GIURIDICA DELLA CHIESA

The legal status of the Church in Mexico is regulated according to the current Constitution, promulgated on February 5, 1917 by a revolutionary minority, not submitted for approval to the people, who were overwhelmingly Catholic (95%) and would certainly not have approved II. A country eminently religious, almost the entire population is Catholic. After the ruthless secularism of Benito Juárez and the period of relative peace during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz, the clergy and the Catholic religion were subjected to renewed radical oppressive measures. The various “general” presidents waged war against Catholics.

Mexico was elevated to an archdiocese. The first shepherd was Juan de Zumárraga, a minor observant (1468–1548), who gave a strong impetus to the mission among the Indians, promoting Christian education and fostering the cultural and social elevation of the indigenous people, and established with the help of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza the first printing press. Under his leadership, three synods (juntas) were held. His successor, the domestic Alonso de Montúfar (1548–89), convened two provincial councils in 1555 and 1565 that were of great importance for the further development of the Mexican Church. Under his rule, the University was also founded in 1553. After fifty years of intense work, the center and southern part of Mexico were brought to the faith and enriched with churches and convents of Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians with their respective provinces.

Toward the end of the 14th century, the evangelization of the northern provinces began, continuing until the 19th century, penetrating deeply into the southern states of the present-day United States—Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The pioneers of these missions were first the Jesuits and the Franciscans. The Jesuits, from 1572, opened schools and colleges in Mexico; in 1591 they founded the first mission in Sinaloa; in the 17th century they then worked among the Indians of Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Chihuahua, extending their activity at the end of the 17th and during the 18th centuries to Pimería and California. The Franciscans, during the 17th century, erected missions and reductions in the provinces of Nuevo León and Coahuila.